Nebulon

The Nebulon is a tier 8 tank from Season 2 “Constellation”. Its an Czech-style medium tank based on the TVP VTU. It features an amazing 100mm gun which has good stats in just all areas, decent armour with spaced armour covering the tank’s front, and fairly average medium tank mobility.

Click the table of contents below to access the section you want:

1. Armour
2. Gun
3. Mobility
4. Equipment, provisions, & consumables
5. Gameplay advice
6. Tank gameplay:
7. Overall
8. Is it worth it?
9. Camo cost:
10. Stock grind

Armour

(The Nebulon in the images is using Improved Assembly)

Drag slider right -> to view 205mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 258mm APCR

When flat and facing head-on:
Base upper plate 162mm
Upper plate + spaced armour 210-215mm
Angled mid plate + spaced armour 225-235mm
Lower plate 95mm

Base turret face 160mm
Turret face + spaced armour 210-220mm
Turret cheeks 220-300mm

Side armour:
The hull sides of this tank are 45mm thick.

The area above the tracks is actually quite well angled, as you can see in the above images, it produces an auto-ricochet for AP and APCR shells. This area can still be easily HE penetrated if its not angled.

The area behind the tracks is the same 45mm, but flat, making it very easily penetrable to all rounds.

HE protection:
As stated above, the hull sides can be penetrated if not angled. When flat-on, they are 55mm thick, so can withstand up to 105mm caliber HE shells.

The hull rear (at the very edges, and at the bottom) has 50mm spaced protection covering it, so only the top plate on the rear can be HE’d, but it can be penetrated even by 45-48mm HE penetration.

Turret sides are 66mm when not angled, so its really only 150mm+ guns that will penetrate here. The turret rear is actually fully covered by a 2mm spaced area, so can’t be damaged by HE there.

Armour vs tier 7 enemies:
Against tier 7 tanks, the Nebulon has quite decent armour. The upper plates can stand up to most medium tank standard ammo, especially if slightly angled. The turret is a bit weaker, but the weak areas are smaller and harder to hit than on the hull.

Against tier 7 heavy tanks, the base upper plate and turret will both be quite weak, but the areas covered by spaced armour can reliably bounce shots, even from the majority of premium ammo.

Armour vs tier 8 enemies:
Against tier 8 mediums, the spaced armour plates on the upper plates and turret are still strong and will bounce most medium and light tank enemies. The base armour plates of these parts will be weak, and easily penetrated by any enemy.

Higher penetration tanks generally won’t struggle against even the spaced armour plates (tanks with 220mm+ penetration, such as Centurions, FV301, TVP VTU, and most tier 8 heavy tanks. The only scenario where these tanks might bounce off the Nebulon’s armour is if they hit the angled turret cheeks, or if the tank is using gun depression and they hit the spaced armour.

The angled mid plate is strong and able to bounce most tier 8 tanks.

Armour vs tier 9 enemies:
Tier 9 enemies won’t struggle to penetrate any area of the tank, even the spaced armour. You’ll only get bounces off the angled turret cheeks, or if an enemy is stock.
(A few tanks have tier 8 levels of penetration, and may struggle against the turret, such as T-54 or WZ-120.)

Gun

The Nebulon mounts a 100mm gun in its top configuration.

-Alpha damage is 280 on AP, 240 on APCR, and 350 on HE
-It has a 7.2s reload, giving it 2320 DPM
-Penetration on AP is 218mm, APCR is 268mm, and HE is 45mm.
–Estimated aim time is 2.8/3.0s
–Base aim time is 1.9s, but it can get down to 1.55s.
-Dispersion is 0.326/0.293
–Gun handling is 0.12/0.12/0.1, or 0.1/0.1/0.09 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -9 degrees

Overall this is an amazing gun for any tank in tier 8, its so well-rounded in all of its stats, making it a super reliable and consistent gun. It has pretty good DPM, especially for the comfortable 280 alpha. It also has great penetration on both AP and APCR, with very good aim time, gun handling, and dispersion. Gun depression is also a comfortable -9 degrees, which is nice to have with the decent turret armour and great accuracy of the tank.

