Churchill VII: Rock or Bunker?

[Mark IV]

I just ran into a Churchill VII in an armored battle with the AI.

I had a few tanks of my own. The engagement with this beast began at a hair over 300m.

From when I began keeping track, this THING took 48 confirmed hits from 75mm AP rounds, over 4 turns. I got two gun hits on it and Immobilized it but the MG kept working, the whole time.

The cutest thing was that I knew the gun was hit, but my panzers evidently didn't- they wouldn't go near the thing, nor cross in front of it (smarter than they look, I guess).

Looking at the armor thicknesses, it is a monster... is there any historical precedent for a Churchill VII taking this kind of punishment?

[Blue Macs]

the Churchill VII was a beast. there are two books i have called "Panzers at War", the older one has a story from a german tank crew who watched a C VII take 9 confirmed hits from Tiger tanks bfore it was abandoned after being immobilised, in CM i have watched 10 mins of combat with a Tiger + Hetzer against a C VII at around 300m with more ricochets than i have ever seen. unfortunately the C VII doesnt appear to have a good enuf gun to take out the things it can stand up to. the one thing that bothered me about the CM is that the ricochets off the front turret of the C VII go behind it at low level as if the armour is very sloped but in fact it is at 0 degrees. hmm. anyway i hope this is some enlightenment

BM

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"If you see a white plane it's American, if you see a black plane it's the RAF. If you see no plane at all it's the Luftwaffe." -German soldier, Western Front, 1944

[Guest Michael emrys]

The Churchill was designed as an infantry support tank (the idea of a general purpose tank hadn't quite sunk in among British designers yet). As such, it was slow (after all, it only had to keep up with infantry on foot), it was heavily armored to resist the largest AT guns it was anticipated to encounter (the 88 for instance), and it was armed to take care of infantry-type targets. While the 6lber. gun later models carried should be effective against the lighter German AFVs, it was never expected to go toe to toe with the likes of Tigers and Panthers.

One can certainly criticize the design philosophy that set the limits of gun and speed, it was still a useful tank within those limits, which is why it continued in production.

Michael