Centurion Mk.5/1 RAAC

Centurion Mk. 5/1 is an Australian (game nation British) tier 8 premium medium tank, it has a good upper plate, the best turret of any tier 8 medium tank, a very reliable gun, and good mobility.

1. Armour
2. Gun
3. Mobility
4. Equipment, provisions, & consumables
5. Gameplay advice
6. Overall
7. Is it worth getting?
8. Most recently sold for:
9. Camo cost:
10. Historical note:

Armour

(The Centurion Mk.5/1 in the images is using Improved Assembly)

Drag slider right -> to view 225mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 265mm APCR

Armour when on flat ground & not angled:
Upper plate 222mm
Lower plate 115mm
Turret 265-310mm (turret left weakpoint 250mm)
Gun mantlet 495mm
Cupola 92mm

The fuel tank and sideskirts do make a difference on this tank (compared to other Centurions).

Having no sideskirts exposes the weak 51mm side armour that Centurions have, and it makes it easy for most enemies to penetrate it with HE.

The 100 gallon fuel tank stops HE from damaging the rear, as it counts as spaced armour. Due to its distance from the Centurion’s rear, most small caliber HE shells will not even do splash damage.

Armour vs tier 7 tanks:
All tier 7 medium and light tanks you face in this tank will be unable to penetrate the upper plate of the Centurion 5/1, and many of them will still struggle when using premium ammo. The turret is completely impenetrable to tier 7 enemies, the only weakpoint is the cupola.

You can see this below, with the image showing the tank against 210mm AP. The image shows the upper plate as already slightly red.

(Note that most tier 7 tanks have 145-185mm AP penetration, an exceptional few have 200mm AP penetration.)

Armour vs tier 8 tanks:
Tier 8 enemies with over 210mm of penetration will be able to easily cut through the upper plate due to shell normalization. 
This basically means you will be able to bounce most tier 8 medium and light tanks (with the exception of other Centurions and the TVP VTU), but heavy tanks will penetrate easily as they mostly have over 215mm of penetration.
When using any sort of gun depression, most tanks will be unable to penetrate the upper plate.

The turret is still extremely strong, with the only weakpoints being the left turret cheek and cupola. The left turret cheek is an extremely small weakpoint and requires premium ammunition to penetrate.

Armour vs tier 9 tanks:
Tier 9 enemies will not at all struggle to penetrate the hull armour of the Centurion 5/1 when its on flat ground. However its turret is still extremely strong, and it performs with the same effectiveness as when faced with tier 8 guns.

Turret armour:
The turret of the Centurion 5/1 is strong to every enemy, though there are some high penetration TDs and tier 9 tanks that will be able to penetrate the left turret cheek if you sit still. Its best to keep the tank moving even if the hull is fully hidden, it makes the weakpoint of the tank much harder to hit.

When using gun depression the turret is even harder to penetrate, and as its turret cheek weakpoint is already quite small, its still extremely hard to penetrate the tank. 
Due to the turret armour of this tank, its by far the best hulldown medium tank in tier 8 and its nearly invincible on a ridgeline.

vs 210mm AP

This level of penetration is still above average for tier 8 mediums, since the majority of tier 8 mediums have 180-205mm of AP penetration.

The above images show the decent upper plate armour of the Centurion Mk.5/1, which is the main difference which sets it apart form other Centurion tanks.

Gun

The Centurion 5/1 mounts a 20pdr (83.4mm gun) gun.

-Alpha damage is 190 on AP, 160 on APCR, and 250 on HE
-The reload time is 4.9s, giving the tank 2334 DPM
-Penetration is 226mm on AP, 259mm on APCR, and 42mm on HE
–Estimated aim time is 2.9s/3.2s
–Base aim time is 1.9s, but it can get down to 1.55s.
-Dispersion is 0.299/0.269
–Gun handling is 0.13/0.13/0.08, and it can be improved to 0.11/0.11/0.07 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -10 degrees

Everything about this gun is amazing except for its DPM, which is just average. Penetration on AP is the highest for a tier 8 MT, and it has amazing accuracy, good aim time, gun handling, and a very quick reload. 
Its one of the most consistently damaging guns on a tier 8 medium.

Mobility

-Top speed is 45km/h, and  reverse is -20km/h.
-Traverse speed is 61.2 deg/s on hard terrain, and 55.6 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In-game acceleration is shown as 21.5hp/t, with a strong 1093 horsepower engine for its 51 ton weight.
-Acceleration is 21.5hp/t on hard terrain and 19.5hp/t on medium terrain.
–Ground resistances are 1/1.1/1.5

For a Centurion tank, this has great mobility, and compared to tier 8 medium tanks in general its also very good, but speed is more limited. Acceleration is definitely above average, so its able to easily maintain and stay at  its somewhat low 45km/h top speed. Traverse speed is average, its nothing to impressive but its also not bad.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

Centurion 5/1 has no special provisions/consumables.

