T28 Defender

The T28 Defender is a tier 8 USA tank destroyer. This tank really is a heavy tank, it has strong frontal armour, high hitpoints, great gun depression, and an autoloading 120mm gun with 400 alpha damage.

Armour

(The T28 Defender in the images is using Enhanced Armour)

Drag slider right -> to view 225mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 265mm APCR

Upper plate 228mm
Lower plate 280mm

Turret face 227mm
Turret cheeks 200-215mm
Cupolas 105-120mm

vs 225mm AP (top image), 265mm APCR (bottom image)
Using -10 gun depression:

Upper plate 250-260mm

Turret 245-280mm+

Cupolas 120-140mm

Armour vs tier 7:
Tier 7 tanks will seriously struggle against the armour of this tank as it lacks the usually weak lower plate.

No tier 7 heavies or mediums can penetrate the hull without using premium ammo, and even most premium ammo won’t be enough to penetrate the hull or turret face of the T28.

Most tier 7s have under 220mm of premium penetration, so the only chance these tanks have against the T28 Defender is to shoot the cupolas.

Armour vs tier 8:
Most enemies in tier 8 that face the T28 Defender will need premium ammo to penetrate; as most common enemies you face (Heavy and Medium tanks) have 225mm penetration or less.

Premium ammo from tier 8 enemies will penetrate the upper plate and turret farily reliably, and if enemies aim well, some can penetrate the cheeks without needing premium ammo.

Armour vs tier 9:
There are 2 types of tier 9 enemies to this tank, the first are low-pen tanks, like the Obj. 84, WZ-120, T92E1, or E50; they have under 235mm of penetration and will be completely unable to go through the T28’s front without hitting a weakpoint or using premium ammo.

The 2nd type of enemy in tier 9 are the high pen tanks, which include basically every heavy tank, and some mediums. These tanks mostly have over 245mm of penetration and will go through the T28’s upper plate and turret with no problem.

Gun

The T28 Defender mounts a 120mm autoloader gun

-It has 400 alpha damage and a clip capacity of 3. Intra-clip reload is 6.67, so in about 13.3s it can deal 1200 damage.
-Reload time is 20.4s, giving it 2135 DPM
-Penetration is 225mm on AP, 270mm with APCR, and 60mm on HE
-Aim time is 4.6s/4.9s
-Dispersion is 0.355/0.319
–Gun handling is 0.2/0.2/0.16, and it can be improved to 0.17/0.17/0.14 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -10 degrees.

This gun is balanced as a heavy tank gun but with some areas that are better. It has great aim time, gun handling, and dispersion compared to other 400 damage guns; along with quite good DPM for an autoloader.

Mobility

-Top speed is a decent 30km/h, and an average reverse speed of -12km/h.
-Acceleration is good, on hard terrain its 12hp/t, and 9.5hp/t on medium terrain.
-Traverse speed is 35.3 deg/s on hard terrain and 27.7 deg/s on medium terrain.
-Ground resistances are average, with 1.1/1.4/2.1
-The turret is not fully rotatable, it only turns 143 degrees in either direction.

Compared to heavy tanks, the top speed of this tank is somewhat below average, but it has decent traverse speed. Considering the lower top speed the acceleration is not bad.
Overall this mobility is definitely enough for the tank, and far better than the tech tree T28 Prototype.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

T28 Defender has no special provisions/consumables.

Calibrated Shells:
As this tank is already accurate enough, and has good mobility, it does not need to use vents.
It will benefit from calibrated shells, which will allow the tank to penetrate much more enemies.
DPM will drop slightly, down to 2108, and reload time will increase to 20.8s, but the tank will have 236mm AP, 284mm APCR, and 66mm HE penetration. Quite a big improvement over the standard 225/270/60 it would have otherwise.

Improved Optics:
The T28 Defender is not a TD, so it does not need to use a camo net. Instead use improved optics, giving it a very nice 277.2m of view range.

Enhanced Armour:
The T28’s armour is very flat, its not very well angled but it is very thick, this means that using enhanced armour makes a big difference on the tank.
Using enhanced armour increases the upper plate thickness from 228mm up to 237mm, and the turret from 227mm up to 236mm. This will produce much more bounces from tier 8 tanks with high pen, and some tier 9 tanks.

Vertical Stabilizer:
As the T28 Defender doesn’t need to snipe or shoot from a distance, it should use vertical stabilizer. It will make it a much more accurate tank in the close quarters battles where it should be fighting.

Gameplay advice

Play the T28 Defender as a heavy. It has no stat that makes it a TD, and therefore should not be played as such.

Use the heavy tank advantages this has, with flat but super thick armour, be confident in exposing your upper plate around a corner to try get a bounce. If you know enemies can’t penetrate you then just push them, this tank doesn’t have any frontal waypoints other than the hatches and MG port.
Use the -10 gun depression whenever you can, its something many other 400 alpha heavies don’t have, and it will make your armour stronger and hide the turret hatches.

Also don’t consider this tank as an autoloader, think of it as being a tank with increased rate-of-fire. While you are unloading, you have 3600 DPM and 400 alpha, but then you have a cooldown period of 20s where you have 0 DPM.

Never try to burst out all your damage into one enemy, and never expose yourself during the 6.67s intra clip. Just play it as though its a heavy tank with a 6.67s reload time.
Once you have emptied the whole clip, don’t run away or back down obviously. This immediately lets enemies know that they can push you as you are reloading. Instead, just hold your ground, or even push forward, faking that you are ready to shoot enemies. Due to the long intra-clip reload and fairly fast clip reload of this tank, its harder for players to know whether or not you are reloading, and this tactic definitely does work.

Overall

Armour – 8/10
Gun – 7/10
Mobility – 5/10
Speed – 3.5/10

T28 Defender is overall a good tank.

Armour is strong on the upper plate, lower plate, and turret, though penetrable to premium ammo. Armour is easy to angle and has good HE and side armour protection.
Gun has good penetration and burst damage, its reload and intra-clip are decent. Accuracy and aim time are mediocre.
Mobility is decent, a decent acceleration rate, respectable traverse speed. Great gun angles and flexibility, slow reverse speed.
Speed is low at 30km/h

This tank needs to be played as a heavy and is hence compared to heavies.

Is it worth getting?

Compared to every other Defender tank, this one is the most player friendly. Its easier to play than all the other tanks, and it has very comfortable statistics to allow players to do well in it

It has great armour, even by heavy standards its not bad. Gun depression is very good, accuracy is much better than most 400 dmg guns, has a large amount of HP, and mobility is good.
This Defender is the best choice for newer players, but veterans will also do great in it due to how well-rounded this tank is in its stats.

T28 Defender is worth 8,500 gold. Usually it can be purchased for cheaper.

Most recently sold for:

7,500 gold (tank only) – September 2022