XM66F

XM66F is a tier 10 USA tank destroyer. It features high DPM with a low alpha but accurate gun, good speed & mobility, and a strong armour profile. It has great versatility due to its semi-traversable turret and great gun depression.

1. Armour
2. Playing against an XM66F
3. Gun
4. Mobility
5. Special Mechanics
6. Equipment, provisions, & consumables
7. Gameplay advice
8. Tank gameplay:
9. Overall
10. Is it worth getting?
11. Most recently sold for:
12. Camo cost:
13. Historical info

The XM66F is a pseudo-heavy tank/heavy support TD. So in this review many of its aspects will be compared more with a heavy tank than a TD.

Armour

(The XM66F in the images is using Improved Assembly)

Drag slider right -> to view 252mm AP
Drag slider <- left to view 330mm HEAT

When flat and facing head-on:
Upper plate 300-310mm
Lower plate 180-185mm
Turret ring base 260mm

Turret 350-600mm+
Turret left side weakpoint 257mm
Gun mantlet 285mm
Gun mount 315-370mm
Cupolas 270-350mm+

Note that the driver of this tank is in the turret. The turret left side weakpoint is that flat area to the upper left of the gun, with a large viewport on top, this is where the driver sits in the tank.

Cupolas:
Its best not to shoot these in any situation. They are very well armoured, so you need premium ammo to penetrate them. They also aren’t on the front of the turret, and are quite flat, making them hard to hit.

The cupola on the left side is also mostly hidden by the viewport that’s on top of the flat weakpoint; and viewports count as module armour, so will eat HEAT/HE shells, and reduce the chances of AP/APCR to penetrate.

In terms of weakpoints, the gun mantlet and the flat weakpoint on the gun’s left are just easier to both hit and penetrate.

Side armour:
XM66F has 90mm of side armour on the front 2/3rds of the hull, and 80mm on the rear (where the engine deck comes up).

The front area has an inverse angle at the bottom of the hull behind the tracks (much like an IS-7), however due to double overmatch, it doesn’t get troll bounces like an IS-7 would.

Due to this decent side armour, the XM66F can actually sidescrape fairly well (demonstrated in gameplay advice section).

Armour vs both tier 9 & 10 tanks:
XM66F’s armour has the same strong points and weakpoints against both tier 9 and tier 10 enemies.

-The upper plate is strong to all standard ammo (except a few TDs) and can bounce premium ammo of 300mm penetration or less.

-The majority of the turret face is completely impenetrable in all situations, its very well angle and very thick.

-The cupolas are strong and aren’t really weakpoints. They are over 280mm thick on flat ground, so only TDs can penetrate them. The top part of the cupolas are also very well angled, going up to 500mm in thickness.

Weakpoints:
-The lower plate is weak to all tanks, however its just strong enough to be able to resist 180mm of HESH/premium HE penetration.

-The viewport is penetrable to the higher penetration level standard ammo of tier 10 (258mm+), so only the highest penetration heavy tanks can penetrate this reliably. Lower penetration levels may occasionally go through (due to +5% penetration roll), however it won’t be reliable, and it relies on luck. 

-The gun mantlet is penetrable to the standard ammo of some TDs, as its only around 285mm thick. Nearly all tier 10 tanks can penetrate this reliably with premium ammo, even if its HEAT.
The only tanks that will be unable to penetrate this area are lower penetration tier 9 medium & light tanks.

-Turret roof above the gun, this is only sometimes a weakspot. If your tank is on a downward slope, even a very slight downward angle, then this area will be penetrable to HEAT shells (not AP/APCR as its an auto-ricochet). If tanks are taller than you, and in a facehug, then it will also be weak. However in all other situations, its not a weakpoint.
On flat ground, this part is 375mm thick, but angled down by just 3 degrees, it reduces to 320mm in thickness.

Playing against an XM66F

The main thing to note when facing this tank is which weakpoints to aim for.

