Guide to the pumpable ST-8 USA – M26 Pershing. History of creation, analysis of performance characteristics, tips and tactics on the battlefield, pumping, pros and cons of the car
Hello tankers!
Once I told you that all tanks of the same nation in our game have similar features. Yes, in most cases this is exactly what happens in World of Tanks . But sometimes that doesn’t happen. There are much fewer such machines, but today we will not be talking about them. Our guest is the most typical representative of the US development tree, possessing all the family traits of the nation already at its level, welcome – M26 Pershing !
Historical reference
By the middle of the War, the main combat unit of the US Army was the M4 Sherman tank . A huge number of them were produced, moreover, they were mistakenly considered almost the best tanks in the whole world, and the US Army command in every possible way boycotted attempts to develop and improve this machine. Even when Germany got PzV “Panther” and PzVI “Tiger” – this did not embarrass the generals at all. It was assumed that the number of new tanks is not yet so great, and the Sherman is quite capable of competing with them. That was until a certain moment – the Allied landings in Normandy. This was the most brutal lesson taught to American generals.
Imagine the surprise of the ground forces command when every second tank opposing the allies was either a Tiger or a Panther. Contrary to expectations, the losses of the Shermans exceeded all permissible limits – 32% of the tanks, instead of the planned seven, were lost or destroyed. It was at this moment that it became clear that the state armored forces urgently needed a new tank, with reinforced armor and a 90-mm cannon, capable of effectively resisting the new German vehicles. It was the T26E1 . After lengthy approvals, heated debates, changes in design and weapons, he received the 90 mm M3 cannon (originally there was a 76 mm gun), which was also installed on the M36 Jackson self-propelled guns . Test shelling of two destroyed “Panthers” showed the effectiveness of this measure and the T26E3 tankwent into series with the proud name of a general during the First World War: M26 Pershing . For some time, to raise morale and faith in their own weapons, it was even called a heavy tank, but later it became a medium one.
Until June 1945, 1,436 tanks were produced. In total, about 2350 M26 Pershing units were manufactured in 1944-45 . “Pershing” became a new milestone in the development of the US armored forces and largely determined the further direction of design thought. The tank turned out to be quite successful and a huge number of other armored vehicles were built on its basis.
Archival photo of M26 Pershing in Korea
Analysis of the performance characteristics of the tank
The performance characteristics of the vehicle are given below, here I propose to discuss what awaits you on the battlefield.
Full list of tank performance characteristics
Armor protection. This is something that Pershing cannot boast of in our game. Some kind of reservation is present only in the gun mask, and it is quite massive and capable of repelling almost nuclear warheads. Seriously, this is the toughest part of the tank. Everything around it, on the left, right, top and bottom, is corrugated cardboard that can be pierced with your finger. And in those levels of battles where we play, this does not provide any protection at all. The thicknesses in a circle are: 102/127 mm, 76/76 mm, 51/64 mm (case / tower). As you can see, there is nothing to brag about. Only a mask can almost guaranteed to protect you from damage, unlike anything else.
The number of hit points for our CT is 1440 units.
Firepower. This is something worth praising for both American designers and Minsk developers. The excellent 90mm T15E2M2 cannon , although it cannot boast of one-time damage (only 240 units), has phenomenal penetration by a sub-caliber projectile , akin to the top of the branch – the M48 Patton . Seriously, these tanks have the same breaks the shell in BP 268 mm , and this in turn means that you can confidently even hit the heavy tanks X level in the frontal projection. Could anyone else from the Tier VIII CTs do this? Unlikely. By the way, the gun also has good stabilization and quite pleasant ballistic characteristics. In general, everything is in the best traditions of US technology. Who knows will understand.
The main type of ammunition for our gun is AP shells with a penetration rate of 192 mm. Yes, not enough, even among classmates not always enough. This is where premium AP shells with 268 mm penetration come to our aid , this is more than enough, even at the bottom of the list. You can even forget for a while that you are playing at the “eight”. But it’s better not to. There are also 45 mm penetration and 320 alpha bombs available, but with this caliber they are a little less than useless.
