Hello everyone,
today we’ll have a look at the Sturer Emil, or Pz.Sfl.V, as it is called in game – the new tier 7 tank destroyer.
There are two principles of game vehicle balance that relate to the Sturer Emil – in fact, Sturer Emil confirms their existance.
First is: one trick pony tanks are much harder to balance than regular vehicles.
Second is: just because it has a huge gun doesn’t mean it’s a good vehicle.
Where to begin. Sturer Emil is much like Dicker Max. In fact, the both vehicles have pretty much identical gameplay – the main difference is that every aspect Dicker Max has, Sturer Emil has – but brought to the extreme. DM’s mobility is somewhat meh – but SE has even worse. DM has a big gun for its tier – and SE has even bigger. DM has poor gun traverse – and SE has even poorer. DM has limited ammo capacity – and DM has it even worse. And so on.
Sturer Emil also proves another principle: the more hype there is around a vehicle, the less it will live up to it. Some of you might remember the “old days”, when the first version of the second German TD branch (still in a vertical tree, the one with Dicker Max as regular tank) was released. The hype was enormous, some people were practically drooling with anticipation: Sturer Emil with a 128mm gun at tier 7, that must be overpowered as hell! It took more than a year (hell, almost two years if I recall correctly) for this vehicle to appear, but the hype hasn’t disappeared in the meanwhile. If anything, it was multiplied. And now that the tank is here, I guess a lot of people were expecting something different. Why?
Because the Sturer Emil is the ultimate one trick pony. It has a huge gun, but nothing else – and I mean it. Yes, it has the gun depression (I consider that to be a part of the “big gun” advantage), but it’s struggling everywhere else and the result of the hype is one of the most uncomfortable vehicles to play with in the entire game. I tested it (as usual) with full camo crew, a camo net, a rammer and binoculars (people asked last time why I use binocs instead of coated optics – simple: because it “fires up” up at the same point as the camo net – and because if you spot enemies when moving, you’re doing it wrong).
Armor
As with the previous vehicles, armor is non-existent, especially for its tier (at this point, the damage from high-power HE shells is starting to become a real problem). Frontal armor is 50mm (including the superstructure) as advertised, side armor however is NOT 30mm thick – the most exposed part, superstructure side, is only 15mm thick. The mantlet is 50mm thick, but most of it covers a hole for the gun (so it doesn’t combine with superstructure armor) – if you aim at the mantlet, aim close to the gun, not on the rims, those are thicker (100mm), because the armor combines there. In praxis however, this has little effect as almost no shells bounce off the mantlet and certainly no shells bounce of the hull. This vehicle has also one more very serious flaw armor-wise: it has a HUGE breech:
A breech (the grey boxy part in the vehicle) is a part of the tank gun collision model, but unlike the gun itself, it has no nominal armor. This means that pretty much ANY shot (especially from sides) will penetrate the hull and hit the huge gun module (breech) – and if there is no successful module saving throw, your gun will get damaged even by shells that flew nowhere near it. This is very annoying and yes, in praxis, Sturer Emil has a huge problem with this (the gun gets damaged very often). It also makes armor angling of any sort practically useless: by exposing the thin flanks, you are risking not only “regular” penetration, but also gun damage. The good news is the vehicle doesn’t burn easily and I never had any issues with ammo rack (but that’s also because if something heavy penetrates you, you won’t live long anyway). Oh yes, one last thing: the XP pinata effect is back. A powerful gun combined with zero armor makes you a juicy target and everyone and their grandmother will be shooting at you the second you get spotted.
Mobility
Mobility? The tank weights 36 tons and has a 300hp engine. On paper it doesn’t sound so bad, but it is. The mobility of the Sturer Emil is terrible. Its maximum speed is 25 km/h, but you’ll be going 20 at most on flat surfaces. Its climbing ability is terrible (to the point that if you start turning while climbing, the vehicle will stop) because of the bad power to weight ratio, so if you are to climb somewhere, you HAVE to know what you are doing, because once you get there, you won’t have time to change positions. This is the part where I will refer back to the Dicker Max: in my opinion it would make much more sense to put it into the game as tier 6 regular tank (an alternative to the Nashorn), because it would be a perfect preparation for the Sturer Emil: Nashorn and Sturer Emil are two very, VERY different vehicles and it takes time to switch your game style from being able to maneuver to… well, not being able to maneuver :) And it gets even worse: along with mobility comes the ability to ambush.
