Main page

Now we all know that the new american tanks are coming out, one of them, the M18 Hellcat, had big anticipation for it's release.

Some Relative Background of the M18 Hellcat for those who don't know and can't remember:

The M18 Hellcat was a key element during World War II in the Battle of the Bulge.[7] On December 19–20, the 1st Battalion of the 506th PIR, was ordered to support Team Desobry, a battalion-sized tank-infantry task force of the 10th Armored Division (United States) assigned to defend Noville[3] located north-northeast of both Foy and of Bastogne just 4.36 miles (7 km) away. With just four[2] M18 tank destroyers of the 705th Tank Destroyer Battalion to assist, the paratroopers attacked units of the 2nd Panzer Division, whose mission was to proceed by secondary roads via Monaville (just northwest of Bastogne) to seize a key highway and capture, among other objectives, fuel dumps—for the lack of which the overall German counter-offensive faltered and failed. Worried about the threat to its left flank in Bastogne, it organized a major joint arms attack to seize Noville. Team Desobry's high speed highway journey to reach the blocking position is one of the few documented cases[2] wherein the legendary top speed of the M18 Hellcat (55 miles per hour (89 km/h), faster than today's M1A2 Abrams) was actually used to get ahead of an enemy force as envisioned by its specifications.[2]
An M39 carrier used in the Korean War.

The attack of 1st Battalion and the M18 Hellcat tank destroyers of the 705th TD Battalion near Noville together destroyed at least 30 German tanks and inflicted 500 to 1000 casualties on the attacking forces, in what amounted to a spoiling attack. A Military Channel historian credited the M18 destroyers with 24 kills, including several Tiger tanks, and believes that in part, their ability to "shoot and scoot" at high speed and then reappear elsewhere on the battlefield and therefore appear to be another vehicle entirely played a large part in confusing and slowing the German attack, which subsequently stalled, leaving the Americans in possession of the town overnight.[2]
.
-Wiki

For more accurate and filled out history and details about the hellcat visit:
http://www.militaryf...sp?armor_id=250

Summerize it short:

The Hellcat was a very effective tank for it's design. It was Fast, Even fast for modern tank standards. It's SPEED was it's main weapon and armor.

So i want you guys to take note the highlighted text.
yes, Wikipedia isn't a 100% true source. there are more accurate information about the hellcat, but even the "nerfed" history of the hellcat on the Wiki is better than the hellcat IN GAME.
The Hellcat top speed of 130km/h when speed governor was removed, that was it's absolute limit.

It's acceleration was superb. The Continental Powerplant and the coupling of the chosen hulldesign made for a rather Agile mount.



So to put it in game standards:

The m18 Hellcat should have the same acceleration as the T-50-2.

But instead, does this tank, not only become far below it's historical minimum top speed.
It also lacks the acceleration it had, nor does it get increased acceleration to compensate for the game "nerf" it recieved.

The game engine itself does not allow for the speed to be higher than 72km/h.
But that means that the M18 should be compensated for having almost 30km/h shaved off.
And that would be it's acceleration.

ATM, its nothing but a glorified Slugger, the Slugger in game is actually better than the Hellcat as it actually has some armor to put off, and a enclosed turret.

The Hellcat in game is not only "sluggish" compared to its historical counterpart, but also very vournarable, It has no armor, it has open turret, its very prone to ammo-rack explosion, EVEN with preventive measures. (Crew training and Equiptment).

The tank armament and damage performance is all live and well, but it's rather poor compared to the slugger in overall Stats.

So the tank, I have, and many other have been Anticipating quite highly, have been a dissappointment for us.
It cannot replicate any historical battles to any degree (The "shoot and scoot" beeing completely useless for the in-game tank), its performance in urban maps are poor due to the lack of acceleration.

Aswell as it has a hard time reaching it top speed.


The tank itself is somewhat "ok". but it is nothing compared to its historical counterpart, and is rather more of a parody to the real M18 hellcat. in my honest opinion.

Anyone else abit dissapoint in the M18 Hellcat and was expecting abit different result of the M18 from the game Devs?


UPDATE: Someone posted a great video showing and summerizing the hellcat quite simply.

Now squeeze your face into teh screen and see dat turning traverse. Might not be high speed when doing so, but even in slow speed you struggle turning as sharp as that in game.

Volatile_Squirrel, on 17 March 2012 - 03:25 PM, said:

I expected it to be actually good (She is my favourite american tank so), but when i first saw its stats, i was "Oh well, alright i will just play with my IS4..."

(EDIT: donwloading test to actually see it, but i have no expectations...)

No electrical turret traverse module.

- Check.

I did expect it to be better, however i still like the bugger. It looks awesome and its very fun scooting around with 50km/h(cruising speed, 72km/h only reached downhill) blasting heavy tanks with the 90mm.
Im still hoping it gets more acceleration so it can actually reach its top speed faster without the need of a hill...

Edit: oh yes i forgot, its a big dissapointment too that i cant pivot on the spot  

doesn't pull up for shit. bleeds speed like hell, turret is hand cranked so no cirkeling either.


basicly a slugger with higher top speed nothing special sadly. but hey didn't expect it to be any good, it's an US tank not a Russian tank so i was prepared for this steaming pile of crap.

Wargaming ruining the most famous US TD

JUST as expected

No top speed as IRL(but impossible due to engine)

Terrible acceleration(Hellcat had insane acceleration, i saw One at tanks in town in  luxembourg. THESE things are ferrari's)

No electrical traversed turret (They HAD ONE)



Thank you wargaming for once again proving you just hate US tanks

I'm positively suprised. Best tier 6 TD, unless they nerf it. I didn't expect it to have anything it was obviously not going to get. Making it a light tank with 90mm would mean similar matching as AMX 13 90 gets.

