I'd forgotten what a grind tier 9 is

Draschel:  Centurion 7/1 is mediocre at its best. That is why people dislike Strv K, mediocrity. Mediocre at its best. Is Strv K awful, like WZ120 or Mauschen? No, it isn't, but its mediocre. And at a tier where reward prems like Phase 1, Concept 1, Kamp pz dominate, Strv K don't sit too well in the spot-light. And as a paid for premium, that don't sit well two-fold 7/1 has poorer gun handling for a late tier med. While the accuracy and aim time are fine, .18/.18 dispersion don't cut it. The turret armor is not solid, it is passable. Mediocre. DPM is sub par. Camo sub par Actually quite the opposite to what you have said, 7/1 shines from starting out stock. Unlike Patton, E50, T54 - centurion starts out at least with 226/259 pen semi-capable gun. And at 2,399 base DPM, it isn't a travesty. In fact I completed cent 7/1 nearly averaging 2.6k DPG with the second gun, 20pdr B barrel, pretty much the same thing as the stock gun simply because huge DPM increase from top gun, and better gun handling. I wish more tanks were like this, offering a nice window of opportunity to avoid painful stock grinds, such as something dumb like ST-I. If you start straight into STI from KV4, without doing IS3 you are hooped totally, stuck in molasses with a useless 175 pen derp gun.  Or playing VK4502A without completing Ferdinand first for the engines,  wow.  Ferdinand doesn't need mobility, nor does it really get mobile anyway when elite engine-up. But VK4502A NEEDS THE ENGINES  I wish more tanks were like this, sort of how the old tech trees were designed and placed. Where one thing leads and helps out the other. Now WG is making newer tech trees with individual, isolated modules invoking long nonsense grinds. Like giving Panther II  E50 once-unique L100  88 gun to help out E50 grind. See how AMX30 proto has the SA47 100mm, so if you went up the heavy tank line first  (AMX50100 or 65T)  you'd unlock a capable middle gun for AMX. And as mentioned before, using IS3  BL9 122mm gun to help out tanks like T10, 257, STI from stock. British LTV light tank another good example, stock gun being Setter top gun, is just as capable as top gun and you can complete the grind with it.  Take for example, some new lines introduced. Vz 44-1 and VTU K are supposed to be sharing the 'same' gun, 105mm Vz39. But the guns are 2 different guns, requiring 2 individual grinds. Why do 25TP K, DP Pz, Bugi, 40TP share guns.....but 45TP, CS44 have different ones? Especially painful because 45TP Habi could've used the non derpy 90mm CS44 gets.  Why doesn't SU101 get SU100M1 top gun to help out its grind? But instead gets a whopping 3 other new guns. The game lacks the strategic planning it used to have. Hate it. WG wants people out grinding every single piece now.