today we are going to have a look at the new 8.9 tier 6 vehicle, the Nashorn.
Let me start by posting that a lot of people actually waited for this vehicle and – along with the tier 7 Sfl.V, also known as Sturer Emil, this famous vehicle of the War War 2 might have ended up being a victim of the classic tank hype. I mean, 88mm L/71 at tier 6, when the other German tier 6 tank destroyer is the infamous Jagdpanzer IV? That HAS to be good, right? Well, the gun isn’t everything, but this time, it came out just about right. I find the Nashorn to be possibly the most overpowered vehicle in the game at this moment. But let’s start from the beginning. As usual, I ran this vehicle with a full camo crew, a camo net, binoculars and a rammer.
Yuri Pasholok recently published a document from January 1943, giving us further insight into what the Soviets thought of their 1942 American lend-lease vehicles. Here it is:
It says this:
To comrade Mikoyan,
on the question of 1943 delivery of American tanks I report:
1. In 1942, we recieved two types of tanks from America: M3 Light and M3 Medium. Apart from that, 26 tanks M4A2 (medium type tanks) made it to the USSR with convoy 19.
2. In combat, a number of major issues appear on tanks M3 Light and M3 Medium, reducing significantly their combat quality.
3. The main issues are the following:
a) the tanks start burning easily when penetrated by shells
b) large dimensions with significant number of vertical armor plates make these tanks easily damaged from enemy anti-tank artillery fire of even very small calibers
c) little durability of the aircraft-type engines, installed into tanks
d) it’s impossible to shoot the sponson-mounted 75mm howitzer of M3 Medium tank, when the tank is in hulldown position, as the howitzer is located on ground level. It is also impossible to shoot two frontal machineguns that way for the same reason.
These issues of American tanks were reported to you in July 1942. Based on this I consider it pointless to buy M3 Light and M3 Medium in America further. Instead of them we should buy the M4A2 tanks in the same numbers:
The suspension, transmission and lower hull of the M4A2 was taken from the M3 Medium. Upper part of the hull is made with sloped armor. There is a 75mm gun installed in the turret – a howitzer paired with a machinegun. Instead of the gasoline engine there are two linked diesel engines “General Motors” with combined output of 375 horsepower. The M4A2 tank seems to be the latest model of the medium tank and fits the current needs more.
The significant drawback of the M4A2 tank seems to be the burning-through of the nozzle injectors and of the diesel engine pistons. The chief of the American military mission General Faymonville and Lt.Col.Gray know about this drawback. The latter considers this drawback to be easily remedied by installing tractor-type injectors (type “A”), which he asked to be delivered by plane from America in 300 pieces.
The M4A2 tanks have to be delivered with the switched diesel engine injectors, with resin-metallic tracks and with grousers for each track. Apart from that, I’d like to ask you to buy in America:
- halftrack APC’s of the type M-2 (with armament)
- halftrack recon vehicles of the type M3A1 (with armament)
- mobile workshops for tank repair
- special automobile high capacity cranes
Reporting on your command.
Lt.Gen. of tank armies Korobkov
Lt.Gen. of tank armies Biryukov
today, we have a nice guest article by Captain Nemo about the real vehicle project, that is in game known as the GW Tiger. I was actually quite impressed by the level of detail Nemo managed to get. Enjoy!
I knew starting off that doing a “short” article on this subject would be hell and thought I might be well prepared for it. I was wrong on that account as even now I am dragging narrow snippits out of the mud and half-mentioned “in-passing-references” which various authors never knew would be important to somebody in the future. I would like to thank Senior Engineer Arnoldt, leader of the Henschel firm’s Haustenbeck Experimental Department at the tank test station for providing key information that the British thankfully recorded in their reports on technical equipment. Without the obscure information I would have a had much bigger black hole then I already have. Although I have yet to find a record of Mr. Arnoldt’s first name. In any case thank you Mr. Arnoldt for the records.
Yuri Pasholok (as a response to questions by Russian players) recently posted a short article about the WTP4 (that’s how I’m gonna cut it short anyway). Yes, it’s historical. Yes, it existed.
Waffenträger auf Panzer IV was designed by the Germans, not Wargaming. The vehicle that is in game was developed between the end of 1943 and the beginning of 1944. On paper, it had roughly the same parameters as various other similiar projects:
- speed at least 17km/h
- 360 degrees gun traverse
- using powerful but available guns with regular gun shields and allowed some side protection
- the possibility to demount the gun and put it on regular towed lafette
- minimal armor, around 8mm
WTP4 was designed in two variants: with 149mm sFH 18 howitzer:
Author: Daigensui
Disclaimer: This post is speculative. There is no guarantee this will be a tier 10 tank destroyer, it’s just a thought, not a “leak” in any way.
Hello everyone,
just some preliminary info on the possible tier 10 Japanese TD by Daigensui, if you are interested.
Ho-Ri Toku
An experimental project, never got past the mock-up stage.
Weight: 45 tons
Engine: 900hp
Gun: 300mm+ penetration experimental 105mm high-power gun (historical, existed – 16kg shell at 1000+ m/s, tungsten-chrome-steel alloy shells),
Armor: frontal armor (the sloped part) is 125mm at 70 degrees, the superstructure front is 250mm thick, sides are very thin (25-50mm)
Japanese tank destroyers and heavy tanks however won’t come anytime soon, possibly not even next year.
Chieftain wrote an interesting post about gun characteristics. You might wanna check it out!
- ISU-130 (ISU with 130mm gun) won’t be implemented for now
- T-35 with additional spaced armor and 122/130/152/180mm guns is complete garbage according to SerB
- T-100 might appear in the game (but not with KV-2 turret)
- Soviet Panzer IV with 57mm ZIS gun has zero chance of appearing in game, no info on other two Soviet rearm projects (Panther with 85mm gun, Tiger with 100mm D-10T, yes – that plan existed)
- project variant of ISU-122 with 150mm frontal armor won’t appear as an optional hull
- shell velocity does not combine with the tank forward speed in the game (SS: as in, if the tank moves forward at 1 m/s and the shell flies at 300 m/s, this shell won’t fly at 301 m/s)
- the fact that T69 reloads its autoloader for 26s, T54E1 for 33s and T57 for 25s is due to the fact the T57 autoloading mechanism was more advanced
Earlier I wrote a post on how WG wants to acquire a new mobile game studio. Wargaming has apparently financed new stealth game studio on Seattle. The studio doesn’t have an official name yet, but David Bluhm has been designated as its chief. To quote the post above:
“We think mobile games is still a relatively new space with massive upside,” Bluhm told GamesBeat. “Mobile is ripe for innovative and new core game mechanics.”
The studio will be separate from Wargaming Seattle (earlier Gas Powered Games under Chris Taylor), developing Xbox WoT.
Q: What kind of crew did the KV-85 have? I found a source that gives it as commander-loader, driver, mechanic, gunner. Is there something about the KV-85 that prevented the mechanic from loading?
A: That’s almost correct, you just need to swap some punctuation: commander, loader, driver-mechanic, gunner. Soviet tanks had no dedicated mechanic crewman, the driver performed those duties.
- SerB states that (regarding the WT Panzer IV) the Panzer IV chassis could carry a 128mm gun – he recommends to go and have a look at Waffenträger on 38(t) chassis in Kubinka, it also could hold the 128mm and 150mm gun
- angle of impact has no effect on track armor thickness (SS: in case you didn’t know, tracks do have an armor value, usually around 20mm)
- T14 appearing as the only tier 5 tank in tier 6 battles despite being too weak fort that? “How terrible…”