The problem with poor mobility is not the fact you are just slow, it’s essentially two issues in one:
a) you are so slow that you will never, ever run away: once you get spotted and targetted, you are simply dead, unless there is some very good cover closeby – like the huge stone on Malinovka
b) when the battle starts, it also means that you won’t be able to get in a good position before the enemies appear: this is especially annoying on El Halluf (by the time you reach a sniping spot, there will already be an activity in the valley) and – even worse – Sand River (during defense, you will NOT reach the usual defensive spots in time and by the time you do, there will again by an activity nearby and you will get spotted).
Normally in such a cases (where you know you won’t make it to the sniping spot in time) it’s better to wait a bit (a minute or so) until the situation calms down: either your teammates defeat the first round of rushers (allowing you to set up your shop as you planned before without being spotted), or your teammates lose and the position is compromised anyway.
Camouflage
So, you can’t take damage and you can’t run. Can you at least hide? Well, not really. You see, apart from being slow, Sturer Emil is also very big – and what is worse, long. The height is not that much of a problem (we dealt with it in the Sfl.IVc part), but the length IS. The vehicle itself does NOT have an excellent camo (based on size alone) and three things make it even worse:
a) poor gun traverse means you have to move your hull a lot, that’s instant 40 percent camo loss
b) the gun has a muzzle brake, this means each shot will demask you more than the usual value
c) the vehicle is very long and exposes your spotcheck points
The last part is probably the most important, so let me explain. Each vehicle has several (five) spot check points: if you “show” any of these points to the enemy, you will get spotted. If any of these spot check points is not in cover by the bush, the bush will give you no camo bonus at all (not even a partial one). These spots are located on the top of the vehicle and in the middle of each side. What this means for Sturer Emil is this:
The red triangle represents gun traverse angle and the red circle represents the spotcheck point on the side of the vehicle. As you can see, it’s very easy to lose the bush camo bonus by exposing the side check point, because the vehicle is very long. This is a problem for the following vehicles too, but the Rheinmetall Waffenträger deals with it by having a turret, so Sturer Emil is the only vehicle where this poses a serious problem.
So, what you need to do in order to successfully stay hidden?
- don’t move your hull unless you absolutely HAVE to
- pick a spot where you will have enemies appear before your gun: spots with lots of hull turning are bad spots
- do not fire blindly, fire only shots with probability of success
And also, you have to get lucky.
Gun
Yes, now we are getting to the good part of the vehicle: the gun. 128mm on tier 7 – what else is there to say? The top gun is – as you’d expect – brutal.
128mm Kanone 40: PEN 231 DAM 490 ROF 4,35 ACC 0,36 AIM 2,5 (2131 DPM)
However, the vehicle also has a stock gun (the same gun as Dicker Max has) – 105mm K18 (169 pen, 300 dam, 7,5 ROF) – on paper, the stock gun has even higher DPM, but make no mistake: it is terrible. At this point, I have to say that the K18 is the only stock gun I ever skipped for free XP. Low penetration combined with firing too often will make you get spotted all the time. The gun has the same poor traverse as the top gun (non-linear: 5 degrees to the left, 7 to the right) so apart from shooting the gun you’ll have to turn the vehicle a lot. It just does not work. I didn’t bother to try it with gold ammo, but without it it’s horrible. The entire stock Sturer Emil is a horrible experience, you need to get it maxed out as soon as possible. In my case, in order to mentally prepare, I gathered the free XP on Dicker Max (good training for the Sturer Emil).
