E-25: Die Spuckende Kakerlake
“The Spitting Cockroach”
Welcome to my review about the German tier 7 premium tank destroyer, a vehicle widely known amongst the World of Tanks community for its exceptional speed, stealth and fast-firing gun. Together with the T-25, this premium was the one I instantly fell in love with simply because of its amazing potential to do absolutely well in nearly any environment (and similarity to the ELC and Alecto). Part of the Entwicklung (development)- series, it was a late German World War II design of which not even a prototype was managed to be built. This review will cover the following aspects:
- Mobility
- Firepower
- Durability, Armor and Survivability
- Gameplay
- Equipment
- Crew skills
- Should I buy it?
*Note: When reading the review, keep in mind that the E-25 has special matchmaking and only sees up to tier 8 tanks unless in a platoon.
Mobility
As stated before, mobility is really one of the things that make the E-25 stand out. It weighs 26.3 tons (slightly more if you add equipment), and is equipped with a 700 horsepower Maybach engine. Now, this gives it a power to weight ratio of 26.62 hp/ton. The power to weight ratio is essentially a vehicles acceleration and how quickly you can reach top speeds.
To put this into perspective: A medium tank designed to excel in flanking maneuvers, relocating to give support on other areas to the map quickly and capture/reset the base (think T-44, Type 59, T-43) have on average around 16-19 hp/ton. A light tank designed to spot enemy tanks and be the “eyes and ears” of the team (for example the Luchs, T21 and 59-16) vary between 22-25 hp/ton. In my opinion, at least 21 hp/ton is required to be able to scout well while having a good chance of not getting hit (of course, other factors count toward this as well). Now, the E-25 has a stunning 26.62 hp/ton- while its not enough to join the “acceleration anomalies” of the ELC AMX, and the BT series (with almost 40 hp/ton), it does have at least one hp/ton more than the average dedicated scout tank. And keep in mind, this is classified as a tank destroyer and not a light tank.
What does this mean? Well, it means that you’ll be able to outrun nearly every tank you meet in game. This allows you to arrive at strategic areas quicker than the enemy team, for example on the hills at Mines and Karelia. In addition, it means that you can basically run to any corner of the map in the shortest time to provide fire support or spots for your team.
But acceleration, although the most important mobility statistic, is not all. The second most important stat is the traverse speed which will determine your agility (your ability to turn at high speeds without bleeding, well, speed). It doesn’t fail here- with a traverse rate of 44 degrees per second, which falls just several degrees short of most dedicated scout tanks. With this pretty damn good traverse speed, you can easily turn around sharp corners or weave around to avoid getting hit without bleeding much speed. Keep in mind, though, that at first when traveling at top speed (for example, downhill), the traverse will not keep up with your expectations. However, you’ll get used to it as time passes.
And finally, to the last statistic: top speed. Here, it doesn’t fail you either- 65 kilometers per hour? Standard light tank top speed. And with the excellent acceleration and good traverse, you will easily find yourself traveling at 60km/h on hard terrain and around 45+km/h on soft terrain. What am I saying?
It is nearly the perfect scout (minus the lack of turret), and can certainly perform the roles of one with great chances of success.
But that’s not all...
Firepower
Lets take a look at the famous 75mm StuK 42 L/70, the main gun of the StuG III, the Panther-M10, VK 3002M and finally, the E-25. The stats vary slightly from tank to tank, and of all versions, it performs the best on the E-25.
- 150mm average penetration
- 135 average damage
- 20 rounds per minute
- 0.3 meters dispersion at 100 meters (accuracy)
- 1.5 seconds aiming time
The gun is an interesting combination of near-perfect gun handling, great damage-per-minute and “meh” armor penetration. 0.3m dispersion at 100m used to be the most accurate stat a gun could have in World of Tanks, but was bested with the introduction of the Waffenträger auf E-100’s 128mm autoloader with 0.29 meters dispersion at 100m. 0.3m dispersion means that at ranges of <500m, you still have a good chance of achieving a hit. In addition, you’re able to easily strike known weak spots of enemy tanks at ranges where other Russian, American and even German tank guns will fail. This is also helped by the 1.5 seconds of aiming time, essentially the time needed for the aiming recticle to completely minimize itself. If I remember correctly, 1.5 seconds IS the best aiming time a gun in WoT can have, ensuring that you can almost simply “point and click” without having to wait long for the circle to get smaller (an annoying trend with French guns). As you can see, gun handling is pretty damn excellent.
