I've been grinding the M48 Patton (Tier X, USA, MT) to unlock my first Tier XI, the Hacker, and I have to say...it's been slightly disappointing. I had a fairly, I guess unrealistically, high opinion of the M48 going in. I like MTs, I like American MTs, but the M48 feels...somehow not as good as I thought.
The Good
The gun is nice. Nice accuracy, great shell velocity, and like a lot of American tanks it seems to hit snap shots more often than most.
The pen is good at 268 for standard rounds, the alpha feels a little low. Theoretically it's 390 alpha, but it feels like fairly often you hit somebody, feel good about it, then notice you only did 326 damage. I don't have any data on it but if I had to opine I'd say it feels like the M48 tends to high roll the accuracy and low roll the damage.
Gun depression is good at 9 degees.
The Meh
The platform isn't awesome. She's a big girl so hard to hide. Camo is pretty bad and turret armor is only 254 - which at Tier X isn't special. Even some Tier 8s have that or better. You'll bounce some shots if you position well, but don't think you're going to just sit there and bounce bounce bounce, especially not against Tier IX or higher.
As good as the standard rounds feel, the HEAT rounds feel a little underwhelming. Theoretically 330 pen, but I've lost count of how many HEAT rounds I've bounced off STRV-103s. In fact, I had a comical encounter with one on Westfield where I'd bounce a HEAT round off him, then he'd pen me in the face, then I'd bounce a HEAT round off him, and he'd pen me in the face...
After about 3 exchanges like that I relocated and my team killed him. But still....that happens. I find I pen less often with the HEAT than I'd expect to.
After about 3 exchanges like that I relocated and my team killed him. But still....that happens. I find I pen less often with the HEAT than I'd expect to.
Base view range is 420, which is good, but unless you're running a spotting build you're not going to be much of a spotter, especially with such bad camo.
The Bad
For a MT she isn't very fast. 48 is the top speed and it takes a bit to get to that. If you get caught out (this is important) it's hard to fall back if you have some distance to cover. I got hung out to dry on Erlernberg in one game where I was stuck having to hold a hill alone because falling back across the open ground was suicide.
And her hull armor is pretty non-existant, so you don't want to get caught in the open or on flat ground.
Being big, relatively slow, easy to spot, and having mediocre armor is a bad combo on open maps.
The lessons
What I've learned to do is to play the M48 Patton more like a support tank, especially if I'm fighting Tier X/XI. I play it further back than I might expect, always try to think ahead about where I have cover to relocate to. And I'm very aware of staying hull-down.
The gun is good from range, so you don't have to get right in people's faces. I'm not suggesting you play as a red-line sniper, more like a second line for the HTs or the MTs who go in front.
On an open map if we have a good scout I'll often go to the same side they do and try to support them with shots on what they light.
Mid to late game, I hopefully still have good health and I can try to flank a bit, though again the limited speed hurts there.
The M48 Patton is a fun tank to play, and you can sometimes bully lower tiers, but against Tier 9 and above you may have to play it a bit more reserved than you'd expect.
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