War Thunder Future British Tank Tech Tree - Cruiser and Medium Tanks - video Dailymotion

Toreno

With the recent introduction of the American tanks in War Thunder I decided to have a go at creating tech trees for other nations.  In this episode I look at the British tanks, or more specifically the light and cruiser tanks, the fast, lightly armoured tanks designed to exploit breakthroughs created by Infantry tanks.  British tanks have now been released as part of the Patch 1.55 Royal Armour Update.  Tanks in this episode: Challenger (Released in Patch 1.55): 17:57 Centurion (17lb/20lb/105mm) (Released in Patch 1.55): 21:12 Cruiser MK I: 07:45 Cruiser MK II: 09:09 Cruiser MK III: 10:09 Cruiser MK IV (Released in Patch 1.55): 11:19 Cruiser MK V (Covenator): 11:55 Cruiser MK IV (Crusader MK I-MK II) (Released in Patch 1.55): 13:37 Cruiser MK VII (Cavalier): 14:45 Cruiser MK VIII (Cromwell) (Released in Patch 1.55): Cruiser Centaur: 15:59 Comet tank (Released in Patch 1.55): 19:42 MK VIC: 03:08 MK VII Tertarch: 06:05 Vickers Medium MK II: 04:02  Future British Tank Tech Tree Series Infantry tanks episode: https://youtu.be/ySe_Nrh3HHo Commonwealth tanks episode: https://youtu.be/eE3QaGyoPh4 Tank Destroyer episode: https://youtu.be/ByRC0L3MX6Y Self propelled Anti-Aircraft vehicles episode: https://youtu.be/qA1PDO-hRSw Premium tanks episode: https://youtu.be/oZHIIxYGRyI  Completed tech tree: https://onedrive.live.com/edit.aspx?cid=948B17907489CD2D&resid=948B17907489CD2D%21548&app=Excel  Sources The Directory of Modern Military Weapons WWII: The Directory of Weapons. Author: Chris Bishop Tanks: Compared and Contrasted Weapons of World War II  Social Media ⬇️ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/toreno.bsky.social Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Toreno4 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/toreno170 Mastodon: Toreno17@mastodon.social Threads: https://www.threads.net/@toreno170 Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/Toreno17 Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/toreno5/videos   Game: War Thunder  ⬅️  #warthunder #tank #british #toreno #cruiser

Transcript

00:00Hello everybody and welcome to this episode of, well it's British Tank Tech Tree, or my

00:06proposed British Tank Tech Tree.

00:07I do promise it won't be just looking at an excel spreadsheet for the whole thing.

00:13Basically the American tanks have just been added and you know they're doing okay, presumably

00:18more of them are going to be added in future.

00:21So I've started looking at the future of other nations tank tech trees, the British, Japanese,

00:27the French and the Italians.

00:28They're the main ones off the top of my head.

00:32I thought I'd start off with the, well I thought I'd do some proposed tech trees, tank tech

00:36trees for these nations.

00:39Starting off with the British, I will be doing the Japanese, the French and the Italian.

00:42I've done the British because I think they'll probably be the next ones added in.

00:46It does seem to be like Russia, Germany are the main ones, followed by America, Britain

00:51and Japan.

00:52That's how they sort of do with aircraft releases as well.

00:57Now the first thing to remember about British tanks is they didn't really do medium, heavy

01:01and light like most other nations.

01:04Well they did light tanks, but the other two were cruisers and infantry tanks.

01:09Without getting into too much of an in-depth discussion, the infantry tanks are meant to

01:12support the infantry.

01:14Heavily armoured, slow moving and usually armed with a 2lb 57mm or 75mm gun, as was

01:21its opposite number in the cruiser tank lines.

01:29Infantry tanks were meant to create break-throughs, cruisers on the other hand were meant to exploit

01:33them.

01:34So they were fast, lightly armoured and usually had the same gun as its contemporary infantry

01:37tank.

01:39But they were mechanically unreliable, which shouldn't be shown in War Thunder thankfully.

01:45But they were lightly armoured because it had to be fast and that made them pretty vulnerable.

