Endgame Medals Received: Tanker-Sniper, Confederate, High Caliber, Bruiser, Fighter, Fire for Effect
Game Statistics:
Map: Malinovka
Player: chumpchop [-WR--]
Damage: 11569
Damage due to the player’s assistance: 1443
The Grille 15 is a German tier 10 tank destroyer.
In the summer of 1942, Waffenamt (the German Army Weapon Agency) concluded an agreement with the Krupp and Rheinmetall companies for designing a tank destroyer on the chassis of the Panther tank. It was planned to mount either the 128-mm K 43 gun or the 150-mm sFH 43 howitzer. The projects were designated Grille 12 and Grille 15, featured rear placement of the fighting compartment, and differed only in the artillery system type. Later, the Grille 15 received a 150-mm gun with a length of 63 calibers, which could penetrate 200 mm of armor at 4,000 meters. However, development was slow, and the Grille 15 remained only in blueprints.
The final development of its tank destroyer tech tree, the Grille 15 is a far more reasonable conclusion to its respective branch's play-style than the enormous, hulking, DPM burst-damage monster known as the Waffenträger auf E 100, which the Grille 15 replaced as the Tier X tank destroyer. Upon entering the fray, the Grille 15 was unsurprisingly met with a polarizing reaction from the community. Some players praised the new vehicle's dynamics and characteristics as much more familiar to what they were accustomed to with the previous vehicles of the branch. Others were simply relieved that they would no longer have to face the overwhelming, unbalanced firepower of the WT auf E100 on the battlefield. And the rest cried out in disappointment, having lost their team-slaying behemoth TD and received a much weaker, albeit much more sensible, vehicle in return.
However, despite the fact that the Grille 15 is nowhere near the "lane-crushing machine" status of the WT auf E100, it is still a capable Tier X Tank Destroyer with its own unique skill set. The most noticeable aspect of the Grille 15 is the extremely long-barreled 15cm gun for which the vehicle is named. It is one of the most accurate and fastest aiming guns in the game and on top of that, it fires highly damaging AP shells with excellent velocity. This makes the Grille 15 one of the best sniper tanks in the game. Keep in mind however that this exceptional accuracy is only available when the vehicle is stationary, as any movement of the hull or turret will cause large aim-circle bloom which adds 3-4 extra seconds, if not minutes, to the aim time. And on the topic of movement, it should be noted that the Grille 15 can reach a very respectable top speed and re-position itself quite easily should the need arise.
The armor of the Grille 15, however, is extremely thin and totally unimpressive. A Grille 15 which finds itself in even a moderate center of attention from the enemy will almost certainly not survive long. Play this tank as a concealed sniper or as a fire support vehicle to heavily armored teammates who can protect your tank in order to maximize its potential and in turn its contributions to the battle.
The Grille 15 marks the end of its German tank destroyer line.
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