Tag: Army Building

With Joe Saunders

I grew up in the 80s.  When we played outside we were always pretending to be the Canadian military battling the hordes of Soviet Russia invading from the north.   This meant that nameless and faceless Soviet Infantry were always the enemy.  Then I was introduced to the movie Red Dawn (I choose to ignore the remake).  In this Patrick Swayze movie I got a better look at the infantry of the Soviets (or what they were thought to be like).   Now in my mid 40s I find myself reminiscing on that movie and wishing I could take control of those forces.  I would like to try my hand against the superior military skills of Charlie Sheen’s ragtag assortment of high school students and the armies of the corrupt American capitalists….  Now, thanks to the new WWIII: Team Yankee book World War III: Soviet I can stop reminiscing, the time has finally come to dive in and take command of the legions of the red banner.

In this article I will take you on a guided tour of the infantry of the Soviet Union (in distinctly game terms) so we can investigate the nuances and capabilities of these cold war bad guys in WWIII: Team Yankee.

Background

The Soviet doctrine for fighting World War III always relied on the idea that numbers would be on their side.  The Warsaw Pact was mostly composed of conscript soldiers, equipped with simple yet effective equipment that could operate in rugged conditions.  although their strategy also called for aggression.   Fast moving penetration into the heart of NATO forces was perceived as the best option to take on the less numerous but better trained foes.  This required a large amount of mobility and the Soviets were the first to take the concept of the infantry transport and blur it with armed vehicles to provide them with integrated heavy weapons support.  On the ground this took the form of the various BMP Infantry Fighting vehicles (IFVs) and in the air the Hind Gunship (which if you grew up in the 80s… and excuse the Dirty Dancing/Red Dawn comment, will know definitely put Baby in a corner).  Because of this, looking at the Soviet infantry of the era will also require a close look at their transportation.

BMP Motor Rifle Battalion

This is the basic building block of the Soviet Infantry.  If your army is composed of tank formations you will usually find that a company of BMP Infantry can be added on as part of the formation.  This is handy as infantry is a good option for guarding objectives or fighting where terrain is dense.

The choices for the BMP Company come in 3 varieties, varying by the type of BMP taken.  Otherwise the infantry themselves have the same stats and weapon options.  Here we see the effect of the conscript army approach to warfare.  Courage is 4+ (with 3+ Morale and Rally) and Skill is 5+ (Counterattack 3+) and their Hit On value is 3+.   These stats are decidedly lack lustre.  They could be worse, but definitely are not top tier.  But this brings us to points cost…They are cheap and come in large numbers.  5 stands of troops in 3 Bradley IFVs cost American players 10 points, but 7 Stands of Soviets and 4 BMP- 2s cost the Soviets 8 points.  With these troops you can keep numbers on your side.

Weapon options are very flexible with the ability to arm grenade launchers, AA missiles and improved RPGs for unit level upgrades.  This allow you to tweak your squads for their purpose in your force.  If you want to sit back and guard objectives take a Gremlin AA missile to ward off airstrikes.   If you are attacking then go with an AGS-17 grenade launcher, or mix both for flexibility.  This brings us to the BMPs themselves.  Here you can also choose the vehicle for the task.  If you want to keep the cost down, but still have some decent weapon options, the BMP-1 is a good choice.  The BMP-2 splits the difference and gives you pretty good options for taking on NATO MBTs, while the BMP-3 gives you weapons that rival some Tanks (thanks to the Sniper missile).  Which you choose will depend on the roles you want your infantry to fill, with the BMP-2 probably being the choice of a player looking for a general composition.

BTR-60 Motor Rifle Company

If being economical with your points is your objective, the BTR-60 Motor Rifle Company is for you!  Let’s face it, sometimes you want to go with the big guns and max your army composition out with tanks (especially the awesome T-80).  However, infantry is almost always a necessity for guarding objectives or going where armour can’t. The BTR-60 Motor Rifle Company will not break the bank for points while still fitting the bill.