01:51I don't know where the idea of cruisers even came about, I think there was a lot of naval

01:56people involved in creating tanks originally, so I don't know if it came about because of

02:00that or something, but it's a bit of a weird concept that doesn't really seem to have taken

02:05place anywhere else.

02:06It was kept throughout the war, but I don't think they, I think they started, once they

02:11started using American tanks and all that, it was sort of, the lines blurred a bit and

02:16then eventually they just got rid of them.

02:19The last cruiser tank, the Centurions, considered a main battle tank today, so yeah, they did

02:25originally, they eventually got rid of the idea, I don't think they particularly used

02:29them in their intended roles for long either, or not as strictly as they might have done

02:34otherwise or envisioned originally.

02:38Basically for us it would mean the cruisers would be one line-up, the infantry tanks would

02:42be another line-up and then all the others would, you know, the others would be the same

02:45line-up as we used to with the American, German and Russian tech-trees.

02:50Now before I waffle on too much, we'll get straight into the episode, I'll split it up

02:53into multiple episodes, just so you're aware, so before I waffle on too much, we'll get

03:02straight into looking at the tanks, and I hope you enjoy the episode.

03:07Now as you can see I've put the, for the reserve tier tank, either the Vickers light tank Mark

03:134C, or 6C sorry, or the medium Mark 2, I'll explain this in a second, but the Vickers

03:20light tank Mark 6C, it was a pretty, not very good tank, it only had something like between

03:27four and fourteen millimetres of armour, and it was mainly armed with machine guns, but

03:32the C version, or the 6C, was armed with a fifteen millimetre Besser machine gun, or

03:40cannon, you know, which is a bit better than what it usually had, 12.7 millimetre machine guns.

03:48Extreme, it was quite fast, about 56 kilometres on the road, or let's see if I can get that in

03:53miles an hour, 32 miles an hour, so quite fast, and probably quite good at cross-country,

04:00and it was quite a small tank. Now the Mark 6C was produced from 1934 to,

04:0536 sorry, to 1940, which makes it a bit newer than the other tank I think could be a reserve

04:10tank, the Vickers medium Mark 2, which was in production from 1925 to 1934. Now, this was

04:18better and worse, it had worse armour, only 6.25, and could only manage a top speed of about 15

04:25miles an hour, so it's inferior in speed and armour, but probably quite a bit better with

04:32armament-wise. Just secondary armament, it already beats out the Mark 6C, and the three pounder gun,

04:40yeah, quite a bit better. Now I prefer the Mark 6C as a reserve tank, but I can't

04:46say that as a definite, because I don't know how good the 15 millimetre Besser machine gun is.

04:52I've heard conflicting, you know, penetration values at 100 metres, some say about 18

05:00millimetre penetration at 100 metres, I've heard others say it's nearer to 30. If it's 30,

05:06then that's manageable for a reserve tier tank, but 18, that would basically mean anything above

05:13reserve tier is basically impenetrable to its machine gun. So if it is nearer to 30 millimetres,

05:21I think that should be the reserve tank. If it's nearer to 18, I think it should be the medium Mark

05:262. Now that of course has its own disadvantages, I mean it has the big gun, but it's got only

05:34eight millimetres armour maximum, so it'd be basically penetrable by everything, and we all

05:39know how annoying it is to have all your crew knocked out, and you know, all your modules

05:44knocked out, especially when you don't have spare parts or the fire extinguisher with which to

05:48repair any damage or put out any fires. So yeah, between those two tanks I think would be good for

05:56a reserve tier, but both got their own strengths and weaknesses, but in the end I think the Mark

06:016C would be preferable if the gun was good enough. Now the next and last light tank on my list is the

06:08Mark 7 Tertrach. Tertrach? Tert? Arch? I can't pronounce it properly. A private venture by

06:16Vickers again. It was a pre-war tank, I actually thought it was built during the war, but it was

06:22actually a pre-war tank, 1938-1942 production I think it was, but they were kind of declared

06:30obsolete and production was cut down. A lot of them were sent to, well some were sent to Madagascar

06:35and some were sent to the Soviet Union, but then the paratroopers took an interest into it,

06:42because it was a light tank able to be taken in a glider. So it was used in D-Day, Tex on the Rhine,

06:47I think it was kind of in the end replaced by the M22 Locust, which we have in game already.