Kameho, on 12 March 2012 - 03:06 PM, said:

Considering WG has decided that T-50-2 acceleration and turning are totally not cool for the game and are in fact replacing the vehicle, I don't see that ever happening.

Kameho, on 12 March 2012 - 03:06 PM, said:

I think M36 is nothing but a gimped Hellcat. Never use the covered turret on Jackson in the first place.

Hellcat is my favourite tier 6 TD, simply the most effective atm.

I still think it's better than slugger if for nothing else it's actually got some gun depression. Doesn't hurt that it's faster, hardly ever bounced any shells of the slugger anyway when I played it, except off the turret. The upgraded turret on the hellcat seems to have some armor so perhaps it can manage to bounce some shells. Biggest disadvantage would be that it's armor is thinner than tier 1 tanks any HE shell will probably penetrate, I hope it has higher DPM to compensate.

Just a quick fact-check. If you gave the Hellcat a faster turret traverse, what would stop you just circle strafing bigger enemies like a medium tank? You're a turreted TD, and in WoT that means you have a slower turret traverse than other tanks for balance reasons. Neg vote me if you like but it's just the truth.

I heard the folks around me. general consensus is that the Hellcat is borged in its current form. Id love to try it myself but havent yet got the time. But all around me I hear people complaining about how slow and unwieldy it is.

slow and unwieldy? a Hellcat? um, someone messed up its properties somewhere  

It's a very nice harasser and support tank. Good gun, excelent gun depression and good speed, even if acceleration isn't that good. Reverse speed is very good and can go up to 20km/h. If you can aford playing with gasoline consumable, it's an awesome tank . I allways try to take advantage of hills to make me reach the top speed )
Yes, the turret traverse is slow and it has problems with light/medium tanks if he gets circled. Overall i like it a lot.

Gigaton, on 13 March 2012 - 03:08 AM, said:

The difference would be that the AMX has the 6 shots before reload wich the hellcat does not.
And the Hellcat in all honesty was a light tank. It just got classified as a TD due to the tank doctrines the Americans were using during the war. (even in the field they called their shermans for "heavy" tank, early on in the war).

Gigaton, on 13 March 2012 - 03:08 AM, said:

And cheers for that, even if i have a t-50-2 myself. But the Hellcat was known for beeing the world's fastest tank, a racecar out of all tanks. I expected it to somewhat simulate what it was renown for in real life to the game.
Top speed, no electrical turret traverse (wich some M18 were equipt with), and so forth are OK. But it shouldn't bleed as much speed as it does, and it should keep a steady acceleration all the way, and not be punished by rough terrain and hills as much as it does in game. as in real life, it is were the excelled, due to the lightness of the tank it could move and traverse through almost any terrain without slowing down much.

Gigaton, on 13 March 2012 - 03:08 AM, said:

Due to the sluggish-ness of the slugger it feels more gimp. but overall performance is better, althou i personally think the hellcat gets put in better matches, but so might do the slugger a the patch has changed the MM abit.
But armor the slugger actually bounces, and it plays more like a real TD as the hellcat is the opposite, Slugger is lay back and support, while Hellcat is more foreward and flanking support. Aswell as the slugger has a slightly faster reload time than the Hellcat for it's 90mm.

The difference between open and closed turret are actually quite large, Open turret exposes you for HE damage. especially from arty, and makes you very prone to high damage rolls, not to mention splash damage. the Enclosed turret protects you from a good porsion of splash damage and HE damage rolls.



And now, not to be misunderstood, Im not saying the hellcat is a crap tank, far from that, it performs more than well, but it is nothing like its historical counterpart. I expected it to live up to the name "world fastest tank". Wich it clearly dosn't. At least for its tier emplacement. It dosnt have the same "sportscar" feel as the lighttanks, and what it was so renown to have. At least that what the tank drivers of the M18 used to say.
Compared to other "famous" tanks in the game, it simulates its real life counterpart very bad. At least the Tiger, Sherman and T-34 simulates their real life counterpart in some degree.

I just dont see any of this in the M18, other than it beeing the only tank destroyer than can reach in game top speed of 72km/h.

theta0123, on 12 March 2012 - 10:30 PM, said:

What more i can say ?

One thing to clearify here:
"Thank you wargaming for once again proving you just hate non-russian tanks"

the only thing that is missing is the electrical turret drive thing, otherwise i enjoy the thing very much

Highway_Star, on 13 March 2012 - 12:00 PM, said:

All I want is the historical turret traverse, that probably won't exceed 30 deg/sec, anyway.

VERY disapointed. It hasn't got any acceleration past 45km/h, NO POWERED TURRET TRAVERSE, kinda vulnerable,... it's a pity

Disappoint? Hell no. Tried on test server and this is the most fun tank to play with for me so far. Perfectly fits my playstyle. Incerdibly fast agile and great hulldown ability with a turret that has a  black hole generator absorbing shells like nothing.  
Im sure i will keep it.

I think people get into the top speed a bit too much. The point of such speed should be to enable you to reach places faster, shoot and move to other places fast. In this game, with relatively small maps, it's kinda hard to do it without getting shot at. I would expect to utilise the speed best when there are fewer tanks remaining in the battle, giving you some room to move around. And even than I don't expect to play it as a light.

Just curios but how is the camo with this tank:
*crap  (spoted like KV)
*bad
*not so good  
*good
*superb
*the best (silent and deadly like su-85)