Charioteer Mk VII (Sweden)
| This page is about the medium tank Charioteer Mk VII (Sweden). For the British version, see Charioteer Mk VII. |
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Contents
Description
The ▄Tank Medium Gun Charioteer Mk VII is a rank IV Swedish medium tank with a battle rating of 6.0 (AB/SB) and 6.3 (RB). It was introduced in Update "Fire and Ice". The Charioteer takes the hull of a Cromwell and replaces the turret with a larger one mounting the heavy-hitting 84 mm 20-pdr cannon, which can deal with the enemies it faces at Rank IV.
General info
Survivability and armour
Armour type:
- Rolled homogeneous armour (hull, turret)
- Cast homogeneous armour (gun mantlet, driver port joint, obturated MG port)
| Armour | Front (Slope angle) | Sides | Rear | Roof |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hull | 63.5 mm Upper plate 63.5 mm (spherical) Driver port 32 mm obturated MG port 30 mm (70°) Upper glacis 57 (19°) Lower glacis - Top 25.4 mm (65°) Lower glacis - Bottom |
44 mm Top - Front half 38 mm + 32 mm (30°) Top - Rear half 32 mm Bottom - Front half 25.4 mm Bottom - Rear half |
32 mm Rear plate 20 mm (58°) Lower glacis |
30 mm (20°) Front glacis 20 mm Centre 14 mm Rear |
| Turret | 30 mm (8-18°) Turret front 20 mm (cylindrical) Gun mantlet 14 mm Turret ring |
30 mm (1-18°) 14 mm Turret ring |
30 mm 14 mm Turret ring 14 mm (69-75°)Turret underside |
14 mm (0-7°) |
Notes:
- Suspension wheels and tracks are 20 mm thick.
- The area where the machine gun port would be has an additional 63 mm of armour placed on it.
- 3 internal structural plates of 5 mm thickness separate:
- the driver compartment in two,
- the driver compartment from the crew compartment,
- the crew compartment from the engine bay.
- These plates have large openings at some places, as visible in X-ray mode.
"Lacking" is the term that comes to mind when thinking about the Charioteer's armour. 63.5 mm of non slopped frontal armour is not enough and the turret armour is only 30 mm thick all around. The turret ring technically can be penetrated by 12.7 mm HMG fire, but not many people will go for that. However, it's best to not get flanked by autocannon-armed tanks (SPAA, late light tanks, etc.).
With only 3 crew members inside, any APHE shot to the turret means instant elimination (RB) or entering crew replenishment mode (AB).
The few advantages of this vehicle are: internal shields (to ensure that at least one crew member survives) and its low ammo load (there are no huge ammo racks everywhere like with the Centurion). Another positive aspect is the presence of improved smoke launchers, equipped with 12 grenades shot in 2 salvos (one forward, one to the sides). They can create a smoke wall in seconds, hiding the Charioteer in an arc of about 200°. These smoke launchers are also found on later British tanks.
Mobility
| Game Mode | Max Speed (km/h) | Weight (tons) | Engine power (horsepower) | Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forward | Reverse | Stock | Upgraded | Stock | Upgraded | ||
| Arcade | 63 | 4 | 30 | 930 | 1,145 | 31 | 38.17 |
| Realistic | 57 | 4 | 531 | 600 | 17.7 | 20 | |
Modifications and economy
| Mobility | Protection | Firepower | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Armaments
Main armament
The Charioteer Mk VII (Sweden) carries an 84 mm 20pdr gun in a lightly armoured turret protected only with 30 mm RHA box. As the gun is very consequent, the turret traverse is quite slow so one should have to preventively aim towards a corner before going around it. The high penetration power of the gun compensates the poor slewing rate. Plus, even the stock shells has as much penetration as the 76 mm QF 17pdr's APDS shell found on other Rank III tanks, this only gets better with the upgraded APDS shot, which can pierce up to 363 mm of armour at 500 m distance (or a Tiger II (H)'s UFP at point-blank range).
The tank commander has the ability to control the weapon if the gunner is knocked out, which is very unusual at the rank and might allow to aggressively trade shots, or even straight up rush some tanks in AB.
