Question for the_Chieftain, Pike Noses

The_Chieftain: The pike does represent something of an ideal. You get good benefits when the opposition happens to be to your direct front. On the other hand, when angled, things get worse as the relative thickness decreases. If you can make a tank with a thick enough block of frontal armour, though, then you get acceptable protection from the direct front, and even better protection when being engaged from an angle.   The welding problem has also already been mentioned. Not mentioned are the volumetric properties. If you look at the footprint of the tank, x many meters by y many meters, how much of that is usable space for fuel, ammo, fire extinguishers, air bottles, or whatever else you want in the tank? There are large 'blocks' of unused space outside the point of the nose.