So, you get the top gun (very expensive – 58500XP) and it gets better, but not much. Yes, the gun has raw firepower, but the fact it comes with such a limited traverse makes it tedious to play. Pretty much the only way I managed to play this vehicle is to pre-aim at spots where enemies regularily appear (Malinovka over the field or the lake path, Sand River attack – wither defending over a ridge, or pre-aiming at that spot where the upper base usually is etc.) and let them have it. One good thing about this gun is its crazy depression (-15!), but the elevation is not so good (+10) again due to the huge breech, so you’ll be relying on staying behind hills. It actually works, but again, if you don’t have room to cover and stay hidden, you’re a big fat target. The gun demasking effect is – as I mentioned – significant. The gun is reasonably accurate (0,36), but not nearly as the 88mm “sniper machine gun of death” L/71 on the Nashorn, sometimes the shots fly all over the place, which is something you cannot afford, because this vehicle has one more peculiarity: it carries only 15 shells. The stock gun is fine in this respect, but the top one ammo is extremely limited – you WILL be running out of ammo and you HAVE to make every shot count, if you want good results. Oh yes and one last thing: this gun has no gold ammo – the reason for it is balance: developers stated before that with gold ammo, it would be overpowered. I suggest you carry 14 AP shells and one HE shell “just in case” – HE shell comes useful against lightly armored tier 6+ enemies: it can for example easily oneshot a Nashorn, or a Hellcat – or anything with 50 armor or less.
Also, be read for the fact the shells are not cheap anymore, shooting the top gun will cost you: regular AP shell costs 920 credits (making it 13800 per 15 shells, if you shoot them all) – to compare: one 88mm L/71 shell from Nashorn costs 252 credits. That means that in order to cause 100 damage by Sturer Emil you have to pay 187 credits, but on Nashorn only 105 credits. And last but not least, a cherry on the top: while you HAVE to research the 128mm gun, it doesn’t transfer to any other vehicle. Fortunately, you’ll get better stuff at tier 8.
Conclusion
The Sturer Emil is a victim of the hype: many people expected a lot from the 128mm gun on tier 7, but the end result is mediocre due to poor mobility, armor and camouflage – and the gun doesn’t save it because of poor traverse. You have to be very careful with this vehicle and if you don’t feel like being careful and want something more powerful (it gets better on tier 8), I suggest skipping it altogether. I somehow made it work with premium account (52 percent winrate or so), but compared to the excellent tier 4-6 vehicles, it’s definitely a downgrade. It’s not fun to play, it relies on the team heavily and is a pure sniper. It will teach you patience though: if you manage to stay hidden and to not get spotted, the moaning about “unfair TD’s” from other wanna be “hero” players who rush to their death like noobs will be your reward – and it can get pretty entertaining, with whines such as “OMG noob TD”, “FU cheater” and “FFS FUCKING TD IS NEW ARTY” :)
I give 9/10. Finally a tank that can carry a game.
Plus, a boomstick.
I gave up pretty fast, didn’t like it, skipped it to the tier 8, now that’s a 9/10.
What? How can you carry in something without a mobility or armor.
Not mentioning 15 ammo capacity…
not going to lie, a first I thought you were talking to KawaGreen
Its a cheat called “skill”.
Skill doesn’t provide more ammo, you still can’t carry a game.
Did that many times. Armor is not needed if they cant see you.
Ammo aint armor mate.
The Tier 8 is just AWESOME!!!!!!!!
8.92 seconds of reload with the gun from Maus as stockgun xD
Its a 10/10
And its camovalue xD
I was in murowanka in the forest and shot an IS7 at 60m distance and did not got spotted!!
I just LOVE this WTF from enemies who are driving around you and get shot all 9 seconds and the best is that something can really bounce on this paper tank
Doesn’t matter sometimes. Having only 15 shots means that if your team sucks badly enough, it won’t matter how good YOU are: you’re still useless if you can’t shoot at anything!
Great review as always SS :) Keep them up ;)
You wrote Nashorn in the conclusion.
Fixed, thanks
Error in last paragraph, it states “Nashorn”
Well, so far Mr. Jingles and you have said similar things about the new vwhicles, and as far as i researched and played them them I’ve found it to be very true, keep up the good work. Curious about which guns you prefer on Tier 8,9 and 10. 128mm because of the accuracym aimtime and pen, or the 150 because of the alpha. I think I’d take the 128mm guns.
Well, so far I am only on tier 8, but yes, I prefer definitely the 128mm, the 150mm relies on gold ammo IMHO.
