Vindicator Ultramarines

Vindicator UM is a tier 7 hybrid nation tank destroyer. It has decent mobility and armour, but the main feature is its 155mm derp gun with high DPM, penetration, and alpha damage.

1. Armour
2. Playing against a Vindicator
3. Gun
4. Mobility
5. Equipment, provisions, & consumables
6. Gameplay advice
7. Tank gameplay:
8. Overall
9. Is it worth getting?
10. Most recently sold for:
11. Camo cost:

Armour

(The Vindicator UM in the images is using Improved Assembly)

Drag slider right -> to view 180mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 220mm APCR

When flat and facing head-on:
Upper plate front 205-215mm
Flat lower plate 147mm
Angled lower plate 240-252mm

Driver viewport 122mm
Gun/mantlet 350-510mm
Weakpoint above gun 180mm
Cupola 80-100mm

Note that nearly all of the weakpoints (including the lower plates) are hidden by the bulldozer blade. These are all highlighted below.

Tank weakpoints are highlighted here.

Side armour:
Vindicator has weak side armour that is easy to HE, its thin and has large and weak armour plates.

The center door on each side is 40mm thick, the rest of the side armour is mostly 55mm thick. The two exhausts are 70-100mm in effective thickness.

Spaced frontal armour:
The bulldozer blade at the front of the tank is a 25mm thick spaced armour plate.

Due to the distance between the base and spaced armour plates, and the fact that both are fairly flat, the Vindicator’s frontal spaced armour doesn’t decrease the effectiveness of the base armour behind it.

Armour vs tier 6 tanks:
Against tier 6 tanks the vindicator has pretty good armour. The lower plate weakpoint is penetrable to most heavy tanks, but many medium tanks will struggle against it.

The majority of the tank is strong against tier 6 premium ammo, but the lower plate will be penetrable to all tanks with AP/APCR, and tanks with high penetration (210-220mm+) may be able to penetrate other areas more reliably.

Armour vs tier 7 tanks:
Against tier 7 tanks, the armour performance is fairly similar. Most tanks can’t penetrate the majority of the bulldozer blade’s front, except on the lower plate weakpoint.

High penetration tanks (such as USA or German HT) may be able to penetrate through other areas of the bulldozer blade more reliably.

Tanks with AP/APCR as premium ammo, having 210-220mm+ penetration, will also be able to penetrate other areas of the bulldozer blade.

Armour vs tier 8 tanks:
Tier 8 tanks generally won’t struggle to penetrate the Vindicator, even on the upper plate area of the bulldozer blade. The only tanks which may struggle are lower penetration level medium and light tanks, which have 175-185mm on AP/APCR, but these tanks can still penetrate the lower plate or other weakpoints.

Overall armour performance:
The Vindicator’s armour is alright. Its not great, and its not always reliable, and there are many weakpoints across the tank’s front. However this armour is noticeably stronger than something such as an SU-152, and is actually usable armour.

Other than hiding weakpoints, the bulldozer blade can also be angled around a corner (while hiding the majority of the tank behind a building) to bait enemies into shooting the spaced armour. This won’t always work, but can help when trying to push around a corner.

Playing against a Vindicator

Armour behind the bulldozer blade:
Since the bulldozer blade of the Vindicator hides the base armour behind it, it’s hard to get a clear picture for where is penetrable.

The image above gives an idea of the various armour plates and weakpoints behind the bulldozer blade, and counting the effective armour when shooting that area.

The area that’s not highlighted is the majority of the upper plate, which is between 205-215mm in effective thickness. The edges of the bulldozer blade actually extend past the tank’s base armour hitbox, so try avoid shooting the edges,

Use HE on the side armour:

Vindicator’s side armour is shown here, against 53mm HE penetration. Take advantage of shooting HE at the tank’s side when possible.

Avoid shooting HE at the cupola:
If you play the Smasher, SU-152, or some other tank with enough HE penetration to “penetrate” the cupola, don’t shoot it, its a bait and the shell won’t penetrate reliably.

Cupolas generally also house viewports (optics), and these can’t be viewed on armour viewing websites. Viewports count as external modules, and act like spaced armour, so hitting a viewport would result in HE detonating, but not penetrating and dealing full damage.

Gun

The Vindicator UM mounts a 155mm gun

-Alpha damage is 640 on standard HEAT, 545 on premium HEAT, and 900 on HE
-It has a 13.1s reload, giving it 2942 DPM
-Penetration on standard HEAT is 155mm, premium HEAT is 235mm, and HE is 80mm.
–Estimated aim time is 4.0/4.3s
–Base aim time is 2.7s, but it can get down to 2.20s.
-Dispersion is 0.453/0.407
–Gun handling is 0.21/0.08/0.08, or 0.18/0.07/0.07 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -2 degrees
-Gun arc left/right is 10 degrees to each side

If using calibrated shells:
-Reload time would be 14.0s, giving it 2736 DPM
-Penetration on standard HEAT would be 171mm, premium HEAT with 259mm, and HE with 88mm.