Don’t be baited by cupolas:
On most tanks, the hatches/cupolas on the roof of the tank are weakpoints, but on the XM66F, they are strong and well armoured.
Due to them being such a small target and a hard one to hit, you have a much better chance to penetrate the tank by aiming at its other weakpoints.

Shoot the gun mantlet:
This is arguably the main weakpoint of the tank, as its large and not well armoured.
Despite being spaced armour, even HEAT shells can easily penetrate. Every tank in tier 10 can easily penetrate the gun mantlet with at least one shell type.

If you’re playing a tier 9 medium/light tank, and don’t have at least 285mm premium penetration, then its best to avoid shooting the mantlet, as your shots won’t penetrate reliably.

Weakpoint on the left of the gun:
The flat area with a viewport on top is the weakest part of the XM66F when its hulldown. This area can be penetrated by some standard ammo in tier 10, and all premium ammo from any tier 9-10 tank (not including stock tanks).

If you’re shooting this with standard ammo, note that the XM could just move the turret, and this weakpoint will suddenly be impenetrable. This part is just barely penetrable to 258-260mm penetration level.
Also note, when using gun depression, all tanks (other than some TDs) will need premium ammo to penetrate.

Turret ring:
Another weakpoint is the very wide turret base ring. Its 260mm thick, so easily penetrable to premium ammo.

Its best not to shoot this, both on flat ground and when hulldown. You have to “thread the needle” between the bottom of the gun mantlet, and the top of the upper plate, both which are much thicker areas of armour.

Circling the XM66F:
This is doable, despite the tank having a turret and decent hull traverse.

Note what terrain you are on, the XM66F gains roughly 12 deg/s quicker traverse speed if you are circling it on hard terrain. Its most favourable to you, to circle this tank when its on medium terrain, where it turns much slower.

Also try to avoid sidehugging the XM66F, as its turret can turn 45 degrees to each side, and it reverses very quickly.

Ideally the best way to circle this tank is on medium terrain, and getting to its rear, not sides.

Use HE:
Like most American tanks, the XM66F has an extremely weak rear, being only 40mm thick. Every tank in tier 10 is able to HE this rear plate if you get behind the tank.

Gun

The XM66F mounts a 120mm gun

-Alpha damage is 410 on APCR, 350 on HEAT, and 470 on HE
-It has a 6.9s reload, giving it 3575 DPM
-Penetration on APCR is 270mm, HEAT is 340mm, and HE is 65mm.
–Estimated aim time is 3.9/4.2s
–Base aim time is 2.78s, but it can get down to 2.14s.
-Dispersion is 0.326/0.277
–Gun handling is 0.15/0.16/0.08, or 0.13/0.14/0.07 with Vertical Stabilizer.
-Gun depression is -10 degrees
-Gun arc is +45/-45 degrees to the left and right.

Overall this is an amazing gun in most areas. Its penetration is great (by HT standards), it has very high DPM with a quick reload, and fairly decent alpha damage. It also features amazing gun handling on movement, and good accuracy.
This gun is also very flexible, with a great gun arc on the turret, and amazing gun depression of -10. This gun depression is amplified further by the very low profile hull and a fairly low mount on the turret.

The only real bad aspect of this gun is the aim time. Its very well compensated for in most situations by the great gun handling and accuracy, but when you do have to stop to aim (such as after moving, or taking a longer range shot), then the aim time is quite noticeable.

Mobility

-Top speed is 40km/h forwards, and -20km/h in reverse.
-Traverse speed is 40.8 deg/s on hard terrain, and 29.1 deg/s on medium terrain.
-In game acceleration rate is shown as 15.2 hp/t, it has a strong 805 horsepower engine for its 53 ton weight.
-Actual acceleration rate is 15.2 hp/t on hard terrain, and 10.9 hp/t on medium terrain.
–Terrain resistances are 1/1.4/2

Top speed forward is good, in reverse its extremely good, both by TD and HT standards. Acceleration and traverse on hard terrain are both very impressive, and the tank feels very quick for its armour. On medium terrain the tank is still quite mobile, but is closer to what you would expect for the amount of armour that this tank has.

