T26E4 (SuperPershing) Guide

The 0.7.5 update brought us a new tier VIII medium premium tank: T26E4 or more commonly known as the Superpershing on the battlefield.

In the WWII the Americans had a goal to create a tank which has enough power to punch a hole in the well armoured german tanks.
To increase firepower, a new long-barreled 90mm gun was mounted on T26E1 in January 1945. The prototype was designated as T26E4. It's development was discontinued in January 1947 due to problems with the gun and the loading mechanism. A total of 25 vehicles were built at that time but they never entered service. The T26E4 was developed so late in the war that only one made it to Europe. Different sources say that it has been in combat situation once against a german tank, while others say it never saw combat. I'll leave this for you to decide.



Cost: 7200 gold (With 15% off event it's 6120 gold)
Tier: Eight / VIII / 8
Type: Medium

T26E4 aka Superpershing is a tier 8 premium medium tank. It's the cheapest tier 8 premium tank in the game at the moment and still brings in good profit. For me this is the "best bang for the buck" deal. I tend to get more money on average with this thing than I'm getting on my T34. Anyway lets move on to the general characteristics of this tank.

General characteristics



Superpershing is not fast enough to be a medium, it's more like a heavy tank. It's 500HP engine gives SP a bit under 10 HP/ton (Power to weight ratio), which is pretty low. For comparsion T32 has ~14,5 HP/ton, while Is3 has ~14 HP/ton. Now based on these numbers SP might sound a bit slow, but with good crew skills it's not as slow as you might think. It can reach over 20kp/h on flat ground easily, and with a bit more time it even goes 30km/h! The traverse speed is more than enough to keep other tanks off your ass while they're trying to circle you.

The view range is decent, and it certainly helps you to spot some targets before they spot you.

Armor
Ignore the front hull and turret armor numbers in tanks stats, they're misleading. Real ones in the picture below and here: http://wotguru.com/weak-spots-guide-t26e4-superpershing/



Without angling, you can with a bit of luck bounce tier 10 shots on the UFG. Now when you angle yourself towards the enemy, you'll make the armor more effective against enemies. Dont angle yourself too much though, so you wont get penetrated from the side. More about angling and how effective your armor is in certain angles is in the link I gave earlier with the armor scheme picture. Anyway the armor is really good for a tier 8 and will bounce most of the shots shot at you. Some users have said that gold ammo for credits killed this tank, since this tank heavily relies on armor, but I havent really noticed it myself. The hull really doesnt have any big weakspots, but the machinegun hole can be easily penetrated. The turret on the other hand has some bigger weakspots, like the part over the turret with cupolas. Shoot there and you will penetrate most of the time, assuming your gun has more than 120-130mm of penetration. Other weakspot in the turret is the "cheeks" ("FT" area in picture). Those are a bit harder to penetrate, but most of the guns you're facing will go through it. So SP has some weakspots frontally, but it seems like most of the people dont realize that those exist.

But now you might be wondering, how the turret can have such big amount of armor, when ingame stats show it only has 102mm. The reason is that only the actual "M26 Pershing" turret is shown in ingame stats. It doesnt have the additional armour mantlets counted in. By historical numbers (From "Hunnicut's pershing" book) those mantlets add up to 300mm of armour.

So overall Superpershing is a bit slow when compared to it's peers, but the armor in the front pays off for this.

Gun: 90mm T15E1



The gun in SP is decent one for tier 8. It's not the best, but not the worst either. It lacks some things like accuracy, and penetration, but the rate of fire is very good which makes it up for the aforementioned downsides, 7,32 rounds/min (About 8,2 sec reload). I am running my SP with Improved ventilations, gun rammer and Brothers In Arms and I reload in 6,76 seconds! That gives us a rate of fire of ~8,88. I'm going to talk about the crew skills, suggested equipment etc later.

The good rof also gives one advantage which very few players seem to realize. If you're playing in a city map or generally a close distance peek a boo fight behind corners, you can simply track the enemy when he comes to take his shot at you. If you did this correctly, the enemy will sit there helpless because his turret is still partly behind the corner and therefore he is unable to shoot you, while you're able to shoot his tracks over and over again while doing damage. (You should shoot at the first trackwheel, correctly done it should do damage and reset the repair timer each time you shoot)

Above ranges of 300-400mm the gun becomes a bit inaccurate, though you will still hit 75% of your shots easily. Longer ranges (Over 500m) and you're pretty much on the mercy of the RNG gods.

