Tankspotter's Handbook - Medium Tanks (updated for F build)

This guide contains detailed information about all Medium Tanks currently in-game, including tips for how to play them, and pros and cons of each Tank.

Disclaimer

I do not own any of the images in this guide.

I do not claim that any of these tactics are infalliable. Medium Tanks are very versatile, and can play many different roles on the battlefield depending on the circumstances. I highly reccommend that you always work towards the goal of winning the battle however you can, and communicating with the rest of the team (provided it is useful)

Also, the title image is of a US M41 Walker Bulldog, which is not featured in game. Something about 'balancing' and 'Historical accuracy'. It is also a Light Tank, but I happen to like the image.

The Medium Tank

Contrary to WWII itself, Medium tanks are quite a bit of a rarer sight on the battlefield than their Light counterparts, nevertheless, some should be familiar. At the moment, there are 9 Medium tanks: 3 for each faction, ranging from converted assault guns to stopgap ideas, from one-of a kind projects to your typical battlefield tank, with all the conversions and oddities in-between.

As the name suggests, Medium Tanks are a sort of middle-ground as far as tanks are concerned: they have good guns and good protection, but also still retain some of the agility and stealth of Light Tanks. Even so, beware - you are still far from invincible - in fact, you are very rarely invincible at all in this game, so still exercise caution, and be sure to know exactly what your enemy is pitching against you.

As far as history is concerned, Medium tanks evolved from slow, cumbersome smalis carrying measly 37mm guns to true monsters within the space of the 6 years that WWII raged for. Some prime examples from across these fateful years are included in Heroes and Generals, all well armed, armoured, and ready for battle.

Without further ado, on to the tanks...

US Medium Tanks

As a US army soldier, you are almost spoiled for choice with a massive inventory of 3 Medium Tanks. By spoilt for choice, I mean you can choose, but there is only 1 correct answer.

The US inventory consists of the M3 Lee, the M4A1 Sherman, and the M4A3E8 'Easy Eight' Sherman, unlocked at levels 4,6 and 9 on the Armor Assault Ribbon, respectively. It's like choosing between 3 racehorses, except the first one is dead and the second is actually a stubborn mule who only has 3 legs. But anyway, I have to talk about them before we reach the Easy Eight. Prepare for a lot of negativity beforehand.

M3 Lee
A small problem that America had in 1939 was that it had very few tanks, and even less of these were Medium or Heavy tanks. The only one produced in significant numbers was the M2 Medium tank, which was armed with a massive 37mm gun (same as on the Stuart Light Tank), and also had up to 7(!) machineguns. Since events in Europe showed that this tank would be embarassing in combat, being outclassed easily by even autocannon tanks and scout cars, so the M3 Lee was built on its hull, with a maximum of 'only' 4 machineguns and 2 main cannons.










The first thing you will notice about the Lee is its unusual shape. The main gun is mounted in a sponson on the right-hand side of the tank, since the engineers couldn't make a turret big enough to accomodate it, instead, it retains the 37mm gun in the turret, along with a cupola at the top for the commander with a machinegun. This means that you can have 3 soldiers confortably inside this behemoth, and the 1st extra gunner gets a fully rotating turret with his own gun (cue excitement from new players who then jump into your turret and think they can take on the entire Red Army single-handedly. Seriously, infantry, don't do this) and the second gets a fully rotating machinegun nest.