06:53Now armour wasn't that good, 14mm, a quick-firing two-pounder gun like most British tanks,

07:00and a better machine gun, 7.92mm, not the 15mm like we was talking about earlier.

07:08There was also a howitzer version, but I haven't been able to find much information on that,

07:12so I haven't really included this. Like I said armour isn't that good, but it's got a

07:21okay, it's got a good gun, it can go quite fast, 40mph on road, 28mph off-road,

07:27it's quite small, I think it would be a good addition for the British forces, and I've put

07:32it last instead of first, because it did serve into 1944, while the others were

07:39taken out of service quite quickly, like the Mk6C and the medium Mk2.

07:45Now moving on to the cruisers, and we start off with the cruiser Mk1A9. As you can see,

07:51it's a bit like the T28, it's got those two machine gun positions at the front,

07:58that were quite cramped and apparently became deathtraps according to the book I'm reading.

08:04Only 125 were manufactured, they didn't do very well, it had a 2 pounder gun and a 7.7mm machine

08:16gun in the co-axle position, and obviously same armament in those two turrets at the front.

08:24Armour was 6-14mm, so yeah, not particularly well armoured either. It had a 24mph speed

08:31on roads and about 14mph cross country. So yeah, it's not particularly, I mean it's okay speed,

08:38but not great. The reason I put this first is because, obviously low tier tank, not massively

08:45armoured, but then, like I said, it's the first tank, and it's got an okay gun. It probably won't

08:53do too well, I mean, because of the armour mainly, it's got okay armament for the tier it's in, but

09:01it would be in, but yeah, the armour would slow it down a bit, so you would have to be quite cautious

09:06with it, and yeah, I think it would be a good starting point. And the next tank we look at is

09:12the Cruiser Mark II A-10. Now, this was a bit better, it had 8-30mm of armour, 2 pounder cannon,

09:21and one 7.7mm machine gun in the co-axle position. They got rid of the two turrets, which

09:28weren't particularly great. Again, it's all combat in France, and like the A-9, didn't do

09:33particularly well. Did okay in Africa against the Italians, but then once the Afrika Korps arrived,

09:40didn't do that great. It was actually intended to be an infantry tank version of the A-9,

09:45but it was too lightly armoured for that, which is why it was re-classified as a heavy cruiser.

09:50Again, I've put this after the A-9 because it's better than the A-9. It seems like a natural

09:57evolution as they've sort of refined the design. I assume it was built a bit later, because it's

10:04meant to, you know, all about the same time. So it fits state-wide. Now, the next tank is the

10:10Cruiser Mark III A-13. Not particularly great, it's actually got worse armour than the A-10,

10:18about the same as the A-9, 6-14mm. But it was the first one with the Christie suspension, I think,

10:26which basically helped with speed. I mean, it can go 30mph compared to, like,

10:30the A-14 or A-24 and the A-9. So yeah, it's quite a bit faster. I've put this after the A-10,

10:39because the speed, you know, already it's got an advantage over the A-10. And yes,

10:44it has worse armour, but it's still got a good gun. I think it would look a bit weird if you

10:48had the Mark II last and the Mark III second. It would look a bit weird. Now, only a few of

10:56these were actually made, about 65, I think it says here. So yeah, it wasn't particularly great

11:05and it wasn't produced much, but I think it would be needed to, you know, be put in the tech tree to

11:11give some sort of proper and logical advancement down the various marks of cruisers.

11:19Now, next is the A-13 Mark II or Cruiser Mark IV. It seems to be basically a Cruiser Mark III

11:26with more armour, 6-30mm. Now, again, this was used in France, but didn't do too good.

