T-72B

"Know your T-72 Variants, Kommeraden. It will protect you from Capitalist Autists"

In Team Yankee

All comments are thus far preliminary until the release of the Warsaw Pact Book in 2022.04.11 and further playtesting. Expect heavy editing

Soviet

The stats for the T-72B have officially been leaked, and they aren't half bad! For about 6 points per, you get a tank with the armor of an Abrams and the classic 125mm 2A46M cannon we all know and love. Lets walk through it!

First is the armor. Armor is the reason you take this thing, and it's pretty durable for a 6 point tank: Front armor 18, side armor 9, and ERA give it great resistances to NATO's second line equipment and even some of the more modern kit on the market. From the front you can effectively ignore the 105mm cannons mounted on the Leo 1, M60, Abrams, Merkava, and more. You get a decent (3 to tie) save against AT21 MILANs and TOWs, though you shouldn't rely on it more than you need to. The real place this tank sticks out is its Kontact-1 ERA. This makes it the cheapest tank in the game to have side armor 16 vs HEAT weapons, something that can come in particularly useful when you need to push some stubborn Brits off an objective. You don't have a great assault value in this regard, but you can bring the numbers to make up for this and, if supported by your commander, you have a good chance of outlasting your opponent.

All that said, don't get too cocky about your survivability. This is, after all, only a 6 point MBT, and recent updates have made FA 18 worth a lot less than it used to be in the glory days of 2016. The US can bring unholy levels of AT23 firepower that you're only tying on a 5, and many other nations can spam enough AT21 missiles to put a dent into your forces quite quickly if you aren't careful. This is where your relative cheapness comes in, but you aren't a T-55 player, so you can't rely on that to carry you. Use smoke and terrain to keep your tanks alive so they can do their job. But of course, you're a Soviet player, so you already knew that, right?

The second important aspect is firepower. This is somewhere else the T-72B mimics the T-80. You have the classic 125mm cannon, equipped with depleted uranium sabot (AT22), HE-FRAG (Brutal, 2+ FP), and even AT-11 Sniper missiles (AT22, 48" range HEAT & Tandem) if you please. This cannon is still very powerful, capable of dealing with 80% of the tanks in the game should it hit. The critical weakness here, indeed the critical weakness for all soviet tanks, is the RoF 1. This is the main reason you get the armor and firepower of a Leopard 2 for half the price. You will need to mass tanks to get the firepower you need to win tank duels, something that isn't terribly easy to do at 6 points each. As such, it may be worth it to pair it up with cheaper IFVs and missile carriers to augment your low RoF. The missile is an extra point per tank, making it rather hard to justify. On one hand, it gives you +1 AT at range, and lets you outrange everything else in the game (on the move, no less!), but the range advantage doesn't come into play much and a point per tank adds up quickly. If you bring them, you better have a plan. We only mentioned Tandem for completion, it's currently useless.

Mobility-wise, you have a T-72. 10" tactical, pretty decent dash speeds, and a 3+ cross that always fails when you need it. Nothing to write home about, but hardly terrible.

This thing is looking like the armored yin to the T-64s speedy yang. For a similar cost, you sacrifice a 14" tactical for somewhat better chances against midrange AT and immunity to 90% of the infantry rocket launchers in the game. This lets you focus more on getting decisively engaged rather than outmaneuvering and surprising the enemy, tanking rounds with your numbers and armor and assaulting to bully your enemy off objectives. It will most likely do best against the mid to higher end tanks in the game: Abrams, Chieftain, T-64, and Leopard 2. However, you lack the mobility, numbers, or armor to take on the super heavies (M1A1, Leopard 2A5, or Challenger 1). You'll also struggle to deal with tank spam.

East German

The People's "Super Dolly Parton" Deutch Tank

Your initial batch of 3 tanks costs 13 points and each tank after that costs an additional six points. Missiles for the whole company at 2 points total. With point costs like these, why would you ever run Soviet T64s? 14" tactical

The East German T-72B is the middle child of the Warsaw Pact offerings, with motivation that isn't going to carry you, but isn't going to screw you over. Much of what was said above for the Soviet version still applies here, but the list that this thing fits in is very different. Unlike the Soviets, this is your toughest tank and the only one you have that can go toe to toe with some of the latest NATO offerings. This makes it much more important to your lineup.

In the East German list, the T-72B is the closest you'll get to a brick wall damage dealer. They can't afford the casualties your lesser tanks can just absorb, but they have the armor that will (hopefully) keep it from coming to that. Their superior pen will hopefully keep NATO tanks honest, and their middle of the road stats give you a nice discount without potentially crippling you like it does with the Czechs.

Polish

Now with missile capability!

Your initial company of three tanks cost 15 points, with each additional tank being six points. Missiles can be outfitted to all tanks in the Company for two points total.

The T-72B is really valuable in Polish hands, finally giving them a tank that actually fits the quality and capabilities of its crews and syncing with their good skill and motivation to make a capable duelist and assault tank.

