you can kill T64s w/Dragon!

[Halmbarte]

As it turns out you can kill T64s w/Dragon! All it takes is a hit in the right place. In this case, the rear deck. 

The ammo didn't go up immediately, it took a few seconds to fully cook off. 

H

[Anthony P.]

Well yeah, it's just the frontal armour which is particularly well defended. Hit it from behind or the sides and you'll get fireworks.

[Brille]

Well I killed a T80 with a LAW from the side, so not that special, sorry.

Like with almost every modern MBT it´s the sides and rear that can be penetrated rather easily.

Even the mighty Javelin would probably not be enough to punch through the front of a more modern russian Tank, like the T90. But the special treat of that weapon is that it can attack the weakest part of a tank, that is the roof.

Dragons ingame are not bad at all, though you don´t want to engage top tier soviet tanks from the front either. T55 and T62 should be fine from all angles.

[Vergeltungswaffe]

Nothing good ever happens when you get shot in the patootie.

[Centurian52]

You can kill a T-64 with any US anti-tank weapon. In fact it almost doesn't matter what '70s AT munition you hit it with, only where you hit it. The key is to hit where there is no composite armor. If you hit the composite armor, it won't get through. If you hit anywhere that doesn't have composite armor then it will get through. The composite armor in the T-64/72/80 series tanks is in the upper front plate, and the turret front. There is no composite armor in the lower front plate, on the top of the turret, or in the sides or rear of the tank. There is a gap in the composite armor in the upper-front plate for the driver's hatch and optics. There is a gap in the turret's frontal composite armor for the gun mantlet.

So that means that the large weak points are the lower front plate, the sides, and the rear. The small weak points are the driver's hatch, gun mantlet, and it is sometimes possible to get a shot over the turret's frontal composite armor (such as when the T-64 is facing down a slope, or you are firing from an elevated position). Hit any of the weak points and your shot will get through, no matter whether it's a Dragon, a TOW, a LAW, or a 105mm HEAT, APDS, or APFSDS round. Hit the composite armor in the upper front plate or the front of the turret and it won't get through*.

If you were one of your ATGM operators or tank gunners then all of that would be useful information. If you go over and play GHPC and you find yourself confronted with a T-72 to your front you'll know to aim for the lower-front plate (best frontal weak-point to aim for since it's the biggest, but is also the most likely to be concealed by low rises in the terrain), the driver's hatch, the gun mantlet (a good point to aim for, since if you miss you might hit the gun), or the top of the turret (if the tank is on a slope that exposes the top of the turret). But, since your pixeltruppen do all the aiming, as a Combat Mission player your take away should be that the front of a T-64 is maybe ~10%-20% weak point, while the sides and rear are 100% weak-point. A hit to the sides or rear with any of the 1970s AT munitions available in CMCW will always get through (at least I haven't seen them fail to get through yet). So you'll want to set up flank engagements as much as possible (something you should be trying to do anyway against any tanks in any period), and keep your expectations low in frontal engagements.

*Usually, unless you have some of the later APFSDS rounds and a bit of luck. And you're shooting at a T-72, which uses cheaper materials in its composite than the T-64B. There's an argument that the T-64A should have the same armor values as the T-72A, so should also be vulnerable to the later APFSDS rounds, meaning there's a possible bug in which the T-64A's armor may be overperforming.

Edited May 20 by Centurian52

[Halmbarte]

I believe my point remains, hits from a lot of AT weapons will hit the composite armor on the front of the T64 and better tanks and fail to pen. 
It’s a similar situation to WWII, where multiple Allied tanks can take Panthers and Tigers from the rear & sides but need to be lucky for a front pen. The problem is the Sov brings a whole heaping helping of composite armored tanks, not the dribble drabble the Germans struggled to field in WWII. 

H