11:35You know, it's just, I think a lot fewer used in Calais. I've got to book in Dunkirk after

11:39trying to find that. Better than some of the previous tanks because it had better suspension,

11:45higher speeds, but again, it just wasn't that good. But again, I think it would be needed to

11:50give them, like I said, logical progression and it would be an advancement on the previous tanks.

11:55Now, the next tank, the A-13 Mark III or Cruiser Mark V Covenator, was never actually used in

12:02active service overseas. You see, they produced it before they tested it properly and they were

12:09massive problems with the design. Namely, poor engine cooling, which made it rather useless for

12:16serving in the desert, which is where most of the war was fought from 1940 to 1943,

12:23which is bad enough, but they built 1,700 of these. Now, I'm probably being a bit unfair,

12:29they did use it for training and I think some armoured divisions did use it for home defence,

12:34where the cooling was a lot less of a problem, you know, not being of such a hot country,

12:40the UK. Better armour than the other tanks, 7-40mm. Again, same armament, 2lb a gun,

12:49coaxial machine gun, 7.92mm, speed 30mph. I think this would be a bit better than the last tank

12:57because War Thunder doesn't take into account mechanical problems that I know of. I think the

13:04Bf109F4 lost its 20mm cannons because of that, but I digress. Generally, you're not meant to,

13:10War Thunder doesn't take into account mechanical problems. And it's got better armour than the

13:15other tanks, so again, more of a natural progression. Where have I got it? I've got it

13:20listed as a tier 2, so it wouldn't be too out of place. It would manage to handle itself well,

13:28I think, at that tier and I think it would be a good tank to include in the British tech tree.

13:32Again, logical progression down the various marks of the cruiser tanks.

13:37Now the next tank is the A-15 Crusader or Cruiser Mark VI. Now this is probably the first proper

13:43cruiser tank you'll get on the line-up of British tanks, if they put it in game. The Mark I had a

13:502lb a gun, 40mm of armour. Could do about 27mph on road and about 15 off road. But with the Mark

13:59II it got 50mm armour. My book doesn't actually say what the minimum armour was for these two

14:04variants, or marks, unfortunately. The Mark III actually got a 6lb a gun, 57mm. So this is where

14:13British tanks finally go up a bit in armourment and armour. I've kept them separate for the tech

14:19tree, so one could be tier 2, one could be tier 3, or however it's decided. Might be a bit undergunned

14:27at tier 3, but there is a bit of a gap between till the next tanks, so should be okay. And again,

14:36natural and logical progression. You've gone from the Mark I to the II to the III, all the way up

14:40to the VI, so you're not skipping any tanks. I think this would be a good tank to have in the

14:44tech tree. Now the next tank was sort of mentioned in passing by my books, the Cruiser Mark VII

14:51Cavalier A24, which was meant to be a bit of a design between the Crusader and the Cromwell.

14:59Now it's described as a complete failure in one of my books, but doesn't give any more information,

15:03so I went online, looked at Wikipedia and other online sites. I thought it was a prototype at

15:09first because I couldn't find any pictures on it. It had 76mm of armour, two machine guns,

15:15a six pounder gun, could go 24mph on road and 14 off road, which sounds a bit similar to the

15:22Crusader, or you know, the Mark VI. However I found that apparently 12 of these were given to

15:28the France in 1945 and used by 14th Infantry Division, so it must have built a decent amount

15:38of these. Apparently some of these were used in training, so I don't know how many were built,

15:42but I think it would be possibly worth looking at. I've put it in just in case.

15:48Apparently the order was 500, how many were actually built in the end, I don't know.

15:52But so yeah, I've just put it in just in case, you know, just so people know it's there.

15:59Now the next two tanks, the Centaur A27L and the Cruiser Mark VIII Cromwell A27M are basically the

16:07same. The Centaur had a Liberty engine and the Cromwell tank had a Meteor engine, which was

16:14better and more powerful from what I understand. Now according to my book it had a 7.5cm cannon

16:21and 7.92mm machine gun, coaxial machine gun, and occasionally a 7.92mm machine gun in the hull.

