Chieftain/T95

Cheiftain/T95 is an American-British tank, using the hull of a British Chieftain Mk.II, and the turret of an American T95E1, unfortunately that means it comes with a big American hatch on the roof.

That hatch is the only balancing factor of this tank, as this tank has some of the best statistics in tier 8. Without the hatch, this tank would be OP.

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:

Armour

vs 265mm APCR
When flat and facing head-on:
Upper plate auto-ricochet 
Lower plate 130mm
Turret 280-600mm+
Viewport weakpoint 175mm
Hatch weakpoint 105mm

VS all tiers: 
The armour of this tank is the same to all tiers, the parts that are red to tier 7 tanks stay red to tier 9 tanks; the parts that are grey to tier 9 tanks are also grey to tier 7 tanks.

-The upper plate and turret are super strong, nothing is able to penetrate them, and especially not when using -10 gun depression.

-Unfortunately though, this turret has the usual huge American mini-turret on the top of the tank, which makes its super strong turret quite useless. Enemies do have to take time and aim for it, but thats not very hard to do, given how large the weakpoint is.
-The same goes for the lower plate, typical of a Chieftain, its both large and very weak. However unlike the hatch, this can be hidden. 

-The side armour is good by Chieftain standards, its far better than the tier 10 Chieftain Mk.6, which has 38mm and 50mm on the side (so it gets overmatched by all 120mm guns).
This tank however, has 50mm and 85mm on its side, and its in tier 8. Though it is much better than the tier 10 Chieftain, its still not a great idea to try sidescraping, as 50mm is still very poor by tier 8 standards.

Playing against a Chieftain:
Just aim properly and you’ll do fine.
-If its hulldown, shoot the hatch.
-If its in the open, shoot the lower plate.
-If its sidescraping with turret faced left, shoot the track wheel (and not the spaced armour)
-If its sidescraping with turret faced right, shoot the track wheel or the hatch

If you’re the one playing the Chieftain:
-Don’t sidescrape.
-Move left/right in hulldown and gun depression positions (not forward/backward).
-Use mobility and don’t get caught in the open.

Gun

Chieftain mounts a 90mm gun.

-Alpha damage is 225 on AP, 190 on APFSDS, and 270 on HE
-Reload is 5.1, giving it 2672 DPM
-Penetration is 215mm on AP, 265mm on APFSDS, and 45mm on HE
–Estimated aim time is 2.7/3.0s
–Base aim time is 1.82s, but it can get down to 1.55s.
-Dispersion is 0.308/0.277
–Gun handling is 0.16/0.16/0.1, or 0.14/0.14/0.09 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -10 degrees

This gun is by far one of the best guns in its tier, everything about it is amazing and its able to out-compete essentially every tank except the tech tree Caernarvon. It some of the best DPM, accuracy, penetration, reload time, and gun handling for its alpha.
Its also noteworthy that it can out-DPM most medium tanks, which very few heavy tanks can do.

Mobility

-Top speed is 40km/h forwards, and -20km/h in reverse
-Traverse speed is 34.6 deg/s on hard terrain, and 29.9 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 16.9 hp/t, it has a strong 878hp engine for its 52 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 17.8 hp/t on hard terrain, and 15.3 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are some of the best for a heavy tank, having 1/1.1/1.5

Overall the mobility of this tank is amazing, the only heavy with better mobility is the Chrysler K.
The top speed is high, and acceleration is amazing (even better than some of the slower accelerating medium tanks).
The traverse is just average, but with such good ground resistances, its still able to turn faster than most other heavy tanks on medium terrain.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

Chieftain/T95 has no special consumables or provisions

Gun Rammer:
The Chieftain is all about DPM, so using a gun rammer would benefit it more than calibrated shells. Calibrated shells can work on this tank, but its definitely not needed as the Chieftain already has good penetration. The gun rammer is what gives this tank its amazing 5.1s reload and 2672 DPM.

Coated Optics:
The Chieftain/T95 has the best view range of any heavy tank in the game, and its definitely worth taking advantage of this with the tank’s heavium playstyle.

With improved optics, the Chieftain’s view range increases from 274.5m up to 293.9m, which is better than even most tier 8 medium and light tanks.