The stats and weapon options for this unit are the same for BMP mounted troops, but the BTR-60 is armed only with machineguns and very light armour which brings the expense down.  Because of this, you can get 7 stands of infantry and 4 BTR-60s for only 5 points.  Though the BTR-60 is not likely to go toe to toe with anything other than opposing Infantry, it is a good way to leave room for other unit choices.

Rather than use the value of the BTR-60 Company to slide a few infantry stands into our army, you could go in the other direction and maximize your infantry.  23 points gets you a maxed-out squad complete with all of the heavy weapon options.  That’s 25 stands and 16 BTRs per unit!  Go ahead and use the BTR-60 Motor Rifle formation and fill up the infantry slots! You can have 76 infantry stands and 49 transport vehicles for 70 points!  This would certainly be interesting to play and you would definitely outnumber your opponent, though you may not have enough paint….

Afgantsy Air Assault Company

These veterans of the war in Afghanistan have statistics that reflect their hard-earned experience.  Though they have the same weapon options and unit sizes as the other Soviet units, they have a Courage of 3+ and a Skill of 4+.  Though these stats are not outstanding, they are an improvement over the regular Soviet infantry stats and are still quite reasonable in terms of points.  7 stands will run 4 points.  The main difference however is the Afgantsy don’t have transports as a basic option.  Instead they are transported by Hind MI-24 Helicopters that are also a black box choice in the formation.

Obviously having helicopter gunships as their transport gives the Afgantsy Air Assault Company a massive boost in firepower.  Spiral missiles provide AT ratings of up to 24, and they also bring Gatling guns and a one-shot salvo template weapon to the fight too!   This makes this unit about a flexible as you can get for fighting all types of opponents.

In terms of tactics the Afgantsy Air Assault Company adds extreme maneuverability to the Soviet player’s list of options.  Because the Hinds can both transport troops and provide devastating firepower, they can deliver the Afganstsy infantry to almost any point on the battlefield (game table) then either fly off on other missions, or stay near their infantry and defend them from armour and other serious threats.

BMP Shock Recon Platoon

The final infantry option in WWIII: Soviet is a bit different from the others.  Where all of the other Infantry options can come with a full formation dedicated to them, the BMP Shock Recon Platoon does not.  Instead this unit is a single choice in the T-80 BMP Shock Tank Company, which is the pinnacle of elite troops in the book.  For this reason, this platoon has great stats, with a Skill of 3+ and a Hit on number of 4+.  As far as Soviet Infantry goes, these guys are the best quality and also very expensive.  The same 7 stands and 4 IFVS you would pay 8 points for in regular BMP units costs a lot more.   You pay a whopping 15 points with the BMP Shock Recon Platoon!

In terms of firepower the BMP Shock Rifle Platoon is the same as the regular BMP motor rifle troops.  This still means they have a ton of options for weapons, suitable for many different battlefield roles.  On top of this they can have the BMP-3 or BMP-2s for transport and fire support.  This unit can have a lot of firepower in a small package, that fights more like a NATO infantry squad!

In terms of tactics the BMP Shock Platoon is pretty limited because it is not a black box choice, so it will only ever be deployed in support of the Shock Tank Company’s equally elite tanks.  This means their role will likely be guarding objectives or attacking in dense or urban terrain.  In distinctly real-world terms, the high points cost allows for a low model count.  Since the rest of the T-80 Shock Rifle Company is similar, with very expensive elite tank units (in the black box choices) this formation and its accompanying infantry is a good option for new players who have not painted a lot of models or who don’t want to break the bank on model kits.

The Soviets are Coming!

