Churchill III

Churchill III is a great starting premium tank due to its superb gun, very high HP, comfortable gun depression, and increased base XP coefficient.
It also comes with 2 flavours in its choice of guns.

Armour

vs 110mm AP (left image) 144mm APCR (right image)
-Lower plate 130mm
-Middle plate 92mm
-Upper left plate 92mm (weakpoint 66mm)
-Upper right plate 184mm (weakpoint 66mm)
-Turret 92mm (mantlet 80-175mm)

vs 144mm APCR
Compare these 2 images to the image above, the Churchill III has much more red on its armour if its angling, even against APCR.

When in the open, angle with your turret faced right, this keeps the weaker front left of your hull hidden. Overall it makes the tank harder to penetrate.

When going around a corner or building, go around the right side. Doing this means your tank will only expose the very strong 184mm upper-left plate, and your tracks hide the weaker 92mm right plate. (This is shown in the left image above)

If you go around the left side of a corner or building, it will expose the weak 92mm upper-right plate, giving enemies an easy shot into your hull armour. (Shown in the right image above)

Of course the turret is still weak, but at least it makes enemies take the time to aim, rather than immediately penetrating the hull.

vs 144mm APCR
Here you can see how the tracks completely hide the upper plate when sidescraping.
The tank is also overangled far past the usual sidescraping angle, so its a very forgiving sidescraper even if you make mistakes.

vs 110mm AP
-The turret can be angled to produce bounces, it needs to be turned at a 45 degree angle to the enemy gun, as the front and sides of the turret are both 92mm.
-This works for both sides of the turret

Considering everything above, the armour of the Churchill actually requires a lot of skill to use correctly, especially with the turret and upper plates.
However the tank can still work very well even if you don’t angle the turret or expose the front plates wrongly. It has high HP so it can take quite a few hits if enemies do penetrate, and the side armour is a very strong 80mm, so just sidescaping and turning the hull are already sufficient in this tank.
Don’t expect to bounce everything though, that’s not what this tank is made for.

Guns

Churchill III can use 2 guns, either a British 6pdr that has low alpha but fast reload, or a Soviet 76mm that has higher alpha with a longer reload.

6pdr gun:
-Reload time is 3.2s for 90 alpha, giving it 1685 DPM
-Penetration is 130mm on AP and 180mm on APCR. This gun has no HE shell.
-Aim time is 3.5s/3.8s, which is not great but its still decent in tier 5.
-Dispersion is 0.411/0.370 which is poor for such low alpha.
–Gun handling is very good for a tier 5 heavy at 0.19/0.19/0.08, and it can be improved to 0.16/0.16/0.07 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is a not great at -6, however its still decent as the gun is actually mounted quite low on the turret and the Churchill 3 has a fairly small profile.

76mm gun:
-Reload time is 5.7s for 160 alpha, giving it 1679 DPM
-Penetration is 110mm on AP, 155mm on APCR, and 38mm on HE
-Aim time is 3.3s/3.6s which is very good for this alpha.
-Dispersion is 0.397/0.358, decent for its damage.
–Gun handling is still very good at 0.19/0.19/0.16, and it can be improved to 0.16/0.16/0.14 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is an improved -8, which is much easier and more comfortable to use, though the gun is mounted slightly higher up in the turret.

Which gun?
The gun that’s easier to use is the Soviet 76mm gun with 160 alpha, its gun depression is more comfortable, and its DPM is only less by 6. The better accuracy and aim time mean this will definitely be more comfortable, especially to new players.
The British 6pdr gun with 90 alpha will be more fun since it reloads faster, and it has much higher penetration. Though due to having worse gun depression and needing to expose itself for longer to shoot at enemies, this gun is harder to use.

Mobility

-Top speed is decent at 28km/h, and an great reverse speed of -14km/h.
-Acceleration isn’t great, with 8.9hp/t on hard terrain, and 8.1hp/t on medium terrain.
-Traverse speed is very slow, 24.45 deg/s on hard terrain, and 22.1 deg/s on medium terrain.
-Ground resistances good, with 1.1/1.3/1.8

The mobility stats are quite unimpressive, with slow acceleration, traverse, and a fairly low top speed; though if you’ve played a Churchill tank before, this shouldn’t feel too slow.
The Churchill III does have the highest top speed for any Churchill tank.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

Churchill III has no special provisions/consumables.

Gun Rammer:
Churchill III does not struggle with penetrating tanks on either of its guns, so there is no reason to use calibrated shells. One of the strengths of this tank is its very good DPM, so use gun rammer.

Improved Assembly:
Churchill’s armour is not worth enhancing, it has many weakpoints like the hatches and the angled middle-plate which are just too weak, even if enhanced. Instead use improved assembly to give the Churchill III more HP, going from 840 up to 890, which is the highest in tier 5.

Vertical Stabilizer/Refined Gun:
Either can work on this tank. The gun is already well stabilized, having some of the best gun handling stats in tier 5, so it can use refined gun to improve its quite poor accuracy.
Alternatively, as this tank is a close-range fighter, it can improve the gun handling even further by using vertical stabilizer.

Pros/Cons

Pros-
Earns extra base XP:
The Churchill III often comes at the top of the battle results list even if you didn’t do too much in battle. This is because it makes additional base experience in battle.
This can be very useful for grinding free xp, crew xp (for HT crew skills), or just getting completing XP earning missions and events.

Earns extra credits:
This tank has a 151% credit coefficent, which is fairly average for a tier 5 tank. However due to its very high penetration on the 6pdr gun, and decent penetration on the 76mm gun, it does not need to spend credits firing premium ammo as much as other heavy tanks (T14 or KV-220).

Good to learn angling/sidescraping:
Other than the somewhat weak turret, the Churchill III is a very good tank for sidescraping as it has a middle-mounted turret, and its tracks extend so far forward that they are easily able to cover the upper plate. See the above armour analysis for an example of this.

Very high HP pool:
The Churchill III has the highest HP in tier 5, sitting at more than 50HP above what any other tier 5 can achieve.

Cons-
Weak overall frontal profile:
The Churchill III won’t bounce many shells if its not angled, while strong against tier 4 enemies, it has to be angled against tier 5-6 tanks or it will be easily penetrated.

Sluggish mobility:
The speed of this tank is a record-breaking 28km/h, but that’s only by Churchill standards.
If you compare the mobility to other non-Churchill tanks, its top speed is fairly low, its traverse speed is very poor, and it accelerates very slowly.

Is it worth getting?

If you are a new player, the reasons to get the Churchill III would be:
-Increased XP earning
-Increased credit earning
-Learning to sidescrape/use gun depression
-Variation in gameplay/choice of guns

If you are a diehard fan of Churchill tanks, you will probably appreciate the increased top speed and gun depression that this tank has over every other Churchill.

If any of these reasons appeal to you then yes it is worth getting. However if you don’t like the cons of the tank listed above, it would be better to consider a different premium tank.

Tank cost:

2,400 gold, permanently available in the tech tree premium section.

Camo cost:

Currently the Churchill III has no legendary or rare camouflage.

This image shows the different, Soviet-style gun mantlet for its 76mm gun.