FV4201 Chieftain Proto

Last updated on 19 May, 2025.

The FV4201 Chieftain Proto is a tier 9 British heavy tank. It features very similar characteristics to the old Chieftain Mk.6, having premium APCR instead of HESH, great turret armour & gun depression, high DPM, and good mobility. It also features the same downsides, having terrible hull armour on all areas but the upper plate.

Armour

(The Chieftain Proto in the images is using Improved Assembly)

Drag slider right -> to view 246mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 320mm HEAT

Armour when facing head on:
Upper plate 383mm
Hull corners 265-480mm
Lower plate 135mm

Turret front 340-460mm+
Weakpoint under gun 270-290mm
Cupola 90mm

Using -10 gun depression:

Upper plate 670mm
Hull corners 300-390mm
Turret front 370-600mm+
Weakpoint under gun 250-260mm
Cupola 92mm

Side & rear armour:
The Chieftain Proto has the same terrible side & rear armour of the Chieftain Mk6, 38mm on the lower sides, 25mm thick tracks, and a 6mm spaced sideskirt. The upper sides at the hull rear are 50mm thick.

The tank’s rear armour is 25mm thick, which is one of the worst of any tier 10 heavy tank.

Armour vs all tier 8-10 tanks:
The armour performance of the tank on flat ground is the same against any tank you face. The lower plate is extremely weak and prone to being HESH’ed, the upper plate is extremely strong and impenetrable to everything, and the turret is fully impenetrable except on the cupola.

When using gun depression, all enemies will be able to penetrate the area under the gun. Tier 8s will need premium ammo to go through, but most heavies definitely have enough penetration, but mediums & lights will struggle.
Tier 9-10 tanks can generally penetrate with standard ammo, especially if they have pretty decent penetration (250mm+ on AP), but premium ammo will guarantee it.

The weakpoint under the gun is still fairly small, so you can avoid being hit by just imediately retreating after a shot, or not sitting still while hulldown.

Gun

The FV4201 Chieftain Proto mounts a 120mm gun.

Firepower:
-Ammo: APCR/APCR/HESH.
-Penetration: 260/310/110mm.
-Alpha damage: 400/340/515.
-Reload time is 9.0s for a total of 2657 DPM.

Handling:
–Estimated aim time is 3.7/3.9s
–Base aim time is 2.5s, but it can get down to 1.92s
-Dispersion is 0.308/0262
–Gun handling is 0.17/0.17/0.1, or 0.15/0.15/0.09 with Vertical Stabilizer.

Usability:
-Shell velocities are 1372/1350/671 m/s.
-Gun depression is -10 degrees around the entire tank, except the rear where its -0.

Overall this is a great gun. It has very good DPM, incredible shell velocities on both its APCR shells, good gun handling, amazing dispersion, and very nice HESH shells.
The only areas of this gun that don’t stand out much are its aim time, which is fairly mediocre (but well compensated by good aim time and accuracy); and the overall penetration of its standard and premium ammo.

Mobility

Raw stats:
-Forward speed is 42km/h.
-Reverse speed is -15km/h.
-Raw acceleration rate is 15.3 hp/t.
-Engine power is 862.5hp for the 56 ton weight.

Hard terrain mobility:
-Actual acceleration is 15.3 hp/t.
-Traverse speed is 36.7 deg/s.

Medium terrain mobility:
-Actual acceleration is 11.8 hp/t.
-Traverse speed is 28.2 deg/s.

Terrain resistance stats:
–Terrain resistances are 1/1.3/1.9

Overall the Chieftain Proto has good mobility, its above average in terms of its acceleration rate, with fairly average traverse speeds. However its top speed is great, and if you try to avoid medium terrain you can be one of the faster tier 9 heavies.

Equipment, Consumables, & Provisions

FV4201 Chieftain Proto has no special consumables or equipment.

Gun Rammer/Calibrated Shells:
Gun rammer will let the tank really stand out in terms of its DPM, having a noticeably faster reload than other 400 alpha heavy tanks. This is helpful for brawls or a support role where you can utilize the good DPM to farm damage.
Gun rammer would reduce the reload time from 9.5s to 9.0s, and increase DPM from 2524 to 2657.

Calibrated shells works well for this tank as well, since it features a lot of hulldown gameplay. In hulldown fights there’s not much pressure on reloading fast, as you can pull back and fully reload most of the time, so the increased penetration is often more useful to deal with the strong hulldown armour of enemies.
Calibrated shells increase penetration on standard APCR from 260mm to 273mm, on premium APCR from 310mm to 326mm, & on HESH from 110mm to 119mm.

Improved Assembly:
Enhanced armour is not needed on the Chieftain Proto, since most armour on this tank relies on good angling rather than being very thick. On top of that, the armour of the tank is already very good on the upper plate & turret without needing improvements.

If using enhanced armour, the only area it would benefit is the weaker area under the gun, however its not a big enough difference to help bounce extra shots in the majority of cases (and its only one very specific area, other armour areas don’t benefit).

Its better to use improved assembly, increasing the HP from 2050 up to 2132, which will let you take a bit extra damage or survive a high roll when your tank does get penetrated by enemy ammo.