As we have seen the Soviet infantry options in World War III Team Yankee are fairly varied yet highly adaptable with upgrades and transport options to strike hard and tackle different missions.  We have also explored the interesting way in which the lower quality, yet more numerous unit sizes embody the unique aspect of how the Soviets planned to fight should the Cold War escalate to World War III.  With this new-found knowledge now is the time to gather your forces under the red banner and conquer the corrupt capitalists.  Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen and those pesky high school students won’t stand a chance against the might of Soviets this time!

With John Lee

With all the new cool stuff coming out for this release, I thought it would be a good opportunity to also review the existing Main Battle Tanks.  When Team Yankee was first launched there was only the T-72 that Soviet players could take.  With the release of Red Thunder, the T-64 was introduced.  Oil Wars brought us the T-62M.  This release brings all these tanks together in one book alongside the new T-80 and T-55AM.

So many choices now for the Soviet player and with V2 of the rules, allows to take Black Box units as Formation Support giving us more options to field combinations of tanks depending on your play style.  In this article, we look at the existing tanks (T-64, T-72, T-62M), their stats, cost and comparisons.

The T-64:

Starting off with the T-64, prior to this release was the premier go to Tank for the Soviet player.  It has FA17 SA9 TA2, BDD armour (side 13 against HEAT), tactical 14” move, 32” range AT22 gun with advanced stabiliser, optional AT21 missile with range out to 48” that can be fired on the move!

The gun – AT22 with advanced stabiliser means moving up to 14” and able to fire its main gun on the move with no penalty.  So effectively its range is up to 46” if you move and fire.  Brutal – hit dug in infantry with it and that infantry team is re-rolling its saves!  Laser rangefinder – No +1 to hit targets over 16”.

The missile – AT21 that can be fired on the move with 16” – 48” range increases with tactical move of 14” to 62” range!  Guided – no +1 to hit over 16”.  HEAT – no +1 to armour save for over 16” range.  For those missions where you have scattered reserves and they turn up at the other end of the table – no problem anymore with coming on at tactical and firing your missile giving you 62” range.

The armour – FA17 SA9 TA2.  SA9 with BDD (effective against some of the infantry HEAT weapons by increasing to SA13) – a better chance for assaulting.

The speed – 14” tactical speed means you will keep moving suffering no penalties for moving and firing.  3+ cross check which means you will pass them 67% of the time.  16” terrain dash and 24” cross country dash if you need it.

The stats – Skill 5+ so you will not be doing much blitzing or shooting and scooting.  Remount is 3+ so easier to get back in.  Morale 3+ to stay in the battle.  Assaults are 5+ but counterattack on 4+ – so get those assaults in and look to force your opponent off the objective!  HQ has better stats of course, so you want the HQ close by for the assaults.

The battalion HQ comprises one tank for 6pts and can add an optional missile for +1pt.

Tank Company has a minimum of three tanks for 13pts and a maximum of ten tanks for 55pts.  Each tank beyond the minimum is an additional 6pts.   If you want the optional missile its +2pts for the whole company – a bargain when running a medium to large company of them.  Fit up to three tanks with a Mine Clearing Device for 1pt for the company.  If you run the minimum sized company of three tanks you get a massive discount.  You could run a battalion of HQ plus three companies of three for 45pts leaving plenty of options to support them including taking a company of either Shock T-80s or a large company of T-62Ms or T-55AMs.  In the past I tend to run a battalion of HQ plus two companies of five tanks (I find the companies of the right size for survivability).  One of those companies I arm with missiles.  Then I support them with BTR infantry plus the usual support options of AA, recon, artillery (and helicopters if points allow).

 

The T-72:

Next up is the T-72 tank.  This iconic tank whilst replaced with the T-64 (and now T-80) is still a useful tank (especially as a Warsaw pact player).  It still has a place in the soviet arsenal too.  It has FA16 SA8 TA2, BDD armour (side 13 against HEAT), tactical 10” move, 32” range AT22 gun with stabiliser.

