Leopard 1

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In Team Yankee

The Stats

The ancestor of the Leopard 2, the Leopard 1 serves as the spearhead of armored recon forces (Schwere PanzerAufklarung) in the West German arsenal. While inferior to the Leopard 2 in movement, AT and technology (Advanced Stabilisers, Thermal Vision), the Leopard 1 has a key role in providing affordable anti-armor firepower. While incapable of engaging any modern armor, the Leopard 1 can comfortably engage other Second Generation tanks like the T-55AM2 and the Patton. at close range, the L7 gun has an AT value of 19 which means that enough shots may eventually penetrate the front of a T-64. However, AT19 means that the Leopard 1 may have a use to players capable of getting a panzer zug into your enemy's flank where their moving ROF of 2 can threaten tanks from the side or artillery pieces with their 2+ FP.

However, the affordability of the Leopard 1 comes at a severe cost: the absence of any notable armor. With a pitiful front of NINE, bazooka skirts somehow grant the sides higher AV than the frontal glacis against HEAT weapons. While immune to autocannons, the Leopard 1 collapses in the face of most anti-tank weapons. RPG-18s, and BMP 1s can reliably defeat Leopards; with the winner in such engagements being the one who gets the first shot off. As with most other tanks, the Leopard 1 can put out 4 MG shots against infantry within 16", or probably as defensive fire against helicopters and assaulting infantry.

Overall, the Leopard is a competitive option, if somewhat inferior to some other nations' offerings. The second cheapest NATO tank in-game at 3 points each, the Leopard 1 can be purchased in platoons of 2 or 3. Part of the Armoured Recce Company, they may also be taken as a Leopard 1 Kompanie under the rulings for Panzertruppe.

IRL

A Canadian Leo-1 at the Bovington Tank Museum

The Leopard 1 was a second generation MBT for the west Germans. It was meant to hold the line until the MBT-70 program bore fruit. That never happened so the west was at a severe disadvantage in MBTs. The Leopard 1 would serve well into the 21st century with the Canadian military but over all the tank is not that innovative or ground breaking. Mobility had priority, while firepower came second; armor was seen as less essential after all no one believed that protection against shaped charges and hollow warheads was possible.