M18 Hellcat is the best tank of WW2 according to Steel Division: Normandy 44

[Leenday]

I heard that M18 IRL was used as an ambusher and flanker to the enemy tanks with usage of camouflage and hit-and-run tactics.

In-game you can see pretty much every game against 4th Armored that M18 can stand in plain sight the whole game and you can't hurt him in any way.

So imagine: M18, plain sight. Covers 1200m on A. Fastest aligning I've ever seen. Despite being open-top, it is invulnerable to air (Call me unlucky, never killed it with bombs/rockets) and artillery. Combined with recon overspots ATs and hits them first. Also sonic speed if something happens.

Real question: How do you fight it? Tell me. I have no answer. And Hs.129 is not the answer. And Ju.87 with guns too. These pieces of aircraft aren't on every deck, ok?

 

[Gilmund]

Hellcat is weak to bombs as evey open tank destroyer and any stug IV or better can kill them.
The issue with 4AD is their bonus in points but it doesn't mean it's invincible.

 

[Hidden Gunman]

IRL the M18 didn't actually do a lot of heavy fighting. By the time they were on scene in numbers, the war was in it's final stages, and the germans were starting to run out of tanks, and quality tank crews.

That said though, the game has no airburst artillery, which is something of a shame when it has open topped vehicles...and yes, it targets too fast.

 

[Leenday]

Hellcat is weak to bombs as evey open tank destroyer and any stug IV or better can kill them.

Only 17SS has Stug IV available in the game. Indeed it has 1200m range but it is available only in B, so it's 10 minutes late. Also if you are going to approach M18 with your 28kph offroad speed, M18 just runs away with its 50kph.
And I never killed it with a bomb. I really tried. Maybe I ain't lucky.

There has to be a reliable answer in A, because there are 2 Hellcats in A, otherwise it's not fun to lose first ten minutes of the game because of $division$

 

[Cherrybomb]

[QUOTE="Real question: How do you fight it? Tell me. I have no answer. And Hs.129 is not the answer. And Ju.87 with guns too. These pieces of aircraft aren't on every deck, ok?[/QUOTE]

It isn't very hard to kill Hellcats with rockets or bombs. You need just a little luck to hit them well. Rocket artillery is also a very good counter against Hellcats espicially with 280mm and 300mm launcher.
If you're only able to bring paks you have to hold the fire in a decent position until the Hellcat is close enough to surprise him with some nice gifts.

 

[Leenday]

Rocket artillery is also a very good counter against Hellcats espicially with 280mm and 300mm launcher.

If I'd see it coming, I'd just 50kph away from incoming shells and there goes a full salvo.

If you're only able to bring paks you have to hold the fire in a decent position until the Hellcat is close enough to surprise him with some nice gifts.

So M18 is faster to the frontline with 95kph on-road, gets 51% and never moves after because it doesn't have to. So ambushing PaKs stay there forever without doing anything.

 

[Karlburg]

The hellcat having aim times same as shermans is absolutely nuts.

 

[Alex646]

Actually, germans have a lot of counters.
Rocket planes, even fighters (can scare them pretty easy due to thin armor), any AT with 1200 m range, Marders on A (2* of 9th Panzer, however it's always random), 12SS Firefly.

 

[IronHead]

4. AD is a very strong division in the current Meta. You need some luck and very good micro to outsmart a decent hellcat player. Like somebody mentioned earlier, its good ambushing tactics to keep your pak38 on "hold fire" and wait for the tank to come into a better range.

 

[Leenday]

Actually, germans have a lot of counters.
Rocket planes, even fighters (can scare them pretty easy due to thin armor), any AT with 1200 m range, Marders on A (2* of 9th Panzer, however it's always random), 12SS Firefly.

Rocket planes require luck which I don't have, AT gets pounded first with Hellcat's 3 HE and doesn't shoot accurately after, Marders are ok but not in every division in A, Firefly aligns slower than Hellcat. And Firefly costs 200, while Hellcat costs 110. And there are 2 Hellcats. I would not risk a Firefly for this.

4. AD is a very strong division in the current Meta. You need some luck and very good micro to outsmart a decent hellcat player. Like somebody mentioned earlier, its good ambushing tactics to keep your pak38 on "hold fire" and wait for the tank to come into a better range.

It reaches the point when it's not fun. All you need in this game is a strong mechanized AP and a strong mechanized HE. (Mechanized so it can't get arty'd to death)
4.AD gets 2 Hellcats and 2 M4 105's in A. Both 1200m range. What else could you wish in life?

 

[Gondie]

Actually, germans have a lot of counters.
Rocket planes, even fighters (can scare them pretty easy due to thin armor), any AT with 1200 m range, Marders on A (2* of 9th Panzer, however it's always random), 12SS Firefly.

Just no.. Ok the plane is true, but 4Ad has cheap fighters good 37mm.. Planes requier ur enemy to alredy make a mistake anyway. And have fun with planes aganst an oponend that has a 50cal on evrything. AT guns are usless aganst a 1.2km tank with a player behind it that knows what he dos, he simply outranges u.. marders, nice try.. Hellcat gets not only the first shot of thx to stabalizzards, it also can poke u all day sins u dont have a trurret. And if u panik the marder, he is dead, if ur M18 gets paniked u simply disengage thx to ur speed.