The gun – AT22 with stabiliser means moving up to 10” and able to fire its main gun on the move with no penalty.  You can move up to 14” with a +1 penalty over 10”.  So effectively its range is up to 46” if you move and fire.  Brutal – hit dug in infantry with it and that infantry team is re-rolling its saves!  Laser rangefinder – No +1 to hit targets over 16”.

The armour – FA16 SA8 TA2.  SA8 with BDD (effective against some of the infantry HEAT weapons by increasing to SA13) – a better chance for assaulting.

The speed – 10” tactical speed means you will keep on the move, suffering no penalties for moving and firing.  With stabiliser this means you can increase your tactical speed to 14” with a +1 to hit over 10”.  3+ cross check which means you will pass them 67% of the time.  16” terrain dash and 24” cross country dash if you need it.

The stats – Skill 5+ so you will not be doing much blitzing or shooting and scooting.  Remount is 3+ so easier to get back in.  Morale 3+ to stay in the battle.  Assaults are 5+ but counterattack on 4+ – so get those assaults in and look to force your opponent off the objective!  HQ has better stats of course, so you want the HQ close by for the assaults.

The battalion HQ comprises one tank for 5pts.  Tank Company has a minimum of three tanks for 12pts and a maximum of ten tanks for 47pts.  Each tank beyond the minimum is an additional 5pts.  Fit up to three tanks with a Mine Clearing Device for 1pt for the company.  If you run the minimum sized company of three tanks you get a massive discount.  I tend to take T-72s as a support option for my BMP-2 Motor Rifle Battalion or Air Afgansty formation when I want more quality tanks but need to shave points where I cannot quite fit the number of T-64s in that I want.

The T-62M:

Finally, the T-62M tank – released when Oil Wars came out gave the Soviet player their first cheap spam list tank, with a missile!  It has FA14 SA9 TA2 with Bazooka Skirts, tactical 10” move, 32” range AT21 gun, optional AT21 missile with range out to 48”.

The gun – AT21 with NO slow firing rule means moving up to 10” and able to fire its main gun on the move with no penalty.  So effectively its range is up to 42” if you move and fire.  Brutal – hit dug in infantry with it and that infantry team is re-rolling its saves!  Laser rangefinder – No +1 to hit targets over 16”.

The armour – FA14 SA9 TA2.  Most modern tank guns and missiles will go right through the frontal armour but has enough to stave off attacks from other weapons.  Side armour is relatively decent and has Bazooka Skirts which means it goes to 10 vs HEAT weapons.   Against more modern infantry anti-tank armed units, it is still not going to stop it but against older weapons you have a chance.

The speed – 10” tactical speed means you will keep on the move, suffering no penalties for moving and firing.  4+ cross check which means you will pass them 50% of the time.  14” terrain dash and 20” cross country dash if you need it.

The stats – Skill 5+ so you will not be doing much blitzing or shooting and scooting.  Remount is 3+ so easier to get back in.  Morale 3+ to stay in the battle.  Assaults are 5+ but counterattack on 4+ – so get those assaults in and look to force your opponent off the objective!  HQ has better stats of course, so you want the HQ close by for the assaults.

The battalion HQ comprises one tank for 4pts and can add an optional missile for +1pt.

Tank Company has a minimum of three tanks for 5pts and a maximum of ten tanks for 29pts.  Beyond the minimum three tanks it is an additional 2pts for the 4^th tank, 3pts for the 5^th and 6^th tanks each, then an additional 4pts per tank thereafter.  A massive discount if you are running three or four tank companies.  You could easily run a dual formation of HQ plus three companies of four tanks for 32pts a formation and running two of them costs 64pts. That is 26 tanks running amuck with lots of points for support.  I would run a single formation of HQ plus three companies of seven with one company armed with the AT-10 stabber missile for 60pts leaving me options to take an BTR infantry formation as well plus artillery, recon, and helicopters. Seven to eight tanks are large enough to have a chance of surviving and not as inflexible as trying to manoeuvre nine or ten.