Pros
Cheap for a Medium Tank
Good amount of sloped frontal armour can even give Panzer IV's and T-34's a headache* by bouncing their shots
89mm of mantlet armour is very good, even for a good Medium Tank
With an experienced crew, this tank can be looking in 3 directions at once
Very powerful 75mm M2 gun, which performs very similarly to the M3 gun on the M4A1 Sherman
You can hide the majority of this tank behind a (very large) building only leaving the right hand side (along with the main gun) exposed, which makes the M3 potentially deadly

*for about five seconds, i.e. until they aim at a flat surface

Cons (be prepared)
The engine is so bad that it might help if you got out and pushed
Your main gun is mounted very low. This leads to multiple issues of its own, mostly that when fighting over terrain, you must first expose the majority of the tank to enemy fire before you can get the main gun high enough. Also, you cannot fire over walls, or fire when in ditches (a.k.a. when in a hull-down position)
Firing around a right-hand turn is deadly, as you have to expose the entire rest of the tank before you can fire - by this time you will likely be already dead
Limited gun traverse - to move the gun significantly, you must turn the entire tank. Not only is this offsetting for new players, but it also offsets the aiming of your secondary gunners. Very frustrating for all
Because the gun is mounted on the side of the tank, firing the main gun will actually turn the tank slightly clockwise, meaning you must first reposition the tank before firing again. Especially noticeable on hills
High centre of gravity makes it prone to flipping over when off-road
Very tall design makes it easy to spot behind walls, hedges, houses, the Great Wall of China, basically anything.
Large size makes it almost impossible to hide, unless the enemy is looking the other way / engaging a Sherman / has already discarded you as a potential threat / drunk
37mm gun is almost useless at this tier, at least for Staged Battles - cannot penetrate the frontal armour of most other Mediums (as far as I know the only one it can damage significantly is the Panzer III) and also cannot be upgraded to APCR rounds, so it is only useful for assisting kills made to the rear of tanks, or just used for scouting, which the standard US infantryman will not do. If he does choose to fire excessively at that (previously unaware) T-34 or Panzer IV, then it will be more annoyed that damaged, and will take his aggresssion out on you.
Ugly. Really ugly
Your side and rear armour is useless, being almost completely flat and thus unable to bounce shots. It can also be easily penetrated by both the Panzer 38(t) and the BT-7 Model 1937, probably explaining why it is unlocked in the same tier as them
102k credits for THIS?
You have to live with the fact that you should have spent the 102k credits on something more useful, like a weapon skin

Given all the inadequacies of the M3 Lee, it isn't at all surprising at all that the Red Army, who received approximately 1,300 of these through the lend-lease policy, nicknamed it 'Братская могила на шестерых', which translates as 'a grave for six men'. I would seriously reccommend biding your time playing with either the Stuart or Chaffee until at least the M4A1 Sherman. Before the ribbons were re-structured, you had to grind the M3 Lee to unlock the other Shermans.

As you can tell, I really "love" the M3 Lee. Now, on to its successor, the legendary Sherman, which I "like" almost as much.

M4A1 Sherman
Eventually, the US Army thought of the radical solution for not being able to mount the 75mm gun in the turret - they built a bigger turret to accomodate it, resulting in the legendary M4 Sherman Series. The US has 2 Shermans in game, and this is the first (which also rhymes with "worst", and that isn't a coincidence):









Ahhh, that's much better than that ugly Lee, a conventional gun in a conventional turret. This tank screams the word 'conventional, and thus it is the middle ground for Medium Tanks. Just so you know, the 'A' in this tank's name actually stands for 'average'

Pros
Some sloped frontal armour
Prettier than the Lee
Is actually a proper tank with proper armour, even if it is mediocre at best

Cons
Gun offers no considerable performance boost on the Lee
Is actually slower than its successor, the E8 Sherman
Armour is susceptible to almost any equivalent gun (51mm frontal hull armour? Are you kidding me?)
Side armour is even worse at 36mm, susceptible to even a Panzer II or T-26, or possibly a pointy stick
Same top speed and general handling of the M3 Lee
Not the E8 Sherman - you will have wasted 148k credits for your impatience
You have to live with the fact that you will definitely replace the M4A1 with the M4A3E8, and have wasted at least 148k credits in the process
Its sights. While they are the same style as the M3 Lee's, which is the same as almost all US tanks, they are barely zoomed in at all. This makes ranged combat very inaccurate, thus landing a shot even given the miracle of spotting the enemy is a magic trick all on its own. This forces you to play in close quarters combat, where you are vulnerable to anti-tank infantry and the like, which really prevents the advantages of this tank - being its good gun that is in the correct place for a tank - from being of any use, since almost anything can penetrate the Sherman at close range, where most of your battles will take place, if the enemy hasn't already sniped you from afar by now

Okay, enough about the M4A1, I've had enough negativity for one day. Time to talk about something better.