| 84 mm 20pdr OQF Mk.I | Turret rotation speed (°/s) | Reloading rate (seconds) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mode | Capacity | Vertical | Horizontal | Stabilizer | Stock | Upgraded | Full | Expert | Aced | Stock | Full | Expert | Aced |
| Arcade | 25 | -5°/+10° | ±180° | - | 19.0 | 26.4 | 32.0 | 35.4 | 37.6 | 8.19 | 7.25 | 6.68 | 6.30 |
| Realistic | 11.9 | 14.0 | 17.0 | 18.8 | 20.0 | ||||||||
Ammunition
| Penetration statistics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Penetration @ 0° Angle of Attack (mm) | |||||
| 10 m | 100 m | 500 m | 1,000 m | 1,500 m | 2,000 m | ||
| Shot Mk.1 | APCBC | 232 | 229 | 216 | 201 | 187 | 173 |
| Shot Mk.3 | APDS | 384 | 380 | 363 | 343 | 324 | 306 |
| Shell Mk.1 | HE | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 |
| Shell details | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Type of warhead |
Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Fuse delay (m) |
Fuse sensitivity (mm) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (kg) |
Ricochet | |||||
| 0% | 50% | 100% | ||||||||||
| Shot Mk.1 | APCBC | 1,000 | 9.1 | - | - | - | 48° | 63° | 71° | |||
| Shot Mk.3 | APDS | 1,430 | 3.22 | - | - | - | 75° | 78° | 80° | |||
| Shell Mk.1 | HE | 600 | 7.5 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 1.13 | 79° | 80° | 81° | |||
| Smoke shell characteristics | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ammunition | Velocity (m/s) |
Projectile mass (kg) |
Screen radius (m) |
Screen deploy time (s) |
Screen hold time (s) |
Explosive mass (TNT equivalent) (g) |
| 20pdr Shell SS Mk.1 | 250 | 9.3 | 9 | 5 | 20 | 50 |
Ammo racks
| Full ammo |
1st rack empty |
2nd rack empty |
3rd rack empty |
Visual discrepancy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | 21 (+4) | 11 (+14) | 1 (+24) | No |
Machine guns
| 7.62 mm L3A1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount | Capacity (Belt) | Fire rate | Vertical | Horizontal |
| Coaxial | 5,000 (250) | 500 | - | - |
Usage in battles
The Charioteer, as with most western tank destroyer, is fitted with a very powerful gun, has good mobility, but is very lightly armoured. As such, it is best to play with its mobility to evade the enemy until the opportune moment. As it uses the same hull as a Cromwell, the reverse speed is atrocious that can make any withdrawal very hard once discovered by the enemy. It is recommended that the Charioteer be used with the forward movement more often, and back up by rotating the entire vehicle before whistling away since the armour back and front is inadequate to deal with any of the tanks you face at its battle rating.
Flanking
This is a classical sniper/flanker tank: fast, a good gun but no armour. One should never engage in front line fights since most tanks at the rank use APHE and will just blast the Charioteer away. The best way to play this tank is to use range and/or speed as armour, only stopping to take a shot and speed up again. Do not worry about sniping, this cannon has been made for that: shells have a very low ballistic trajectory, and keep good penetration values even at distances. When fired at, move into safety while blasting out these smoke cannisters on the move, creating a large smoke wall for the enemy, leaving some space for your allies to manoeuvre without being noticed.
In urban maps, pre-aim before getting around corners since turret slewing rate is slow. One could also use its engine/transmission as an armour when ambushed: quick reaction shots will often "only" ignite the tank without damaging the crew too much, plus, if the shot is missed, you are already in a position to escape swiftly since frontwards speed is good. When zipping past an alley, blast a smoke screen to cover allies from enemy fire while shooting a hasty shot in the general direction of the enemy. Some enemies will turn their turret in order to protect themselves from flanking only to get shot by allied tanks. Your best weapons in close-range fights are both surprise and speed.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Good reload speed without an autoloader
- 20-pdr has access to powerful rounds - AP which can destroy Panther in a single hit and APDS with extreme muzzle velocity and even more penetration, can potentially be played in higher BR games
- Has no ammo in the turret, and commander can use the gun instead of gunner, meaning that even if intercepted, the Charioteer still has an extremely high chance of taking down enemy tanks with itself (even more likely in AB)
- Decent gun optics for the rank, but difficult to use with APDS
- Very speedy tank due to Cromwell chassis, can fill a role of a medium support tank for rushing capture points
- Arguably the best turreted tank destroyer at Rank IV, with benefits of a medium tank (can call artillery)
- Good smoke screen system with a useful spreading angle; great for retreats
- Very low risk of fire due to rear mounted transmission and no fuel tanks on the front of the tank.
Cons:
- As with all Cromwell chassis, reverse speed is awful
- Extremely vulnerable to APHE, even the angled roof top which is supposed to bounce shots will not stop it
- Only 3 crew members, easy crew knock out in RB
- Low post-penetration damage with APDS due to punctual damage
- Poor gun depression and elevation (-5° to 10°)
- Unstable gun platform; must short-stop or slow down before firing precisely
- Very poor ammo capacity; on the co-op Tank Assault mode, this forces to stay close to repair bonuses, which can eventually backfire
History
The Finnish Army bought 38 Charioteers; 3 in 1958 and a further 35 in 1960. They were removed from frontline service in 1972 but remained in use as training vehicles until 1980[1]. 15 were kept in storage until they were auctioned off in 2007.[2]
Media
- Skins
- Videos
See also
- British variant of the same vehicle
External links
| Sweden medium tanks | |
|---|---|
| Strv m/42 | Lago I · Strv m/42 EH · Ikv 73 · Strv m/42 DT · Pvkv IV |
| Centurion derivatives | Strv 81 · Strv 81 (RB 52) · Strv 101 · Strv 104 · Strv 105 |
| Strv 103 | Strv 103-0 · Strv 103A · Strv 103С |
| Strv 121/122 | Strv 121 · Christian II · Strv 122A · Strv 122B PLSS · Strv 122B+ |
| Other | Sherman III/IV · T 80 U |
| Finland | |
| WWII | ▄T-28 · ▄T-34 · ▄Pz.IV · ▄T-34-85 |
| Post War | ▄Comet I · ▄Charioteer Mk VII · ▄T-54 · ▄T-55M · ▄T-72M1 · ▄Leopard 2A4 · ▄Leopard 2A6 |
| Norway | Leopard 1A5NO2 |