The penetration of 170 (AP ammo) is enough for most of the tier 8's you face. There are some expections when that penetration is not enough, but usually by then I got gold ammo loaded. You're going to be shooting at a lot of weakspots with this gun if you use only AP. On the other hand the gold ammo of this gun is amazing. Penetration of 258 with APCR ammo is enough to punch through tier 10's (Though you wont be meeting tier 10's, covering the matchmaking in the next part)

I have rarely used HE ammo, but usually I carry one around, if I need to finish some low hp target or defend base. Though you really shouldn't be using HE ammo since it's nowadays really ineffective even against low armoured tanks. Only use HE in special cases!

Matchmaking



Full matchmaking chart can be found here: https://i.imgur.com/LCpu6.png

Superpershing has "unique" matchmaking like most of the other tier 8 premiums (Type 59, Kv-5, Is6 etc.) They all belong to battle tiers 8-9, unlike normal tier 8 tanks which all belong to (Excluding lights) to battle tiers 8-10. So while Superpershing and other tier 8 tanks will meet the same low tier tanks, these tanks with unique MM wont be meeting the same top tier tanks as normal tier 8's.
The matchmaking is really nice, usually if I play during days I'll rarely end up in tier 9 games. For some reason when the night comes, I end up playing lots of tier 9 games (Which is not bad, but I prefer to avoid those, since the guns in tier 9 are out of different world capable of penetrating your armor easier).

To sum up: Most of the time I'm one of the top tiers (Guessing now, but I'd say it's around 75% of the time atleast maybe even 80%).

Ideal platoonmates for Superpershing are any tier 8 premium tanks (Excluding T34 and Löwe). If you're okay with the fact that you're going to play some tier 10 matches then almost any tier 8 tank works very well with SP. Tanks like ISU-152, IS-3, T32 can do the damage, while you soak up the shots.

Crew skills, equipment and ammo



The crew I'm using is from M48 Patton, because Superpershing works great as a crew trainer. Now because of this you might see some funny things, my loader having Situational Awareness for example.

NOTE: This is not the order I picked my crew skills. If we take BiA off my skills and assume repairs was my first skill, that is my original order of skills. For example my driver originally had: Repairs/Smooth Ride/Clutch Braking. There are some expection to this (F.e gunner had armorer instead of camo but those are minor things). I reskilled my crew when they were around 470% although you can do it already at 400% if you want to do it my way.

Crew skills:

Commander:
- Brothers in Arms
- Repair
- Sixth Sense
- Recon

Gunner:
- Brothers in Arms
- Repairs
- Snap Shot
- Camo

Driver:
- Brothers in Arms
- Repairs
- Smooth Ride
- Clutch Braking (You might want to change this one to Off Road king, explanation below)

Radio Operator:
- Brothers in Arms
- Repairs
- Situational Awareness
- Camo

Loader: (Loader for M48, thats why Situational Awareness)
- Brothers in Arms
- Repairs
- Safe Stowage
- Situational Awareness (You should replace this with Adrenaline Rush if this crew is your Superpershing only crew, meaning that you're not going to use this crew in american meds etc.)

Equipment:
- Rammer
- Vertical Stabilizer
- Ventilation

Consumables:
- Repair kit
- Med kit
- 100 octane fuel (To make the tank a bit faster, fires haven't been a problem for me)

If you're going for 1st skill BiA, you have to take repair atleast as the second skill. Not having full repair will get you killed many times.
So if you're going for BiA first my recommendation would be: (For every crew member except commander)
BiA/Repair/Any skill or perk you want

The only exception is the commander, which should have:
BiA/Sixth Sense/Repair

NOTE: I do not recommend getting BiA first, unless you're a experienced player who knows what he is doing.

My crew skills are geared towards having good on the move accuracy and good view range. Clutch braking helps keeping your front to enemies while they're trying to circle you. If I wouldn't use this crew in my M48 I would probably drop the Clutch Braking for Off Road King, to help with mobility.

Other crew skills are pretty much useless for SP (Armorer, mentor being exceptions in my opinion, but even with 4 skills I cant get them to fit anywhere)



This pretty much the basic setup for any tank with the 100 octane being the exception (Usually it's Repair kit/Med kit/Fire ext.)
About 100 octane fuel and why I picked it: I seem to only catch fire, when enemy gets to my rear/sides, which should rarely happen, assuming you have a good situational awareness on all the time. Thats why I picked 100 octane, because fires are not a problem for me and the overall "bonus" effect 100 octane fuel gives me over fire extinguishers is better IMO.

