M6A2E1 Experimental

The M6A2E1 EXP is an American tier 8 heavy tank. It has great hull armour, decent mobility, and a very good gun. Its turret is quite large and doesn’t have great armour for tier 8.

1. Armour
2. Gun
3. Mobility
4. Equipment, provisions, & consumables
5. Gameplay advice
6. Overall
7. Is it worth getting?
8. Most recently sold for:
9. Camo cost:
10. Historical note:

Armour

(The M6A2E1 EXP in the images is using Improved Assembly)

vs 225mm AP (left image), vs 265mm APCR (right image)
When flat and facing head-on:
Upper plate 265-275mm
Shoulders 252mm
Lower plate 300mm
Turret 165-265mm
Gun mantlet 450mm+

VS tier 7: 
Tier 7 tanks will find it very hard to penetrate the M6A2E1 EXP. The hull has no weakpoints on the front, the only areas where tier 7 tanks can penetrate the would be the turret cheeks. Many tanks will struggle even with premium ammunition, as most tier 7s have low penetration, and they still have to aim at a fairly narrow bar on the cheeks.

VS tier 8: 
Most tier 8 tanks will still bounce off the turret if they miss the weak areas on its turret cheeks. The hull is still fully impenetrable, even to premium ammunition. However, if using premium ammunition, tier 8 tanks can easily just penetrate the turret face without any problems, as long as they don’t hit the gun mantlet.

VS tier 9: 
Tier 9 tanks will see the same as tier 8 tanks. The hull is still impenetrable to all standard ammo and even most premium ammo. The turret basically has no armour against tier 9 tanks though, with only the gun mantlet able to bounce shots.

Exploitable weakpoints:

Turret cheeks:
The cheeks are troll, but there are weakpoints which are fairly easy to hit if you aim carefully. The outer edge of the cheeks and the areas surrounding the gun are both quite strong; the weakpoint is between these two areas. Its a vertical bar which is about 165mm thick when the turret is facing towards you; you can see it in the above images with 225mm AP.

Tracks:
The suspension system of the M6 tanks slope backwards, and the hull follows it. This means that “tunnel” which the tracks follow can actually be hit and penetrated.
Where to shoot to hit this weakpoint is directly under the angled shoulders of the tank, and right above each track’s drive wheel. You can see this area in the image above
To penetrate this, your gun must be larger than 78mm in caliber, as this section needs to be overmatched to be penetrated.

Gun

The M6A2E1 EXP mounts a 120mm gun

-Alpha damage is 400 on AP, 340 on APCR, and 515 on HE
-Reload time is 12.6s, giving it 1900 DPM
-Penetration is 248mm on AP, 297mm on APCR, and 60mm on HE
-Aim time is 4.9s/5.3s
-Dispersion is 0.317/0.285
–Gun handling is 0.22/0.22/0.16, or 0.19/0.19/0.14 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -10 degrees

Out of all of the tier 8 heavy tanks with a 400 alpha gun, the M6A2E1 EXP has the best one. It has amazing accuracy, extremely good gun depression, great aim time (compared to the other 400 dmg guns), good gun handling, and insanely high penetration.
All other 400 alpha guns on heavy tanks have just worse everything other than DPM. The M6 EXP reloads for about 0.8s longer than other 400 alpha heavies, but its gun makes up for it in every other regard.
Overall, the M6A2E1 EXP has a very good and reliable armament.

Mobility

-Top speed is fairly low, 29km/h forwards, and -10km/h in reverse
-Traverse speed is 34.6 deg/s on hard terrain, and 26.5 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 16.7 hp/t, it has a strong 1,123hp engine for its 67.4 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 14.6 hp/t on hard terrain, and 11.2 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are decent, having 1.1/1.5/2.9

While the tank may look slow, it is mobile enough. Traverse speeds are fairly decent, and it has a very good acceleration rate. The top speed is low in tier 8, but due to that good acceleration the M6 EXP is able to maintain a pretty decent average speed in battles.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

M6A2E1 EXP has no special consumables or provisions

Gun Rammer:
The M6 EXP is the lowest DPM 400 alpha heavy tank in tier 8, the only other heavies with lower DPM have higher alpha.
The M6 EXP is also the highest penetration heavy tank in tier 8, with penetration that’s as good as tank destroyers, so there is definitely no need to use calibrated shells on this tank.

If you take calibrated shells, you are literally just willingly nerfing the tank; you would be improving a part of the tank that’s needs no improvement and is already overkill as it is (215mm AP works in tier 8, 248mm is overkill but nice to have), and you would be worsening a part of the tank that is vital to the gameplay and actually does need improving.

