Defender Mk.I

Last updated on 12 July 2024

The Defender Mk.I is a tier 8 British medium tank. Its a Centurion Mk. III with improved turret armour, a stronger engine, and a 4 shell autoloading gun with great accuracy & penetration.

1. Armour
2. Gun
3. Mobility
4. Equipment, provisions, & consumables
5. Gameplay advice
6. Is it worth getting?
7. Most recently sold for:

Armour

(The Defender Mk.I in the images is using Improved Assembly)

Drag slider right -> to view 220mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 53mm HE

Armour when flat & facing head-on:
Upper plate 125-130mm
Lower plate 115-120mm

Turret cheeks 210-280mm
Gun mantlet 275-510mm
Turret roof 275mm auto-ricochet

Side armour:
The side armour is very weak, at 51mm thick. Since the Defender Mk.I doesn’t have sideskirts, its quite easy to HE.

Armour vs all tier 7-9 tanks:
The Mk.I’s hull armour is weak to all enemies that it can face, it won’t bounce anything, even from the lowest of penetration tanks.

The turret is strong to all enemies, even the highest penetration tier 9 enemies. There are areas next to the gun mantlet or in the very center of the mantlet that are penetrable to very high penetration ammo, but these are very hard to hit, and often not reliable.

The roof of the tank is weak, if the tank is going down a hill, or on any sort of slope, the roof is easily penetrated.

Weakpoints on turret:
The gun mantlet’s center has 0mm armour behind it (255mm+0mm), so if you have high AP or APCR penetration (at least 260mm), you can penetrate right through the mantlet.

If using HEAT, you can aim for the turret roof, if the tank is angled downwards even slightly, most HEAT ammunition can easily penetrate, and even AP/APCR with good penetration.

Gun

The Defender Mk.I has an autoloading 20pdr (83.4mm) gun

-Alpha damage is 190 on AP, 160 on APCR, and 250 on HE
-It has a 2s intra-clip reload, and a 16s clip, reload giving it 2077 DPM
-The gun has 4 shells, so in 6s it can deal a 760 damage burst.
-Penetration is 226mm on AP, 259mm on APCR, and 42mm on HE
–Estimated aim time is 2.6s/2.8s
-Dispersion is 0.301/0.271
–Gun handling is 0.13/0.13/0.08, or 0.11/0.11/0.07 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -10 degrees

For a British 20pdr gun this one is slightly better than average, having much improved aim time at the expense of already good dispersion. The gun also has the typical characteristics of great gun handling and high penetration; however since its an autoloader it doesn’t have great DPM.

Mobility

-Top speed is somewhat low at 46km/h forwards, and -20km/h in reverse
-Traverse speed is 62.5 deg/s on hard terrain and 56.8 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 24.2 hp/t, it has a strong 1093hp engine for its 45 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 24.2 hp/t on hard terrain, and 22 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are average, at 1/1.1/1.5

Though its top speed is more limited than other mediums, the Mk.I’s mobility is still very good. Its able to accelerate and traverse, and its speed definitely doesn’t hold the tank back.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

Defender Mk.I has no special provisions/consumables.

Calibrated Shells:
Due to the Defender Mk.I being an autoloader it can have increased penetration without having a DPM penalty. The accuracy and mobility of the tank are not bad so there isn’t much reason to need improved ventilation.

Using calibrated shells will improve the tanks already impressive penetration of 226/259/42, up to an amazing 244/271/45; which no other MT can match in terms of standard penetration.
Using it will also increase your shot efficiency, which can compensate for the typical low DPM that is a trait of most autoloaders.

Improved ventilation does work just fine on this tank if you really want to use it. The gun already has great penetration and it doesn’t need increasing, however the tank also already has amazing accuracy and aim time, so they don’t need improvement either.

Vertical Stabilizer:
As the Defender Mk.I has a proper autoloader gun, where it fires all of its shells within just 6s; it needs vertical stabilizer. The tank also already has great accuracy, so refined gun really wouldn’t benefit it much.

Vertical stabilizer improves the reticle bloom after each shot, which is especially useful on autoloaders with fast intra-clip reloads. Of course it also improves its gun handling during and after movement, and due to being an active medium, the Mk.I needs good gun handling on move.

Gameplay advice

The Defender Mk.I is all about using the turret armour and being hulldown, other than this it basically just plays like a Centurion 1 with an autoloader.

Go hulldown:
Due to its extremely large and weak hull, the Defender Mk. I must use hulldown positions to be effective in its armour. The turret armour is extremely strong, and as long as the tank isn’t angled downwards and you don’t sit still, the turret can very easily bounce most enemies it faces.

If you only show the turret, you can very easily unload all your damage while being safe from damage.

Flank around:
As with any medium, especially autoloaders, the Mk. I should be looking for opportunities to get to the side or rear of the enemies flank. It can fully unload the clip and cause distractions for your team, and has enough mobility to relocate around the map.

Other than having that autoloader, the Defender Mk. I plays similarly to any other strong-turreted tier 8 medium.

Is it worth getting?

The Mk.I is a very good tank, though its not the easiest to play. 
Players may find the low top speed to be limiting, or the fact it has no hull armour, and an enormous profile which make it a huge target.
However it does have some very unique features that you cant really get on any other tank in the game. There really is no other medium tank autoloader, that has both an accurate 4-shell clip, and a very strong turret. If you are a good medium tank player, you should be able to do really well in this tank.

Defender Mk.I is worth around 9,500 gold. Its a great tank, but only to a skilled player. Its only really worth it if you want the strong turret armour and are ok with its limited top speed; otherwise a Progetto 46 or Škoda T27 are more fun/just as good.

Most recently sold for:

8,500 gold (tank only) – September 2022
8,500 gold (tank only) – March 2023
8,500 gold (tank only) – July 2024

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