If you want to have 100 octane, but fear fires, I suggest taking "Preventative Maintenance" skill for your driver instead of Smooth Ride.



Some alternative equipment choices could be GLD (Gun laying drive) instead of Vert. Stab, but I find that Vert. Stab is better for me, since my crew skills are also made so I have better on the move accuracy so Vert. Stab. gives me even better on the move accuracy). Also if you dont have a decent crew yet for SP (One without repairs), I'd consider taking toolbox/rammer/vent (or vert. stab instead of vent) to shorten the repair time a bit.

This setup works very well for a bit more aggressive playstyle. If you aren't planning to play SP aggressively, consider taking GLD instead of Vert. Stab.



The reason I'm having 30/23/1 ammo distribution is, because I find that 30 AP shells are usually enough for a normal game. When I meet tier 9's, and some tier 8's (Heavily armored, like Kv4) I'm also combat ready with those 23 APCR shells. Main point for me in this tank is to win (And ofc have fun), thats why I dont care if I use gold ammo which makes my profit smaller. Usually for me with premium tanks it's: Win>Xp>Credits
And as I mentioned earlier in this guide I also carry around that 1 HE shell in almost all of my tanks. It's easy to finish those 10hp targets or drop cap with it.

Even when I use lots of gold ammo (Like 10-15 per battle), I seem to stay 50-100k on profit (100k on rare occassions, but has happened)

My opinions and some notes about playstyle
(Current stats)


While SP lacks some speed, it makes it up with good frontal armour. Playing T28 and T95 US TD's helps alot, since speed wise this tank belongs to same class. You need to know where the enemy is going to be and be there yourself soaking up the shots with your front plate. I like to play this tank a bit aggressively. For some reason I tend to avoid being in hulldown in close ranges, because of the cupolas. Of course people will usually try to shoot at cupolas if your turret is only visible. Thats where my aggressive playstyle works very well. Usually when you come out of your hulldown, and show your hull, people tend to shoot at your hull instead of the weakspots on turret. I like to draw attention to myself, which also helps my teammates alot. While I'm drawing their fire, theres a good chance that my teammates will actually survive and do some damage.

The gun depression helps alot, and if you have played American heavies and have done well in them you probably know how to get most out of the good gun depression.

Though dont be overly aggressive with this tank since thats the reason what gets me killed most of the time. Also dont be over confident of your armor, meaning hide when your reloading etc. Your front armor can take the shots, but if you can move to cover avoiding unnecessary shots which shot at you, why risk it?

Also while engaging in open areas, try to keep some distance between you and enemy. Usually if I engage a enemy on open field, I first move up to good range on him (200-300m assuming the situation allows it) and then I start reversing, only stopping for 1-2 seconds to take the shot, to build up some distance again. While you're moving dont forget to wiggle your hull and turret.

If some area of this tank would get buffed, in my opinion it would be the engine. If WG could buff only it's hillclimbing ability, that would be enough, but I dont think it's possible to buff hillclimbing ability without buffing engine.

General tips while playing this tank

• Always make sure you know whats happening around you
  
• When engaging, make sure you're not an easy target. Wiggle yourself constantly etc. Also dont forget to angle yourself against enemies
  
• Dont rush, take your time advancing
  
• Dont take unnecessary hits, there is always a small chance that one of those come though
  
• Use your tanks advantages!
  
• Keep some distance between you and the enemy (200-300m)
  
• When fighting multiple enemies, shoot the ones first which you can damage for sure (Like I do in the second video, I shoot the tiger instead of "bigger" targets). There are always some exceptions to this (Like some bigger threat is low hp etc. but you have to judge these yourself). This is the part where your personal playing skill is involved

Advantages

• Good gun depression
  
• Decent view range
  
• Good frontal armour
  
• Unique matchmaking
  
• HE shots to the front usually do small amounts of damage because of the spaced armour
  
• Good for training crews if you're planning to go for US mediums tree
  
• Awesome rate of fire!
  
• Very good gold ammo

Disadvantages

• Weakspots in turret are somewhat easy to hit (From ranges >200m)
  
• Very bad hill climbing ability
  
• Poor engine which makes the overall mobility of this tank feel a bit sluggish
  
• Weak side and rear armour
  
• Somewhat bad accuracy
  
• Normal AP penetration is not enough for some tier 8's (Kv4 f.e, Can be fixed by using gold ammo)
  
• Medium tank classification, you're going to be there where mediums spawns in some maps (Westfield for example, you're going to spawn in the valley, instead of spawning close to village with other heavies)

Videos

My best game yet in SP: (2,8k xp and 170k credits, details in spoiler)

Spoiler:

In the following match I end up making 4 kills and carrying the team to victory while having 1hp.