However, it appears that I have ranted on about these 2 sorry excuses for tanks that I have run out of space to write about the E8 Sherman, the third Medium Tank and America's saving grace at this stage, so I will have to continue in another section

US Medium Tanks that you should actually buy

M4A3E8 Sherman











Thank the gods of war for this beauty. This is a true successor to the previous monstrosities, mounting a much improved 76mm M1A1 gun coupled with up to 108mm frontal armour makes this a danger to all tanks on the battlefield. One of these tanks, aptly named 'Fury', is the star of a 2014 war film that I can't quite remember the name of...

Pros
Sloped, frontal armour is very hard for enemy Mediums to crack
Very good 76mm gun is adequate even without APCR rounds
Same main gun as the Hellcat Tank Destroyer
Fast for a Medium
Works relatively well off-road
Also mounts 3 machine guns - 1 in the hull, 1 is coaxial with main gun and the third is mounted on the turret in an anti-aircraft position with a very wide arc of fire

Cons
Expensive to purchase and maintain
Side and rear armour is still weak (38mm), meaning you are still easy prey if attacked from the rear
Both the Hull machine gun and the Turret machine gun are manned by the same soldier, so only 1 of these can be fired at once (i'm nitpicking now)

M4A3E2 (76) Sherman 'Jumbo'

Unfortunately, despite weighing in at only 38 tonnes, the E2 is classed as a Heavy Tank. Which means I won't cover it here.

German Mediums

The German Army gains access to 3 Medium tanks - the Panzer III Ausf. J/1, the Panzer IV Ausf. H, and the Panther Ausf. G, unlocked at levels 4, 8, and 10 respectively, on the Armor assault ribbon.

Panzer III Ausf. J/1











Originally armed with only a 37mm KwK 36 L/45, the Panzer III was designed specifically to engage in tank-to-tank battles. After encountering the Russian T-34 on the Eastern front it was decided to build a tank to match it sufficiently in combat. By the requests of Adolf Hitler himself, it was named the Panther, and it... well, was plagued with mechanical problems (both in real life and in-game, as it is only just being introduced as of the Bauer Update), so the frontlines had to make do with upgunned versions of the Panzer III as their main tank. This version is, thankfully, armed with the 50mm KwK 39 L/60, instead of the 50mm KwK 38 L/42 that us older players had to put up with, which struggled penetrating the M5A1 Stuart, let alone any Medium Tanks

Pros
By far the smallest Medium tank, being similar to a wider version of the Panzer 38(t), but with a bigger gun. Useful for hiding
Can easily ambush larger tanks, since its 50mm cannon is still capable of penetrating the rear and sides of all Mediums.
Very cheap to buy and maintain

Cons
Small caliber makes its HE shell fairly pointless unless you score an almost direct hit
Is almost no match for any of the Medium tanks that it has to face (would be better as a Light Tank)
Maximum of 50mm armour, which even Light Tanks can penetrate with ease
Its angular design makes bouncing shots a rare occurence
You will usually take 3 to 4 shots to destroy any tank, whilst they can happilly destroy you in a maximum of 3 shots
Even with APCR rounds, this tank will struggle with even the weakest of frontal armour, most notably on the M4A3E8 Sherman and the T-34-85
Relatively slow for such a small tank
Very wide for such a small tank - fitting through trees is not this vehicle's strong point.
Cannot take down a jeep in one hit (unless that has changed since I last bothered to check)
Isn't a Panther