Overall the XM66F has good mobility. Considering its good armour, even its medium terrain performance is pretty good.

Special Mechanics

The XM66F has the “emergency track” mechanic.

This mechanic allows the tank to continue moving in reverse at -8km/h when its tracks are broken.

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This mechanic can actually be quite helpful if you were reversing away from an enemy and they track you, or if you’re on a ridgeline using gun depression and they track you, as it means you can reverse into cover without wasting a repair kit.

If you were already moving in reverse, the mechanic is more noticeable (see an example of this in the gameplay), as this tank has a great -20km/h reverse speed, so you can cover a good distance before the speed eventually lowers to the -8km speed cap.

However in other situations, the mechanic isn’t so useful or noticeable.

Equipment, provisions, & consumables

The XM66F does not have any special provisions or consumables.

Consumables:
Use multi-purpose restoration pack, repair kit, and adrenaline.

The 2 repair kits are necessary, as the XM66F seems to have quite a vulnerable ammorack, and it gets hit often when the hull is penetrated in the front or sides.

Adrenaline is needed to take advantage of that quick reload time and great DPM.

Gun Rammer:
Though the XM66F has low penetration by TD standards, this tank doesn’t play as a TD, and its 270mm AP and 340mm HEAT penetration are both very good when compared to the majority of tier 10s, and you don’t struggle to penetrate enemies.

Its better to use gun rammer, as the high DPM is one of the special traits on this tank. Gun rammer would lower the reload time from 7.4s down to 6.9s, and increase the DPM from 3313 to 3563.

Enhanced Gun Laying Drive:
Gun laying drive is essential on this tank. Out of the 3 main accuracy stats (aim time/gun handling/dispersion), the XM66F only lacks aim time. Its gun handling and dispersion are both already very good.

GLD is the only equipment piece that actually improves the poor base aim time of this tank. using food provisions takes the base aim time from 2.78s down to 2.52s, but GLD is what takes it down even further to 2.14s.

Supercharger isn’t needed as the tank already has good shell velocities on all of its ammo, with 1000m/s on AP, 1100m/s on HEAT, and 900m/s on HE.

Improved Assembly:
Enhanced armour can work on the XM66F, however it only benefits the tank in an extremely specific scenario. Due to this, improved assembly is by far the better equipment choice.

(The situation where enhanced armour benefits the tank, is if you are fighting a tier 9 medium or light tank, and are using -10 gun depression. In this situation, enhanced armour would make it so that 270-290mm HEAT would struggle to penetrate the gun mantlet and the flat weakpoint to the left of the gun.)

As the XM66F is a tier 10, it most commonly fights tanks with 300-330mm premium penetration, and enhanced armour doesn’t benefit the tank at all against such levels of penetration.

Improved assembly is the better choice, as it benefits the tank in all scenarios, and doesn’t take away from the armour’s effectiveness. Improved assembly would increase the XM66F’s base HP from 1900 up to 2014.

Vertical Stabilizer:
Refined gun isn’t needed on the XM66F, as the tank already has great dispersion of 0.326. XM66F also is not a sniper tank, its quite active in battle as more of a support heavy/frontline TD, so its constantly moving and rarely sitting still for long.

Due to this, vertical stabilizer is the better equipment choice; it improves the tank’s accuracy when it moves, reducing the bloom while moving the tank, allowing you to get aimed in slightly faster.

Gameplay advice

The XM66F has quite an interesting playstyle, as it has a gun and armour profile which is fairly similar to USA top tier heavies, but with lower HP. At the same time, it has a limited turret traverse and lower HP, which is similar to a tank such as the T110E4.

The gameplay of this tank feels like a Concept 1B/T110E5 combined with the gameplay of the T110E4. Its also comparable to a turreted Badger, or even a T95E6 in some ways.