Much like with the Soviets, the thing you're paying for here is armor. The firepower boost is nice, but the armor is what really sells this thing. Finally you have something that can keep your premium crews alive. As mentioned above, the FA 18 makes you pretty much invulnerable to the tanks of yesteryear and gives you pretty solid chances of absorbing hits from even AT22 tanks, especially at range. While the armor values are nice, however, they're not the thing that makes this vehicle interesting. No, the real eye-catcher here is that ERA. This combines with the 3+ counterattack rating to make a very capable bullying assault tank. The assault rating itself may not be great, but the tanks are cheap and the ERA makes you invulnerable to 90% of the infantry in the game (watch out for French APILAS and Soviet RPG-7VRs) so even if you don't kill the infantry, you can push them off the objective for a win, or kick those pesky ATGMs out of that wood line at little risk to yourself.

Past the armor, the extra point of AT is cool, helps with dueling enemy tanks. Not much to say there, its just nice.

At least, that's what it looks like in theory, we'll see what it's like when they get played for a bit.

Czechoslovakian

Mind the watermark

Play testing is needed, but preliminary assessment indicates these tanks do not play towards Czech strengths. They are too expensive to spam and the lower Czech stats really start to clash with the strengths of this vehicle.

When your tanks cost 1-3 points, and usually explode in one hit from anything that pays attention to them, the Czech 5+ remount is largely irrelevant. If something survives and the crew actually get back in to your 1 point tank that's just a bonus. When the tank is worth 5 points or more you begin to care if it spends several turns doing nothing because the crew refuse to get back in. Armor 18 also means you'll be tying and bailing more often, making you regret being a cheapskate and not just taking the Polish or Soviet versions.

Additionally, while you do have side armor 16 against HEAT, giving you survivability in assault, the poor counterattack value means that these can't function as real assault tanks, since they'll more than likely be counterattacked off the objective they were trying to push, potentially losing some bailed tanks in the process.

So what exactly is this thing good for? Well, it's still a tank with the same armor and penetration as a Leo 2, while being half the price of the Dutch version. You may not be great at assaults, but bringing a company of these as a ruse or to have something that won't instantly melt to all the ATGMs, IFVs, and 2nd gen tanks being spammed by everyone isn't necessarily a bad idea.

3 tanks are 12 points, 10 tanks are 50 points. Every tank in between alternates between an extra 5 and 6 points each.

In Real Life

The T-72B is an upgraded version of the standard T-72 featuring a number of improvements meant to allow the tank to stand alongside the T-80 at the forefront of armored spearheads. These include an upgraded version of the 125mm main gun along with an improved stabilizer, sights, and fire control systems, the addition of appliqué armour in the front of hull, improved composites in the turret armor and Kontakt-51 Explosive Reactive Armor.

Currently large numbers of T-72B are lining the sides of Ukranian roads as burned-out husks. Despite all the upgrades, the T-72B is faring no better than Saddam's 'Lion of Babylon' T-72M against the sophisticated anti-armor weaponry of NATO. It’s been seen almost exclusively in the hands of Russians or their puppet militias and in addition to their poor employment, a few models have even been spotted without their ERA attached (or literal plastic rags being in the ERA bags), a horrifying prospect to any tanker in an environment crawling with anti-tank munitions. Seeing as how HEAT and Tandem shaped warheads were countered with the use of ERA armor blocks or APS systems, this is a complete devolution to 1960's armor protection levels.

East German Forces in Team Yankee
Tanks:	T-55 - T55AM2 - T-72M - T-72B
Transports:	BTR-60 - BMP-1 - BMP-2
Troops:	Mot-Schützen Kompanie - Hind Assault Landing Company
Artillery:	2S1 Carnation - BM-21 Hail - RM-70 - 2S3 Acacia
Anti-Aircraft:	ZSU 23-4 Shilka - SA-13 Gopher - SA9 Gaskin - SA-8 Gecko
Tank Hunters:	Spandrel
Recon:	BMP-1 OP - BRDM-2
Aircraft:	MI-24 Hind - SU-22 Fitter
Soviet Support:	SU-25 Frogfoot

Polish Forces in Team Yankee
Tanks:	T-55 - T55AM2 - T-72M - T-72B
Transports:	SKOT-2A - BMP-1 - BMP-2
Troops:	Zmotory Kompania - Hind Assault Landing Company
Artillery:	Dana SpGH - BM-21 Hail
Anti-Aircraft:	ZSU 23-4 Shilka - SA-13 Gopher -SA-8 Gecko
Tank Hunters:	Spandrel
Recon:	BMP-1 OP - BRDM-2
Aircraft:	MI-24 Hind - SU-22 Fitter
Soviet Support:	SU-25 Frogfoot

Czech Forces in Team Yankee
Tanks:	T-55 - T55AM2 - T-72M - T-72B
Transports:	OT-64 - BMP-1 - BMP-2
Troops:	Motostrelci
Artillery:	2S1 Carnation - Dana SpGH - RM-70
Anti-Aircraft:	ZSU 23-4 Shilka - SA-8 Gecko - SA9 Gaskin - SA-13 Gopher - M53/59 Praga
Tank Hunters:	Spandrel
Recon:	BMP-1 OP - BRDM-2
Aircraft:	MI-24 Hind - SU-25 Frogfoot - SU-22 Fitter