Panzer IV Ausf. H
During the early months of Operation Barbarossa, it became obvious that German tank guns were obsolete against Russian armour, especially against the KV-1 Heavy Tank, and to some extent against the T-34 Medium Tank), so bigger and more powerful anti-tank guns were developed. New Tanks were developed to fit the massive 88mm KwK 36 L/56 and 75mm KwK 42 L/70 (the Tiger and Panther, respectively), but since the production lines for the Panzer III were already assembled, it was decided to mount the new standard anti-tank gun, the 75mm KwK 40, on the Panzer III instead. However, it was found to be just too large to mount it on the Panzer III, so they started installing short-barelled howitzers on the Panzer III instead, and on the Panzer IV - the tank originally designed to mount the howitzer - they mounted the KwK 40 on it instead, resulting in a cheap, reliable Medium tank able to take on Russia's most formidable













The Ausf. H featured in-game has the longer of the two KwK 40 guns - the L/48, making it formidable even against top-tier opponents. It also has welded-on side skirts, which add almost no protection to tha tank and just make it look silly. At least that'll give your opponents a good laugh as you roll over them.

Pros
Decent KwK 40 L/48 main gun
Similar performance to the smaller Panzer III
Reasonably good off-road for a German Tank
80mm thick frontal armour gives you good frontal survivability if hit there
Good turret turn speed

Cons
Your turret has a maximum armour of just 50mm - tank commanders who know this will fire here, so you are at risk even in a frontal assault
Your sides and rear are worse - at 30mm for the sides and 20mm from the rear, any gun above 37mm will have destroyed you in an attack to your rear before you can turn the thick frontal armour on them
The additions of the side skirts mean that almost all shots there will land instead of bouncing
Another problem with the skirts is that they jam against trees and other scenery - if you slide into them due to falling down a hill etc. the tank will actually destroy itself. I am 99% sure that this is a bug, but until it is sorted it forces you out into the open where you are vulnerable
Isn't a Panther

Panther Ausf. G

I think that leaving the 'Panther Confirmed' part of this guide here is a bit silly, as Reto have actually confirmed and introduced the Panther, making the joke not funny anymore.

Anyway, on to this, the pride of the Wehrmacht's Medium Panzer Divisions - when it was working. Plagued with mechanical issues from the turret to the tracks meant that, both in real life and in-game, the Panther arrived to crews far later than anticipated (we've been waiting since the Patton build, which was roughly 2 years ago), and to crews that desperately needed it (as the Panzer IV Ausf. H, whilst a decent tank, just isn't up to the same standard). Designed to counter the T-34's and KV's of the Eastern Front, the Panther does its job with ruthless efficiency, and it's job is simple - leave the enemy in ruins.
















Advantages
Very powerful KwK 42 L/70 main gun
Good off-road performance for such a large tank
80mm of sloped frontal armour - you have to punch through 140mm of effective frontal armour to damage this tank frontally, presuming the shot doesn't bounce
Side and rear armour suprisingly sloped - can still bounce shots
Faster than either of its predecessors
Awesome engine noise
Is a Panther

Disadvantages
The cost of it - 225k credits will leave a hole in just about anyone's wallet
Available the latest of all the Medium Tanks (Level 10), so you will have to wait a while to unlock it
Reversing speed isn't the best
Obvious frontal weakspots that everyone now knows about
Side armour is far from inpenetrable - even Light Tanks such as the T-70 can destroy you, and historically did as well, probably because 40mm is nothing even to Light Tanks

Soviet Mediums

For the first of the 3 Soviet Mediums we get this pure embarassment of a Tank - the T-28

This initally looks a bit out of place compared to the sleekness of the likes of the Panther, because it is archaic in comparison. It was first built in the early 1930's - a time when designers didn't really know what tanks would do on a battlefield, hence the inclusion of the 2 MG turrets at the front of the tank, and the 76.2mm HOWITZER in the turret. This thing wasn't designed nor intended to fight other Tanks - that was the job of the BT Series of tanks, and since you will almost always encounter enemy Tanks, this is a complete waste of money

Pros
...
...
...
...
...it's cheap?