I will probably go for the 150mm on tier VIII (the pen is not yet so bad tier-for-tier), but then 128mm all the way. These vehicles are pure snipers, and 128s are pure sniping guns.
My opinion differs. I touched the WT E-100 in beta and thought to myself: I made the KV-2 work in Tier 10 battles with HE, then I can make this thing work with HE aswell! Its not the damage on its own thats crippling, but the modules. Slam 4 of these shells into the front of an IS-7 and in all probability he wont have much of a gun left to shoot back at you, nevermind the internal modules and crew members.
Rak.
Well, Mr Jingles makes many factual errors in his reviews :P …
OT: Nice one SS. Dont agree, but nice one.
I think one of the reasons is that testing on the test server gives you a very distorted view of a vehicle
Jingles is not some sort of oracle, he doesn’t need to be right all the time. Also, he’s old, so let him be. :P
Never said I am against him :D . Its just the little things usually, sometimes mistakes in effective armour or pen and such. And that is fine.
Still, its videos like the IS-3 getting buffed in 8.9 (it was actually nerfed, despite what stats in garage say) that are quite annoying.
I’m agree with SS point of view on this Emil.
I skipped it as soon as i could and was nicely surprised to discover the best TD i never played : Rhm-borsig WT ! I wait your review with impatience.
tier 4-6 are great…all of my friends that are grinding the new td line say that this one is bad and i dont have enough free xp to skip it :(
Neither did I, but it wasn’t such a total painful grind as – say – Churchill I (I hated that thing).
I dont remember the brits having horrible heavies, they just needed a different approach (its something like the IS-4 line on russians at stock in terms of mobility). In fact, the Churchill 7 received a rather nice buff :3
The difficult thing with Churchills is, the very weak turret with the large, unsloped front.
angling the turret between shots helps a bit, but overall this was my biggest problem.
Just goes to show how much the tanks are personal preference I love the Churhill I
Nice review bud
I hated the Churchill I during the grind so much, that I sold it before I even got the 3rd gun. But later on, when I unlocked all the guns via medium tanks line, I came back to the Churchill I, and really – when elited this vehicle is a real pleasure to play :)
Ha, i just say: take a look at the stock gun of the Churchill Gun Carrier… then you can start to cry ;)
I didn’t like the Churchill either until I switched back to the 110 pen 75 dmg gun that the Churchill 3 has. Perfectly acceptable against T5/6 and vs T7 you’re screwed a lotta the time anyways :P
”… is one of the most
uncomfortable vehicles to play with in
the entire game.”
Dafuq? You can peek-a-boo over pretty steep hills showing only your gun.
How is that uncomfortable?
All and all, it lived up to what I expected :)
Well you have to get up the hill in the first place
And you will still take damage from hits anyway.
Yeah but since you hulldown and show little of yourself = small chance of RNG to hit you.
nice review
also
“Nashorn” is a victim of the hype: many people expected a lot from the 128mm gun on tier 7, but the end result is mediocre due to poor mobility, armor and camouflage
“Conclusion
Nashorn is a victim of the hype: …”
I think you meant Sturer Emil :)
Nice Post :)
meh, to slow
FInished it yesterday and its one of the best vechicles in the line. The only problem is shitty stock gun – free exp it, otherwise getting top cannon will be a major pain. After you get 128mm… tier7 ISU – thats it.
Many people will get baited by this hype to grind this difficult tank and give us free XP :)
Yet I want to grind it too, trick ponies and difficult tanks in general are amusing to play!
Ace tanker in it in First game with ridic low 1576xp :D 3,5k dmg, stay hidden even more than Nashorn, and as SS said make your shots count, and you are fine, find spots where you can go hulldown so at least you are no easy target. Mobility is really horrible i agree…
gotta say that i love my SE:) teaches ma patience what i lack off.
