World of tanks 8.5 - the T-80 Light tank

Now now calm down please! We are talking about the T-80 LIGHT tank, not the T-80 MBT!

Its the natural progression of the T-60 and T-70 light tanks, ending in this tier 4.

The T-80  should be more of the same, but bigger. First and most important difference - 3rd crew member. That can mess up people who thought of keeping the same 2 man crew - you get a gunner in that thing and a bigger turret. Needless to say that means it will likely house bigger guns - the 57mm ZyS should be the top cannon. Apart from that, its slightly bigger than the T-70, but with the same top speed of 45kmph and engine. Maneuverability of the whole series (T-60 T-70 T-80) is quite questionable.


The armor schematic, if this photo is true to it is again where the fun begins.

















With the front being UFP 35mm at 60% and 45mm at 30% LFP its neither good, nor bad. You certainly won't impress a Panzer 3.  Side armor features a bit of spaced armor, 25mm thick that can be a life saver but otherwise its not impressive.

Now the turret though, is decent - The frontal turret is by the looks of it 60-70mm thick and well sloped.

All this turns the T-80 into a strange vehicle. The extra armor won't help much, though it might be able to hull down quite well - the tank is fairly short 2.2 meters, compared to 2.5 for Panzer III and Matilda. It certainly won't be a speed freak, which leaves its use questionable if you are dropped into a higher tier game.

Patch 8.5 The T-70 light tank

While it was not officially announced, if you look at the russian tech tree you will see that the  T-60 is followed by the T-70 and T-80 light tanks in a small LT branch. Considering that they are all quite similar, small tier tanks, I see no reason for them not to be included in the same patch. Therefore its time to seee what the T-70 can offer?

At tier 3, the T-70 of real life was an upgunned and up-armoured T-60. It maintains a crew of 2 - commander and a driver. Weight is allmost twice that of the T-60 but the engine remains the same and so does ground clearance - this means that this tank will be no race car and the top speed of 45kmph will be there just for show. If they give it a bigger engine with say, 100-120 horsepowers, things change.

Armour wise its 35-45/45(there is spaced armor on the sides) 35 hull and 60/35/10 for the turret. Combined with a decent slope thats more than enough to retire the T-127 and the french prewar tanks in one go. In terms of offensive power, expect the two 45mm guns and Zys-19. Its possible but very unlikely they'd give this tank more. The 45mm and the Zys-190 are sufficient on tier 3 - anything more would push the tank too high in the armor+gun combo which might make it imbalanced. Even like that other light tanks will struggle with it frontally. Its

Patch 8.5 new Soviet light tank T-60

Ahem, so - for patch 8.5 we will get new russian light tanks. First of those is the T-60, likely to be followed by T-70 and T-80. Back on topic now.

In the Tech tree listed in the Media section of WoT's sites, the T-60 is listed as a tier 2 tank, and truth to be said - its the only place where it fits.


Here is what is known about it from the web.

The original tank has a crew of 2, top speed of 44 kmph and a meager 70 hp engine, providing 12 hp/ton ratio. Its also quite small - barely 1.75m - the size of a Panzer I. There is more to this comparison with Panzer I by the way - since in terms of well...everything, the T-60 is more or less a russian version of Pz I.

Armament consists of 20mm autocannon in the real tank, with 37mm Zys-19 as planned replacement, so expect that in terms of guns as well as the 20mm and 23mm autocannons.

Armor will depend on which model we get. In the original T-60 - front will be 20mm, sides 15, rear 10 with turret 15/15/15.


The modernised  1942 version will have 35mm front,  25 sides,  and a 25/25/25 turret, which considering the slopes of the tank might be too much for tier 2.

In all likely hood we will get the original T-60, probably with a better engine as top, something close to 100 HP. This,combined with the autoguns will turn it into a Pz I by any other name. Giving it 1942 armor stats though, might make it a bit too powerful for tier 2, yet not strong enough for tier 3.