The gun fires 20 rounds a minute (without additional equipment) which results in a reload time of 3 seconds. Coupled with an average damage of 135 hitpoints per shot, this results in an impressive 2700 damage per minute. So, if you’ve been thinking: “Mehhh... 135 alpha on a tier 7? Isn’t that pretty crap?” forget it... (with additional equipment) you can basically fire as fast as the AMX 13’s 75mm, with the same average alpha damage but WITHOUT the long reload time and the crappy, crappy gun handling.
Now, for the last little stat: 150mm of average armor penetration. Many list this as a “con” for this tank, but I disagree. It will certainly be no problem against any tier 5-6 tank (But teh AT-2 an’ AT-8..?! If you aim carefully, you can still easily hit the commanders copula on top of the tank). At tier 7, most heavy tanks and tank destroyers will have weak spots for you to penetrate, which I’ll explain a little more under the “Gameplay” section. The only problem you’ll start facing is at tier 8, and then only when facing them frontally. I repeat: Only when facing them frontally. My point is that it is certainly hard for a slow-moving tank or tank destroyer with low penetration to deal with heavily armored, higher tiered tanks. But that is because they will often find themselves engaging these type of tanks frontally, as they do not have the mobility to get around the flanks to pull off some shots. The E-25, as said before, has excellent mobility and the penetration “problem” will only occur if you sit still and pay no regard to the minimap (again, I’ll highlight this later on in the “Gameplay” section. 150mm penetration will easily penetrate the sides and rear of any tank it encounters.
Of course, there will be those certain situations where flanking opportunities aren’t present, or when there is no where to run away to (make sure this never, ever, happens). For those cases, I do suggest loading no more than 15 gold ammunition (armor piercing composite-rigid shells). Only use them in emergency situations, as they are very expensive and will negate your net profit if used too much. Don’t bother loading high-explosive (HE) shells- it is useless at this tier.
Durability, Armor and Survivability
I’ll keep this short, as there really isn’t much to say about the E-25’s armor. Basically, every lightning-quick tank hardly has any effective armor and the E-25 is no exception. The front armor is 50mm thick and pretty well sloped; however, unless you angle it well, don’t expect anything to bounce off. You might get an occasional bounce from a lucky hit to your gun mantle, but never ever rely on it.
As for the side and rear, armor is virtually nonexistent. 30mm with a slight angle, just... nah. Anything that hits you in the side will easily punch through. The E-25 relies on its mobility and camouflage to survive. Top armor is also practically an extremely thin sheet of metal, and a direct (or splash, for that matter) by artillery will either severely cripple or outright destroy it.
Health-wise, it has a meagre amount of 830 hit points, even less than certain tier 6 heavies and amongst the lowest of tier 7 tank destroyers. So- please, please don’t go trading hit points. You’d escape a lot of punishment by simply using that light tank mobility. Your teammates are there to take the hits for you.
Camouflage. This, along with mobility, will keep you alive. You’ve almost certainly seen just how small its silhouette is- it is about as short as the ELC AMX. This gives it excellent camouflage values and the ability to simply stay hidden while you fire away from behind a bush, even when entering well into an enemy tanks view range. In addition with a Camo net and crew skills, this thing can be almost invisible.
Gameplay
It is very similar to the Alecto, the tier 4 British tank destroyer and shares similar tactics with the ELC AMX, the French tier 5 light tank, with the ability (IMO) to do much more than both of them in their respective tiers.
At all times when spotted, ensure that you are ON THE MOVE or in cover- don’t sit out in the open and allow yourself to get demolished. In addition, always have an escape route prepared before you run anywhere. Trust me, if you’re on the run and have no more or less fixed plan how to get to safety, you will end up making stupid decisions which will cost you your tank (happened to me many, many times before... learn from my mistakes). Remember: You stay alive by not getting hit.
In the early stages of the battle, the E-25 can perform the following roles: Cautious active scouting, passive scouting, scout destroyer or “secure-strategic-locations-vehicle”.
While it does have mobility akin to true light tanks, you do run a high risk of getting killed or crippled when active scouting (running around the middle of the map, trying to spot enemy tanks). This is why only do this cautiously as your gun is far more useful than the average scout tanks’ gun. A more suitable option for the beginning of the battle is passive scouting, which is basically sitting in a bush while spotting enemy tanks. Again, map knowledge is most important for this tactic. While there are certain “sweet spots” for passive scouting (e.g. the middle passage of Lakeville, the bushes along the 1-line on Prokhorovka), most are there for you to find. Essentially, picture the routes that enemy tanks might take, find a position that overlooks that area and is within around half a maps distance, find a bush in that area and park your tank there. At 360 meters of view range, it certainly isn’t the best; but when equipped with Binoculars (a piece of equipment), you can see almost as far as half of the whole map.