SS you wrote a nice review about the tank, but I don’t agree at all with your conclusions. This tank is simply the best tier 7 TD of the game, it is one of those tanks where I wish I could play all the time on tier 10 battles to make even more XP. The gun is epic along with gun depression makes it one of the most fun tanks to play with. Armor doesn’t really matter at all (AT7 has lots of armor, but has big weak points), I would really suggest you to change a bit your play style, this vehicle is worth keeping! Try and use Rammer, EGLD, and camo (OH, most importantly: premium gas instead of fire extinguisher, didn’t get a single fire :)
I would say t25 AT is still better, mostly due to the very good mobility.
I have to sort-of agree with you… this tank is incredible against t8s and 9s. It’s basically a t7 SU-100Y. If you can play the Y well… you can play the Emil well.
I’ve never seen the word praxis used outside a game of scrabble before.
Shows SS is not a native speaker :> But so are most of us, so…
It’s Czenglish. Same as “necessery”.
Guess you don’t read more academic texts. :|
and what about turn rate of the hull? i heard it’s quite good, is that true?
Churchill I???
Surely you mean the Churchill VII? Now that is a POS. Slooooooooooooow as hell. Like treacle running uphill in January.
Churchill I is always underestimated, never outgunned. And at least it can move.
It has a low skill ceiling.
The gun and HP let it punch out most enemies, but if it can’t do that, it’s severely limited. Poor mobility, weak armour, horrible depression. It’s bad at dishing out damage without taking effective return fire, which is key to obtaining great results.
Great feedback, as always. Any chance you do this kind of reviews for any other tanks already in the game?
I am sure if that thing would be russian td then it would receive powerful unhistorical engine so it would have good speed too.
And it would be as twice as smaller :) Still remember those IS-4/IS-7 shrinking to “historical sizes”
Well if you play it right, this TD is a pure beast, it just reaps the tier 5-7 games, you can own the battlefield with it. Even funnier are the tier 8 games were there are lots and lots of HP of heavies, but the low (pure crap) max number of shells is just crazy: one time I ran out of ammo, did like 4.5k dmg and couldn’t get the top gun because of the 15th shell just went crazy off target (that’s an annoying quirk of this gun). Overall it’s good but not great, only if it had some mobility :(
A contender for Fadin’s medal then?
Called it. People were entertaining the thought of a tier VII ISU… except the ISU has great camo, decent speed, and armour that gives at least occasional troll bounces and doesn’t get penned by low tier scout guns and HE.
Would the 10.5cm PaK 45 L/52 (Jagdpanther top gun) work in the Sturer Emil? (I know it isnt historical, but still?
Were any “premium” shells available in real life or are there just two ammo types available back then? Not that i really need gold shells for the K40, but still…
Would using the -15° of gun depression help in terms of hiding this big TD, so you can hide these spot checks?
First is: one trick pony tanks are much harder to balance than regular vehicles.
Second is: just because it has a huge gun doesn’t mean it’s a good vehicle.
Now good luck balancing the Sturmtiger if it ever comes out….
Worst tank I have ever played. So big so visible so slow so boring. I could do bigger damage in every game with nashorn, this is so silly and I dont understand WG way how they think. Looking forward to sell him asap for Tier 8
And also even tier 3 will penetrate you everywhere he wants … FU WG with these boring useless piece of shit …
Would it be fair to assess this new td line as essentially direct fire arty? Huge guns that will punish the unwary, can barely hide, few can run, none have armor…
” Normally in such a cases (where you know you won’t make it to the sniping spot in time) it’s better to wait a bit (a minute or so) until the situation calms down: either your teammates defeat the first round of rushers (allowing you to set up your shop as you planned before without being spotted), or your teammates lose and the position is compromised anyway.”
That also implies that this tank is highly dependent to the team.
IMO it’s the most team dependent tank I’ve ever played…you can’t carry any matches with(you’re spotted-you’re dead rule).
Also you cannot help your team-mates because of it’s bad mobility and the static gameplay it features.
Ah, and I saw you reprimanded me with the optics stuff, but, I didn’t see you have to move while having optics, I said that it gives you the same view range boost as the binocs but also when you’re traversing your hull in a bush(where the binocs stop working until you stop turning your hull to left/right).
See=said…
Phone autocorrection…
10% bonus=25% bonus mate? Binos have way better bonus.
440 m is the max view range.