Improved Assembly:
The armour of the Chieftain is black and white, you either can 100% penetrate an area, or you can 100% bounce on an area. Due to having such an armour layout, enhanced armour will do nothing for this tank, and its better to use improved assembly.
Improved assembly gives this tank more HP, from 1800 up to 1908, quite average in for a tier 8 HT.

Improved Control:
Since the Chieftain already has such amazing acceleration for a heavy tank, it can afford to lose some of that to gain a bit of traverse speed. The traverse speed of this tank is just average, and its noticeable when turning corners with this tank’s long hull.

Using improved control will improve traverse speed by roughly 1 deg/s across all terrain types (and also decrease acceleration by about 1 hp/t.

Vertical Stabilizer:
Chieftain is not a sniper, and any tank that doesn’t need to snipe should be using a vertical stabilizer. This is a tank that’s constantly moving across the battle, using its quick gun and mobility, so being accurate on the move and after moving benefits this tank greatly. As vertical stabilizer improves on-movement-dispersion, its by far the better equipment choice over refined gun.

Gameplay advice

Chieftain/T95 is a heavium. It has medium mobility, a very medium-like gun, and is somewhat heavily armoured (by medium standards).

Play as a medium:
This tank can work on either the medium flank or on the heavy flank, but its more medium than heavy. Either flank you go to, play it like its just a big medium tank.

On the medium flank, this tank has the mobility to keep up with mediums, it has a gun that’s accurate enough to hit fast moving tanks, and high DPM that can out-DPM most tier 7-9 medium tanks it faces against.
The main advantage it has on this flank is its high amount of HP, and above average armour. Of course its DPM, accuracy, and high shell velocity also work very well here.

On the heavy flank, the Chieftain struggles a bit more. There are more large caliber guns, so it will be hard to trade shots as the alpha damage of 225 is not very impressive. However it can easily out DPM nearly every tank it faces, even tier 9 tanks, and since most heavies are far less accurate, there’s also a higher chance that enemies miss the hatch if you are moving back and fourth.

Armour use:
If using the armour, its best not to drive forward up to a ridge. You want to keep you tank parallel to the ridge as much as possible, so when your turret is exposed, you can move back and fourth across the ridge. This is basically the only way that enemies will miss the hatch, since its so large.

Don’t sidescrape:
50mm of side armour really won’t be bouncing anything but the lowest caliber guns in tier 7-8. Since its so thin, the double overmatch mechanic take a large effect on this tank’s side armour, so medium and large caliber guns can easily penetrate the sides just by shooting the tracks.

Overall

Armour – 6.5/10
Gun – 9/10
Mobility – 8.5/10
Speed – 8/10

Chieftain/T95 is overall a great heavium tank.

Armour is very good frontally, strong upper plate and very strong turret. The sides can’t be used in angling/sidescraping. Lower plate and cupola are large and weak. HE protection is good. Due to the cupola, frontal armour effectiveness is greatly reduced.
Gun has amazing DPM, accuracy, aim time, gun handling, and reload rate. Gun depression and penetration are good, but alpha damage is low.
Mobility is great, amazing terrain resistances, strong engine, and high acceleration rate. Only traverse speeds are fairly mediocre. Reverse speed is amazing.
Speed is great, 40km/h.

 If not for that enormous hatch on the top of the turret, this would be the most versatile and flexible tank in tier 8. It has armour, it has speed and mobility, and it has a great gun.

As it stands though, the hatch is there, so its armour is just average, but nonetheless the tank still has good HP, one of the best guns in tier 8, and some of the best mobility on any heavy tank. Its a great heavium vehicle.

Is it worth getting?

Usually the Chieftain is quite cheap, and so it is worth it. It has very good statistics, and its a combination that works well in battle. Its just basically a large medium tank, but it can work on either the heavy side or the medium side.

If you really dislike tanks with large weakpoints, it will be best to avoid this tank. Its better to think of this tank as a large medium with high HP and decent armour, rather than a heavy with a huge weakpoint and small gun.

Chieftain/T95 is worth 8,000 gold, Its quite a unique and interesting vehicle, its has comfortable stats, and its overall just quite a good tank. 
Often its sold for quite cheap, so overpaying shouldn’t be an issue.

Most recently sold for:

6,000 gold (tank only) – September 2022
6,000 gold (tank only) – March 2023
7,500 gold (in a bundle with Lorraine 40t & T-2020) – May 2023
5,500 gold (Starting price), 4,000 gold (Final price) in Auction – August 2023

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