Team Yankee COLD WAR Warrior Revisited the T-55 Tank

By Howard West

Background

With the “official” Team Yankee points reduced for this year’s US National events and with the changing META caused by the new NATO books as described in Tom Gall’s recent No Dice No Glory article on chasing the And since several other upcoming local tournaments have reduced point levels, in the following order 110, 94, and 70.

I wanted to see what a 2nd Warsaw Pact formation might look like and I started playing around with different formations and kept coming back to an old reliable T55/T54 Tank family. Team Yankee represents the T55/54 Family in 20 different tank and motorized infantry formations in 5 different books from the Soviets, East Germans, Czechs, Poles, Oil Wars(Syrians and Iraqis).

Before some of you fall off your chairs that I’m suggesting a T-55 spam list. I wanted the 2nd formation to supplement my core formation(70 Points). I want to build the 2nd formation using 24-27 points for the 94 point tournament.  Once I select the 2nd formation I can scale it up to fit the 110 point tournament. Ideally, the 2nd formation will be able to help counter the new NATO meta from the Marder-2’s, Bradley’s, and RDF Lt tanks. Hardly a Warsaw Pact Spam formation solution.

My Process

Since I could lose my mind and build 20 different lists I wanted to build a common formation across all of the lists and come up with a ranking system for the formations to help me come up with the best 2nd formation. For this exercise, I ruled out any of the infantry formations, so that takes me down to 6 T-55 tank formations. Yes I know I could build a Syrian, Iraqi, or Czech T-72 formation with 27 points, but they would make pretty small formations and that would ruin a future No Dice No Glory Article.

Note: I’m including the Iraqi’s with the Syrian’s in case a NATO player would want to build a 2nd Formation using Iraqi T-55’s.

My First list, Syrians or Iraqis.

Strengths

• The list is 22 points and is 5 points under budget for the 94 point list. With the 5 points, you could make several changes that would improve this formation.
• I could also use the painted models for Fate of the Nation.
• I can use my ZSU-57-2 platoon that I recently painted.
• Some of the Unit Stats are better than the Czech’s

Weakness

• No Laser Range Finder and Slow Firing.
• Cannot add a Scout Unit, AA Units, or artillery Units to the formation.
• Limited formation expansion capability, other than adding a 3rd T-55 unit or growing the size of the BMP infantry company.

Rankings: The above 3 reasons make this the weakest list. With 5 points you could double the size of the BMP Mech Company or you could add 5 T-55 tanks to the 2 tank companies. Either option would improve this formation, but not really change its ranking.

Czech List

Strengths

• The list is 21 points and is 6 points under budget for the 94 point list. With the 6 points you could make several changes that could make this one of the better formations:
• The Camoflague paint pattern for the Czech Tanks is pretty cool looking.
• Better Skill stats than the Soviets, Syrians, and Iraqis.
• Could add other units to equal the point cost of the East Germans, Poles, or Soviets.
• Can easily add a 3rd T-55 Company, T-72 Tank Company, AA Units, Scout Units, and Artillery Units to expand the formation and still keep it in the point ranges for the 2nd formation.

Weakness

• Units stats are pretty weak compared to the rest of the other Warsaw Pact countries.
• T-55’s are slow firing.
• BMP Infantry unit stats are 5 for counter attack and rally. (If I pick Czech’s I would replace the infantry unit with another unit.

Rankings: The above 3 reasons make this the 2nd weakest list. With the 6 points, you could add a 3rd T-55 Unit, or you could add a Carnation Artillery Battery to the formation, or you could replace the infantry unit + the 6 points and add a T-72M unit of 5 Vehicles. Any of these options will make this a better 2nd formation and might change its rankings.

East German List

Strengths

• The list is 25 points and under the budget for the 94 point list. I could add a BRDM Scout Unit or a Gaskin AA Unit with the remaining points.
• I really like the East German Camoflague pattern for their tanks.
• Unit stats are better than the Czech’s and Syrians. Better Skill stats than the Soviets, Syrians, and Iraqis.
• The BMP Mech infantry is better than the Syrians, Iraqis, Czechs.
• Can easily add a 3rd T-55 Company, T-72 Tank Company, AA Unit, Scout Units, and Artillery Units to expand the formation and still keep it in the 110 point range for the 2nd formation.
• I have the formation painted already.