 

Looking to compare the Tanks now directly, we can compare armour, weapons, and movement.

Armour stats:

Tank	Front	Side	Top	Notes
T-64	17	9	2	BDD
T-72	16	8	2	BDD
T-62M	14	9	2	Bazooka Skirts

 

Weapon stats:

Tank Weapon	Range	ROF Halted	ROF Moving	Anti-Tank	Fire Power	Notes
T-64 125mm 2A46 gun	32”/80cm	1	1	22	2+	Advanced Stabiliser, Brutal, Laser Rangefinder
T-72 125mm 2A46 gun	32”/80cm	1	1	22	2+	Stabiliser, Brutal, Laser Rangefinder
T-62M 115mm 2A20 gun	32”/80cm	1	1	21	2+	Brutal, Laser Rangefinder

Missile stats:

Missle	Range	ROF Halted	ROF Moving	Anti-Tank	Fire Power	Notes
AT-8 Songster (T-64)	16”/40cm – 48”/120cm	1	1	21	3+	Guided, HEAT
AT-10 Stabber (T-62M)	16”/40cm – 48”/120cm	1	–	21	3+	Guided, HEAT

 

Movement Stats:

Tank	Tactical	Terrain Dash	Cross Country Dash	Road Dash	Cross
T-64	14”/35cm	16”/40cm	24”/60cm	28”/70cm	3+
T-72	10”/25cm	16”/40cm	24”/60cm	28”/70cm	3+
T-62M	10”/25cm	14”/35cm	20”/50cm	24”/60cm	4+

 

The T-64 has the best overall stats in terms of protection, gun, missile able to fire on the move and the fastest tank, especially at tactical (where it counts the most).  From a cost perspective, the T-62M is probably the best overall.  Its gun is quite good with AT21 and an optional missile means you have options with your force build giving you flexibility to run a decent armed tank in either spam mode or paired with an infantry formation, giving more a balanced approached but lots of firepower.  The downside is that it has a worse cross check.  The T-72 is the poor man’s T-64 really.  It is used where missiles on the tank are not required for your playstyle and for me its best used a formation support option for an infantry formation where you need a good tank but not quite enough points for T-64s or T-80s.  The best use for T-72s is in the Warsaw pact formations.  I run a Czech T-72M formation and it works well.

There you have it, there is still a place for the existing tanks in your arsenal, even with the new T-80 and T-55AM out.  Happy list building!

Every year members of the New Zealand Studio travel down to sunny(ish) Palmerston North for the worlds longest running Flames Of War / WWIII: Team Yankee tournament. Last year it was a 140 point doubles tournament for WWIII: Team Yankee.

At that point I had been slack and had never painted a WWIII army for myself, so I had to rush to paint one.  I only just realised that I haven’t actually taken any decent photos for the army yet, so this live launch seemed like a good opportunity to show it off.

For the tournament I teamed up with Chris who was taking Czechoslovakians. Chris’ boys were so cheap that I ended up taking 105 of the available 140 points. Despite this, Chris still had more painting to do than me.

The core of my list was 15 T-64s with two companies of seven T-64s (one was given missiles) and a Battalion HQ tank. Supporting this were some BRDM-2’s for Spearhead, some Gophers for AA, Storms for some cheap Anti-tank, and Mi-24 Hind helicopters because they look cool.

– Casey

With John Lee

A nice surprise for this release is the T-55AM formation.  Now finally the Soviets have access to the T-55 at last.  You do not have to rely on allied formations to run the T-55 horde!  Not only that, but the Soviet T-55AM is better than the Warsaw Pact T-55AM2.  As a Soviet player, I can now run all the different tank options from T-55AM up to the T-80!

What does the T-55AM bring to the table over the T-55AM2?  No slow firing in the Soviet variant, main gun with higher AT and an optional gun tube fired missile!

