Centurion Mk 1

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RANK 4 FRANCE
Somua SM PACK
Centurion Mk 1
uk_centurion_mk_1.png
Centurion Mk 1
AB RB SB
6.0 6.0 6.0
Class:
Research:46 000 Specs-Card-Exp.png
Purchase:155 000 Specs-Card-Lion.png
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This page is about the British medium tank Centurion Mk 1. For other versions, see Centurion (Family).

Description

GarageImage Centurion Mk 1.jpg


The Centurion Mk 1 is a rank IV British medium tank with a battle rating of 6.0 (AB/RB/SB). It was introduced in Update 1.67 "Assault". It is equipped with the well-known British QF 17-pounder mounted on a new hull that definitively makes the Cromwell chassis outdated.

This tank does not play like any of the preceding British vehicles: while its mobility is below average for a rank IV medium, it compensates with armour, meaning that you will actually be able to withstand frontal combat and return fire, even if you get hit. It is the first medium to feature the late-game British armour pattern: a strong turret, thick and well-angled upper-glacis, weak lower glacis and thin sides. British tankers must get used to this configuration since it is found on every following medium tank.

The Centurion Mk.1 moves away from the familiar Cromwell chassis. While not being as fast or manoeuvrable, It does have sloped frontal armour, a strongly armoured turret, and a good QF 17-pounder gun with access to APDS.

Mobility
The Centurion easily reaches its top speed of 39 km/h on almost any ground, due to its wide tracks and a good engine, even at stock performances. It also has a refreshingly good reverse speed (~13 km/h) (compared to the dreadful reverse speed of tanks on the Cromwell chassis) and can turn on the spot quite fast.

Armour
The main improvement from previous British mediums is its thick and sloped armour. Reaching 152 mm on the turret and a good 76 mm angled at 58° on the front hull, this tanks can actually block point-blank shots from most cannons it will face like the Russian D-5T, the Japanese Type II 75 mm and even some German guns at 500 m. This tank can actually expose its upper glacis since it will bounce most shots. This tank still has weak spots though: gun and MG mantlet are "only" 127 mm thick, barely angled and lower glacis are 76 mm at 44°, meaning close-range shots will eventually penetrate. It also has thin side armour, meaning that the tank is vulnerable to flank attacks and compound angling cannot be done effectively without exposing the sides. These traits mean that the Centurion Mk.1 can happily stand up most frontal shots at this rank.

Firepower
The gun does not fire any shells with explosive filler, meaning that pinpoint accuracy is needed to get reliable kills (aiming for important modules, crew, or ammo racks). This canon's reload rate is faster than average at this BR, meaning you will be able to land 2 shots before your enemy can even fire. As any other tanks equipped with the QF 17-pounder, you will have to grind through subpar AP, APBC and APCBC shells before getting APDS. This last type of shell helps make accuracy quite easy and remains effective at long ranges while not being too costly in terms of silver lions.

A minor issue to notice is that the machine gun has very poor elevation and is loader-controlled, meaning that it cannot target even low flying aircraft and that it will be disabled once you lose two or more crew members.

General info

Survivability and armour

The Centurion Mk 1 is the first tank players will encounter in the British tech tree that sports a sloped hull front similar to the Panther, which with a thickness of 76.2 mm, provides great protection for its battle rating, especially when the hull is angled slightly. Turret armour features 127 mm thickness throughout the front but features many flat areas that cannons of sufficient power will exploit to destroy the tank, especially since 3 out of the 4 crew members are located in the turret. Side armour can withstand auto-cannon fire with exceptions for HVAP rounds, so don't rely on it outside of that.

Armour type:

  • Rolled homogeneous armour (Hull, Turret sides, Turret roof)
  • Cast homogeneous armour (Turret front, Gun mantlet, Cupola)
Tank Armour Table
Armour Front Sides Rear Roof
Hull 76.2 mm (58°) Front glacis
76.2 mm (44°) Lower glacis
51 (12°) + 6 mm 38 mm (7°) Top
38 mm (18°) Bottom
29 mm
8-14 mm Engine deck
Turret 127 mm (2-58°) Turret front
127 mm (6-40°) Gun mantlet
76 mm (9-11°) 76 mm (1°)
38 mm (89°) Turret underside
25 mm
Armour Sides Roof
Cupola 90 mm 19 mm

Notes:

  • Tracks and suspension wheels are both 20 mm thick.
  • The steel boxes around the turret and hull give a 4 mm additional protection, though this seems to be a negligible addition.
  • Spaced armour plates are placed on the side of the Centurion, giving an additional 6 mm of side armour.

