M8 LAC (China)

␗M8 LAC

␗M3A3 Stuart

␗M8 LAC

␗M3A3 Stuart

China

I Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
1.0	1.0	1.0

Class:

Light tank

Research:Free

Purchase:Free

Description

The ␗Light Armored Car M8 is a rank I Chinese light tank with a battle rating of 1.0 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.91 "Night Vision". It is identical to the USA M8 Greyhound.

General info

Survivability and armour

This vehicle´s intended design leaves us with only 12.7 mm of armor at a 59° angle slope at the front hull, Side hull is only protected with 9.5 mm. And the strongest part being the gun mantlet with 25 mm plus 19.1 mm of turret armor. As a result this vehicle is only protected against light MG fire, with the sides easily penned by heavy MG fire. Although this may prove an advantage when fighting against shells with delayed fuse. The crew is very tight, so one AP shell at the center could knock out everyone inside, but notice that there is a huge gap between the driving compartment and the fighting compartment, meaning it will absorb plenty of shells and saving the player from being destroyed quickly. There are some rounds stored at the turret, and at the vehicle´s floor, bringing less rounds eliminates the rounds stored in the turret. Also keep in mind that it is an open top vehicle, making it vulnerable to artillery and aerial attacks.

Mobility

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	101	15	7.9	129	210	16.33	26.58
Realistic	91	13		97	110	12.28	13.92

While it has poor armour and survivability, the M8 LAC (China) excels in terms of mobility. As a wheeled vehicle it reaches 60 km/h on road in arcade with stock modules and 40 km/h off road.

On realistic it reaches 38 km/h off road, and 55 km/h on road with 7 gears, it also has -12 km/h reverse speed on two reverse gears.

Armaments

Main armament

The M8 LAC is armed with an 37 mm M6 cannon as its main armament. This is a small caliber fast-firing gun with a maximum penetration of 84mm at 100m (M51B1/B2 shell), being able to penetrate almost all the opponents it will ever face. While it lacks the post-penetration damage to one-shot most enemy, it can quickly finish them off with its fast reload. The penetration and trajectory drops a lot beyond 500m. Note that the gun has a vertical stabiliser, giving the player a huge advantage in some cases, but keep in mind that the stabiliser only works when the tank is slower than 10 km/h.

Machine guns

The two machine guns on the M8 LAC are the good old .50 cal M2HB and the 7.62 mm M1919A4. The roof-mounted .50 cal can traverse 360 degrees and has great depression & elevation, posting a big threat to any plane that is flying too close to the M8. It has an unbelievable penetration of 31mm at 10m, meaning it can easily penetrate plenty of lightly armored vehicles and even the side of some medium tanks. The 7.62mm, on the other hand, can only efficiently damage exposed crews due to its low penetration.

Usage in battles

At the start of the match, the M8 LAC is best used for a point-capping vehicle. Find a road connecting a point to unleash its scary 90 km/h on-road top speed and it is likely to get to the point before the enemy can. Once the point is capped quickly move away as there are likely to be artillery strikes which can critically damage the M8.

After capping a point, there are two good options (just examples, the player is free to play in their own way). One is to hide at the side of the point, waiting for the enemy to re-cap it. Use its small profile to set up a good ambush, and flank the enemy unexpectedly. The fast firing gun will truly shine when attacking several enemies from the side or rear, giving the player the opportunity to knock out a surprising amount of enemies. Once the enemies are wiped out, quickly re-cap the point and ambush again. Note that the player might want to change their position as some enemy might try and revenge.

Another playstyle is the hit-n-run tactic, thanks to its great mobility and small profile. If careful enough, it is able to travel between points like a ghost without being noticed and flank the enemies. The stabiliser will help a lot as it gives the player the ability to fire first. If the first shell missed or didn't penetrate, it can even finish off the enemy with the .50 cal alone!

Pros and cons

Pros:

• The M51 shell has 84 mm penetration at 100m, enough to penetrate every other vehicle in its rank
• Pintle mounted heavy machine gun is very lethal against other similiarly armoured vehicles and slow planes, such as biplanes
• One of the fastest vehicles on road with a max speed of 60 km/h
• Reverse speed of 12 km/h
• Small profile

Cons:

• Wheeled vehicle, performs poorly off-road and cannot turn in place
• Virtually no armor, tight crew and open top make this vehicle very vulnerable
• M6 Cannon requires precision shots, as post penetration effects are weak
• Turret traverse is rather sluggish
• Looks very similar to the USA M8 Greyhound, the lighter colored camouflage can be hard to distinguish in Simulator Battles

History

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Media

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See also

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• reference to the series of the vehicles;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

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