Churchill III

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Armor is highly effective against tier 4s and many tier 5s, frontal weakspots easily hidden by hull angling

• Very high rate of fire, reasonably accurate even while moving, largest hitpoints pool of any tier 5 tank

• Generates a high level of EXP, which speeds crew training with preferential matchmaking (tier 6 max, no tier 7 battles)

• Very large ammo capacity, cheap ammo and repair costs

• Hull armor (particularly the lower plate) and speed is slightly better than the British tier 5 Churchill I

Cons:

• Poorly-protected turret, easily killed gunner, can be ammo racked by a 122mm shell through the turret

• Moves, accelerates, and rotates slowly

• Low alpha damage and penetration, gun reloads faster than it can aim

• Priority target for artillery

• Front of turret has large opening which is a huge weak-spot; the Crusader, Cromwell, and Comet share this weak-spot.

Performance

The Churchill III is a decent heavy tank, but is slower than most others. This tank makes up for its slow traverse speed with the fast fire of its gun. The Churchill III's gun is virtually transformed into a machine gun when equipped with a Tank Gun Rammer, making it have a 2 second reload with a 50% crew, if you can get your crew to 100%, you can have less than a 2 second reload time. Aiming at delicate areas of enemy tanks and having the Dead Eye skill can devastate opponents. The Churchill is also one of the few tanks that maintains decent accuracy when firing while on the move. Furthermore, despite a relatively poor accuracy, shots tend to go down the center of the reticule.

Lights and mediums of your own tier fear the Churchill III's firepower, but tier 5-6 heavies are to be avoided. The KV-1 can be a problem, unless you can get at close range and hammer his driver's hatch. Similar situation with the T1 Heavy Tank and BDR G1 B. The AT 2 should be absolutely avoided, same goes for the T-150. A KV-2 can one-shot a Churchill without breaking a sweat, even though you can use the reload time of the gun to hammer it and the 122mm gun on the KV-85 takes out more than half of your tank per shot, but if you can get to its flanks, they are quite weak and hitting it repeatedly can end up setting it on fire.

The low damage and high rate of fire call for you to do module damage instead of trading shots at range - try not to engage enemy heavies beyond punching distance. Tracking an enemy in a peek-a-boo position can keep him permanently stuck while dealing consistent damage if you stay out of his gun and keep firing at front wheel.

The upkeep costs for the Churchill are low and a good match can earn you anything between 10-20,000 credits, sometimes even more. An outstanding match in the Churchill III will easily bag you over 3,000 exp. Being a good player in this tank will benefit you greatly

Early Research

Premium tank, requires no additional research

Documented Tank and Crew Builds

(both will activate the same section)

For external review links (Youtube, etc)