With a 100% trained crew, the accuracy of our gun will be 0.37 m per 100 m, and the aiming time is 2.3 s. The reload time in this case will be about 8.2 seconds. If we pump all sides of our car as much as possible, then we get the following figures: 0.34 m per 100 m – accuracy, mixing – 2.11 s and reloading at 6.77 s. Much better than it was. And if, at the same time, remember about the excellent stabilization of the tank, then in general a fairy tale.
The UHN of the tank is traditionally American, that is, good: -10 ° down and 20 ° up. They were given to us for a reason, and often will save lives and health, because the tactics of playing “from the tower” on our tank is the most effective.
Dynamics. With the mobility of the American, everything is not bad. Only it takes a long time and reluctantly to gain speed, but it’s not surprising – after all, our tank weighs more than 43 tons, and the engine costs only 704 hp. In principle, these are comfortable numbers, but I would like a little faster. The maximum forward speed is 48 km / h, the reverse speed is 20 km / h. The mass of the tank is 43.1 tons, the specific power is 16.4 hp / t. On the spot, we spin at a speed of 38 ° / s.
Detection. The overview is also one of the strengths of the American branch. In our car, it is 400 m, which is not bad for Tier VIII. With minimal effort, without resorting to installing specials. equipment we can achieve figures in the region of 410-420 m and that’s cool! The tank has no camouflage, since it is quite tall and noticeable, plus it has a cannon with a muzzle brake at the end, which unmasks more.
Pumping. The situation is such that the stock suspension allows you to choose one of two modules – either a turret or a cannon. It’s up to you, of course, to decide, but I would recommend putting the top-end weapon, and with it open all the missing modules. Immediately after that, we open the top chassis, then the turret, then the engine and the radio. That’s it, the tank is in the top and you are beautiful!
Choice of equipment, consumables and crew perks
Crew pumping. I advise you to pump the crew of the car, taking into account the specifics of the branch and focusing on the strengths of the car – overview and stabilization:
- Commander:“Bulb”, “Repair”, “Combat Brotherhood”, “Jack of all trades”
- Gunner:“Repair”, “Smooth Turret Rotation”, “Combat Brotherhood”, “Master Gunsmith”
- Mekhvod:“Repair”, “Smooth ride”, “Combat brotherhood”, “King of the off-road”
- Radio operator: “Repair”, “Radio Intercept”, “Combat Brotherhood”, “Inventor”
- Loader:Repair, Proximity Ammo Stack, Combat Brotherhood, Desperate
Choice of equipment. Often we will have to play at medium range, supporting an allied offensive or defense. Or play active support. We also do not discount the “sniper” option for those who like to shoot from the bushes. In addition, we will resort to it often, directly at the bottom of the list:
The style of play “Active support”: “Rammer”, “Stabilizer”, “Fan”, we are evenly strengthening all the characteristics of the vehicle, with special emphasis on firepower.
The style of play “Sniper”: “Rammer”, “Stabilizer”, “Targeting drives”, well, I will not recommend a net for camouflage, but here the point is to maximize our fire performance for effective shooting at a distance.
The choice of shells. We have 70 rounds of ammunition, which is quite a lot. Various options for assembling shells open up for yourself, but remember that our tank is “gold-dependent” and we will have to carry almost half of the ammunition load with us, otherwise we have nothing to do in Tier X battles:
Set-up of shells for playing in random (BB / BP / HE):
- “Support”– 32/35/3
- Sniper– 20/48/2
Choice of equipment. Everything here is according to the standard: a repair kit , a first aid kit and an auto extinguisher . If there is a desire and opportunity – you can put a “cola”, but I would still reserve it for tanks at a higher level. Although here it is also appropriate and will give its result.
Information window about our car
Tank tactics and tips
Random is constantly changing, like any ecosystem on its own. Rules, patterns of behavior in battles, and so on are born and die off. Often, only the performance characteristics of the technique remain unchanged for a long time. Even to change them, game developers need months of tests and approvals. “Pershing” in spite of all of the above, feels good in the random. Yes, he is not a superimba, but he will not let anyone hurt himself. In a way, we can say that this is the standard, the golden mean for ST at level VIII.