In addition to these, keep an eye on the minimap- if you spot a rogue scout running through your teams’ lines, chase it down and destroy it before it gets to pick off your artillery. Just DONT GET DETRACKED- the small gun arc coupled with the lack of a turret will make you helpless against enemy vehicles when tracked. As the saying goes- a tracked E-25 is a dead E-25. Save your repair kits for those cases.
Furthermore, it is perfect in making a run for strategic locations- not only because of its speed, but also as a result of its fast-firing gun which can shred light and low-tier medium tanks (competitors for those locations) to pieces. Give your team an advantage by racing and securing the hills on Mines or Karelia, or even the mountain on Cliff if you know how to get up there safely and quickly.
After the initial stages of the battle, it really comes down to your situational awareness. The E-25 can perform many roles- active scout, passive scout, sniper, support tank or in some cases, flanker. Try and keep your distance, and try and stay invisible. A good technique to use is to, when playing as a sniper or medium-range support tank, park more than 15 meters behind a bush. This will increase your chance of staying unspotted.
Keep in mind that the gun arc is extremely limited and comparable to artillery pieces. It can only traverse 12 degrees to either side, which means that every time you do move the gun a bit, the aiming circle will bloom as the tank moves. Some players find this rather uncomfortable, but eventually one gets used to it.
Also, it is important to know what the 75mm gun can penetrate and what it can’t. This comes with experience and you’ll generally figure out what you can reliable penetrate frontally and what its useless against. On most tanks, known weak spots include the lower frontal glacis (the lower area of the frontal armor which is closest to the ground), the commanders copula (usually round objects which stick out of the top of a tanks turret) or any of the small but visible driver viewports/machine gun ports. All of these have either thinner armor than stated on paper which the 75mm L/70 with its accuracy can easily take advantage of. In addition, remember that more sloping= higher chance of a ricochet (bounce).
However, there will be tanks that will be near impossible to penetrate frontally with armor piercing shells, most notably the KV-4. If this happens, and you do have allies/artillery with the ability to hit it, blast its tracks off. If you’re sitting all alone, well, blast its tracks off and run off; find another position where you can put shots into his flanks or rear. Don’t waste ammunition by firing at tanks which you know you cannot penetrate, for example a sidescraping Tiger or a hulldown T29/T34.
Map awareness and knowledge is the key to victory. Knowing where the enemy will pass through and moving to a spot to counter that will give you a serious advantage. Keep in mind that you have the mobility and camo values to get to different areas of the map quicker than any other tank. Use this to your advantage. If you spot gaps in the enemy lines, and like taking risks (like me.. *cough*), go for it! Make a run for the artillery, take a few low tiers with you and generally stir up some chaos behind enemy lines. Keep in mind that this type of adventure is highly risky and the first few tries might get you killed (learn from your mistakes, though, and improve it on the next time you get such an opportunity).
An interesting tactic for those who like trolling heavies is to literally get in their face by lining up your small cockroach alongside the side/rear of the enemy tank. Since its THAT small, many heavies will have trouble depressing the gun far enough to be able to hit it. If in doubt, keep moving the tank forwards and backwards, always in the opposite direction of the enemy tank gun, to increase the chance of a miss. The downside is that, with its limited gun arc, it cannot fire back. However, forcing the heavy to turn its turret to you will expose their weaker turret sides toward your teammates, who can pop out and happily dish out the damage. Note that this can only be done when the enemy tank is alone.
Finally, platoons. They do help a lot, as you have one or two more players on your side that you can rely on. Bare in mind that if you platoon with other tier 7 vehicles, you risk the chance of ending up facing tier 9’s. For this reason, I highly suggest platooning with tier 6 tanks which can fare well against higher tiers, such as any artillery, a KV-1S or KV-2, tanks with guns that fare well and are serious threats even to enemy top tiers. Double, or even triple E-25‘s can be loads of fun in a little tank destroyer wolfpack. However, platooning isn’t absolutely necessary as the E-25 can function well on its own too; while it is, to some degree, dependent on the team, it is pretty capable of carrying a tier 7 or 8 battle.
Equipment
Equipment is indeed vital for the E-25 to do exceptionally well on the battlefield; however, the combination is up to you to choose as different equipment will improve the tank destroyers performance in different ways.