Cons
Probably the largest tank in existance, or at least the longest
AP and APCR penetrations are horrible, struggling with even rear and side armour
Almost no armour. 30mm max. does not qualify as armour for a medium tank
Large size makes hiding and maneuvering stupidly difficult
Need I say more?

Do not waste your money on this 'tank'. Please. Stick with lights until either of the T-34's.

Soviet Mediums that you should consider buying

By the summer of 1941, the Russians had replaced almost all tank production - except from a few exceptions - with the T-34 Medium Tank. The fact that it is still used in some countries today shows just how well-designed this tank is, and as a Red Army Tank commander you have access to 2 of these - the T-34-76 Model 1942 and the T-34-85 Model 1944, unlocked at levels 4 and 8, respectively, on the armour assault ribbon.

T-34-76 Model 1942











This version is an uparmoured version of the initial T-34 Model 1940, mounting a better F-34 76.2mm main gun. Initially this version was highly feared - much more so that its larger counterpart - mostly because its damage multipliers for the APCR rounds were wrong, meaning that it could destroy any tank it could penetrate with 2 shots, even Heavies. Thankfully, this has now been corrected, but this beast is still a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield.

Pros
Very good frontal armour
Sloped frontal armor - many shots will just bounce off
Side and rear armour is sloped in some places as well
Very fast for a Medium Tank
Low silhouette makes it a small target
Godly engine noise

Cons
Weak side and rear armour that even Light Tanks can penetrate
Pitifully slow reversing speed
Gun does a low amount of damage - you will often take 3 shots to destroy an opponent
Your main gun - whilst it is very powerful, it cannot aim downwards without first adjusting the sights, which leaves it almost entirely helpless on hills and when climbing terrain. It also means that the coaxial machine gun cannot aim downwards as well unless adjusted accordingly, so any infantry within a few feet that are placing mines etc. cannot be hit from there
Very odd sights

T-34-85 Model 1944











As the Germans caught up with Russian weaponry, it became apparent that a bigger gun - the 85mm ZiS-S-53 main gun needed to be mounted on a tank. Like the Americans before them, the Russians put this gun in a bigger turret, and also took their time to up-armour the tank. It obviously worked, as some T-34-85's are still in active use in the 21st century

Pros
Very good main gun - the largest caliber for Medium Tanks, thus has a good HE shell, and its AP shell is very good as well
90mm turret Armour coupled with sloped frontal armour makes this a very hard tank to crack, especially at long-range
Retains good top speed from predecessor (only slightly lower)
You are a priority target for the other armies, but you are similar enough to the lesser T-34-76 that they may not notice until they have already tried - and failed - to kill you (happened twice whilst playing as an E8 - came across multiple tanks from the front and chose the wrong target)
Engine noise is still awesome. Not quite godly, but far still awesome.

Cons
Expensive
You are still easy prey from the sides and behind
Suffers from the same gun depression issue as its predecessor, and, since the 85's gun is mounted higher up in a larger turret, the problem is even worse here.
Again, your reversing speed is slow
Retains the same sights as its predecessor, which don't zoom as well as other high-level Mediums

How to Destroy Medium Tanks

All Medium Tanks share a common weakness - poor rear armour. The strongest is the T-34-85 with 45mm of rear armour, but that is still useless against attacks from behind by other Mediums.
Also, the Side armour tends to be not much thicker, so any shots here will also penetrate with ease, given the fact that the sides are usually unsloped.