General gameplay:
The XM66F has an interesting playstyle, as it combines many features of a heavy tank, such as strong armour, decent mobility, and good gun depression; with many features of a tank destroyer, such as a high DPM, a semi-traversable turret, and lower HP than a heavy tank.

This tank should be played on the heavy tank side of the map, where you can take hulldown positions and really put that DPM to use. Heavies are slower tanks, with higher HP, so while the XM66F is at an HP disadvantage, you can easily out-trade any heavy, putting in 2 shots while the enemy can only shoot you back once.

This tank can also work decently on the MT flank, as its fairly mobile and has decent turret traverse angle. It doesn’t work as well against mediums, as mediums have a much more active playstyle which makes it harder for you to use that high DPM, as many mediums actually reload faster than the XM66F.
Mediums are also smaller and faster targets (a downside for your poor aim time), and much more accurate than heavies, despite lower penetration, so they can quite accurately hit your weakpoints.

Basically you just need to take this tank to the heavy tank frontline, hide the lower plate, and let the gun deal damage.

Go hulldown/use gun depression:
The largest weakpoint which enemies will prioritise shooting on this tank is the lower plate. By going hulldown and using gun depressions, you remove this obvious weakpoint. Enemies can still aim for the other weakpoints on the turret, but you can mitigate this by moving the hull/turret to throw off their aim.

In the tank gameplay video you can see how flexible and useful the combination of a low mounted gun, -10 gun depression, and the flexible turret is on a ridgeline. 
Combined with the great reverse speed and snappy gun, this tank is very strong in a hulldown position, and can hold positions very well due to how quickly it shoots.

Aiming:
Due to how this gun has been balanced, its great at snapping shots without fully aiming, as it has great accuracy and gun handling. However, when you do actually have to stop to aim for a small target, your aim time is quite slow.

In closer ranges, don’t worry too much about properly aiming every shot. You can snap snots quite easily, and don’t have to use the full aim time for most of the shots you take.

In longer range engagements though, such as if you have to shoot someone who is sniping, or on the other flank, or just are aiming for a small weakpoint on an enemy; then you should take the time to aim properly. 
If you try to snap shots at long range, you’ll find yourself missing quite a few shots. The fairly slow aim time means you do actually have to stop and properly aim, and can’t fully rely on that great gun handling/dispersion due to the longer distance.

Note the terrain you drive on:
Due to the large mobility performance difference on different terrain types, its important to try and keep to hard terrain.

-Hard terrain is where the XM66F has very impressive mobility, it accelerates fast and has great traverse speed. Try to keep on this terrain type whenever possible, as the tank can maneuver so much easier. 
Hard terrain are roads, paths, or any flat paved area.

-Medium terrain covers roughly 80% of all Blitz maps, so its hard to avoid. On medium terrain the XM66F has mobility which you would expect out of an armoured TD, and it turns and accelerates more like a heavy tank.
Its easier to get circled by enemy tanks on medium terrain, and you’ll get into positions slower compared to driving on a road.

Hiding the weakpoints:
The main weakpoints of the XM66F are:
-Lower plate (hidden by being hulldown)
-Gun mantlet
-Driver viewport area (left of gun)

You can try to hide these in a few ways, shown below, or just turn the turret left/right  to try throw off the enemies’ aim.
Note that if you turn your turret, it makes the gun mantlet weaker on one side, however, continuous movement of the turret/hull makes it harder to aim a shot/track a weakpoint on your tank.

Sidescraping:
Since the XM66F actually has pretty good side armour, you are able to sidescrape with this tank, however you cannot over-angle at all, due to that rear engine compartment.

Note the image below, the tank has no weakpoints against standard ammo, and the weakpoints against premium ammo are quite small and hard to hit.

In a sidescraping situation, the emergency track mechanic is very useful, as you can continue to move in reverse, even if an enemy shoots your track off. It can enable you to keep putting out damage in the sidescraping position.