Use a gun rammer, it gives you a 12.6s reload with 1900 DPM, which is still usable considering the other gun aspects of the tank.

Improved Assembly:
Both enhanced armour and improved assembly work on the M6A2E1 EXP.
Enhanced armour’s main use would be to improve the turret cheeks, and make it harder to penetrate and more troll to tier 8 and below enemies. However, tier 9 tanks (at least those with about 230mm+ penetration) will still easily cut through the turret.

The reason to use improved assembly instead, is that the turret cheeks have weakpoints that are too weak to enhance anyway. There are 2 vertical bars on the left and the right of the gun that are 165mm thick, which is just far too weak to be enhanced against tier 8 tanks. Thats why enhanced armour only makes the turret “more troll” and not much stronger.

Both choices work. If you decide to use improved assembly, the HP of the tank increases from 1800 to 1908 HP.

Vertical Stabilizer:
While the gun handling of the M6 EXP is already good compared to similar heavies, its not good when compared to all tanks. Ideally, on a heavy tank, you want to have the best gun handling, as you are rarely sitting still and sniping. The M6A2E1 EXP is also a rare case which has amazing dispersion on its gun at 0.317 (without refined gun), so it definitely does not need to use refined gun, and should instead take the vertical stabilizer.

Gameplay advice

The M6A2E1 EXP is by far one of the easiest tanks to play in tier 8. 
Its extremely forgiving due to high penetration, good accuracy, and great hull armour.

Keep the hull and turret faced front. Never angle, angling will make both the hull and the turret weaker. The hull has especially poor side armour, and an overmatch weakpoint above the tracks.

Use gun depression and hulldown positions. The M6 EXP can use almost any position, as it has amazing gun depression. Its height can be a disadvantage, but can also be an advantage. The tall height means that you can use some positions no other tank in game can use, and you can hide most of your tank and still be able to shoot enemies.

Be aware of crossing plays. The tank is relatively mobile, but is capped at 29km/h, its also extremely tall and has a large side profile. This means that you should probably reconsider making plays where you have to rush across obvious and open areas early in the battle (such as the heavy tank crossing on Naval Frontier), usually enemies will be pre-aimed (and a slower larger tank like this will take quite a few hits).
If you do make such plays, turn your turret towards where enemies usually would be, at least then your turret profile is smaller and better armoured.

The M6A2E1 EXP just follows the gameplay of any generic heavy tank, but its even more simple. Other than the points mentioned above, just play it like any other heavy tank.

Overall

Armour – 7/10
Gun – 8/10
Mobility – 6.5/10
Speed – 3/10

M6A2E1 EXP is overall a great tank. 

Armour is extremely strong on both upper and lower plates. The turret is decent but penetrable. The side armour is very weak, and easy to HE.
Gun has low DPM, and mediocre aim time; however penetration & accuracy are amazing, gun depression is great, and gun handling is decent.
Mobility is good, with a strong engine and good acceleration. Traverse speed is mediocre and reverse speed is very poor.
Speed is quite low at 29km/h.

This tank only has a few bad stats, which makes it fairly easy to use and very consistent in battle.

Is it worth getting?

The M6A2E1 EXP is worth getting, its fairly easy and simple to play, quite unique, and quite fun. Really any player can enjoy this tank, because it just works so well and is so easy to get comfortable with.
Newer players will appreciate the strong armour, good gun depression, and high penetration, all factors which take pressure off the player in terms of using skill.
Even veteran and highly skilled players will enjoy this tank, as it just has all the tools to do well with. Its not at all a boring tank, quite the opposite of Russian/Chinese 122mm heavy tanks, and is a lot more interesting than the T34.
Overall the M6A2E1 EXP is definitely worth buying, and is often sold extremely cheap.

M6A2E1 EXP is worth 8,500 gold. Its a good tank, and its also quite fun and is different from other 400 alpha tier 8 heavies.

Most recently sold for:

5,500 gold (Tank only) – February 2021
5,500 gold (Tank only) – October 2022

Camo cost:

Historical note:

The M6A2E1 was a real tank, an upgraded and up-armoured version of the M6 heavy tank.

This tier 8 version has an additional armour plate welded to the front, much like a Super Pershing, however WG does not count it as spaced armour.
The real M6A2E1 did not have a 120mm gun, however there is not much known about this tank, so its unknown if a 120mm gun may have been planned for it.
At the very end of its development (Aug. 1945) there was a proposal to put the 155mm gun from the T30 on the M6A2E1, but the fate of the tank was closing and this never happened.

Back to homepage