Centurion Mk 1

Centurion Mk 1

Comet I

Centurion Mk 3

Centurion Mk 1

Comet I

Centurion Mk 3

Britain

IV Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
6.0	6.0	6.0

Class:

Medium tank

Research:46 000

Purchase:155 000

Description

The Centurion Mk 1 is a Rank IV British medium tank with a battle rating of 5.7. 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equipped with the well-known British QF 17-pounder mounted on a new hull that definitively makes the Cromwell chassis outdated.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 maneuverable, 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 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 (see "specific enemies worth nothing" for more info). 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 is 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

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

Mobility characteristic
Weight (tons)	Add-on Armour weight (tons)	Max speed (km/h)
42.3	N/A	39 (AB)
		35 (RB/SB)
Engine power (horsepower)
Mode	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	930	___
Realistic/Simulator	531	600
Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
Mode	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	21.98	__.__
Realistic/Simulator	12.55	14.18

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	10.7	_._	_._	_._	_._
Realistic	10.7	_._	_._	_._	_._
Reloading rate (seconds)
Stock	Prior + Full crew	Prior + Expert qualif.	Prior + Ace qualif.
7.6	_._	_._	_._

Ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration in mm @ 90°
		10m	100m	500m	1000m	1500m	2000m
Shot Mk.6	AP	160	157	133	112	96	86
Shell Mk.1	HE	9	9	9	9	9	9
Shot Mk.4	APC	165	160	138	108	94	81
Shot Mk.8	APCBC	171	168	156	143	130	120
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	7.7	N/A	N/A	N/A	-1°	47°	60°	65°
Shell Mk.1	HE	883	7.0	0.4	0.5	883	+0°	79°	80°	81°
Shot Mk.4	APC	883	7.7	N/A	N/A	N/A	-1°	48°	63°	71°
Shot Mk.8	APCBC	883	7.7	N/A	N/A	N/A	+4°	48°	63°	71°
Shot SV Mk.1	APDS	1203	1.7	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

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	3rd rack empty	4th rack empty	Visual discrepancy
74	71 (+3)	55 (+19)	39 (+35)	1 (+73)	Yes

Turret & Center empty: 39 (+35)

Machine guns

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 maneuverability.
• 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 88mm (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 left of 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.

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.