I’ve been struggling a bit with the M48A1 (US) and would like some strategies and maybe a guide for the tank. Are there any tips and tricks for it?
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Take 7 rounds of M82 and 10 rounds of HEAT-FS
Use M82 on light tanks (unless open top then use HEAT-FS for overpressure) and side shots / areas you know it will penetrate. HEAT-FS on everything else.
You have no armor, abuse your gun depression and average mobility to advance to position. Play conservatively as you have no reverse speed.
I’ve been trying to use M82 mainly and flank enemy vehicles do you think this could work or do you think I should try your idea
You need HEAT-FS to engage most tanks at your BR range frontally. M82 is a sweetener your main round unfortunately has to be HEAT-FS.
The good news is HEAT-FS at this tier rarely comes against ERA / composite armor, although in a full uptier you have to sometimes come across a few tanks capable of withstanding it.
It’s an awkward tank. Consider it a T-54 with more flexibility but less hard stats.
Firepower is kinda weak. It’s a situation where no matter what round you main, you’re going to be let down by it and get yourself killed occasionally, either from APHE not having the punch to go through a lot of targets front on, or from the HEATFS post pen not crippling the target you hit with a snapshot. I usually run APHE primarily and try to flank as much as I can, as I simply cannot stand how inconsistent 90mm HEATFS is, but always bring a decent chunk of HEAT for when you’re stuck head on against something APHE won’t deal with (Russians, primarily). And always aim for weakspots, even against weaker tanks. Even Leopard 1s can bounce APHE off the front plate at a reasonable angle if you aren’t paying attention.
Armor is only good against people who don’t know it, which isn’t many these days. Your LFP is weak on the corners, and the turret ring is a large, unhidable weakspot that even some autocannons can get through. But, against poorly aimed AP/APHE, your armor will bounce from time to time. Not something you can rely on to push people, but it will occasionally bail you out. The cupola won’t fuse APHE either, which you can use to bait out shots against people who don’t know this. Don’t angle though, your UFP bulge will normalize if you do so.
Mobility is pretty mid. It’s not slow, but it’s definitely sluggish compared to other tanks at the tier. Hurts when you need flanks to make the APHE work consistently. Hull traverse is decently quick, but since you can’t angle it’s not much of an advantage. It’ll usually get you where you need to go, just not before the enemies do.
Soft stats are good. Good gun depression, turret rotation, reverse gear, etc. .50 cal is in an armored turret, which means it’s a lot slower than what you’ll be used to, but it’s still effective against close aircraft and light vehicles.
Overall, I’d consider it a downgrade from the M47 myself. You get better armor, but filled with weakspots, and lose out on mobility, crew count and the coaxial .50 cal. It can work, but it’s far from impressive.
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A: No, do NOT consider it a T-54 with more flexibility. The T-54 has more armor, better mobility and firepower (unless we’re talking literally the first version available to players, in which case, yes and no. Better mobility, but still worse armor and firepower.)
B: Firepower is average, just because it isn’t game breaking doesn’t mean it’s terrible. 90mm Heat placed right will one shot most targets 95% of the time for the BR the M48 is at.
C: NEVER RELY ON ARMOR EVER. This rule applies to anything that wasn’t build to withstand hits when it was proposed. The M48 was intended to replace the aging Sherman as the US Army’s workhorse after they learned the hard way (by comparison to vehicles like the IS series, the Churchills and Tigers, etc.) that the M26 was in fact not a “heavy tank” like they thought. Only things this rule doesn’t apply to are things like the Maus, E-100, IS-7 hull-down, etc.
D: Mobility is good, depending on which aspect you look at. Top speed is lacking absolutely, but with an expert crew and all the mobility upgrades it gets to speed pretty quickly.
E: Most of the things you stated are correct, but the .50 caliber on any Patton series tanks or tanks with the Patton commander’s cupola suck ass. Don’t rely on this for lightly armored vehicles unless they’re oblivious to you at point blank range.
F: Yes, it is a downgrade, especially since it got moved to 8.0 (I will never forgive Gaijin for removing my old 8.0 lineup, which is now 8.3.)
Basically, do what you said you were trying to do and just flank. Really only take fights headon if its a full or mostly downtier.
By flexibility, I meant soft stats. The T-54s are limited by their slow turrets and lack of gun depression. This means the locations where they can be is pretty limited compared to something like the Patton, which can use more of the map effectively. The T-54s are unquestionably better in hard stats, but the playstyle limitation is their main disadvantage.
And 90mm HEAT placed 5 millimeters off will not. That’s what I mean about it being inconsistent, if you don’t have time to pinpoint the exact shot you want to take (Say, if you’re in a quick draw contest against an enemy and/or playing with latency), that super condensed cone of damage will fail to disable and lead to your death. Since you can only prevent this by playing 100% perfectly against every enemy you see, it’s a disadvantage to note. Maybe it’s more accurate to say it’s extremely unforgiving.
Armor is there to slow down the time it takes for the enemy to line up a shot to kill you. Compare the T-54 to, say, one of the French autoloaders in a head to head. The T-54 can quite happy just aim center mass and pull the trigger for a oneshot, while the French player has to take the time to carefully aim for the turret front near the gun, and if he’s off it’ll bounce and he will die. Assuming both players stumble across each other and react identically quickly, that T-54 is more likely to win the engagement due to it’s armor.
Yes, armor can’t be used to just drive out in front of whatever you want with the assumption that your armor is infallable, but it is an advantage that can be capitalized on. Whether it’s slowing down an enemies reaction speed as above, or pushing an enemy you know can’t frontally pen you, or baiting a shot off a well armored and angled front plate around a corner, etc.
Considering what it’s up against at the tier, it’s on the slower side. Around 7.7, there are a lot of light tanks, and in even slight uptiers pretty much all MBTs are faster and accelerate better than you. I note it because it’s a deliberate step down from the M47, same top speed but worse acceleration and reverse gear.
Again, it’s not slow, but it’s on the slower side of things.
It’s 7.7 in all gamemodes. Still 0.3 BR higher than the M47 at 7.3, which is the salient point.