With John Lee
With all the new cool stuff coming out for this release, I thought it would be a good opportunity to also review the existing Main Battle Tanks. When Team Yankee was first launched there was only the T-72 that Soviet players could take. With the release of Red Thunder, the T-64 was introduced. Oil Wars brought us the T-62M. This release brings all these tanks together in one book alongside the new T-80 and T-55AM.
So many choices now for the Soviet player and with V2 of the rules, allows to take Black Box units as Formation Support giving us more options to field combinations of tanks depending on your play style. In this article, we look at the existing tanks (T-64, T-72, T-62M), their stats, cost and comparisons.
The T-64:
Starting off with the T-64, prior to this release was the premier go to Tank for the Soviet player. It has FA17 SA9 TA2, BDD armour (side 13 against HEAT), tactical 14” move, 32” range AT22 gun with advanced stabiliser, optional AT21 missile with range out to 48” that can be fired on the move!
The gun – AT22 with advanced stabiliser means moving up to 14” and able to fire its main gun on the move with no penalty. So effectively its range is up to 46” if you move and fire. Brutal – hit dug in infantry with it and that infantry team is re-rolling its saves! Laser rangefinder – No +1 to hit targets over 16”.
The missile – AT21 that can be fired on the move with 16” – 48” range increases with tactical move of 14” to 62” range! Guided – no +1 to hit over 16”. HEAT – no +1 to armour save for over 16” range. For those missions where you have scattered reserves and they turn up at the other end of the table – no problem anymore with coming on at tactical and firing your missile giving you 62” range.
The armour – FA17 SA9 TA2. SA9 with BDD (effective against some of the infantry HEAT weapons by increasing to SA13) – a better chance for assaulting.
The speed – 14” tactical speed means you will keep moving suffering no penalties for moving and firing. 3+ cross check which means you will pass them 67% of the time. 16” terrain dash and 24” cross country dash if you need it.
The stats – Skill 5+ so you will not be doing much blitzing or shooting and scooting. Remount is 3+ so easier to get back in. Morale 3+ to stay in the battle. Assaults are 5+ but counterattack on 4+ – so get those assaults in and look to force your opponent off the objective! HQ has better stats of course, so you want the HQ close by for the assaults.
The battalion HQ comprises one tank for 6pts and can add an optional missile for +1pt.
Tank Company has a minimum of three tanks for 13pts and a maximum of ten tanks for 55pts. Each tank beyond the minimum is an additional 6pts. If you want the optional missile its +2pts for the whole company – a bargain when running a medium to large company of them. Fit up to three tanks with a Mine Clearing Device for 1pt for the company. If you run the minimum sized company of three tanks you get a massive discount. You could run a battalion of HQ plus three companies of three for 45pts leaving plenty of options to support them including taking a company of either Shock T-80s or a large company of T-62Ms or T-55AMs. In the past I tend to run a battalion of HQ plus two companies of five tanks (I find the companies of the right size for survivability). One of those companies I arm with missiles. Then I support them with BTR infantry plus the usual support options of AA, recon, artillery (and helicopters if points allow).
The T-72:
Next up is the T-72 tank. This iconic tank whilst replaced with the T-64 (and now T-80) is still a useful tank (especially as a Warsaw pact player). It still has a place in the soviet arsenal too. It has FA16 SA8 TA2, BDD armour (side 13 against HEAT), tactical 10” move, 32” range AT22 gun with stabiliser.
The gun – AT22 with stabiliser means moving up to 10” and able to fire its main gun on the move with no penalty. You can move up to 14” with a +1 penalty over 10”. So effectively its range is up to 46” if you move and fire. Brutal – hit dug in infantry with it and that infantry team is re-rolling its saves! Laser rangefinder – No +1 to hit targets over 16”.
The armour – FA16 SA8 TA2. SA8 with BDD (effective against some of the infantry HEAT weapons by increasing to SA13) – a better chance for assaulting.
The speed – 10” tactical speed means you will keep on the move, suffering no penalties for moving and firing. With stabiliser this means you can increase your tactical speed to 14” with a +1 to hit over 10”. 3+ cross check which means you will pass them 67% of the time. 16” terrain dash and 24” cross country dash if you need it.
The stats – Skill 5+ so you will not be doing much blitzing or shooting and scooting. Remount is 3+ so easier to get back in. Morale 3+ to stay in the battle. Assaults are 5+ but counterattack on 4+ – so get those assaults in and look to force your opponent off the objective! HQ has better stats of course, so you want the HQ close by for the assaults.
The battalion HQ comprises one tank for 5pts. Tank Company has a minimum of three tanks for 12pts and a maximum of ten tanks for 47pts. Each tank beyond the minimum is an additional 5pts. Fit up to three tanks with a Mine Clearing Device for 1pt for the company. If you run the minimum sized company of three tanks you get a massive discount. I tend to take T-72s as a support option for my BMP-2 Motor Rifle Battalion or Air Afgansty formation when I want more quality tanks but need to shave points where I cannot quite fit the number of T-64s in that I want.