400m+10% = 440m
400m +25% = 500m…60m of that view range is useless.
lol, it isnt. Spotting distance is capped at 445m but viewrange is only calculation parameter – there is never too much viewrange :) .
I was talking about view range as spotting range…if you can’t spot a target above those 440m for what you need the “view range” of 500m?
You can see the targets spotted by other team mates up to 500m(max tank drawing range) anyway
It’s not useless, it adds to your spotting range, effectively lowering enemy camo. Say you got “max” 440 view range, you spot some decent camo tank at 370 meters. Now if you had 500m view range, you spot him at 400m instead.
Can you at least enlighten me about where you found that info…red the game mechanics manual several times and I never saw that info.
Because game manual is shitty. At least try reading battle mechanics section on wiki – it has some bugs but minor only. You can find even the whole spotting formula there.
Camo rating is one coefficient that fights another viewrange coefficient, you can buff both with crew skills or equipment. Do you think that camo net is what for :) ? Why do you think Haunebu tanks like E-25 can only be proximity-spotted?
Well camo net is for increasing the camo stat of the tank, but I didn’t knew that camo stat can be “reduced”
So, if everything in your spotting range (that then would equal to your viewrange) is instaspotted, then why even bother with camo net ;) ?
Camo is just another coefficient in the spotting equation. Which stands to reason.
Now you know :) .
yup….it’s true….even if your max view range is capped at 445m having “more” than that means you decrease enemy’s camo factor more effectively…..so binocs do it’s job better….only pro that optics provide is you don’t have to wait for 5 seconds to make it work
wiki (in short, your view range is always in a fight versus enemy camo rating; whoever has bigger number has the advantage)
Totally agree with this review, this tank can make an impact on the battle IF you manage to get into position and stay hidden but also can be quite useless at times where you get spotted and get crippled by one HE shell. However the bright side is after this you will get an OP TD called the Rhm battleship with wheels and tracks! :D
“omg need tds!”
damn you autocorrect. That’s supposed to say nerf
167 pen is not horrible for a stock gun IMO (i grind stock T25 AT with short 90).
And 920 silver for a round that have 230+ pen, 490 alpha is cheap IMO. When the rest tier 7 TD rounds is 200 pe, 350 alpha and cost 1k silver so i think WG will incease the price of the ammo to around 1k1 in next patch.
On paper it is, and yes, it can pen targets.
But the platform isn’t suited for it.
The tank is slow, has no mobility and no armour.
Because it shoot faster it loses it’s camo more often, a thing that should be avoided on it.
On the other hand the T25 has mobility, nice speed and a bit more armour than the Sturer.
I started giving it an honest go last night after saving up some free XP from the x5 weekend. The top tier gun on this thing is insanely expensive for the amount of XP I was managing to pull in per game, it’s going to be a long grind. All in all, I’m not impressed with the Sturer Emil. The Dicker Max Gun works well with it as long as you don’t face any of the heavy Russian tanks head on, heck even the hull on a slightly angled T29 will give it some issues with the accuracy. Gold rounds help a bit.
But dear lord the speed and turning radius on this thing, while being such a big target just about makes it a chore to play. Although in the right positions you can be truly effective and a pain in the rear for the enemy tanks, it’s not going to work that way for every game. Himmelsdorf for instance. Heck, Malinovka starting up your best bet is to just run the heck away from the front lines as soon as possible before the sui-scouts light you up. Doing that in the Sturer Emil is easier siad then done though. First game on that map I was dead inside of 15 seconds because I was just about turned around and heading away from the front when I got lit up.
I also had been testing around with the equipment trying to figure out the best layout. Initially I was running Camo Net, Gun Laying Drive and Rammer, but switched out the Rammer for Binoculars. Might try it with the coated optics though. But there’s a method to the madness
Rammer cut’s the reload by just about 2 seconds. Top tier gun, 100% crew (No BIA) and Rammer allows you to get about 11 seconds + or – .3 or .4 But with 15 shots you don’t necessarily want to be firing fast or hoping for the snap shots. The shot’s really need to count. Add into it the frustration of track shots or aiming at the LFP and watching the shell be attracted to the gun Mantlet like a magnet and it makes it a frustrating time.
