Chieftain

Fear Naught

"You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.." ~ Margaret Thatcher

The Chieftain is among the first successful designs which would embody the modern concept of a main battle tank. Deployed in 1966, the Chieftain was a breakthrough of tank design. While contemporary designs like the Leopard 1 and T-62 placed a premium on mobility at the expense of crew protection, the Chieftain swung the focus onto firepower and survivability at the expense of mobility. Toting the rifled 120mm L11 gun, a cupola mounted 7.62mm machine gun and a co-axial 7.62mm machine gun intended for ranging the main gun, it was among the best tanks at the time. Even in 1985, the Chieftain remained an intimidating foe for Soviet armor, despite 19 years of aging. Updated with laser rangefinders, NBC protection and the Stillbrew Package (Additional armor for the turret ring and turret front, not a box of Earl Greys), it served as the backbone of the British Armored Divisions, alongside mechanised infantry.

Contrary to US and German doctrine which placed an emphasis on anti-tank training in their Armored Corps, the Chieftain was expected to engage anything from BMP-mounted infantry to enemy T-72s. This is reflected in the force organisation of their battlegroups, whereby anti-tank capabilities were primarily entrusted to Anti-Tank Ground Missile(ATGM) equipped units.

In Team Yankee

The Stat Card

While the overwhelming hype of the Abrams is a bit blown out of proportion, it is nonetheless a very solid tank. The Front Armor is tied with the Leopard 2 and the Chieftain Stillbrew for the strongest in the game at 18, and the side armor is an impressive 8. The Chobham Armor package also bumps the side armor up to 16 against HEAT weapons, ie. most guided missiles.

The Abrams M68 105mm Gun is a pretty decent damage dealer, with a ROF of 2 both while halted and moving meaning that no mater what, you will always have 2 dice to roll. The M68 is improved by an Advanced Stabilizer, so you can hall ass both toward and away from the foe at full Tactical Speed and suffer no penalties. As well as the M68 the Abrams carries a trio of machine guns, two of which, the .50 and one of the.30s, are AA.

You can take the Abrams in Platoons of up to four Tanks, with a minimum of two tanks in a platoon. Each Abrams Costs 8 points (twice as much as a T-72).

IRL

An M1A1 in Iraq

The M1 Abrams and its subsequent variants has been in service with the US Military for close to 40 Years. The first major update was the M1A1 which swapped out the 105mm gun for a 120mm Smoothbore (which by the way is included in the Abrams kit). The latest iteration is the M1A2, which has been upgraded with more advanced targeting equipment and improved defense systems from lessons learned fighting insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. The M1A3 is currently in development and slated to begin deployment in 2020. The most note worthy addition will be the long overdue Active Protection system. Which they had to buy from Israel because the American Military Industrial Complex actually sucks at making weapons and upgrades for them.