Mobility

-Top speed is 50km/h forwards, and -20km/h in reverse
-Traverse speed is 59.9 deg/s on hard terrain, and 49.9 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 18.9 hp/t, it has strong 667hp engine for its 35 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 18.9 hp/t on hard terrain, and 15.7 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are 1/1.2/1.5

Overall the mobility profile of this tank is decent, but nothing amazing. Top speed and reverse speed are both just average, acceleration rate is quite mediocre, and traverse speed isn’t anything impressive.
None of the tank’s mobility stats are bad, but at the same time, none are that amazing.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

The Nebulon doesn’t have any special provisions or consumables.

Gun Rammer:
The Nebulon doesn’t need calibrated shells at all, as its already one of the highest penetration medium tanks in tier 8. It has 218mm on AP, and 268mm on APCR, and also with amazing accuracy and handling, it doesn’t struggle to hit or penetrate any of the enemies it faces.

Its far better to use gun rammer, which would increase the DPM of this tank up to a quite impressive amount with its 280 alpha damage. Gun rammer would take the reload down from 7.8s to 7.2s, and increase the DPM from 2158 up to 2320. 

Improved Assembly:
The armour of the Nebulon is hit-and-miss, some areas are strong against some enemies, some areas are weak to all enemies, and some enemies can penetrate the entire tank. As the Nebulon isn’t a tank that relies on its armour in gameplay, there isn’t much reason to enhance it.
Also, the weak areas of the tank are just too weak to gain anything from enhancing. This equipment piece won’t benefit the tank in many situations.

Improved assembly is the better equipment choice,  as it will help the tank in every situation, letting it take more hits and surviving longer in battle. Improved assembly would increase the Nebulon’s HP from 1450 up to 1537

Vertical Stabilizer/Refined Gun:
Since the Nebulon’s gun is just amazing in every aspect of accuracy, it can be flexible with this choice, as both equipment pieces work well.

Refined gun will benefit you the most if you play more at mid to long ranges. This is great in a support medium playstyle, where your tank is flanking enemies or shooting on the other side of the map to the other flank (for example on Canal or Castilla).

Vertical stabilizer is better if you want to play a more active and brawly role. A playstyle which is constantly moving around the battle, turning the tank, circling slow enemies, and getting in mid to close ranges. In such situations the vertical stabilizer is better, since you won’t have the time to fully aim in, and your constant movement makes the gun bloom more, so stabilizer is needed.

Gameplay advice

The Nebulon has a generic medium playstyle, but with 1 difference, which is its large size.

The side of the tank can sometimes make it hard to hide the weaker areas of the hull. It can also make it awkward when fighting in close range, since its harder to aim down at shorter enemies.

General gameplay:
Take the Nebulon to the MT side of the map. Generally this is where there are more gun depression positions, and hence more oppurtunities to use gun depression and hide the hull.

Its best not to push the flank alone, especially if you’re unsure where the enemies are. Even though your gun is very good, its still far from being the highest DPM or highest alpha gun, and your fairly fragile and large hull make a very easy target.

Use the view range:
Nebulon has quite poor camo rating, only 40/36/9% with max level camo crew skill. This means the tank can be easily spotted, and this is amplified by being quite a tall tank.

However, this tank also has amazing view range or 302m when using improved optics. This is the highest of any tier 8 tank, and means that you can quite effectively spot enemies early by going into good positions. You can also use bushes to increase your camo rating while spotting enemies.

Use gun depression & hulldown positions:
Using these positions is essential in this tank, since it has such a large and tall hull. The Nebulon’s strongest armour is its turret armour, and it can use its great -9 gun depression in such positions.

Using these positions will give the tank the most effective armour and the highest chances of bouncing. Try to keep moving slightly, or just very quickly poke out, shoot, and pull into cover. This is very good to do in this tank since it has weakpoints on the turret cheeks, but they are small and hard to hit when the tank is moving.

Trading damage:
Generally in the Nebulon, you will face enemy medium tanks.

Many of these tanks will have 190-240 alpha, with these enemies, they will reload faster than you, so try to avoid an all-out DPM battle, since your reload is much longer than the enemy’s.