Improved Control:
Both this and engine accelerator equipment work well, however the unimpressive traverse on medium terrain is quite noticeable, and with already adequate acceleration, it might be worth improving the traverse speed.

Improved control increases traverse on hard terrain from 36.7 to 38.7 deg/s, and on medium terrain from 28.2 to 29.8 deg/s.

Vertical Stabilizer/Refined Gun:
Vertical stabilizer helps to improve the tank’s gun handling and reduce the effective aim time needed to aim in a shot after moving. This helps to balance out the fairly unimpressive base aim time of the tank.

Use refined gun if you really want to min-max the tank’s accuracy trait, as the 0.308 dispersion (already one of the best in all of tier 9, not just among heavy tanks) will be reduced down to 0.262, giving it great snapshotting capabilities if you want to just shoot without aiming much.

Gameplay advice

Just like the tier 10 Chieftain Mk.6, the Chieftain Proto has very similar gameplay, at least in terms of how it uses its armour & mobility.

Its more of a supporting role tank when it can’t play in hulldown positions, but when there are hulldown positions to use, it can frontline and hold quite well.

General gameplay:
Check the map and team lineup at the beginning of battle to help decide where to go in the battle.

Try to prioritize using the tank in hulldown positions, where it can hide its weak hull and ideally use some gun depression to make the cupola harder to hit.

If on a map with a lot of flat ground, and very few hulldown positions on the heavy flank (such as Desert Sands), it might be a good idea to go to the medium flank, as the tank has good enough mobility & gun to do so. Alternatively, you could take up 2nd line positions behind other allied heavies, letting them take the hits wile you support with firepower.

The Chieftain Proto is not suited to being a frontline tank or a brawler, and the only situations where it can work like that will be when allied tanks take the attention of enemies, since your armour just isn’t suited for such engagements.

In general, the strong turret, and great gun and good speed/mobility in battle, prioritize hulldown use, or a support playstyle, but don’t be a frontline tank absorbing the hits (unless its on a ridgeline).

Use gun depression and ridgelines:
The Chieftain’s armour works best when hiding the lower plate, so try to use gun depression positions, or at least hulldown positions on flat ground. If not doing this, then the tank’s armour is extremely unreliable.

Try to not sit still when using your gun depression, since the area of the turret under the gun will be fairly weak. Its still a small weakpoint, so you can try to turn & wiggle the turret left/right, and move the hull back, to try force enemies to miss that weakpoint.

Use HESH:
Using the HESH ammo in battle will help to greatly increase the effectiveness of the Chieftain’s gun. The 110mm of penetration allows it to be used against the lower plates of very lightly armoured tanks (such as Leopard PTA/1), and the sides of all MT and most HT.

Avoid using HESH at very long ranges if the enemies are not sitting still or have a fairly small HESH weakpoint, as the low velocity of 671m/s does make it a lot harder to use the further you get from your target.

Hull armour:
Avoid relying on the armour at all when the tank’s hull is exposed. The performance of armour is just like the Chieftain Mk.6, and once enemies can see your hull, you stop bouncing shots.

The lower plate is very weak (130-140mm) and prone to HESH (even from tier 8 tanks), the lower plate is also large, making it fairly challenging to bait misses if you don’t have a good position to hide behind.

The side armour is only 38mm thick, meaning you can’t turn or angle the hull at all, as any tank can just shoot the side or tracks and their shot is almost always guaranteed to penetrate.

Facehugging enemies will be the best bet as a last resort to bounce damage, otherwise its better to try retreat into cover where you can hide the hull or just reposition.

Overall gameplay of the Chieftain Proto is fairly similar to the Chieftain Mk.6, at least in how it uses its armour. It should only rely on armour when fully hulldown and the hull is hidden, otherwise you can use the good gun and speed to support allies by being a 2nd line tank or by going with mediums.

Overall

Armour – 6/10
Gun – 7/10
Mobility – 6/10
Speed – 7.5/10

Chieftain Proto is overall a good tank.

Armour while hulldown and using gun depression is great, but weak in all other aspects. HE protection is decent on front and sides, but not rear. Armour on flat ground is decent, but lower plate is weak.
Gun is good, great accuracy, good gun handling, high DPM, & great gun depression. Aim time is mediocre, with average standard & premium penetration, but great HESH shells.
Mobility is good, with good acceleration, and average traverse speed. Reverse speed is also average at -15km/h.
Speed is great, 42km/h.

Is it worth getting?

The FV4201 Chieftain Proto is worth getting, but not for everyone.

This is a tank that experienced players will be able to excel in, as the tank requires good game knowledge of hulldown positions, enemy armour thickness (for HESH use), and knowledge of the different maps and team lineups. Its a great tank with predominantly hulldown focussed gameplay, a very nice gun, good mobility, strong turret, but generally poor hull armour.

The Chieftain Proto is worth 14,000 gold. Its a a good tank with some very nice traits, making it essentially a perfect hulldown heavy tank with some very comfortable gun stats even for non-hulldown situations. Definitely not a tank for everyone as the weak armour on flat ground will make it much harder for less experienced players to use.

Most recently sold for:

Release in the Golden Ticket draw – May 2025

Legendary Camos:

“Goldvein” 3D, animated, currently only available though the draw.

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