tl;dr - A Chinese upgrade to an already good Russian tank that (miraculously) manages to not make anything worse.
There are several vehicles in WoT Modern Armor that have a large number of variants, offshoots, redesigns, and cousins. Today’s review - the Cold War Era 1 medium Type 69-II - is one of those redesigns. Specifically, it’s a Chinese derivative of the prolific T-54 family and, as such, it holds no real surprises for an experienced WoT tanker.
The cannon is a Chinese upgrade of the Soviet 100mm. It pens a little better and is the tiniest bit more accurate than the OG 100mm, but those aren’t game changing improvements. It’s a very solid version of an already decent gun with similar virtues and vices to its ancestor.
The Type ...
tl;dr - A Chinese upgrade to an already good Russian tank that (miraculously) manages to not make anything worse.
There are several vehicles in WoT Modern Armor that have a large number of variants, offshoots, redesigns, and cousins. Today’s review - the Cold War Era 1 medium Type 69-II - is one of those redesigns. Specifically, it’s a Chinese derivative of the prolific T-54 family and, as such, it holds no real surprises for an experienced WoT tanker.
The cannon is a Chinese upgrade of the Soviet 100mm. It pens a little better and is the tiniest bit more accurate than the OG 100mm, but those aren’t game changing improvements. It’s a very solid version of an already decent gun with similar virtues and vices to its ancestor.
The Type 69-II’s armor scheme follows the same pattern. It’s an upgrade over the T-54 - most notably on the turret front - but it’s not radically different and isn’t a game changer. It’s also a little thin by late Cold War standards so keep that in mind if you’re a brawler.
The biggest difference between the basic T-54 and the Type 69-II is in mobility - the NORINCO powertrain really improves the Type 69-II. For reasons of my own I’ve been playing both tanks recently and even though the paper specs aren’t radically higher the 69-II is noticeably more mobile than the T-54. It really allows you to make good use of the increased penetration and, in my hands, makes the 69-II easier to play than the T-54 obr. 1949. They’re both good tanks, but IMO the 69-II is just a little gooder.
Although less important in Cold War the camo / view range split is good. More importantly, it shares a key T-54 / Soviet medium virtue of being low profile and small(ish) so it’s both harder to see and harder to hit. Better yet, since it’s not an American medium, it doesn’t have a giant damage wart on top.
Although the Type 69-II isn’t my “favorite” tank I enjoy playing it a great deal and it’s rapidly moving up the rows of my spreadsheet and I expect to mark it soon.
Unless you absolutely loathe low tier Soviet tanks I recommend you give this one a try. It’s an easy grind to get to and is a solid jack-of-all-trades that does well in the current run-and-gun meta.
Current equipment / build: Full camo, full equipment (gun rammer / coated optics / improved ventilation / gun stabilizer), two consumables (enhanced repair kit / enhanced rations).
As I write this I have career stats (on this account) of 22,851 battles, a 48.36% winrate, and a WN8 score of 1402.
As I write this I have Type 69-II stats of 121 battles, a 52.07% winrate, and a WN8 score of 1251. I have not marked this tank.
Disclaimers:
I am bad at this game and you should probably not take my advice.
Unless otherwise noted, assume all tanks are fully upgraded/outfitted and the review assumes that level of equipment.
This is my opinion. I suck at the game and better players might have different opinions. You might have different opinions. That’s ok.
This game is my hobby and I have a good job so I spend money on it. If you are an aggressively free-to-play kind of guy we may not vibe.
All stats taken from https://www.wotstars.com/xbox/1093328947, player AmbshPrdator on Xbox.