Through extensive gameplay using both the E8 Sherman and the Panzer IV, the typical engagement distances for Tank vs. Tank combat averages out at about 400 metres, which usually means that, if you are facing the opponent head-on, that neither of you are likely to penetrate due to thick frontal armour. To destroy a Medium in Tank vs. Tank, especially against heavier tanks, is to outflank them, which means for much of the time you are on your own, making you vulnerable to anti-tank infantry, which can still take you out with minimal effort. Because you are both larger and slower than Light Tanks, you are easier to find and destroy to a dedicated anti-tank soldier, so any visit into a built-up area can result in your death - the rear armour can still be penetrated by the standard Panzerfaust, but at least you are more protected from the front (even Bazookas will struggle here) and you are almost invincible to anti-tank rifles.

Strangely, anti-personnel grenades still won't damage Medium Tanks. I have lost count of the number of times that I've seen infantry throwing grenades at tanks, with the grenades then detonating, not damaging the tank at all (surprise surprise) and killing their own team-mate who is setting up actual anti-tank mines behind the tank. Also, crowding an enemy tank will make your own tankers less likely to shoot it, giving the enemy ample time to run / fire. Unless you have actual anti-tank weaponry, it's best that you don't get in the way of those that do.

Ahem...

Another reliable way to remove an opposing Medium Tank, or indeed a Heavy Tank, is to have several soldiers, one of which is a Fighter Pilot. Both the US and German Planes carry large bombs, and the Soviet plane carries 4 smaller bombs, which can easily damage or destroy a pesky tank that is stoppong you from advancing, since tanks tend to have very weak top armour to protect against aircraft

Standard Tank Crewmen Equipment

This section should be no surprise to anyone who has read my other guides. In short, you have 2 builds:

1. Submachinegun. If you can, choose the 2nd Tier one from your faction (Thompson M1A1, Maschinenpistole 40 or PPSh-41). This will fill up all 6 slots for your tank driver. This gives you good close-combat firepower at the cost of no extra equipment

2. Pistol, Grenade, Wrench. I tend to use this build for general combat, but it requires you unlocking the wrench and your faction's pistol first. As far as the Pistol and Grenades are concerned (since there is only 1 wrench), choose whichever you prefer - I usually choose anti-personnel grenades instead of anti-tank grenades, but you can choose whichever you want. You can also substitute the Pistol and Grenades for an M1A1 Carbine (US only) if you prefer it.

The original build for build 2 was pistol, grenades, melee weapon (shovel/knife), but the wrench can also be used as a melee weapon, so there is no need, unless you desperately want one whilst waiting to unlock the wrench

Gun Depression for the T-34 Tanks

This is actually a poorly known fact about the T-34 Tanks that I happened to discover purely by accident. If you adjust the sights to a long range on either of these tanks, the gun will actually depress slightly, up to maximum depression at about 1600 metres. This allows both T-34 tanks to effectively aim downwards - especially important against either anti-tank infantry or low-lying prey, especially on mountaineous terrain.
I highly reccommend only using this when you absolutelu have to, and setting the sights to between 0 and 400 metres for regular use, as aiming with the lowered gun is difficult at best.

Since the Evenhart update, the gun depression values on both T-34's has been increased, yet this trick still works to increase the gun depression from mediocre to slightly-less-mediocre.

[Kappa]

oh ok

[PhoenixWing101]

ＤùＭBＩN00b:
I am fully aware of that fact, hence the 'Historical Accuracy' part, as it did not exist during WWII.

[Kappa]

"the title image is of a US M41 Walker Bulldog, which is not featured in game. Something about 'balancing' and 'Historical accuracy'. It is also a Light Tank "the US M41 Walker Bulldog was used for the first time in 1953 :)

[PhoenixWing101]

Lt. Duckington:
I wouldn't reccommend it. I've never seen the use for binoculars for any character whatsoever, and certainly not for Tank Crewmen, since you already have on-board sights that are likely more effective than any binoculars. I'd definitely go with grenades, even if they are just the standard issue Anti-Personnel grenades - I cannot tell you how many times they have saved me.

[Saltshaker]

for build 2, i substituted grenades for binocs. is that good?