Pros:
- fast
- gun traverse really rocks
- gun elevation combined with no armor makes using the “inverted depression” approach really viable :)
- good view range

Cons:
- short 88 shells fly quite slow for the distance you need to be at
- penetration on these distances is not sufficient for T6/T7 battles (I even bounced several times on DW2 :D, forget about KV3s)
- big box (noting strange for germans) with no armor (yikes!)

I rate it 6/10. Bath tub S35 CA with the 17pdr or 105 mm is far better at being a TD of this type.

However…I would rather take this TD into any battle in favor of ARL V39…that is a real torture! :)

http://www.wotinfo.net/en;jsessionid=B32029BB0055BE8596B52238E9CBA0AC

both the Nashorn and the Sturer Emil have even LESS camovalue. Only with the Rheinmetal WT there is a TD in the new german line with good camo rating.

As for the guns:

Stock gun: Being comparable to the StuGs topgun, it is a rather easy stock grind. Highest DPM of all guns, however you need to every shot to penetrate for it to work and the difference is only marginal.

Short 8.8cm Flak:

The much higher alphadamage of 220 is a significant improvement as you now can hit the enemy harder even if he drives into cover. The traverse is still the generous 24 degree from the 7.5cm. You loose penetration compared to the 7.5 cm…. but it is not much. Still…. against farther away targets, especially Tier 6 and 7 you are getting quite some bounces.

Long 8,8 cm Flak: You should only consider this weapon if you intend to keep the tank, as it is quite expensive. It is however well worth the XP…. not only does it have 240 alphadamage but its tremendous penetration power will make sure NOTHING can stand before you. Tier 7 Heavy only showing frontal armor? 440m distance? Bad angle? It doesnt matter…. Every shot penetrates and deals significant damage with only marginally lower ROF than the short 8.8. Sure.. the limited traverse arc sucks, but you should never forget that this tank is meant to be a extreme range sniper. And at this distance your 5 degrees in either direction are quite enough to hit anything you want without having to turn the hull – which doesnt matter that much… because if you are as far away as you should be, nobody will detect you because of hull movement alone.

The true purpose of the hefty penetration value is to make extreme range sniping viable. 132mm Pen of the short 8.8 may be sufficient against Tier 7 being less than 100m away, however against heavily armored Tier 7 being several hundred meters away, you will face significant penetration issues. As such the short 8.8 forces you to get closer to the enemy…. which brings up the issues of paper armor and less than stellar camo value.

You got 380m basic viewrange… use them.
You got a gun that makes some Tier 7 pale in envy.
You have up to 90 degree gun ELEVATION. Find a downhill and stay there… you can still fire up, unlike any other tank in this game. This allows for the use of some special sniping spots nobody else can use, due to lack of gun elevation.

Most Tier 7 tanks consider Tier 5s pesky flies… correct their attitude with a juicy 240 shell right trough their frontal armor.

Last but not least be warned. The Nashorn is far less agile and its top gun is rather a downgrade compared to the long 8.8cm Flak. It has less camo value, too.

I played it with second gun. This gun penetrates all Tier V and VI vehicles and golds to penetrate higher tiers are pretty cheap (thanks to actual weekend action).

Even I done Master Tanker with basic gun!

Its really amazing TD, really better TD than Nashorn for me.