Willys MB (M2HB) - "An All-American Icon"

Til_Dovre_Faller · December 26, 2024, 7:34pm

meh, depends on how you use it ;p

LightningFerret · January 1, 2025, 4:49pm

I can kind of see it, its like the M2A2 but small. It would be great if scouting was implemented on Rank I vehicles, that would give the Willys MB some extra utility

Til_Dovre_Faller · January 2, 2025, 8:20pm

Scout would be great, but If not it would definitely still be a fun vehicle capturing sones, assisting teammates, shooting down planes and have fun destroying tracks/barrels much like the R3T20 :P

BOMBAY9997042-live · January 8, 2025, 1:21pm

best jeep

ErenDaFemboi · January 16, 2025, 12:26am

With how much information you have given I would hate not to see this in war thunder take my up vote!

NotKringe · January 16, 2025, 4:00am

Jeep is cool and all, but this one is near useless due to limited gun traverse, so -1 for me.

I would not mind to see the delicated anti-tank Jeep however.

LightningFerret · January 16, 2025, 5:43am

I’m not sure what you mean by limited. The gun traverse isn’t as good as, say the M13 MGMC, but for what this vehicle is, its certainly not bad and not close to “useless”. In fact, the anti-tank jeep variants would have equal or worse traverse than the M2HB.

I would like to bring up three counter points to that argument:

Point 1: Guidance isn’t bad anyways

Vertical guidance: -25° / + 85°
And in the notes section for specifications: “Horizontal gun traverse would likely be limited to somewhere between -90° / +90° and -120° / +120°”

That should be more than enough to cover the entire half dome around the vehicle’s front side, where enemies are most likely going to be encountered. If enemies aren’t within the weapon’s reach, then the vehicle should be maneuvered so that it can face them.

Point 2: Easy work-arounds

As I said in the previous point, threats outside of the gun’s current traverse angles can be mitigated by maneuvering the vehicle to face the enemy. Most players should be familiar with this. Consider that the Willys MB is fairly agile, meaning it can cover the new angle by simply hitting the gas and turning. Also consider that the M2HB’s slewing rate is good. I don’t have a number for it but look at any of the pintle mounted M2HBs on American tanks and you can see they are able to react quickly. Using both of these in tandem means that dangerous angles can be covered rapidly.

Point 3: Looking at what we already got

There are two vehicles that we already have in game that I would like to compare and contrast the Willys MB (M2HB) with:

M2A2
Vertical guidance: -10° / +20°
Horizontal guidance: -170° / +20°

So, the guidance for the M2A2’s M2HB has decent or better horizontal guidance, albeit only to one side. This is because the M2A2 has a twin turret setup and the other half of the vehicle is covered by the 7.62mm M1919. The M2A2 has significantly less vertical guidance however.

But one could say that’s not fair since the M2A2 is a light tank and not an SPAA. So, let’s look at an SPAA.

GAZ-AAA (DShK)
Vertical guidance: -4° / +45°
Horizontal guidance: -110° / +110°

We don’t know what the practical horizontal traverse is for the M2HB mount is but it could be slightly less or slightly more. Its hard to pick a winner there, but understand that there is a vehicle currently in War Thunder with similar or the same horizontal traverse. Vertical guidance of the DShK is significantly less than the M2HB. Relating to my Point 2, the M2HB would have a higher slewing rate and the Willys MB chassis would be much more maneuverable, especially in tight spaces.

There’s a couple SPAAs in game that do have 360° of traverse, but some of them only have 45° of vertical traverse. I could care less if an anti-aircraft weapon can swing all the way around if that means that I can’t fight birds.

Conclusion

Based on these three points, that the gun traverse is already good enough, that its deficiencies are easy to compensate for, and that the vehicle as a whole is equal to or better than vehicles that already exist in the game, I believe that the Willys MB (M2HB) is a perfectly viable addition to War Thunder.