Centauro B1

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The B1 Centauro in Steel Beasts Professional

Centauro: Tank Destroyer


Statistics

Main gun: Oto Melara 105mm L52
Ammunition Stowage: 14 ready/26 stowed
Default Ammunition: 3/7 DM33 APFSDS-T, 4/6 HEAT ME-456A1, 3/7 L-35 HESH, 4/6 OE 105 F1 HEF-T


Coaxial machine gun: 7.62mm MG3
Ammunition Stowage: 750 ready/1900 stowed
Default Ammunition: 750/1900 7.62mm NATO


Grenade Dischargers: 76mm Grenade dischargers
Ammunition Stowage: 3 ready/5 stowed
Default Ammunition: 3/5 Smoke


Armour protection:
Frontal Turret Armour: Thin Steel, 205-210mm vs KE, 505-530mm vs HEAT. Weak GPS area.
Frontal Hull Armour: Thin Steel, 90-290 vs KE, 280-1300 vs HEAT
(no information within SB documentation)

Centauroarmour.jpg

Combat Mass: 26.85 tonnes
Length: 7.85m (Hull)
Width: 2.94m
Height 2.73m to turret roof
Engine Power: 520hp IVECO V6 turbo-Diesel
Top Speed: 108kph

General

The Centauro is an Italian-produced 8x8 wheeled tactical reconnaissance vehicle and tank destroyer in use by the Italian (1991) and Spanish (2000) armies. Although classed as a "Tank Destroyer" the Centauro is better used for tactical reconnaissance and fire support rather than to engage enemy armor. With this in mind, the Centauro is typically employed as part of a light armored cavalry platoon consisting of: a two vehicle section of Centauros, two scout sections of two VEC-M1 cavalry reconnaissance vehicles each, and one platoon command vehicle (VEC). It sees similar use with Italian forces, paired with their 4x4 and 6x6 Puma APCs, but in a near one to one ratio.

As currently modeled, all crew positions are player-controllable, however, it should still be regarded as work-in-progress. For this reason, there are no tutorials for this vehicle yet. Additionally, this article is also work-in-progress and may contain some wrong information

Note that revisions prior to 3.002 had a bug where having Centauros present in a scenario generates masses of network traffic, and those scenarios tend to be unreliable for Internet play. LAN and single user scenarios are unaffected.

Thermal Signature

Centauro TIS image, front-right Centauro TIS image, rear-left

Crew Positions

Commander's Position F7

The Centauro commander's position, looking straight ahead


The commander's place is to the left of the gun. It features a GPS extension, a Peri, and vision blocks. The commander may unbutton and move the viewpoint outside of the vehicle. As of version 3.011 he can man the external commander's MG3, by pressing the Alt+F3 keys.

GPS Extension F2

This seems to be just a replication of the gunner's primary sight's TI channel. Toggling the TI via Num + just turns it off (?).

There is no symbology displayed in the sight.

Commander's Peri F3

The commander's peri features two magnification levels (press N to toggle, note that the screen will blank for a second or so while the observation system moves into place) and three modes of operation (selected using the P key (or palm switch) and the right mouse button, see below):

By default the peri is slaved to the gun (the peri is effectively turned off). The readout in the bottom of the sight reads "PAF". You can enable this mode by pressing the P key.
Peri, PAF mode, low magnification
In designate mode the gun follows the peri. The readout at the bottom of the sight changes to "DAF". You may override the gunner's ammunition selection in this mode (either by the "usual" hotkeys PgUp Ins Del PgDwn or by joystick button 5). The gunner will acknowlege that he "sees" a target by yelling "identified!".
Peri, DAF mode, high magnification
In observation mode the peri is independant of the gun. The readout at the bottom of the sight changes to "OAF".

The peri's relative position in respect to the gun is indicated by the rotational angle of the sight:
  • if the peri is to the right of the gun, the sight rotates counter-clockwise
  • if the peri looks to the left of the gun it rotates clockwise
  • if the peri looks in the opposite direction as the gun the sight has rotated 180 degrees (but since it is symmetric it will look just as if the peri looks in the same direction as the gun).


Of course, you can also look at the little turret clock in the lower-right corner of the screen, which is common to all units in Steel Beasts, unless the lower right turret clock has been diabled.||

Peri, OAF mode, peri looks 45deg to the right of the gun (sight is rotated 45 degrees counter-clockwise)

Peri, OAF mode, peri looks 90deg to the right of the gun (sight is rotated 90 degrees counter-clockwise)

Vision Blocks F4

Yeah, well.. vision blocks, laser-proof.

Gunner's Position F6

The Centauro gunner's position, looking straight ahead


The gunner's station is located to the right of the gun. Note that the gunner can neither move the view through the hatch, nor man the MG mounted on top of the turret.

Gunner's Primary Sight (GPS) F2

The GPS features an (approximately) 8x day channel and a thermal view with both (approximately) 8x and 12x magnification. You can toggle between day and thermal view using the Num + key. Toggling the magnification while in thermal view mode is done using the / key (in the command list it is referred to as the Toggle TIS FOV command).

Sight Symbology

Centered at the top of the sight are three dots: from left to right they are green, red and orange. The green dot indicates that the system is ready to fire. The red dot blinks after an unsuccessful lase, for instance if you got multiple returns. The orange dot is probably some kind of system status (power?) light.

GPS daylight view, 8x magnification, TC override is active
GPS TI view, 4x magnification

Below the three dots the currently selected ammunition and range is selected. It will display "AF" for sabot, HE for heat, HS for Hesh, RO for whatever that means and MG for the coax. Note that this text will blink as long as no valid firing solution has been entered into the system (this will be explained later). If the commander overrides the gunner this text will be replaced by "DESIGN.".

Engaging Targets

The firing process is as follows:

  • Track the target
  • Lase - if the red dots flashes lase again, take care not too aim too low/high
  • Keep the "Lead prediction" button (middle mouse button or button 3) pressed until the text stops flashing
  • Fire
  • Release the "Lead prediction"

Note that since the Centauro's 105mm ammunition has a non-combustible (brass?) case, it can easily (at least compared to M1 or Leopard 2) be unloaded. Just pressing one of the other ammunition hotkeys will unload the gun. Note that you will have to release the "Lead prediction" button in this case, as otherwise the FCS will not be updated and calculate the firing solution based on wrong ballistics data!

Gunner's Auxiliary Sight (GAS) F3

There is also the gunner's auxiliary view (F3) which is unstabilized. Note that the gun (and with it the view) has to move to a specific elevation in order to be reloaded.

GAS view, Sabot reticle selected
Selecting the proper reticle

You can change the reticle to conform to your currently selected ammunition using the R key.

Vision Blocks F4

This seems to be a bit work in progress, the only usable block is at your right.

Driver's Position F9

In Steel Beasts the driver's position on the Centauro is crew-able. The driver's position is accessed by pressing F9.

Driver's vision blocks

When buttoned up, the driver views the world through 3 vision blocks set in the roof of his compartment.