Weakness

• T-55’s are slow firing.

Ranking: The East german list is tied with the Poles for 2nd.

Polish List

Strengths

• The list is 25 points and under the budget for the 94 point list. I could add a BRDM Scout Unit or a Gaskin AA Unit with the remaining points.
• I could paint them with generic Soviet Green-type paint schemes and they could be used for any of the Warsaw Pact Countries.
• Best overall Skill and unit stats out of the 6 lists.
• The BMP Mech infantry is better than the Syrians, Iraqis, Czechs, and East Germans.
• Can easily add a 3rd T-55 Company, T-72 Tank Company, AA Unit, Scout Units, and Artillery Units to expand the formation and still keep it in the 110 point ranges for the 2nd formation.

Weakness

• Unit Morale is a 4 vs the Soviets and East Germans 3.
• T-55’s are slow firing.
• I will need to paint the Polish Infantry unit, I have the figures just have not pulled the trigger on painting them.
•  If I’m going to add a Carnation Battery to the formation, then I would go with the Czechs, Poles or East Germans for the better skill vs the Soviets or Syrians.

Rankings: The Polish and East German lists are slightly behind the Soviet T-55 list for 94 points.

Soviet List

Strengths

• The Soviet T-55AM’s are not slow firing.
• The Soviet BMP infantry can upgrade their RPG-7 to RPG-7VR.
• Can easily add a 3rd T-55 Company, T-72 Tank Company, AA Unit, Scout Units, and Artillery Units to expand the formation and still keep it in the 110 point range for the 2nd formation. The formation also could add a BMP-2 scout unit vs a BRDM or BMP-1 scout unit for the other lists.

Weakness

• The formation currently costs 28 points, my point range for the 2nd formation was 24-27 points, without causing me to make changes to my 70 point core formation. I should be able to find the 1 point. For the 110 point list, I will have enough points to add a BMP-2 scout unit and the RPG upgrades.

Ranking: The Soviet formation is probably the best as a 24-27 point formation.

Conclusion

The T-54/T-55 Family of tanks was the most produced family of tanks during the cold war and some are still in use today in multiple countries. In August 2021, I published an article on NO Dice NO Glory titled Team Yankee Analytics V2 , in the article, I discuss who, what, where and when I fought against in 84 Team Yankee tournament games.

In those 84 games, I only played against 5 armies that had T-55s in them in some form. Maybe I will see more players having them after the new Warpc Books comes out this year for Team Yankee. I think for a 94 point tournament you can put together a 2nd formation to support your core formation as a Warsaw Pact Player. So can they help a Warsaw Pact player change the meta vs some of the new NATO units? I’m going to try them and see what happens. Especially since I have a bunch of them painted and ready to roll.

The 2nd formation could be either an allied formation or a 2nd formation if you are playing one of the countries that I identified as having a T-55 formation available. At 110 point level, yes the above formations do scale but are you better off with another tank type for that 2nd formation? And that is the topic of another NO Dice No Glory article. 

Thanks for reading this article and let’s get those T-55’s dusted off and onto the table.

Please leave comments below, I normally respond back to them in a few days and try to incorporate your suggestions or ideas into future articles.

More Information on the T-54/55 Family of Tanks

Just a point of reference on all of the books below. I was able to purchase all of them as used books at various dealers from across the country, which has greatly reduced my cost to acquire them.

The May/June 2002 Issue of Armor Magazine has a nice article on Brow or BDD armor upgrade for the T-55 and T-62 Tanks. Here’s a link to find the  the

History of the T-55/54 Tank Family

The books below are a very good overviews and histories of the T-54/T55 tanks and they also come with nice color plates for painting and modeling ideas.

How to Paint and Model the T-55/54 Tank Family

Below are two really nice books on painting and modling the T-54/55 Family of tanks. Lots of detailing and painting ideas. Both books also come with history of the T-54/55 family of tanks.

For the Gamer who likes to count welds, castings, bolts and other minutia

Below are two really good books on the T-54 and T-55 family of tanks. Both books take you thru the design thru manufacting history and then sustaining and upgrades of both of these tanks. The book will walk you thru the numbering schemia for the T-5XXXX vehicles and what you get with the upgrades for each of the levels.