My recommendation is as follows: Firstly, a camo net, which will, in combination with the Camo skill on the crew, ensure that you will NOT get spotted unless a tank comes within 50 meters of you. It is pretty mandatory for any tank which stays alive by not getting spotted. Secondly, a “Medium-Caliber Tank Gun Rammer”, which drastically improves the 75mm L/70’s reload to French autoloader reload time (around 2.7s), increasing your damage per minute to around 2970. Finally, Binoculars, which will increase your view range to 450 meters, perfect for passive scouting and reaping XP and credits by simply sitting in a bush.
Alternately, you can mount “Ventilations” instead of either the Camo net or Binoculars which will give a 5% all-round boost to the tanks performance including rate of fire, and camouflage ratings. If you prefer active scouting or “reconnaissance in force”, replace Binoculars with Coated Optics, which will give you a 10% view range increase even while on the move (Binocs only work when stationary).
For consumables, I’d go with the standard Small Repair Kit, Medic Kit, Fire extinguisher. If you can afford it, replace the repair kit with the “Large Repair Kit” which gives an extra boost to overall repair times, in addition to the ability to repair all damaged/destroyed modules at once.
Crew Skills
For the crew skills, firstly train up all crew members for camouflage. Once it reaches 100%, drop it and replace it with the first set of perks and train the second set for full camouflage. I do not recommend using Repairs, as I feel that it wastes space which could be used for better perks and skills. After all, the E-25 survives by not getting hit and not getting seen. My recommendation is as follows, the skills/perks listed in order:
Commander: 6th Sense, Camo, Recon
6th Sense is THE most important perk this tank should have, as it lets you know when its time to run, back up into cover or start moving in a zig-zag fashion to increase the chance of enemy misses. After Camo, Recon helps to further increase your view range which will be further multiplied by binoculars (if you decide to equip it).
Gunner: Deadeye, Camo
Not a great range of choice here. For the first perk, take deadeye- your quick rate of fire ensures that this perk will have a good chance of damaging enemy modules, which will certainly work for your favor. After Camo, it really is your choice as the other options would not make a huge difference to the E-25’s performance.
Driver: Preventive Maintenance, Camo, Off-road Driving, Clutch Breaking
An interesting range of choice, here. Again, this is mainly up to you. I recommend preventive maintenance as the first perk, but this can be replaced by off-road driving if you feel that it isn’t necessary. While the E-25 isn’t as prone to engine fires as quite a number of German tanks, they do occur and they can be devastating- P. M. reduces the chance of a fire significantly. Off-road helps reduce terrain resistance, helping the E-25 maintain its mobility even on moderate to soft terrain. After that, it’s really up to you on what you think helps most.
Loader: Safe Stowage, Camo, Adrenaline Rush
While the ammo rack does not get damaged that often, as with the engine, it does occur. Damage to the ammo rack will occur more often than you’d like, and from personal experience I’ve been ammo-racked in an E-25 while I’ve ammo-racked other E-25’s when playing against them. While it doesn’t occur as often, say, the T-44 or Leo PTA, you do want to reduce that chance by having Safe Stowage as first perk. After Camo, the loader really doesn’t have that much of a wide range of choices, and it boils down to what you want. I’d recommend Adrenaline Rush, as although on most occasions you won’t see it come into effect, the 10% rate of fire increase will provide a surprising boost when your tank is close to death.
Should I buy it?
Played the Alecto/ ELC AMX, and enjoyed their play styles? Able to cope with vehicles with paper-thin armor? Trying to ascend the German tank-destroyer lines? Love seeing shots kick dust around you as you race through enemy lines? Have a good idea of roughly how this tank functions after reading this review?
If so, get it by all means. It is incredibly fun- many others would agree- and is really one-of-a-kind on its tier level with its combination of speed and firepower. However, I wouldn’t recommend it to newbies, or players who haven’t had much experience at tier 7 yet, as the so-called “low-penetration” can become very hard to cope with. It makes credits reasonably well and you can expect a net profit of 20k-30k credits on the average “good” game. Remember: Situational Awareness is the key to victory.
I hope you've enjoyed reading this wall of text as much as I enjoyed writing it; in addition, I do hope you've learned something useful. As always, good luck and Happy Hunting!
Edited by Andi, 05 June 2014 - 08:15 PM.
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, of course, because this is the most popular and fun-to-play premium tank up to now (it shows up a lot in RNG). E 25 is fun because of its speed, size, and also, a special gun that you'll feel more fun than upset while using it. Here is a picture to sum up the main characteristics of this tiny panzer.
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