M3 "Lee" Field Guide: How to M3LEE with the best.

Turn that Turd into a Tower of Terror!

First off: Why?

Perhaps your first thoughts when you saw this tank was "that looks cool."

Mine was "did we take science too far?"

This tank is "special", because, well, it has an AT gun on top of an AT gun, so you can shoot tanks while you shoot tanks. You may think "I need voice comms to get a good gunner for this, so it's pretty useless solo."

And you'd be right.

However, there ARE some techniques you can use that turn this "special child" into a real cash-earner. On average, I can rake in 10k credits MINIMUM for a decent game and not expect anything over a 2-3k bill, EVER. No matter how many times I die (and that's rule number one: You will die. A LOT). Lots o' cash sounds pretty sweet, right? Well, let's get going.

Second: Addressing the FriendZone (How to Co-Op)

There's a video you need to watch. Kottongamer's video titled "M3 Lee MingLee Style!".

This is a video about how NOT to do things in this day and age.

1) Regardless of whether or not he has VoIP gunners he trusts, they aren't skilled and mess him up frequently
2) You can never trust pubbies
3) You can never trust pubbies
4) You need your turret for your own greedy purposes if you're going solo.

Did I mention not trusting pubbies? Yeah, there's a reason you can now lock your guns to squadmates only. They fire at EVERY LIVING THING and will give away your position long before your Tower of Terror becomes visible, which is no me gusta. For the rest of the guide, I'll be addressing the 37mm as the Tower, the Upper Cupola MG as the Nest and the 75mm as the Base, so keep up with the terminology.

If you have a gunner you trust, teach him these CRUCIAL techniques to keep you from being spotted:

• Never fire from the Tower before the Base does UNLESS he's given specific instruction to do so by the driver.
  
• Always hold fire until the commander gives the go-ahead to begin firing (AFTER he does, of course)
  
• Don't sit in the Tower for any longer than you have to. The Nest is your best friend, beside your best friend you're gunning with.
  
  Now, quick reasoning behind these:
  
  When firing, the Tower will toss the aim of the Base by a significant amount, usually causing the driver to miss his shot if you both fire at the same time. The Base is harder to get back on target, because the Tower has a slow turret traverse speed that helps reduce over-aiming your target. Generally, by the time the Tower can get his gun on target and ready to fire, the Base will be a quarter to halfway through his reload depending on what level of Gunner badge he uses. Once the Tower is on target, he is free to fire while the Base reloads. This way, the Base and the Tower can stagger fire until, with its faster reload, the Tower gets back in sync with the Base and needs to wait again.
  
  Remember this phrase: "The Commander in the Base Controls the Castle". The turret is part of the "Castle", or whole tank; you're only along for the ride to get some sweet EXP for free. To the "Commander", or Driver, you're only AI targeting software with an attitude, so you do what he says at all times. If the driver wants to hold on firing because he doesn't have a good angle, even if the Tower has a clean shot on the enemy tank's cupola or other penetrable spot, what Driver says goes. This will get you killed PDQ if you open fire too early, and can net you some sweet stealth kills when you get the timing right.
  
  Why not sit in the Tower? Simple, really. As a Lee, your biggest threat is infantry approaching on the blindsides. The driver is completely blind to all sides if he doesn't poke his head out, and in conjunction with the Lee's incredible slowness, this makes you incredibly vulnerable to any halfwit with a Martini glass, Softball, Nerf football or Klondike Bar (H3, No. 74, PWML, RPG). The Tower is VERY slow to turn, whereas the Nest has a sweet turning speed that can get you on target ASAP. Combined with hatchpeeking, you can be incredibly effective at repelling infantry that get too close, and can be ready to switch to the Tower whenever you're needed.

Third: Full Solo YOLO

Unfortunately, not everyone is as graced as KottonGamer with friends that actually want to be with you, so you'll have to make do. Although the Base's sponson-style gun can be pretty limiting, getting creative can really help net those kills, or at least keep you out of trouble. Here are some of the techniques I use when maining M3 solo.

"Peeking": The Base's gun is offset to the right, compared to a turret's centralized location. This allows you to "peek" around corners with your main gun and dish out some serious damage, while minimizing your profile to other tanks. This can take some setting up though, so it's best used on chokepoints like the main street aiming toward Bridge from Church on Forward Airfieid Map, or on the approach over the river on Stone Bridge on Town map (peek over the wooden fence near the enclosed tank spawn at O1). Be careful to do this around where other tanks spawn, since you might be blocking the path out of the spawn when you set up.