Thers a good reason the M18 was called out to be 'way to easy to use' sins CBT, not just by myself, but noone wanted to listen to us so here we are with this Meme TD.

The big benefits of hellcats are the aimtime and there speed. Aimtime menas u can always poke aganst targets pretty safe and its speed means that u can always collaps on ur enemy alredy in A. Even if u take 2 marders and i take 2 hellcats i can always fight 2v1 sins my speed alowes me to choose the engamend.. Same gos for the M8 Btw, the secend most broken unit in A for 4ad.

 

[Hidden Gunman]

It's the old 'peak units' meta, still or again, depending on your viewpoint.

 

[Alex646]

but 4Ad has cheap fighters good 37mm

Not on A.

And have fun with planes aganst an oponend that has a 50cal on evrything.

Browning isn't real AA, it can't panic plane enough.

AT guns are usless aganst a 1.2km tank with a player behind it that knows what he dos he simply outranges u.

I said about 1200 m guns.

 

[Gondie]

Not on A.

B26 and the M15 are both in A.. B26 negates any Hs129 play and Stukas, should be in the air aganst 80% of german division in A anyway... and well ther is the M15 after all.

Browning isn't real AA, it can't panic plane enough.

See.. if u have a bunch of 50 call it dosend kill enemys, bu it forces enemy ASF off so he cant hunt u down. Ur free to just snipe out his hs129 or stuka with ur ASF and fly off, he cant run u down anyway. And well hs129s are pretty mutch 1 trick ponys sins they cant do ther 2. or 3rd atack run thx to muhh 50calls. 50calls are a damen good AA..

I said about 1200 m guns.

Skill gap my dear frend.. good players use fier position u know. Shooting 50-100m infront of ur 1.2km At gun and paniking it befor they go in and kill it. Making ther tanks into 1.3km tanks in a nutshell.. U cant do the same with ur At gun.. thats why ATGs are rendered near usless in competetiv play.

 

[Herr_Robert]

The best counter is still the HS 129, although it has been nerfed in the last patch. I don't know if the B1 works, but I killed 8 Hellcats with 2 B3s in a 91LL vs 4AD game. Jagdpanzer IVs and Panthers are also good counters, since the Hellcats have slim chances of penetrating them frontally, but they only work in teamgames (the divs that have them are likely going to be pushed back to their spawn before phase A is over in a 1v1 against 4AD).

 

[Dianno5741]

Best thing you can do to is play those divisions. You’ll eventually lose or struggle. That’ll tell you what works. Theory crafting is cool but when I have issues I go play that division and eventually I’ll see how I’m weak.

Realize not all divisions are strong and some are situational. Like if you play Commandos on cheux you’re going to have a bad time

 

[Aeon221]

Mortar it. Cheap, easy, super annoying. Whenever they bring it up, doink it with some mortars. Either they keep moving it and eating the accuracy penalty from stress or the crew freaks out and runs away.

Paks can also get the job done, as can smoke. You can use a line of smoke to get nice and close and scare it away. It's quick and evil but it won't do dick all if smoke is blocking the LOS. And German infantry decks get those 40mm foot mortars that carry a lot of smoke and can move surprisingly quick.

Also if McNair could see this thread he'd be so proud.

Obviously any strat can be countered, so these aren't universal solutions. Skill is knowing when a particular solution will solve a particular problem and being able to apply it well.

 

[Alex646]

Skill gap my dear frend.. good players use fier position u know. Shooting 50-100m infront of ur 1.2km At gun and paniking it befor they go in and kill it. Making ther tanks into 1.3km tanks in a nutshell.. U cant do the same with ur At gun.. thats why ATGs are rendered near usless in competetiv play.

Fire positioning works only for guns with enough HE. You just spend all HE shells on hellcats trying to stun 1 AT-gun. You need to call M4105 to make this tactics workable.

 

[Miskyavine]

Lol not being able to kill a hellcat? Just hit it and its dead 4 armor doesnt do anything. The HS-129B1's 37 is more then enough to kill it as for the B26 negating any plane LOL you can shoot that thing down with a fighter easy 4th doesnt get any phase A fighters and in B its unvet P-38s the most under represented airplane ingame and the ones in phase C arent much better as 1 star vet doesnt do much on that air frame. You can destroy all of 4ths planes with ease. As for 4th having decent AA yea decent but doesnt have anything close to Quad 20mms or 88s in effectiveness so 4ths AA isnt even worth mentioning

The hellcat having aim times same as shermans is absolutely nuts.

No its not hellcat had a more advanced stabilizer, faster turret rotation, better optics and being able to find targets faster due to having an open top to just look out of with binoculars. It should aim slightly faster then shermans.

In the end the Hellcat is just good
Great speed
Decent gun with good accuracy but poor AP
very poor armor if it gets hit it dies.
no vet bonuses

as for the survivability from planes bombs and rockets well i dont think a pak would survive 2 500 lb bombs or a 88mm flak survive 2500 lbs of bombs but they do. Planes with bombs and rockets are tad weak ingame.

 

[Hidden Gunman]

One could say that the best counter is to actually play allies...

Peak unit syndrome is strong in this one...