Mobility

Compared to the many Cromwell based tanks before the Centurion, it does lose out on a great forward speed, only being able to reach 25.6 AB/23.1 RB maximum, but in return it does receive great reverse speed of 8.3 mph AB/7.5 mph RB, allowing for tactics that would not be recommended with the Cromwell like "Peek-a-boos". It also retains good maneuverability effective neutral steering and a very acceptable acceleration due to good power-to-weight ratio.

Mobility characteristic
Weight (tons) Add-on Armour
weight (tons)
Max speed (km/h)
46.9 N/A 25.6 (AB)
23.1 (RB/SB)
Engine power (horsepower)
Mode Stock Upgraded
Arcade 984 1212
Realistic/Simulator 562 635
Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
Mode Stock Upgraded
Arcade 20.98 25.84
Realistic/Simulator 11.98 13.53

Armaments

Main armament

76 mm OQF 17-pounder
Capacity Vertical
guidance
Horizontal
guidance
Stabilizer
74 -12°/+20° ±180° N/A
Turret rotation speed (°/s)
Mode Stock Upgraded Prior + Full crew Prior + Expert qualif. Prior + Ace qualif.
Arcade 17.14 23.72 28.80 31.84 33.88
Realistic 10.70 12.60 15.30 16.92 18.00
Reloading rate (seconds)
Stock Prior + Full crew Prior + Expert qualif. Prior + Ace qualif.
7.67 6.79 6.25 5.90
Ammunition
Penetration statistics
Ammunition Type of
warhead
Penetration in mm @ 90°
10m 100m 500m 1000m 1500m 2000m
Shot Mk.6 AP 171 168 155 139 126 113
Shell Mk.1 HE 9 9 9 9 9 9
Shot Mk.4 APC 171 168 155 139 126 113
Shot Mk.8 APCBC 190 187 172 155 140 126
Shot SV Mk.1 APDS 228 226 207 189 159 134
Shell details
Ammunition Type of
warhead
Velocity
in m/s
Projectile
Mass in kg
Fuse delay

in m:

Fuse sensitivity

in mm:

Explosive Mass in g
(TNT equivalent):
Normalization At 30°
from horizontal:
Ricochet:
0% 50% 100%
Shot Mk.6 AP 883 7.71 N/A N/A N/A -1° 47° 60° 65°
Shell Mk.1 HE 883 6.98 0.4 0.5 883 +0° 79° 80° 81°
Shot Mk.4 APC 883 7.71 N/A N/A N/A -1° 48° 63° 71°
Shot Mk.8 APCBC 883 7.71 N/A N/A N/A +4° 48° 63° 71°
Shot SV Mk.1 APDS 1203 1.73 N/A N/A N/A +1.5° 75° 78° 80°
Smoke characteristic
Ammunition Velocity
in m/s
Projectile
Mass in kg
Screen radius
in m
Screen time
in s
Screen hold time
in s:
Explosive Mass in g
(TNT equivalent):
17pdr Shell SS Mk.1 754 8.4 13 5 20 50
Ammo racks
Ammo racks of the Centurion Mk.1
The QF 17-pounder cannon fires single-piece ammunition stored in stowage racks in the hull floor and the hull front next to the driver. There are 11 rounds stored in 3 small ready racks located in the turret basket inside the hull for quick reloading by the loader. The time it takes the loader to load one round into the ready rack from the stowage racks is about 17 seconds.
Full
ammo
1st
rack empty
2nd
rack empty
3rd
rack empty
4th
rack empty
5th

rack empty

6th rack empty 7th rack empty Visual discrepancy
74 71 (+3) 67 (+7) 64 (+10) 62 (+12) 46 (+28) 30 (+44) (+73) Yes

Notes:

  • Recommended ammo load is 30 to remove from ammo from the hull floor and half of rack 7.
  • Ammo rack 1, 2, and 3 are ready racks, and takes priority in being filled at the beginning of the battle, then fills racks 7 through 4.
  • Full reload speed will be realized as long as ammo exists in the ready racks. If all the ready racks are empty, a penalty to reload speed will occur.
  • Simply not firing when the gun is loaded will load ammo from racks 4-7 into rack 3, 2, and 1, as long as there is ammo in racks 4-7. Firing will interrupt the loading of the ready racks.

Machine guns

Main article: BESA (7.92 mm)

Unlike many turret-mounted machine guns that are co-axial, this machine gun is mounted in pintle mount similar to hull-mounted machine guns, so it is able to independently traverse on its own to a degree, a trait that is shared with the Soviet T-28. This can provide a slight advantage when the turret ring is disabled, as it can allow more accurate fire without the need to move the turret/hull.

