- For the Steel Division: Normandy 44 unit see SD:M4A3E2 Jumbo
M4A3E2 Jumbo is a United States Tank unit in Steel Division II.
Overview[ | ]
The ubiquitous M4 Sherman medium tank evolved from the M3 Lee medium tank pressed into service as a stop-gap model in 1941. Designed by the U.S. Army Ordnance Department, the tank built upon proven technologies developed for American tanks of the 1930s, combining them with British experiences in tank design. The result was a versatile, reliable, and cheap tank much like the Soviet T-34.
The M4 entered service in late 1942, outperforming its older sibling in every aspect, the Sherman went on to become one of the most widely produced armored fighting vehicles of World War II. It was well armored, relatively fast, and cheap to produce, becoming the backbone of Allied armored divisions across the world and a major element of the Lend-Lease program for the Soviet Union. Nearly 50 000 tanks were produced before production ended in 1945 and were used across the world.
The M4A3 sub-designation indicates a Sherman model manufactured with a Ford GAA V-8 engine, welded hull and either the 75mm medium-velocity general-purpose gun or 76mm medium-velocity general-purpose gun.
The M4A3E2 (Jumbo) sub-designation indicates a M4A3(75)W tank modified with an additional 8 tons of armor, bringing the total thickness of the frontal glacis to 101.6mm for an effective frontal armor of nearly 180mm, together with a redesigned T23-style turret. 254 Jumbos were built at the Fisher Tank Arsenal and shipped to Europe to act as assault tanks, aiding infantry in breaking out of the Normandy beachhead.
Strategy[ | ]
For the Red-blooded American[ | ]
The M4A3E2 T H I C C B O I is doesn't care about your 75mm APCR. At 2,000m, it won't penetrate anything, but nothing will penetrate it. Thus, you want these beefy bois in open fields—obviously—soaking up all of that Panther spit. What smort kids do is keep this beefy baby at 2000, soaking damage, with as many guns behind it firing as many rounds as possible. This tank will never die; it may get hit with crits (that's what supply trucks are for), but when one tank that fires fast fights another tank that fires slow, then assuming that neither tank can penetrate, the one that fires first and more often will suffer less critical hits. As your adversaries will rarely exceed 7r/m in the best of situations, and all of your tanks are cheaper than their tanks, the best proper way to use the M4A3E2 T H I C C B O I is to enable your max-vet friends with 75mm cannons (75mm RoF > 10r/m) to rack up as many crits as possible.
As their truly threatening weapons run out of ammo or the ability to fire back, the effect becomes exponential, and your armor will force them to engage you at ranges where, at first, they can kill you. At this time, smoke a fat blunt in their field of view, and push your 75mm M4A3s (👍🏽) or 75mm M4A1s (👎🏽) into range. Make sure your 75mm cannons are not engaging the tanks directly in front of them, but those with the front of their vehicle offset by >30° from your tanks' barrel; the front-armor of a vehicle only applies to hits received within a 60° arc (30° to the left at right of center). Your tanks will turn their side armor towards the tank in front of them, but it really doesn't change the equation; they were going to get penetrated regardless of their angle, and you can lose 2–3 tanks for every one of their (unless they're medium or light tanks. In which case, both tanks have been able to threaten each other for quite some time already).
To do any of this, you're gonna' need to use Juggernaut, and really, anything else is a sign of extreme competence or major overconfidence.
For the MLG Pro with Sleight of Hand[ | ]
The other strategy is using Maverick or Vanguard to slam these Jumbos into an enemy that can't deal with them due to not having a single 88 or 75mm with APCR. Frankly, if you are good enough that you can win the game—not survive, but win—within the first 20 or 30 minutes of the game, respectively, then by all means, roll out your juicy Vanguard or Maverick out there and throw these beefy bois at them. However, if this doesn't work, you're going to wish you had 12 Jumbos; nobody can kill 12 Jumbos in any amount of time, so long as they're not, oh, idk, sent down a road with a "Hunt" order, and clustered in a space that literally can't fit all of the models regardless of scaling settings, then no, 12 of these chunky girls will take on anything.
TL;DR[ | ]
18x Panthers < 12x Jumbos > 8x IS-2 '44 OR 8x Uberdeutsche War Beasts.