The M56 Scorpion is one of those tanks that suffers from mistaken identity with some regularity. I can't tell you how many times I've seen one in the lineup and thought momentarily it was a SkorpG. But this one is the American, Tier 7, premium TD in WoT.
I've considered buying one, occasionally, but I got one as a 14-day rental from the Care Package Juliett in World of Tanks so I'm giving it a try.
Caveat: I've only played a handful of games in it so far, so this is a hot take. I'll update this review, if necessary, as I gain more experience with it.
I'll add that I'm running my #4 USA TD crew in it currently, so they're not a very good crew. Also I'm running binocs, camo net, and rammer. This is an open top TD (like the T67 and Hellcat) so you can't run vents, and VStabs aren't available either.
I've considered buying one, occasionally, but I got one as a 14-day rental from the Care Package Juliett in World of Tanks so I'm giving it a try.
Caveat: I've only played a handful of games in it so far, so this is a hot take. I'll update this review, if necessary, as I gain more experience with it.
I'll add that I'm running my #4 USA TD crew in it currently, so they're not a very good crew. Also I'm running binocs, camo net, and rammer. This is an open top TD (like the T67 and Hellcat) so you can't run vents, and VStabs aren't available either.
Firepower
The gun is the centerpiece of this little vehicle and, if I'm honest, kinda the only pretty good thing. 240 alpha is pretty decent, 219 pen is good, and the rate of fire is an acceptable 8.91/minute, even without food.
Gun depression of 10 degrees is excellent, but you have zero armor (no, really, it's 1/1/1) so it's not like you're going to play it hull-down. The gun depression just means that you can aim down at targets below you without problems.
One thing to be aware of, the gun traverse is mediocre (even slower than the Hellcat) and it only traverses 30 degrees left and right, so you will have to rotate the hull to shoot things outside that range. That's most significant when you're running binocs and camo net because your net and binocs will drop as soon as you traverse the hull.
Accuracy is a good .32.
Mobility
This is the biggest disappointment for me with the Scorpion. I thought this would be a little waterbug that overcomes its zero armor by scampering around the battlefield well. But the 200HP engine just doesn't have much oomph, even in such a light tank. 26.69 P/W ratio means it accelerates ok but the top speed is a disappointing 45. That means it's actually slower than an Easy 8 (Tier 6 USA MT).
43.5d/m traverse speed is ok, better than most of the USA TDs, but doesn't feel amazingly nimble.
Concealment and Spotting
Concealment is a strength of this tank. Even with my below-average crew I'm getting 22% camo on the move and 35% camo sitting still. The camo net boosts the stationary camo to almost 50%. When you shoot you lose a lot of camo, similar to the SkorpG, and you have less armor than a French wheelie, so be aware that if you get lit you better get gone.
Spotting isn't amazing. Even with binocs I'm only up to 438m view range; granted my below-average crew has no spotting skills so that's impeding it.
Survivability
It has none. 1/1/1 armor. 820 hit points. Stay back, stay hidden, relocate the moment you think you might be spotted.
Other things to know
- The M56 isn't a very good US TD crew trainer. It's only got 4 crew spots; which is fine for the T28/T95 I guess. But all the turreted US TDs have more crew than that, last I checked.
Summary
I had hoped this might be like a more lightly armored E 25. Fast, stealthy, great gun. But it's really not. The gun is fairly good, the mobility is meh, the camo is good. Overall it's not very exciting.
Will I buy it at the end of the rental? I sort of doubt it, it's just not that much fun so far.
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