Gun Laying Drive: Necessity. The tank is big, slow and the narrow traverse means that for a light scout zipping along you’ll be moving to track him. The aim time on the gun is not horrible, but the overall accuracy at long distances leaves a bit to be desired, so you want to make sure you’re fully zoomed in (I suggest the server reticle mods as well, noticed it a bit with this tank that full zoom and settling of the visual reticle, but the server side reticle still has a little bit to go.)
Binoculars or Coated optics: Not quite sure yet. As above with the Gun laying drive you might have to move a bit which in itself makes the bino’s not quite as useful. Optics are constant but don’t offer the same amount of view over the binoculars. Haven’t tested enough to figure out which would be more beneficial, but the standard view range on the Emil is already 400 meters, so anything to push that up and allow you to spot them before they get into view range for them, most tanks you face are around 380 meters, is a plus.
While it’s not a horrible tank, it definitely feels like a downgrade after playing the Nashorn.
Can it mount Grousers equipment? Because both Nashorn and Hummel can.
I don’t recall but I think I did see them in the equipment list. TBH I’ve never used them. Ever. Could never justify them over the other equipment for some reason.
I didn’t try the tank yet but honestly:
If you aren’t going to tier X and have SU-100Y what’s the point of this tank?
WG designed it to sink free XP into. Almost every tree has one or two of these for this exact reason…
Quite a stupid rage article, honestly. Didn’t expect that from SS….
Many facts are disorted heavily and and don’t display the reality.
To verify my ability to judge the perfarmance of Sturer Emil, my account data: LoserDestiny, RU server.
http://worldoftanks.ru/community/accounts/105982-LoserDestiny/
Pz.Sfl. V 45 (battles) 67% Master
I elited the vehicle very fast – the gun for free XP and chassis and engine with 3x weekend event.
So what is wrong in the article:
1) Speed: you actually DO go 25km/h all the way, in fact in first of my battles (still with stock suspension and engine IIRC) I was going like 27 on almost flat ground. Only after the battle I realized that max speed is only 25. So it surely IS slow, but it’s not slower than promised.
Having played all British TD till AT15, I can tell you – SE is much more mobile.
2) Show tha butt from behind the bush: Why did the vehicle in the picture on the right rotate around the middle of the bush? How come? If it rotated around it’s own middle axis, the side of the vehicle would’t stick out as much as you are trying to show us.
And except of that, to actually get spotted like that, it in fist place requires some enemy being right in front, and if there are any – why would you want to turn and shoot somewhere to the left?
3) Breech is vulnerable: It IS with ANY vehicle. And the save throw is not less probable with Emil, so that’s basically plain bullshit. Sure It might be critted, but it’s not that huge problem as you describe.
In 45 battle my gun was critted just 1 or maybe 2 times – from front through the mantlet.
4) Are there actually other maps you are playing on, except Malinovka, Desert River and El Halouf? Because in neither of your reviews you ever mentioned any.
In fact SE is a great city TD – deliver a huge punch and roll back behind the corner – great gameplay and Ruinberg, Ensk and others.
5) Depression not bad but no advantage: BULLSHIT. With Emil you can use spots you can’t use with ANY other vehicle. You don’t have to stick out off a hill too much, even less that with American tanks (who only have -10 depression). Not necessarily a bush-sniper position, you were trying to play all the time, you actually might play close combat with Sturer Emil!!
For example the large hill on Westfield – if camp 200m behind it in the TD bushes, you’ll fist never hit any target, and second – you’ll get spotted and die. But if you go all the way to the hill, stick your gun over it, deliver a punch and roll back – you are safe. Surely, you depend on a team somewhat, but what can you do with a solitary Nashorn? You can shoot a couple of times, but you will also get spotted and die, so you are dependant on the team with many vehicles, not just Emil.
In fact, I got my Master badge on Westfield in a manner described above.
There are many other spots, which are not necessarily TD spots, but you can play them well with Emil just due to depression. In fact some you can ONLY play well with Emil.