Overall this is a great gun for how the tank plays, with only a few downsides, these ebing the lack of AP/APCR, and poor gun depression. Accuracy is also very poor, but is made up for by amazing gun handling and decent aim time. Reload time, alpha damage, DPM, and penetration are all good, and for derp gun the shell velocities are also decent.

Since gun depression is only 2 degrees, it restricts the tank to flat ground gameplay. Only having HEAT and HE makes it awkward to deal with tanks with spaced armour, penetrate tracks, or shooting enemies through obstacles.

Mobility

-Top speed is 30km/h forwards, and -15km/h in reverse.
-Traverse speed is 36 deg/s on hard terrain, and 28.3 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 14.0 hp/t, it has a strong 585 horsepower engine for its 42 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 12.7 hp/t on hard terrain, and 10 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are 1.1/1.4/1.9

Overall this is decent mobility. Considering that the tank’s top speed is only 30km/h, it has a good reverse speed, and more than adequate acceleration on both terrain types to be able to use that speed. Traverse speed on hard terrain is good, but fairly mediocre on medium terrain.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

The Vindicator UM does not have any special provisions or consumables.

Calibrated Shells:
Since the Vindicator uses only HEAT/HEAT/HE, it gains a huge 10% penetration on every one of its shells; and since this tank isn’t DPM reliant, it doesn’t need a quicker reload to do well. Vindicator is more focussed on being effective with its high alpha when it does shoot, so its better to focus on improving penetration.

Using calibrated shells would increase the reload time from 13.1s up to 14.0s, and decrease the DPM from 2942 to 2736, however, penetration on standard HEAT would increase from 155mm to 171mm, premium HEAT from 235mm to 259mm, and HE from 80mm to 88mm.

Improved Assembly:
Due to the Vindicator mainly relying on its spaced armour to bounce shots, and that armour only being effective against same and lower tier enemies, its best to use improved assembly. Vindicator has a low HP of 1000, and increasing it to 1060 will help the tank in all scenarios.

Improved Control:
Due to the Vindicator being limited to 30km/h, it doesn’t really need to improve its acceleration rate, and as a turretless TD with very weak side armour, hull traverse speed is much more important than good acceleration.

Improved control would improve traverse speed on hard terrain from 36 deg/s to 37.2 deg/s, and on medium terrain from 28.3 deg/s to 29.2 deg/s. 
Acceleration rates would decrease from 12.7 hp/t to 11.9hp/t on hard terrain, and 10 hp/t to 9.4 hp/t on medium terrain.

Note that while this may not seem like a significant improvement, for a tank that is so reliant on its gun to hit and penetrate shots, being able to turn quicker to set-up shots is very important. The tank also only has armour at the front, and its low HP mean’s it can’t afford to be caught on its side.

Refined Gun:
Vindicator is a frontline/2nd line tank, however it does not need vertical stabilizer, despite it constantly being in fairly close range.

The reason the Vindicator can get away with doing this is due to it having the best dispersion on hull traverse of any tank in the game, at 0.08. This means that when you turn the tank to shoot an enemy, the reticle hardly blooms out. This allows you to improve the abysmal accuracy by using refined gun, which would take the tank’s dispersion from 0.453 down to 0.407.

While the tank’s gun handling while moving forward/backward isn’t as impressive (0.21), this isn’t nearly as influential on the gun’s performance, due to the limited top speed of the vindicator, and its constant need to turn the hull.

Gameplay advice

The Vindicator has odd gameplay, since its a very odd combination of statistics and gameplay.

Its armoured, but its not. It has great DPM & penetration, but has low HP and reloads fairly slowly, and it has terrible gun depression. The positions you can use are limited, and your performance against different tiers of enemies is very different.

General gameplay:
Play the Vindicator as a heavy support tank. Take it to the heavy tank side of the map, use heavy tank terrain for your gameplay, and let allied heavy tanks with their better armour and HP take hits for you. You can use the high damage and penetration of your gun to support the heavy tanks.

Playing on the heavy side of the map is very important. Heavy tanks are slower, they are larger targets, they have slower gameplay and reloads, and generally heavy tank sides of the map have more flat ground and fewer areas requiring gun depression play.
This means you can hit enemies easier, and have more of a chance with the slower paced gameplay and reload times of enemies (since the Vindicator has a 13-14s reload). Slower enemies also cant take advantage of your tank’s limited gun arc and traverse as easily.

If playing on the medium side of the map, yes the enemies are easier to penetrate, they are easier to use HE against, and are more likely to bounce your armour due to lower penetration; however the issue is that these enemies are quicker, smaller, more accurate, and quicker firing.
On the medium flank, gameplay is more challenging since enemies are harder to hit with your poor dispersion, can easily flank you, and are more likely to be able to snipe your weakpoints or catch you out with their quick reloads.

Stay on the heavy flank, keep to flat ground, and use allied heavy tanks as armour while you support them with your gun. Make sure to also take advantage of your good reverse speed to reverse into cover.

Keep to flat ground:
Due to poor gun depression, the Vindicator can’t play on uneven terrain very well. Try to avoid areas which enemies will often try to use gun depression, or positions where your tank would need gun depression.

Keep to flatter terrain, where you’ll be able to depress the gun more reliably, and enemies will have more trouble hiding their weakpoints.