For the tanks that have 280 alpha or more, you can try to out-DPM them with the fairly good reload and alpha that the Nebulon has. Most mediums with a 280 alpha shot reload for at least 7.5s (0.3s longer than your tank), so you can out-DPM them.

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Overall the Nebulon has a fairly standard medium tank playstyle. Using terrain to hide its hull and use gun depression, brawling other mediums, flanking enemies, etc. This tank just has quite a generic playstyle, though take into account that its a large tank, and apply that to the gameplay.

Tank gameplay:

Overall

Armour – 5/10
Gun – 10/10
Mobility – 5/10
Speed – 5/10

Overall the Nebulon is a good tank.

Armour is decent, some areas are strong, some areas are weak. Can hulldown decently, HE protection is decent but weak to big guns.
Gun has is just great in every aspect. Good DPM, alpha, and accuracy. Great gun handling, penetration, aim time, and -9 degrees of gun depression.
Mobility is average. Acceleration and engine power are decent, traverse speed is ok, and reverse speed is average for a medium.
Speed also fairly average at 50km/h.

Is it worth it?

This tank can be earned for free by being quite active during season 2. It won’t be fully upgradeable without spending money or gold to get the top few modules.

Considering this, the tank is not worth it. Its just a TVP VTU with a much better gun but worse armour and mobility. Its a good tank, but its not the new best tier 8 medium, and its not extremely unique or interesting in its stats or gameplay.

The Nebulon is worth 7,000 gold. Its a good tank with an amazing gun, and also fairly decent armour and mobility. Its quite an enjoyable tank to play, and is a bit unique from the other tanks with 9-10 gun depression, or the other 280 alpha medium tanks.

Camo cost:

Stock grind

As you upgrade modules, the stats of each module improves slightly, improvements are not large, they are very gradual.
This tank starts with a 90mm gun that does 240 damage, this is the same for T2 and T3 versions of the gun, only the T4 gun becomes a 100mm.

If you want to check the stats of each module, you can view the tank in-game, or use gamemodels3d or Blitzstars.

Important:
-Only the top turret improves turret armour, all the stock and intermediate turrets have the same armour.
-Stock and top turrets/guns have the same gun depression.
–Gun handling does upgrade with each track updgrade.
-The hull doesn’t upgrade, the armour is the same throughout.

Gun:
When stock, it starts with low DPM and 240 alpha. The reload time is decent, an penetration fairly good. Accuracy and aim time are also decent.
Going to the T2 and T3 guns, penetration, accuracy, and DPM all gradually increase.
The stock guns are fine, since the only really poor stat is the DPM.

Turret:
The stock turret is weak, as shown below, but its not completely penetrable to every enemy. THe turret cheeks are quite strong and can bounce, especially if you move the tank back and fourht in hulldown.

Engine: 
Engine power, traverse speed, acceleration, are all quite sluggish when stock. They slowly and gradually get better, but even when fully upgraded, this tank’s mobility is average at best.

Tracks:
Stock tracks are terrible, since they give this tank a poor 1.4 medium terrain resistance, making the mobility much worse. Gun handling is also significantly worse meaning its harder to hit snapshots and you’ll have to aim for longer.

Upgrading:
As said above, upgrading each module improves it slightly. In total there are 4 of each module on this tank. 1 stock module, 2 intermediary modules, and 1 top module for each turret, gun, engine, and tracks.

Each gun upgrade makes it slightly more accurate, higher penetration, quicker reload.
Each turret upgrade gives better view range, HP, and turn rate.
Each engine upgrade improves traverse speed and acceleration rate.
Each track upgrade improves traverse speed, overall mobility performance, and gun handling.

Eventually you get to the top modules, these are the only modules which change in appearance.
-The top gun has by far the best accuracy and penetration, but also increases in both alpha damage and DPM.
-The top turret quite significantly improves in armour, and also has amazing view range.
-The engines and tracks are also in their best configuration, so also output the best possible mobility for the tank. At this point the tank feels much more mobile than when stock, and fairly average for a medium.

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