Hello brothers and sisters in arms!
Today, I’m covering a serious topic I see people not getting the point of: American Vehicles.
TL/DR American tanks are all rounders, jacks of all trades, master of none.
The light tanks of the USA tree are fast scouts with good guns. They lack armor, so keep on the move or keep hidden to stay alive.
American tanks of World War II had a special design approach in real life: Medium armor, good speed, good gun. (the 75mm gun during WWII was considered a heavy tank gun, at least according to my research, feel free to correct me!) The main tank of American forces, and shipped widely across the Allied nations was the M4 Sherman and its hundreds of variants. All Sherman tanks begin with an AP round. Not that great, but good enough till you get to the M62 APCBC round.
After the Sherman tanks, you have the M26 Pershing, the main differences from the Sherman to the Pershing being better armor, better mobility, and a larger 90mm gun. Use the Pershing as a support tank.
The Heavy tanks of the USA tree can be classed more as assault tanks than anything else. Some of the heavies are just up-armored Medium Tanks, like the M4A3E2 Jumbo 75 and 76, the T26E5 and T26E1-1. For the sake of context, I’ll classify all of the heavies into 2 different classifications: Jumbo and Purpose Built.
The first, the Jumbo tanks, including the M4A3E2 75 and 76, T26E5, and the T26E1-1. Are more breakthrough tanks. They have the armor to take on some tank rounds, but can struggle due to their main guns not being effective for the most part. A denominator to this is the T26E1-1, which has a longer, harder hitting 90mm over the Jumbo Pershing.
The purpose built heavies are rare, but they do exist. This list includes the M6A1 and T1E1, T34, T29, T32 and T32E1 and ends with the M103. These tanks have good armor, a powerful gun for their BR, and are fairly mobile.
The Tank Destroyers of the US trees are NOT designed for front line combat, because of a plethora of reasons, despite having a fully rotating turret most of the time. The M10 Wolverine is a TD that lacks good turret traverse, and needs time to get on target. If you’re caught unprepared, use the hull to swing the gun on target, otherwise your lackluster armor may not save you.
The M36 “Jackson” and its enhanced variant, the M36B2, make use of the same hull as the Wolverine, but have a powered traverse, and a more powerful 90mm gun. Use the same tactics as the Wolverine.
The M109A1 is an HE slinger, meaning shot placement is everything in an engagement. Hit cupolas, purposefully hit the ground under the enemy tank, and hope for overpressure, or simply hit a part of the enemy, like the turret, to cause destruction. Hide and wait for your enemy.
The M50 and M56 both utilize the same playstyle, hide and wait. If you’re caught in the open, its too late, as both tanks are lightly armored.
Finally, the Anti Air.
The beginning AA use .50 cals and one uses a 37mm gun. These are best suited for lower tier where aircraft are slower. Moving on, the M19A1 and M42 Duster are armed with 40mm Dual automatic cannons, better for anti air as they cause a lot more damage.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask in the comments, or message me in the forums!