But the game on it is somewhat different from that of other machines. Firstly, due to the fact that we have rather strange basic shells. 192 mm of penetration is not surprising, let alone in high-level battles, even Tier VII laughs in our faces. This indicator was also recently “uprated” to us, before that it was 183 mm at all. So shooting “Golda” is becoming an essential attribute of any player on the “Peach”. As in your level of battles, for example, when there is no way to get around from the flank, so even more so at the bottom of the list you will have to carry a good portion of “sub-caliber” with you. But they make a real thunderstorm out of our car, because we can easily offend even the elders. Well, to offend – it is loudly said, but once every seven seconds you can knock out 240 units of damage from any enemy. The penetration of the premium shell is enough to hit almost all tanks head on, even at Tier X, and this is where our ST flourishes. But it is worth remembering that this pleasure is not cheap, and therefore for the same three to five thousand damage you will have to pay almost two hundred thousand in silver. But believe me, it’s worth it. Moreover, when this is not expected of you. Nobody can just offend our ST.
Another striking distinguishing feature of the family of the car is the review. With “cola” and “optics” we have almost maximum numbers and confidently “overexpose” the enemy even at extreme distances. This is one of the ways to gain combat experience. In general, having pumped your tank for review and rate of fire, you can get a car, if not the ninth, then exactly the eighth and a half level. It is not without reason that the top players on the Pershing make astonishing results in terms of average damage: for example, MeeGo from the KOPM2 clan each battle on his Pershing produces an average of 3,511 units for more than 100 battles. Is this not an indicator? Most of the cool players, by the way, consider Pershing to be the best CT8, this title he received for a reason.
But not everyone will be able to play on this tank, and not the first time. The machine is very demanding on the hands and personal skill of the player. Personally, I didn’t know the Zen of playing the Persha from the first fight, and all this time I was rushing about, as they say, in search. As a result – 2152 average damage. This is not a lot and not a little, just an average. But it’s worth noting that my pershing was assembled exclusively for damage and I rolled it using a cola, although I usually do this only with dozens. But the result was not long in coming. Another thing is that during my attempts I have spent more than two million silver, but this is the flip side of the “bend”.
As for advice and behavior in battle, I will say one thing – it is worth hiding the fragile carcass of our tank behind strong allies and from there conduct your reconnaissance and sabotage mission, read, democracy. Our tank is absolutely not endowed with armor, apart from the cannon mask, the area of which from the forehead is very limited. In general, it is worth using the classic American technique of playing “from the tower”, since we have the largest thicknesses there. Just try to find relief or other hills on the map and use them to your advantage. This way, playing pershing will raise fewer questions and you will get used to it a little faster. I would like to note that the alpha is cheap, but using the “prickly” BP-shells, we at least have a chance to pierce someone. Our main opponents will be Tier VIII to X tanks. We choose the appropriate battle tactics with them – we don’t catch our eyes, if possible we play from distance and vision. And remember that to shoot “gold” on this tankeven needed .
Among the minuses we have: cardboard armor, a huge silhouette, terrible penetration by the main projectile, small one-time damage and mediocre mobility. All the rest – count the pluses. Excellent visibility, steep stabilization, the best penetration by a sub-caliber projectile at the level among ST. In general, “Pershing” is loved by skilled players precisely for its pluses, because they have learned to bypass or level its minuses over a long time. If you play the Persha carefully, then you are guaranteed a lot of fun, drive and positive from a careful skill game!
An overview of the advantages and disadvantages of the tank. Outcomes
Advantages:
- excellent rate of fire and damage per minute;
- excellent indicators of accuracy and gun penetration;
- good stabilization and accuracy on the move;
- good armor of the gun mantlet;
- excellent visibility, which can also be improved;
Disadvantages:
- there is almost no armor;
- high silhouette;
- small one-time damage;
- dense layout and vulnerability of internal modules.
Summing up, I would like to say that Pershing is not a tank for everyone. An experienced player will be able to reveal its full potential, while to a weak player this tank will seem like a kind of “cactus” and it will not be entirely clear why everyone loves it so much. The vehicle is peculiar and its entire branch before and after consists of excellent tanks, so you will not be bored. The M26 is the predecessor to the M46 and M48 , thus preparing you for them, because the gameplay is essentially identical, and when you approach the purchase, you will already understand what awaits you. Download pershing and play for fun!