16:31Armour was 8-76mm thick, the speed was about 38mph, so that's actually quite fast. I did

16:42wonder if that was a bit of a mistype at first. So yeah, it's the first British tank or cruiser

16:48tank that gets a decent amount of armour. These served for a long time, from what I understand

16:53they served up to 1950 according to my book. Some of the later models did get 102mm of armour,

17:00but I'm trying to keep the amount that's on there, like different variants down a little bit,

17:07just keeping it basic. There's actually a silhouette thing on the outline online and

17:13it does look like it's a bit smaller than the Sherman, like silhouette wise, so that should

17:18hopefully help in War Thunder during actual games, maybe make it better for ambushes or

17:25while trying to escape your enemy. Yeah, I think this would be a good tank to have in the game.

17:30I've put both variants, so again more natural progression and to fill it out a little bit

17:37without introducing all the different marks and variants. So yeah, I think both of these vehicles

17:42would be good for the game. The Cromwell in particular is iconic and the Centaur is basically

17:48the same, so it helps pad out the tech tree a little bit, and it adds another good tank. So

17:54yeah, I think they should both be added if possible. Now at first I thought the next tank

17:59was a tank destroyer, but it's the Cruiser Tank Challenger, or A30. I've also seen it called the

18:05Mark 8, which is odd because that's what the Cromwell is. Basically this was an attempt to

18:11get a 17 pounder gun into a tank turret. This is what they came up with, this big bulky design.

18:17Armour was from 20 to 102 millimetres in thickness. It wasn't particularly successful because

18:24it wasn't ready in time to be waterproofed for Normandy landings, so it had to be bought

18:30over by boats and actually dropped off at a harbour, on the Albury harbours I assume.

18:36By the time it was in Europe they'd already made the Sherman Firefly, so there wasn't really a

18:42need for it, since that was generally superior. Some were used to provide extra fire support to

18:48the Cromwells, which only had the 75 millimetre gun. It had a speed of 32 miles an hour. I think

18:56this should be added because, well, it is a good tank. You know, it's got a big gun and the armour

19:04is okay. I think it would be good for Britain to have this because it is like their first

19:09homegrown 17 pounder tank. We've got the Sherman Firefly but it's based on an American design,

19:15so I would prefer both being in, but really. I think it would be, I've put it as tier 4 because

19:21that's where the 17 pounder guns would really start coming in needing to be used. Again,

19:26it could be swapped around a bit and I think it would be a good upgrade from the Cromwell,

19:32while being, you know, not as good as the Comet. So yeah, I think both the Firefly and the

19:40Challenger should be added in if possible. Now the next tank I had to rely on online information

19:45a little bit because I don't really have any information on this tank. It's the cruiser

19:50Comet 1A34. It was basically one of the last cruisers, or second to last cruiser.

19:58It was armed with a 77 millimetre gun which is based on the 17 pounder and had the two 7.92

20:06millimetre machine guns. Could do 32 miles per hour and it had up to 102 millimetres of armour.

20:12Doesn't say what minimum is unfortunately. And this was like the British tank in use from 1944

20:20to 58. From what I understand it wasn't used massively during World War II because of its

20:26late arrival, like with the Pershing and other tanks. I don't know how much combat it actually

20:31saw. It was used in Korea, but again there wasn't particularly many tanks there for it to attack

20:37and destroy. Now this is a good tank because, again, thick armour, but it's basically

20:46one of the last tanks introduced into service in the war. It's got good speed, like I said,

20:51good gun, good armour, and I think again it would be a natural upgrade from the Challenger,

20:57a more capable tank. And it is a bit kind of iconic of late post-war tanks,

21:06or late war tanks I suppose. So yeah, it would be good to have in the game I think.