Using HE:
XM66F’s HE is balanced in an odd way, as it has above-average penetration of 68mm, but far below average alpha of 470 (only a 60 damage increase from AP).

Due to this, you only want to use HE against enemies which you know cannot use a spall liner, or know for certain that they are not using one.

Shooting an enemy that has spall liner on, will result in the damage of your HE shell being reduced from 470, down to 376, as the spall liner reduces HE damage by 20%.
(376 damage on HE is much less than the average of 410 on AP, so against enemies with spall liner, you should use AP.)

Also try to shoot at large and flat plates, don’t try to shoot small targets with HE, due to the poor aim time of this tank.

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Overall the XM66F’s gameplay is most akin to a heavy tank. Its got enough armour and is flexible enough to brawl against heavies, and utilize its amazing DPM in hulldown positions. This tank should never snipe, as its just not suited for that role with its poor aim time and strong armour.

Tank gameplay:

Overall

Armour – 7.5/10
Gun – 8.5/10
Mobility – 6.5/10
Speed – 6.5/10

XM66F is overall a great tank.

Armour is good on the upper plate, and the turret is strong but has multiple weakpoints. Amour can be angled/sidescraped, and very usable in hulldown. HE protection is good, HESH protection is average.
Gun has incredible DPM, gun handling, and -10 gun depression. Accuracy, penetration, & alpha are all good (by HT standards), however aim time is slow.
Mobility is good, with a strong engine, good acceleration, and good traverse speed on hard terrain. Performance on medium terrain is less, but still decent. Reverse speed is very high, and the gun has good traverse arc.
Speed is great at 40km/h.

Is it worth getting?

The XM66F is worth getting if you like the playstyle of USA heavy tanks, as this tank plays similarly, but with some very unique traits and enjoyable differences.

Its also worth getting if you like tanks with an impressive rate of fire with good DPM and flexibility, which is quite a unique difference of the XM66F compared to most heavy tanks, which have slower reloads.

This tank is not worth getting if you’re expecting it to be impenetrable when its lower plate is hidden, as it has multiple turret weakpoints which aren’t too hard to hit. Its also not a super mobile tank, especially on medium terrain, don’t be mislead by the in-game stats.

The XM66F is worth 21,000 gold. Its a very good tank with a very unique combination of capabilities, with armour like a heavy, good mobility for that armour, and DPM like a TD. It does come with its fair share of drawbacks though (multiple weakpoints, TD levels of HP), and despite it being a great combination of heavy tank and TD traits, its not an OP tank.

Most recently sold for:

Main reward of Holiday Ops (Blitzfair) 2024 event – December 2023

Camo cost:

Historical info

The XM66 project (now better known as the M60A2 program) was a series of medium tanks which came about after the unsuccessful T95 medium tank program.

The T95s were meant to replace the M48, but due to being too complicated, the more simple upgrade program, the M60 Patton, was chosen instead.

The XM66 medium tanks come from the USA wanting a more advanced MBT, which took the hull of the M60, and the turret of the now cancelled T95 tanks, and added  the XM81 gun, a 152mm gun which could fire both conventional ammunition and missiles.

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The closest existing version to the XM66F is the XM66D, a modified M60 hull, with (what’s now known as) the M60A2 turret.

Its very hard to find information about Types E and F, or if these are even real versions of the tank. The XM66F may very well be a fake tank, or a real tank given an incorrect name (WG is well-known for both of these offenses).

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The XM66F in game seems to use a hull that resembles a heavily modified M60, and a very odd turret which seems to share a similar turret front/mantlet design as the T95E8 (a T95 medium with the XM66 Type D turret).

The XM66F also seems to have no crew members in its hull, due to it being very low slung, and there being no viewports or hatches at all.

All crew members seem to be in the turret, with the flat front bulge on the left of the gun seeming to be the driver’s position.
This is a very odd design as it means the driver can’t actually see where he’s driving if the turret isn’t facing directly forward. It also means that the driver would turn away from the direction of driving if the turret is turned.

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