"Castling": Most people I talk to laugh when they see me using the M3, if not just be outright hostile and tell me to GTFO of the tanker Aux seat regardless of whether I'm capable of netting kills. However, in the right situations, Castling can prove a valuable M3-specific tool for eliminating camping tanks, dealing with pesky ranged AT infantry (long-range Shrek/Faust spam), and more. Simply put, Castling is Peeking on top rather than on your side, using the Tower to look over walls and engage enemy tanks with a minimal profile. This works extremely well on Forward Airfield, where the walls are the PERFECT height for the Tower to look over and engage tanks camping on Sniper Hill across the airfield, or even up close if a Tank is pressed up against the wall and camping the outside tank spawn for the Church. I've taken numerous kills on Panthers by plinking their commander cupola to death with the Tower, and it usually takes around six shots for a kill, but it's definitely an improvement over simply being killed without a chance to fight back. This also can work for peeking over hills or bomb foxholes in the open, because it puts the Tower on a steep angle that, combined with its sloped face and 50mm thick armor, makes it super hard to penetrate if they aren't able to see your hull.

"Switcherooni": This seems dumb as bricks, but it can work. If you come across a half-damaged opponent that you think will kill you thanks to its' 2HK capability, IE a Panther, STuG or T34-85, take your first shot with the Base and switch to the Tower for a quick follow-up shot on the Cupola. With both penetrating shots, you can put out enough damage to take away a MINIMUM of more than a third of his HP, with possibly more than two thirds of his HP in a quick burst. It's a gamble, but if your opponent goes to smoking on your first Base shot and you think he'll get his second shot in before you do (or he has teammate tanks/ AT inf close by), this could net you the kill where you might not otherwise get it. This can also work as a great combo for sneaking in some extra damage on a fleeing tank before he rounds the corner, or keeping a teammate from stealing a kill (or stealing one yourself!). Another key thing with the Switcherooni is that Gunner still affects the Tower as well as the Base, so with Gunner Gold there's a very good chance that you could sneak out a THIRD shot before being 2HK'd by a Panther, so even better odds of winning!

"Tower Twist": This one's a really simple last-ditch move. Before heading off to Sniper Hill (because the Lee has some sweet optics for mid to long range engagements), Hop up in the Tower and spin it around so that it faces backwards when you drive forward. That way, if a tank sneaks up on you while you're doing your TD-esque thing, you can at least quickswitch seats and sink a few shots in before you die or bail out to go plant some stickies (or challenge him to a wrench duel. It's all good).

"Stealthing": This one has multiple definitions, depending on how its used. The generic term for stealthing that applies for all tanks is to get out of your tank and hide behind it to keep from being spotted, while using binoculars to spy on your enemies (your tank can't be red-mark spotted when you aren't in it, and you can't be spotted through it). However, in the Lee's case, Stealthing can ALSO mean switching to the Tower or Nest to shut off the engines. This works great on Skirmish matches, where the driver can sit in the Nest and safely BRRRRRT down several infantry in relative silence. Often, the lack of engine noises will draw enemies to you if they think the tank is empty and didn't spot it (Ghillie badge works great for this if you have it Gold), so you can use the Nest (which is hard to tell if it's moving since it's almost symmetrically round) to sneak some free inf. kills at a minimal repair cost, since MG bullets are part of the tank cost. It's also easy to tell when you're being stickied, since the engines are off and the stickies become super loud on impact.


A final thing to keep note of is that the Tower has EXCELLENT gun elevation, akin to the SdkFz 222's. This, however, does NOT make it an anti-aircraft gun like the 222. It takes upwards of three shots to kill planes sometimes and has a bit too much zoom on its optics to lead planes effectively, so don't make it a habit of shooting planes with the Tower since you WON'T be able to escape a bombing run with the Lee's slow speed (and having to switch through the Nest to get back to the Base to crank over the engines). That being said, if you're desperate, it can be done.

Credits/Q&A

Thanks for reading! Please leave any comments or questions you have about this and I'll be glad to answer anything you throw my way. See you on the battlefield, and have fun with your M3

[Zirados]

the thing is, i make 10k every game as any tank, and i only get 1k repair so honestly, i would rather keep my thotty e8

[叫我fancio]

can i kill bees with it then fuck them?

[Cave24]

This was useful , thanks. Now i will drive out with my castle and my peasant to kill germans.