Spoiler:

More my superpershing action can be found on this playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?feature=plcp&list=PLMSMVvluBFlcR4WIclDx8sws1vJ324Sp_


Originally written by Swoopie

P.S: i realize some of the images may be cut of halfway though.... unfortunately I can't do anything about that as I can't do anything with picture on the computer I'm using. You guys might need to find some alternative method of making the image full if you want to see it in full.

Ding760 wrote:P.S: i realize some of the images may be cut of halfway though.... unfortunately I can't do anything about that as I can't do anything with picture on the computer I'm using. You guys might need to find some alternative method of making the image full if you want to see it in full.

I don't know where you got the pictures from, but you could probably link to the original website if you found it on the internet. Here's one about the armour:
http://wotguru.com/weak-spots-guide-t26e4-superpershing/

CountOfTuscany wrote:

I don't know where you got the pictures from...

http://forum.worldoftanks.eu/index.php?/topic/194083-2500-gold-for-tank-guides/page__fromsearch__1

and

http://forum.worldoftanks.eu/index.php?/topic/217894-2500-gold-for-tank-guides-2/page__fromsearch__1

There's too many to copy and paste if I want to include the bold type and all in one sitting. So I'm churning them out 1 or 2 at a time until they are all copied. Also it gives people's brains capacity to keep up lol.

A good way to see the whole picture is to right click on it and 'copy image URL'. Then open a new tba on your browser and paste what you just copied in the search bar. And voila! Full pic!

Ding760 wrote:
A good way to see the whole picture is to right click on it and 'copy image URL'. Then open a new tba on your browser and paste what you just copied in the search bar. And voila! Full pic!

lol, I wonder why I didn't come up with this solution myself

'Tis a good tank, it's probably held up better to the prem ammo change than either my KV-5 or IS-6 have (though the KV-5 suffers the worst by far). Decent earner too; the gun can best be described as 'adequate' (the pen always seemed low to be, given the length of barrel) but the ROF and the ammount of ammo you can carry are both fairly good. It can be useful for pushing a flank, and taking hits that might otherwise be aimed at friendlies; it isn't so good for hull-down these days as everyone knows the weak-spot behind the tubes, and I've been penned through the turret cheeks at closer ranges too by some opponents (T34 is probably the most dangerous one in tier 8 that I see regularly). I've always treated it like a heavy, and it's done me well so far.

something ill add to this if I may....

If an oponent is obviousley aiming for your cupola, bring your barrel up as the spaced armour will move with your barrel and cover the cupola for you. Conversely, if your oponent is aiming for your turret ring which is very common in my experience, move your barrel down. When an oponent knows where to hit you its very obvious, so wiggle and move your barrel accordingly. When an oponent is using gold rounds you will know about it and its one of the rare occasions ill load gold rounds myself to 'balance' the fight. A SP using gold rounds can pen ANYTHING it meets frontally in the upper/lower glacis. OOI interest, to pen an E75, you have to load gold in my experience, even when at point blank range and shooting the rear of the tank. The gun is insufficient against the most heavily armoured T9 tanks.

hth

in update 8.6 it's armor slope got reduced (nerfed).
However Superpershings gun and mobility will be buffed.
http://ftr.wot-news.com/2013/06/24/developers-answer-in-odessa/

Edit:
Gun buff is discussed. Mobility will be increased:
http://ftr.wot-news.com/2013/06/25/odessa-answers-errata-by-storm/

I think they removed it from the shop for the time being, right?

Boos B wrote:I think they removed it from the shop for the time being, right?

they did. There will be some option to sell the superpershing for its original price in update 8.7 I think.

How heavy has it been adjusted?
Still a fun tank in its own way or has the armour worsened after the adjusting of penetration and accuracy that the only thing this tank has going for it is out of the way?

Will ppl. sell or keep? I know the phrase "never sell a prem-tank" - but for a full refund?

/Ding

they will tackle the armor in the redesign. They were planning for 8.6, but moved the changes to 8.7. Giving the fact that they offer a refund, you can asume that it will not be beneficial .

The spaced armor will become less effective, that bit is sure already.