M3 Lee

{{Vehicle
 * id=37
 * Tips=*The M3 Lee's height can play to the tanker's advantage in certain scenarios, such as taking a "hull-down" position over tall stone walls (such as the walls on Forward Airfield surrounding the Church) and switching to the 37mm turret to plink away at enemy armor from relative safety. The turret has surprisingly good armor and slope, allowing it to deflect a fair number of shots in some scenarios. Additionally, the M3 Lee's 37mm turret has excellent gun elevation, allowing it to engage aircraft to some degree (although the cannon's magnified optics, slow turning speed, and inability to adjust the turret while in third-person "hatchpeeking" view limit the gunner's ability to track targets by a fair bit).


 * For a solo Lee driver, positioning of the cannons is crucial to engaging the enemy. If you have no intention to use the 37mm cannon at any point and plan to be fighting in close quarters, consider switching to it upon spawning in and turning it around to face the rear of the tank. This way, if an enemy tank flanks around and begins to damage your own, you can switch to the 37mm and get a shot or two off before hopping out and chasing him down with sticky grenades (or going down with the ship, if that's your thing). This also allows the Lee to gun down infantry attempting to chase on foot; drive away for a little ways, then switch to the turret and gun the infantry down with the turret's coaxial LMG. This technique can also be done with the MG turret, but keep in mind that you will still have to cycle through the cannon turret seat to access the turreted MG seat, increasing your response time.


 * The M3 Lee is also the only first-tier medium tank that has access to magnified cannon optics (note: this is not the same as two-stage optics, such as the special optics found on German and American heavy tanks. Magnified optics are the one-stage optics with additional zoom, similar to that found on tank destroyers), so use this to your advantage and keep your distance from your target. This best benefits fighting Soviet tanks, who have no zoomed optics on any of their vehicles.


 * The M3 Lee's bow MG used by the driver is one of the best in the game, firing two M1919's simultaneously for a torrential hail of lead. However, because of how the tank is laid out, the coaxial LMG will feel extremely inaccurate, as your cannon optics are mounted on one side of the tank while the MG's are firing from the other. While this can take some getting used to, it can be used to fire around corners that you can't necessarily see, based on your camera position. Keep this in mind.

General use:
The M3 Lee, the first tier of Medium tanks available to the U.S. Army, is a potentially powerful tank that can do extremely well when used by a skilled crew, but generally suffers when compared to its other low-tier counterparts when not used correctly. The M3 Lee is unique in that it is one of four tanks that offers independently-controllable turrets (the Hetzer, M2A2 and the T-28 model 1934 being the other three), and the only one among these four that offer its' secondary gunner a cannon as a primary weapon. The M3 Lee also arguably offers the best anti-armor cannon of the entry-tier medium tanks; it matches the damage of the T-28 (beating the PzIII's 5cm cannon), and outclasses both tanks in penetration values. When a skilled co-gunner is available to man the 37mm secondary cannon, the M3 Lee offers some of the best potential DPS vs enemy tanks in the game, assuming the co-gunner is able to penetrate the target. In addition to the cannon-based turret, the M3 Lee also offers a tertiary "turret" consisting of a cupola-mounted M1919 machine gun for anti-infantry defense. Like the Hetzer, this gun has a 360-degree viewing range and is controlled from within the tank, allowing the gunner to safely retaliate against encroaching infantry without exposing himself to gunfire.

Despite all of the perks the Lee has to offer, it also has its' slew of flaws: }}
 * Despite having armor that is somewhat sloped, the Lee's armor is very thin. To make matters worse, the sponson-mounted 75mm cannon controlled by the driver has no slope to its' armor whatsoever, which results in the gun mantlet forming an excellent "shot trap" that can be easily targeted and penetrated from a long range by almost every tank in the game.
 * The 37mm secondary turret is horribly slow. For tracking fast-approaching enemy Terrain Vehicles or motorbikes, switching to the tertiary MG turret may be necessary.
 * The M3 Lee is a large, slow target. Sneaking around the edge of the map for flanking will take a considerable amount of time, at any point in which you can be spotted and shot at.
 * The Lee's forward cannon, like all non-American Tank Destroyers, is hull-mounted. This requires the entire tank to be turned in order to re-aim the main cannon, which means that you will have to take your cannon aim away from where enemy armor is approaching from in order to reposition. Also, the Lee must effectively come to a dead stop in order to engage most targets, due to the gun's limited sideways traverse that prevents the Lee from "circling" your target like most turreted tanks can do.
 * The M3 Lee's shells are very slow. Not as slow as the T-28's basketball-lobbing KT-28 cannon, but enough to give its shells noticeable arc. Be sure to re-zero the main cannon for EVERY target, or you may find yourself missing that critical make-or-break cupola snipe by a few millimeters.
 * In addition to the M3's noticeable shell arc, the Lee's main sights are set for some 250+ meters upon spawning in, which can cause close-quarters shot to go well above your target when sniping cupolas at close range (I.E. facing a Panther in the streets of Town). Be sure to zero your cannon upon spawning in, so you aren't surprised by a mile-high initial shot!
 * The 37mm cannon can only reliably penetrate up to 40mm of armor, maxing out at 70mm. While this allows it to suitably penetrate T-34's, TD's, the side armor of Panthers, and more, it cannot OHK an incoming enemy jeep. The turret's slow tracking speed may not be able to keep up with a close-ish jeep, so consider hopping out or switching to the faster-turning MG turret to deal with intruders. To make matters worse, it cannot penetrate the rear armor of a Panther, so stay away from them.