I convinced myself to get Swedish T 80 as my 2nd squadron tank after many debates on which to choose. It costed me some painful gameplay (I think sometimes even more painful than on France) to get skilled Swedish crew, and Im gonna be only 90k SP away tomorrow, but was it a good deal? 11.3 and stock APFSDS sound good but I feel like I should have went for T-80UK, higher BR yeah and has HEAT (though Russian HEAT seems decent, plus you can always use HE and in the end you’d get Svinets), but … LWS, softkill APS, and I recently acknowledged I can paint the “eyes”, which is useless but a really cool/cute feature… Now I think, was it a waste grinding Sweden or its gonna offer me good gameplay? My first top tier btw. It was painful to get through a bit of this nation and the tank I’m getting doesnt have certain features, I miss editable eyes the most, and I’ll have to fight against the Soviets… is it gonna be a fine ride, along with the Strv121/122s in my team?
For what it is, it’s not bad. Sure, you don’t get Svinets, but Mango works decently well too still. The 6.5 second load time and decent mobility (for a Soviet tank anyways) make for a good combo. By now, a lot of people will know where to shoot you, but you’ll still sometimes bounce some rounds frontally. I personally use it as a backup to my Strv 122s if I want to mix things up a bit, since there’s not much of a lineup to speak of with it.
oh yeah its gonna be fun
This is definitely tankers when they tried to play tanks in ground battles.
I went for T 80 U instead of Abrams and originally as I wanted Leo2PL exactly for mobility, and I’m happy how it performs in arcade test drive, reaching max speed instantly. Still will have to start from underpowered tank with no thermals and even rangefinder, sounds painful
I wish you luck with it! If you end up liking it, try the T-80UK next, or you can go for the VT5 like I am, that looks fun.
I tried VT-5, bustle autoloader is fun but the tank doesnt look cool to me, Ill either go for T-80UK or probably Leopard PL (though before I decided Abrams is better option statistically. I still want Leopard just because its Polish and Polish crew sounds good). I have a chinese Squadron tank already nonetheless, 122-1 is fun
Despite the looks, VT-5 is a very effective vehicle, I usually bring about 17 anti-tank missiles and the rest on high explosive variable time fuze shells to counter airplanes, it’s something that a T-80 could’ve been but it lacks armor obviously, more mobile and the gun has decent handling compared to the sluggish Soviet.
While the Leopard 2PL seems appealing, the only good point about it is the turret armor which adds alot to the vehicle but still same Leopard 2A4 chassis armor layout, which at battle rating 11.7 with no competitive points in the firepower makes it, in my opinion a very situational vehicle were armor is not the best, mobility is the same for all Leopards 2s.
T-80U is a good vehicle, it’s limited to 3BM42 for historical reasons apparently, it was only available in that option which is the main reason for the battle rating difference between the Swedish and the Soviet, at battle rating you should face no issues when facing battle rating 10.3 vehicles, just like a T-80UD with good mobility at cost of no Premium bonuses, in conclusion, the T-80U, if it fits to your gameplay style, it was a good option. Which doesn’t mean there are exactly good options as squadron vehicles, some are bad.