21:11Now the next tank I did have some information on, the Centurion main battle tank. This is actually

21:17the last cruiser tank Britain made, but it sort of, you know, became a main battle tank because it

21:22was able to be upgraded and it had decent armour. Just finding the armour. Six inches of armour,

21:29and it started off with a 17 pounder gun, as you can see in the tech tree. It was later on upgraded

21:36to a 20 pounder gun. It also as a secondary armament had a 20mm cannon or 30 calibre Browning

21:43machine gun. Now I've also got the 105mm listed. I've actually got written down the outside cut-off

21:52date, but I've sort of included it there because we don't know what the cut-off date for the tanks

21:57is. As far as I'm, you know, I don't know if it's the same as the planes. As far as I know it's

22:03meant to be, but there could be a little bit of leeway with that, so I've included it just in

22:07case. I mean one of my books actually describes this, and I'm quoting, to many people the Centurion

22:12has been the most successful tank design in the history of armoured warfare, and you can kind of

22:17see why, because it started off with a 17 pounder gun like most British tanks or at the end of the

22:24war, but then it was upgraded to a 20 pounder gun and then to a 105mm gun, which is still okay

22:30today. I think the original Abrams used the exact same gun and that was in like the 1980s, so

22:36it's not a bad gun and it's so long-lived. I think Sweden only got rid of theirs in the 90s.

22:42I think South Africa, they have a tank called the Oliphant, which I believe is basically an

22:47upgraded Centurion. I think they upgraded them only in the 2000s, and as far as I'm aware they

22:52still use them possibly. I think Israel used an armoured personnel carrier and other type of

23:00unarmed variants in the 2006 war with Lebanon. There's just so many different variants of

23:09them and they are still used today. I think Britain was still using them in the 1991 Gulf War.

23:14I'm looking online, one was used in a test, a nuclear bomb test. It survived the nuclear bomb,

23:22the crew would have all been killed apparently, but and was then sent to Vietnam and fought in

23:26Vietnam. This was a tank that survived an atomic bomb from I think 500 metres away or something.

23:33The only thing that was wrong with it was that it ran out of fuel and I think it may have fallen on

23:37its side, I can't quite remember. Like I said it probably would have killed the entire crew and I

23:42think maybe some of the armour was blown off and I'm assuming it suffered other damage. But you know,

23:47the tank itself was drivable and all that. I think they actually drove it away from the test site.

23:53So I think this definitely needs to be added in, whether it's in the 17 pounder, 20 pounder or 105

23:58millimetre variants. I would prefer all of them, well all of them with inside the cut-off date,

24:03um because I think this would be a good match for the Russian and German and American high tier

24:08tanks and it would you know is a bit of an icon for the post-war British tanks. I know I said that

24:13about the Comet but you know this is more of an icon um and it would definitely be a mistake to

24:18not have it in the game. I'll probably leave the episode there because well we've only done the

24:24cruisers and the light tanks and it's already coming up to like half hour or something. Like

24:28I said I'm going to split this into different segments. I'll be doing the infantry tanks and

24:34maybe the commonwealth and other vehicles depending on how much time I have or I may

24:38split them into different episodes. Like I said this is just a basic skeletal framework of what

24:45I think should be the British tech tree. There are variants well you know lots of sub-variants

24:49of different tanks um that didn't include either because I thought they wouldn't add much to a

24:54basic tech tree you know they had something to add in later on or because I couldn't find

24:58information. The Turtrach um I still can't pronounce it um howitzer for example I couldn't

25:05find any pictures of that um so I didn't really include it um there was that one tank I think it

25:10was the Cavalier but I couldn't find any pictures of um but I included it because there was enough

25:15information to say it was produced and you know it was used um but anyway thank you for watching

25:21the video um please leave a like um if you like the video um leave feedback I could always do

25:27feedback um if you do spot any mistakes I don't think I've made any but yeah and okay different

25:32books do disagree with each other so it may not just be a mistake maybe disagreements between

25:38books but don't hesitate to you know put any of your own information or if I've missed out

25:41information um don't hesitate to put um leave it in the comments and I'll try and add it in as a

25:47annotation um subscribe if you like these sorts of videos um I haven't done one of these in ages

25:53so I've had a bit of fun doing it and yeah I hope you enjoyed them I'll see you next time

War Thunder Future British Tank Tech Tree - Cruiser and Medium Tanks

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