So as a conclusion: although the Sturer Emil might sometimes be somewhat annoying to play, all in all it’s a great vehicle with a really unique gameplay and I’m really enjoying it. (need to say I skipped both Sfl.IVc AND Nashorn, since I disliked them on Common Test)
There is neither something stupid in it, nor is there any rage. I don’t understand how you would get such an impression. And your ability to judge is not proven by a somewhat meh winrate (for this big amount of battles), nor is it by a mastery badge in a difficult to play tank. Mastery requirements will always be very low with them because of all the badly failing players. Sure, one CAN make it somewhat work, if one adapts to the very restricted abilities of this tank. But overall it is highly situational and simply a bad tank. Period.
My ability to judge doesn’t come from the winrate, neither from the mastery badge, it was just the in the line of statistics.
Alone playing 4 dozens of battles is IMO enough to judge a tank.
SS often states that you have to play Tank A as Tank A, not as Tank Y (like in the previous article he told not to use Hellcat as Nashorn and vice versa).
Nontheless he tried to use Sturer Emil as he used Nashorn – and failed!
The point is – there is nothing like Emil in game. SU-100Y comes close, but it has better mobility, while the silhouette is even larger and more vulnerable.
Though the insane depression on SE gives you yet unseen possibilities.
Sturer Emil is not a sniper TD relying on stealth like Nashorn. it simply lacks camo factor and especially the accuracy to do so.
Sturer Emil is a close-to-medium-range TD relying on physical cover.
i know a lot of amazing players, and not once (so far) said: Sturer Emil is good, i hear more rage its so bad / boring :p
in this sentence ” DM has limited ammo capacity – and DM has it even worse. And so on.” is it the DM and DM or DM and SE. DM SE
He typo’ed. There are a few in the article.
wat
I played Emil on test by skipping the K18 as well, this go-round, I trudged through it to the 128mm – that was painful. Someone had the nerve to say “Well, that 105 is the same gun as the Dickermax,” but they forgot to mention in the same breath that it’s also on a platform 1-tier higher, non-preferential, and extremely underpowered up there for something so vulnerable.
That being said though, the Emil is a very niche TD – a “see without being seen” TD. It works really well on maps like Erlenberg and Redshire, but falls on its face on maps like Sand River and Prokhorovka.
I guess I’m one of the few – I like seriously-underdog tanks – it’s a keeper for me. It seems others feel the same way – getting Ace Tanker in it seems quite a challenge already.
the dicker max doesn’t get special MM.
But yes, the 105 is absolute trash for a tier 7 TD with that kind of armor and mobility. It’s decent on the Dicker Max.
“It will teach you patience though: if you manage to stay hidden and to not get spotted, the moaning about “unfair TD’s” from other wanna be “hero” players who rush to their death like noobs will be your reward – and it can get pretty entertaining, with whines such as “OMG noob TD”, “FU cheater” and “FFS FUCKING TD IS NEW ARTY” :)”
Not really surprised. Might give the line a go at some point. Lack of garage slots had tempered my want to get some new tanks. That and I already have several lines going atm. If only the Pz Sfl.IVb has a decent aim time in normal mode. I could use that as a long rang TD…
Biggest piece of shit I have played for months. I sold it after 20 battles. No regrets.
Why are you so negative about this tank? I bought it, it’s a challenging tank but it’s very fun to play and it can chew up any T9 it would meet (if you have support)
I think many people just don’t know how to play it properly.
I don’t know I actually liked it very much, the reason I’m playing the new TD line is to get this one. I played it on test server and loved it.. even got a mastery badge!
I have to agree with LoserDestiny on this one, SS. You have played it as something it isn’t.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH41Jf1k3yo
I really liked the Sturer Emil, although it was frustrating at times. The lack of mobility and armor make this a tough tank to play, but it’s very rewarding when you get a good game. Overall I’d say this is a somewhat bad tank.
They didn’t use the name sturer emil because it isn’t official designation. But Dicker Max is?
this tank is not bad with full gun… it’s funny …aim..1…2…3…fire…and 80% enemy hp go away in the sky…depression is fantastic..but speed is a nightmare ..with no armor i dont understand how this is possible . i play with 5% hp bonus…fire extinguisher is not necessary…when u take a great bullet or he bullet dmg. u die .