I have quite enjoyed learning about Nameless and owners of the tank have been kind enough to humor my curiosity, I'd like to share what I've learned from my experience with it.

First things first:

Wargaming NOTE - The crews of the Edelweiss and Nameless are unique, and have the following limitations: Crew qualifications cannot be changed

Crew cannot be retrained for another tank, not even from the Edelweiss to the Nameless and vice versa

Crew personal data cannot be changed

Crew cannot be sent to the barracks, even when the tank is sold

Crew cannot be dismissed. However, if you sell the tank, you will be forced to dismiss the crew.

Crew cannot be recovered in-game after selling the tank.

So it cannot be used to train crews for other tanks, however it does get 100% Trained Crew with "Zero-Skill" Brother in Arms and with the low ammo cost, it's great for producing credits.

The gun on the Nameless is excellent, it has the same DPM as the Patriot, more damage per shot with less penetration but still good for a tier 8 heavy tank. The gun handling is better than it's tier 8 premium heavy peers, so it can take peek-a-boo shots accurately.

Spoiler

The downside is that while the gun depression is a maximum of 8 degrees, the frontal gun depression is limited by the large upper frontal plate armor, which reduces it to 5 degrees. This is the same gun depression value as the IS-3 and close to the 110's gun depression value(6 degrees), but what the Nameless has that the other two don't is height.

Spoiler

The high gun placement along with the poor frontal gun depression presents difficulties when climbing hills and slopes. On a hill climb, lower tanks with better gun depression can aim at the horizon, the Nameless will point it's gun too high so it needs too stay back where it can aim at the horizon. On the other hand, the high gun placement also means the Nameless can get behind low cover(small slopes, destroyed tanks) and use them to cover the lower front plate.

It is possible to achieve the maximum 8 degrees gun depression, but it requires angling the hull to at least 45 degrees which will expose the tank's large side profile. The size of the tank also results in poor camouflage values: 6% stationary, 3% moving.

Spoiler

The mobility of the tank is also great with a top speed of 50km/h, second highest top speed of all tier 8 premium heavy tanks complemented by a high power/weight ratio of 16.91 hp/t. However, the tank traverse is only a decent(for heavy tanks) 26 degrees/sec.

Spoiler

The upper frontal plate armor, at it's thickest, is 220mm, but this only exists as the bottom part of the plate, as the plate goes higher, the thickness becomes less and less, from 200mm, to 180mm, to 170mm, to 160mm, to 150mm. This varying thickness is compensated by the slope, which increases angle. With how tall the tank is, it is more likely to face tanks with lower turrets. At a low perspective, the effective armor on the entire plate falls on a similar range, however, this also means that when fighting tanks that has reached higher ground, the plate gets less angle and the effective armor becomes thinner. The plates with 180mm and 170mm are particularly vulnerable. The plate also has a slight horizontal curve, it doesn't contribute much to the effective armor.

Spoiler 170mm-180mm plate location

The lower frontal plate armor is only 130mm thick, however it is quite angled. The lower you aim at the plate, the more angle and therefore more effective armor it gets, inversely, the higher you aim at the plate, the less angle and therefore less effective armor it gets. It is a better target at a range, because the closer you get and depending on how tall the attacking tank is, it gets more angle and therefore more effective armor.

Spoiler

The frontal turret armor is the thickest part of the tank at 240mm, the cheeks are curved so most of it is very thick, it does not achieve ricochet angle required to be a shot trap. Under the cheeks exists a tiny, well angled 170mm plate. The gun is wide at it's base and the gun underside serves as a shot trap that can ricochet rounds into the hull, though this would be a difficult target in battle situations. The frontal side armor of the turret is 150mm and very well angled from the front, will ricochet incoming shots. The rear side armor is 100mm thick and the back armor is 80mm. The cupola is quite large and is 200mm thick at the front and 150mm at the back, because of the cylindrical shape, it is thinnest when shot at the center, The hatch on the right side of the turret does not exist in the damage model.

Spoiler shot trap

The base of the gun is somewhat vulnerable when looking away, the side gun mantlets are 120mm thick, the top is 80mm but very angled, the gun is 40mm thick. The gun mantlet covers the gun and some of the cheeks(240mm).

Spoiler

The side armor is a decent 80mm, the lower part(behind the tracks) is flat while the upper part(above the tracks) is slightly angled. The tracks have 40mm armor but it adds 80mm of armor overall. A large part of the sides are not covered by tracks so it's best to aim there.

Spoiler

The back armor is a decent 80mm, but the ragnite radiator area is only 20mm thick. The gun depression aiming straight at the back is 2 degrees, a small tank could hide behind the Nameless and shoot it's weakspot while the Nameless can't aim at it. Some parts of the back doesn't exist in the damage model, like the radiator fins.

Spoiler

Part 2: Modules and Crew

Part 3: Strategies and Tactics

Edited by Laserdisc, 29 August 2017 - 09:25 PM.