I guess I am just trying to think with the times and use what ever is not in demand by other projects for the time so that this project has a chance of making it to production. If we gave it Hellcat like armor and kept the thick front plate would that be enough of a weight drop to make it work with the smaller engine? We do, ofc, with armor need to remember that alloys were lacking and armor was creeping up in thickness just to maintain protection it had offered a year earlier. Although now it would spall and crack more often. Might, because of the weakening alloyed armor, need to keep the angled armor to keep weight down.

WG in game, has one of the TRM engines having 440hp so that could work well. And it saves some weight over the HL230P30/45.

Now we did some emails and you mentioned the 600 hp aircooled Argus engine as an alternative for the E-25(I had totally forgotten about it). There is a 550hp Argus 12LD330H engine already in the game on the VK.28.01 tank. Plus there is always the HL100 and HL101 engines that are mentioned in Panzer Tract 20-1 as being planned for the E-25.

It’s pretty much now a thinly armored heavy instead of an oversized but fairly fast medium. I think it’s fun, but what was done to it is not what most people think was done to it.

Most players do not understand what was changed and how those changes affect the performance of the tank. I’ve only found a handful of players who understand how the various values interact.

Apanther should be a cross tank to the tier 8 panther, this new suggested tank should take the current tier7 slot with RU251 in tier 8.

It’s an extremely interesting development that I really wish WG would be flexible on using. The Germans actually produced several hundred of the smaller, 81mm PAW 600 version, as well as thousands of shells, but didn’t get to use it much if at all.

The main benefit would be a decent (medium) muzzle velocity, and longer barrel for higher accuracy than the usual howitzers. The shells, however, would hit as hard as howitzer HE, because they could accommodate a higher explosive charge due to the lower G forces during firing (more gradual acceleration).

WG has claimed “no smoothbores” because of the later evolution toward guided-missile gun rounds, but in this case (and a few US recoilless rifle designs) I think a clear exception could be made.