While the gun depression is poor, its not as bad as it might seem. The gun is mounted low on the tank’s hull, making it still easy to use on flat ground. The issue is when your hull has to point up on a slope or a hill, then your gun can’t point down.

Don’t snipe:
Vindicator is not at all suited to sniping. HEAT is not a good shell for sniping since it could just hit tracks or spaced armour and deal no damage.

This is amplified by poor accuracy, which isn’t as noticeable as a close range support, but becomes very obvious at long range.

Despite the shell velocities being ok for a derp gun, with 750/750/600 m/s, these are still far from ideal for longer range gameplay. Vindicator also just doesn’t have great camo rating, so is more likely to get spotted from its sniping position.

Shell types:
Use each shell in gameplay, they all have their uses for different scenarios.

Standard HEAT:
Use this for shots against base armour plates, which are too thick for HE, but still penetrable to your HEAT shell.

Premium HEAT:
Use this against enemies with strong armour. It will be very useful against many tier 8 heavy tanks, which often have over 180mm armour on their lower plates.

HE:
This shell will probably be used the most often, since it deals good damage in all situations. If you cant penetrate an enemy, shoot HE at the base of their turret ring or engine deck, and you’ll still do 200-400 splash damage.
This is also very good for shooting at the sides and rears of enemies, and deal 900 damage. 

The smart use of ammo in this tank is vital to performing well in the Vindicator.

Aim shots well:
While the Vindicator has great gun handling and decent aim time, the dispersion is still very poor. With how much damage this tank does, and the fact that it doesn’t have AP or APCR, you can’t afford to be rushing shots in this tank.

If you don’t aim properly, you risk hitting an area where your shell would fail. With HEAT that would be spaced armour or modules, or armour plates highlighted as red. With HE, you want to aim properly to really make that 900 damage count, and not just miss or have a non-penetration.

Note the terrain you drive on:
Due to a fairly noticeable traverse speed difference, driving on hard terrain does make a fair difference in this tank.

On hard terrain the Vindicator can actually turn surprisingly quickly for a tank that only goes 30km/h, faster than a average “slow TD traverse”. This can be useful for city environments where you turn a corner and have to traverse to shoot an enemy; its also useful for quickly turning and reversing after a shot (and in that case, the bulldozer blade would help to block shots).

On medium terrain the tank turns noticeably slower, and it makes it easier for enemies to circle around to shoot the sides or rear of your armour, and just makes it overall harder to maneuver.

Try to keep on roads, paved areas, and concrete areas, these are generally hard terrain. Medium terrain is the rest of the map, not including water.

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The Vindicator plays a supporting role to stronger and better armoured allies, letting them take the hits, while it takes advantage of opportunities to put in big shots of damage. Keep to flat ground and avoid any area which needs gun depression.

Tank gameplay:

Overall

Armour – 5/10
Gun – 7/10
Mobility – 5/10
Speed – 3/10

Vindicator UM is overall a good tank.

Armour is decent but not great. Its best feature is that the bulldozer blade hides weakpoints on the hull. Weakpoints are numerous and large, side armour is weak. Frontal protection against HEAT & HE is very good, but not to AP/APCR.
Gun has great gun handling, reload, alpha damage, DPM, & penetration. Shell choice is not ideal, with only HEAT & HE shells. Gun depression is extremely poor, at -2 degrees, and accuracy is poor.
Mobility is average, with good acceleration & traverse speeds on hard terrain, and fairly average acceleration and traverse on medium terrain. Gun arc is average, and reverse speed is good.
Speed is mediocre, at 30km/h.

Though this tank has multiple fairly significant drawbacks, its gun really carries the rest of the tank. If you can position well and can just get the gun firing, the Vindicator can put out unparalleled damage. Its DPM is only slightly behind the ISU-152, and is higher than the SU-152, and this can catch enemies off guard.

Is it worth getting?

The Vindicator is worth getting for the pure fun factor of the tank. Its a tank with a very high DPM derp gun, which can be extremely effective and fun to play. Despite the many drawbacks of the tank, it can still perform well, but its mainly a tank you’d play for fun.

Of course the “fun” that Vindicator offers won’t suit everyone, since its a fairly slow tank with awkward armour and size.

Vindicator is a tank which is dependent on the player. For one it has an equipment setup which could be considered as quite unusual. It also has an fairly odd playstyle due to its traits (only HEAT/HE, -2 gun depression). And lastly, its a tank to be played for fun, not to do well in, which relies on the player to not expect the best results.

Vindicator can pull out some of the highest damage games in tier 7 with relative ease due to its high DPM, high penetration, high alpha, derp gun, which surprisingly great handling. You just have to not be expecting the tank to always be amazing, since it does have an awkward armour and size profile, with terrible gun depression, and a non-ideal set of shells.

The Vindicator UM is worth 6,000 gold. This can be an effective tank, but its also a playstyle which no other premium/collector can offer in the game. It can also be a very fun tank in modes due to its high damage dealing ability.

Most recently sold for:

Halloween event release – October 2017
Auctions – December 2023

Camo cost:

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