Gun rammer:
The Centurion 5/1 has amazing penetration, and therefore does not need to use calibrated shells to improve it. Gun rammer is a much better equipment choice, not using it would result in quite poor DPM for a tank that already has low alpha, which isn’t what you want.

Improved Assembly/Enhanced Armour:
Either equipment piece can work on this tank, as it has both armour and HP.

Using enhanced armour would take the upper plate from 222mm up to 230mm in effective thickness; and the turret would become 5-20mm thicker in various areas. Overall the armour becomes stronger and it will be easier to bounce same tier tanks on the hull.

At the same time, improved assembly increases the HP of the tank from 1450 up to 1537, which is very healthy HP for a medium. The choice is up to the your preference but both equipment pieces can work well on this tank.

Vertical Stabilizer:
The handling of the Centurion 5/1 isn’t the most impressive for its fairly low 190 alpha, and as its not a sniper and already has amazing 0.299 dispersion, it doesn’t need refined gun. Vertical stabilizer makes the gun much more accurate when moving, and its especially useful in this tank as you have a quick reload and short time between shots.

Gameplay advice

The Centurion is a holistic medium tank. Its just an all-rounder that specializes on having amazing turret armour and a great gun. If you have played the Centurion Mk.I or the Defender Mk.I before, you will know exactly how to play this tank.

The main gameplay of this tank is using its turret armour at all times, always try to find a hulldown position and always try to use gun depression. Doing thismakes the Centurion 5/1 essentially impervious, as other than splashing HE, not many premium rounds can reliably penetrate the tank, and even if they can, the weakpoint is hard to hit.

Other than that, just play it like you would with any other medium tank, take opportunities to flank enemies, support allies, and single out isolated enemy tanks. Regular medium stuff, this tank can do it well.

Overall

The Centurion Mk.5/1 is a very well-rounded medium tank, it can basically do everything you would want a medium to. Its kind of a Jack-of-all-trades tank, as its not really lacking much.

It has great armour on both the hull and especially the turret, and is the strongest medium tank in a hulldown position.
The gun has great accuracy, is very consistent in hitting shots, and can penetrate basically everything with AP. The reload is fast and it has great gun depression.
Its very mobile, with a strong engine and good traverse speed, and it maintains its speed well even when going up hills.

Is it worth getting?

If you love fast-firing tanks, or you like medium tanks in general, this is a tank that’s 100% worth having. Its just a very solid medium tank with great stats in all the areas you would want them to be.

The Centurion 5/1 is worth a solid 9,000 gold, though it can be usually obtained for cheaper.

Most recently sold for:

10,500 gold (Full bundle), 8,500 gold (Tank only) – October 2021
Blitzfair auction – December 2021 
8,000 gold (Tank only) – September 2022
7,500 gold (Tank only) – August 2023

Camo cost:

Historical note:

Centurion 5/1 RAAC is a British Centurion Mk.5/1 in Australian service, modified for use in the tropical battles of Vietnam. It lost the sideskirts but gained some extra hull front armour, and a 100 gallon fuel tank on the rear.

RAAC stands for Royal Australian Armoured Corps, hence why the in-game icon has an Australian flag.

The Centurion Mark 5/1 was the last Centurion to use the 84mm 20pdr gun. From the Centurion Mark 5/2 onwards, all centurions used the L7 105mm gun.

Famously, in nuclear tests in Australia, a Centurion Mk. III survived a nuclear blast, being only 400 meters away from the impact point. The tank not only survived, but was still fully functional, only missing its sideskirts. The same “Atomic Centurion” then went on to fight in the Vietnam war for 1 year before it got penetrated by an RPG in its side armour. The tank was still fully operational, though its extensive use saw it needing to be shipped back to Australia for repairs.
In that time in Vietnam, the tank was upgraded to the Centurion Mk. 5/1 standard, the same tank still survives to this day. The total service life of the Atomic Centurion was 40 years.

The British version of a Centurion Mk.5 would have sideskirts still attached and would not have a 100 gallon fuel tank on the rear.

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Inaccuracies:
The tank itself doesn’t have any terrible inaccuracies, at least in terms of the overall concept of the tank, however the legendary camouflage has many.

The tank is Australian, there were British Mk.5/1 tanks, but this one clearly has RAAC in the name, meaning its in Australian service. The name “Dingo” makes sense in that regard, as its a native wild dog to Australia only.
However, everything else about the camouflage just doesn’t make sense. The overall colour scheme is that of a British WW2 tank (wrong nation, wrong era), but the shades of these colours are wrong; the camouflage scheme and pattern is that of a desert camouflage (wrong theatre, this tanks meant to be in the Vietnamese jungles); and the symbol on the tank is also British (the red/white/red is the Royal Armoured Corps Flash “Crusader Stripes” symbol, used in WW2 in the North Africa theatre).

Pretty much nothing on this “Dingo” camouflage is actually relating to the tank’s Australian service in Vietnam, rather it looks more like a tank the Desert Rats would have use in WW2.

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