The T-62M:
Finally, the T-62M tank – released when Oil Wars came out gave the Soviet player their first cheap spam list tank, with a missile! It has FA14 SA9 TA2 with Bazooka Skirts, tactical 10” move, 32” range AT21 gun, optional AT21 missile with range out to 48”.
The gun – AT21 with NO slow firing rule means moving up to 10” and able to fire its main gun on the move with no penalty. So effectively its range is up to 42” if you move and fire. Brutal – hit dug in infantry with it and that infantry team is re-rolling its saves! Laser rangefinder – No +1 to hit targets over 16”.
The armour – FA14 SA9 TA2. Most modern tank guns and missiles will go right through the frontal armour but has enough to stave off attacks from other weapons. Side armour is relatively decent and has Bazooka Skirts which means it goes to 10 vs HEAT weapons. Against more modern infantry anti-tank armed units, it is still not going to stop it but against older weapons you have a chance.
The speed – 10” tactical speed means you will keep on the move, suffering no penalties for moving and firing. 4+ cross check which means you will pass them 50% of the time. 14” terrain dash and 20” cross country dash if you need it.
The stats – Skill 5+ so you will not be doing much blitzing or shooting and scooting. Remount is 3+ so easier to get back in. Morale 3+ to stay in the battle. Assaults are 5+ but counterattack on 4+ – so get those assaults in and look to force your opponent off the objective! HQ has better stats of course, so you want the HQ close by for the assaults.
The battalion HQ comprises one tank for 4pts and can add an optional missile for +1pt.
Tank Company has a minimum of three tanks for 5pts and a maximum of ten tanks for 29pts. Beyond the minimum three tanks it is an additional 2pts for the 4th tank, 3pts for the 5th and 6th tanks each, then an additional 4pts per tank thereafter. A massive discount if you are running three or four tank companies. You could easily run a dual formation of HQ plus three companies of four tanks for 32pts a formation and running two of them costs 64pts. That is 26 tanks running amuck with lots of points for support. I would run a single formation of HQ plus three companies of seven with one company armed with the AT-10 stabber missile for 60pts leaving me options to take an BTR infantry formation as well plus artillery, recon, and helicopters. Seven to eight tanks are large enough to have a chance of surviving and not as inflexible as trying to manoeuvre nine or ten.
Looking to compare the Tanks now directly, we can compare armour, weapons, and movement.
Armour stats:
| Tank | Front | Side | Top | Notes |
| T-64 | 17 | 9 | 2 | BDD |
| T-72 | 16 | 8 | 2 | BDD |
| T-62M | 14 | 9 | 2 | Bazooka Skirts |
Weapon stats:
| Tank Weapon | Range | ROF
Halted |
ROF
Moving |
Anti-Tank | Fire
Power |
Notes |
| T-64 125mm 2A46 gun | 32”/80cm | 1 | 1 | 22 | 2+ | Advanced Stabiliser, Brutal, Laser Rangefinder |
| T-72 125mm 2A46 gun | 32”/80cm | 1 | 1 | 22 | 2+ | Stabiliser, Brutal, Laser Rangefinder |
| T-62M 115mm 2A20 gun | 32”/80cm | 1 | 1 | 21 | 2+ | Brutal, Laser Rangefinder |
Missile stats:
| Missle | Range | ROF
Halted |
ROF
Moving |
Anti-Tank | Fire
Power |
Notes |
| AT-8 Songster (T-64) | 16”/40cm – 48”/120cm | 1 | 1 | 21 | 3+ | Guided, HEAT |
| AT-10 Stabber (T-62M) | 16”/40cm – 48”/120cm | 1 | – | 21 | 3+ | Guided, HEAT |
Movement Stats:
| Tank | Tactical | Terrain Dash | Cross Country Dash | Road Dash | Cross |
| T-64 | 14”/35cm | 16”/40cm | 24”/60cm | 28”/70cm | 3+ |
| T-72 | 10”/25cm | 16”/40cm | 24”/60cm | 28”/70cm | 3+ |
| T-62M | 10”/25cm | 14”/35cm | 20”/50cm | 24”/60cm | 4+ |
The T-64 has the best overall stats in terms of protection, gun, missile able to fire on the move and the fastest tank, especially at tactical (where it counts the most). From a cost perspective, the T-62M is probably the best overall. Its gun is quite good with AT21 and an optional missile means you have options with your force build giving you flexibility to run a decent armed tank in either spam mode or paired with an infantry formation, giving more a balanced approached but lots of firepower. The downside is that it has a worse cross check. The T-72 is the poor man’s T-64 really. It is used where missiles on the tank are not required for your playstyle and for me its best used a formation support option for an infantry formation where you need a good tank but not quite enough points for T-64s or T-80s. The best use for T-72s is in the Warsaw pact formations. I run a Czech T-72M formation and it works well.
There you have it, there is still a place for the existing tanks in your arsenal, even with the new T-80 and T-55AM out. Happy list building!