7.92 mm BESA
Coaxial mount
Capacity (Belt capacity) Fire rate
(shots/minute)
Vertical
guidance
Horizontal
guidance
3,375 (225) 600 ±7° ±7°

Usage in the battles

This tank is a good Jack-of-all-trades, meaning it can effectively deal with any situation with good effectiveness, meaning you can play it as you like, as long as you follow a few specific guidelines and patterns, in order not to get shot down too easily.

Hide LFP: In any engagement, this is the weakest part of your frontal armour, behind it there is your main ammo rack and driver, avoid showing this part of the tank to the enemy.

Stay on the move: This tank has good mobility, use it to make it harder to target your weak spots at close ranges and avoid shots at long ranges.

No hull angling: Since your sides are weak, do not try angling since it will only allow the enemy to get an easy kill. Use your good hull traverse (turning on the spot) to always face directly your foe. When turning corners, take a large turn in order to show only your frontal armour to anything that can be waiting around the corner.

Angle turret between shots: While your hull sides are not that thick, your turret's side armour is much more forgiving at 89 mm, nod your turret ~ 10° to the right in order to maximise frontal LOS thickness.

Compensate parallax: Your gun and optics are very far apart from each order meaning that your shells will always fall 1 meter left of your crosshair at any range (no convergence). This is particularly important in RB/SB battle since there is no aiming assistance to help you.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Fast firing 17-pounder armament with APDS rounds
  • Good gun depression of -12°
  • Decent front sloping armour
  • Tough round sloping turret front
  • Average mobility and decent manoeuvrability
  • Good reverse speed
  • Neutral steering
  • Good stock mobility
  • Access to smoke grenades
  • Centurion Mk 1 can fill the role of a heavy tank if needed
  • Turret can be angled for a much more effective armour thickness
  • Frontal armour is quite resistant to the 85mm, 76mm and even the German 88 mm (KwK36) guns at medium/long range
  • Benefits greatly from the learning curve of the Comet I and Challenger, their players will find themselves at home when playing the Centurion
  • Armour is a huge step up from the Comet I and the Challenger
  • Centurion Mk 1 is arguably the best BR 5.7 tank, as it has a well-balanced stats in terms of armour, mobility and firepower
  • Mastering this tank will provide a good learning curve for the next Centurion variants
  • Very low risk of fire
  • Turret's top armour is thick, can resist most aircraft guns

Cons:

  • No APHE rounds available, precision and knowledge of enemy tanks are required
  • Large tank size, especially length
  • Weak side armour, angling the armour too much will result in the side armour being penetrated
  • Front ammo rack to the left of the driver, penetration to the lower glacis will likely ignite or destroy it
  • Centurion Mk 1 is slow for a medium tank
  • Unlike its later iterations, no gun stabilizer
  • Difficult to get kills with stock shells. They can penetrate but they may not destroy a tank, resulting in a lot of kill assists
  • Weak Lower Frontal Plate (LFP), a weakness carried over to all British tanks onward
  • Subpar turret armour (127 mm)
  • Top armour covering the engine is poor, only 8 mm

History

Media

An excellent addition to the article will be video guides, as well as screenshots from the game and photos.

Read also

[Devblog] Centurion Mk I: A Tank for a New Era

Sources

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

  • topic on the official game forum;
  • other literature.


Britain medium tanks
Valentine  Valentine I · Valentine IX · Valentine XI
Cromwell  Cromwell I · Cromwell V · Cromwell V (RP-3)
Cromwell derivatives  Challenger · Avenger · Comet I · Comet I "Iron Duke IV" · Charioteer Mk VII
Centurion  Centurion Mk 1 · Centurion Mk.2 · Centurion Mk 3 · Centurion Mk.5 AVRE · Centurion Mk 10 · Centurion Action X · FV4202
Vickers MBT  Vickers Mk.1 · Vickers Mk.3 · Vickers Mk.7
Chieftain  Chieftain Mk 3 · Chieftain Mk 5 · Chieftain Mk 10
Challenger 1  Challenger Mk.2 · Challenger Mk.3 · Challenger DS
Challenger 2  Challenger 2 · Challenger 2 (2F) · Challenger 2 TES · Challenger 2 OES · Challenger 2E · Challenger 2 Black Night
Challenger 3  Challenger 3 TD
Australia  A.C.I · A.C.IV · Centurion Mk.5/1
South Africa  Olifant Mk.1A · Olifant Mk.2 · TTD
India  Vijayanta · Bhishma TWMP
Israel  ▄Sho't Kal Dalet
Jordan  Khalid
Sweden  ▄Strv 81 (RB 52)
USA  Grant I · Sherman II · Sherman Firefly · Sherman IC "Trzyniec"