T-72M

Green and mean.

The T-72M was the export variant of the Russian T-72, sitting somewhere between the base "T-72 Ural" variant and the first upgrade "T-72A", it lacks the turret and glacis composite armour layers of her Russian brother and instead uses a form of spaced armour. Iraqi built T-72Ms became widely known for a shockingly poor showing in the hands of the Iraqi Rebublican Guard during the first Gulf War. Whether the tank's poor reputation is a fault of the design, its users or just its age as a tank, its mobility and the brute power of the 125mm 2A46 gun cannot be disregarded entirely.

In Team Yankee

The Stat Card

The more advanced tank option for East German commanders, the T-72M is a pretty decent option for those who want to bury their enemies in steel, but also want a tank that isn't older than their Opa.

The T-72M has the exact same armament as its Soviet model, so this might get a bit repetitive. The T-72M mounts a 125mm 2A46 gun which is quite capable of brutalizing early model NATO Main Battle tanks and stands a decent chance of damaging later models with it's AT value of 21, and with the FP of 2+, practically anything you penetrate you are going to blow up. It's also rather good at dealing with unarmored targets like infantry and light vehicles as the Brutal rule means that they have to re-roll their successful saves. The T-72M can fire on the move with near-impunity as the stabilizer negates the negative effects of moving, and the laser range-finder negates the penalties of firing at extreme range. The only downside is the fact that the 2A46 only has a ROF of 1, both halted and on the move, which means that you must mass tanks to mass fire. Oh, there is also a pair of machine guns; one 12.7mm AA mounted on a pintle and a 7.62mm mounted coaxially.

As for the armour, well let's just say that it isn't great. The frontal armour of the T-72M is 15, one better than the T55AM2 and the exact same as the M60 Patton. The T-72M will have a very difficult time dealing with Dedicated AT Weapons, especially HEAT shells as they don't lose penetration at extreme distances, although your okay-ish side armour of 8 does get a boost against them with Bazooka Skirts bumping the value up to 10. Notably, however, the armour is only one worse than the composite version.

T-72M Panzer Kompanies starts out with three tanks costing a total of 7 points. After that, you may add any number of vehicles to the unit up to a grand total of 10 T-72Ms, with every extra tank costing you an additional 4 points (so a max of 35). Yes this does mean that if you were using T55AM2s you could have twice the tanks for the same price, but you sacrifice a lot for that cheapness, so think about it before you join the Zerg rushing hordes.

Polish Variant

Polish Stats, towarzysz!

The Polish T-72M is a more offensively option for the prospective commander compared to the T-55AM2, with only one more point of armour and a tank capable of punching through M1 Abrams or Leopard 2s at close range when fired en-masse.

For a handful more points, your Polish tank company gains 3+ courage and remount over the East German version. However, the T-72M has the same problem as the T-55AM2: it does NOT survive if an enemy touches it. At 15 frontal armour, you have a chance against LRACs and RPG-17s but not much else. The T-72M serves as the most powerful offensive tool the Poles can bring to the table alongside the Mi-24W Hind. For only a handful more points than the East German version, your stats become much better suited for mine-clearing. Remount remains irrelevant since most hits will result in kills, but 3+ courage gives you some very nice utility when building an offensive tank list.

The Polish T-72M company may bring up 3 T-72Ms for 7 points, up to 10 for 37 points.

Czech Variant

Thought an even cheaper version of the T-72M would be worse? Think again.

It may have the worst statline of the T-72 family with 5+ remount and courage, but who cares? With 15 frontal armor you rarely need to roll for them. What makes this unit possibly the strongest variant is 4+ skill combined with the low cost. You can run them in units of 3 to 10 tanks, and a minimum sized unit gives you a discount. Starting at 2 points per tank with a minimum sized unit and costing 3 points per additional tank. The Czech T-72M has the cheapest bang for your buck. Your individual units may be rather shit, but the discount for a minimum sized unit allows for a decent alpha strike using MSU (multiple small units) if you don't mind giving up the kill points. If one goes down, there's another to take its place and a brutal, AT21 gun is still a very dangerous weapon: scary against tanks at close, scarier against entrenched infantry (because of how many more tanks you can bring from the discount).

Unlike your infantry, T-72Ms are squishy and are pretty unlikely to survive after being hit by ATGMs. The fact that they will instantly blow up when touched by dedicated anti-tank weapons like cannons or Milans. All T-72Ms suffer from this flaw, making the Czech version the best since stats like courage, morale and remount become less relevant: this unit dies too quickly to even test these stats. You are investing all your points into firepower: combined with the discount, you can bring the most tanks to the field without compromising on special rules (brutal) or firepower (T-55AM2).

You start with companies of 3 tanks at 6 points, up to 10 T-72Ms for 27 points.

IRL

Mine plough? Nein, panzer bayonet genosse!

A lot of what can be said about the T-72 apply's to the M version as well. The T-72M was the export version of the T-72 and it was cheaper to produce and less effective then the normal T-72. It had thinner armor and downgraded weapons systems. Both these traits show up in Team Yankee as the T-72M has 1 less front armor and anti tank on there main guns then the T-72's used in the Russian army proper. These export tanks are sometimes called "Monkey model" however, keep in mind that we in the west get that title from a soviet defector so take that name with a grain of salt. The Soviets did this for two reasons. One: the further away from mother Russia a tank got, the more likely it was that the Dratted Capitalists would get there hands on one(which happened NTC operates several T-72). Imagine if a tank like the T-72 got sold to Iraq, it would be far easier for the Americans to get there hands on one and reverse engineer it, and if they did they would get an idea of Soviet Equipment that was worse then what the top of the line stuff could do. It's why they NEVER did sell or export any of the top of the line T-80's until the union fell apart. Second was of course cost, the Soviet Union is massive, and they need to keep the good equipment for their soldiers.

This T-72M however is the East German T-72M which has been fiddled with a bit, Wiki claims with Rubber Skirts, Smoke grenades and 16 additional millimeters of armor.

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