The gun – 32” range AT18 with NO Slow Firing means moving up to 10” and able to fire its main gun on the move with no penalty.  So effectively its range is up to 42” if you move and fire.  Brutal – hit dug in infantry with it and that infantry is re-rolling its saves!  Laser rangefinder – No +1 to hit targets over 16”.  Infrared – roll two dice and choose the highest die roll for shooting range at night.

The missile – AT21 with a 16” – 48” range provides an option to take out most vehicles at range.  Guided – no +1 to hit over 16”.  HEAT – no +1 to armour save for over 16” range.

The armour – FA14 SA9 TA2 with Bazooka Skirts.  Most modern tank guns and missiles will go right through the frontal armour but has enough to stave off attacks from other weapons. Side armour is relatively decent and has Bazooka Skirts which means it goes to 10 vs HEAT weapons.   Against more modern infantry anti-tank armed units, it is still not going to stop it but against older weapons you have a chance.

The speed – 10” tactical speed means you will keep moving suffering no penalties for moving and firing.  4+ cross check which means you will pass them 50% of the time – so best not to rely on it.  14” terrain dash and 20” cross country dash if you need it – not as fast as the more modern tanks.

The stats – Skill 5+ so blitzing and shooting and scooting are not reliable orders.  Remount is a 3+ so easier to get back in.  Morale 3+ to stay in the battle.  Assaults are 5+ and counterattack on 4+ – so only assault if you really need to!  HQ has better stats of course so you want the HQ close by for the assaults.

Before looking at the formation and composing some lists, I want to see what the size and cost of the T-55AM Tank Companies are.  Minimum in a company is five tanks for 7pts.  Maximum is ten tanks for 16pts.  Each tank beyond the minimum is an additional 2pts.  The tenth tank is only 1pt extra.  So, if you are looking to run a horde army, you gain a point running maximum points.  If you want the optional missile its +2pts for the whole company – a bargain when running a large company of them.

Let us have a look at what comprises the formation:

• 1 T-55AM Tank Company HQ
• 2-3 T-55AM Tank Company
• 0-1 BMP-1 Motor Rifle Company or BTR-60 Motor Rifle Company
• 0-1 BMP-2 Recon Platoon or BMP-1 Recon Platoon or BRDM-2 Motor Recon Platoon
• 0-1 ZSU-23-4 Shilka AA Platoon
• 0-1 SA-9 Gaskin SAM Platoon or SA-13 Gopher SAM Platoon
• 0-1 2S1 Carnation SP Howitzer Battery

With the low points for the volume of tanks you can take, you have a number of options for taking two formations of T-55AM or one formation with a secondary formation of say Air Assault Afgansty or BTR-60 infantry or even an allied formation, such as Iranian Chieftains.  With V2 of the rules, we can now take black box options as formation support – Shock T-80 Tank Platoon anyone?  Of course, you could just stack it with lots of support options, such as the new artillery (BM-27 Hurricanes, TOS-1), full complement of Hinds, Frogfoots – lots of combinations depending on your playstyle and budget.

We will look at various options for 120pts, 100pts and 75pts for running one or more formations.  Starting off with 120pts first let us see how this may play out:

Dual T-55AM formations stacked with missile firing tanks, infantry with upgraded RPGs that can stand up to Tanks with AT19 against advanced armour in assaults!  Each formation is relatively strong with six units in each, two infantry companies to dig in on both objectives and if required, drive the enemy infantry off theirs.  Two artillery templates including the new BM-27 rocket launchers that can launch minelets to wreck the enemy’s backline.  Spearhead and AA coverage to go with your 44 tanks.  40 x AT21 missiles with your tanks will cause your opponent headaches.  You have some room to modify the list here – remove either some tanks from the companies and or missiles if you want additional AA coverage or another artillery template.  You could also make one of the infantry companies smaller and or downgrade all the RPG-7VRs to standard RPG-7s.

Let us see how it looks if we pair the formation with an Air Afgansty formation:

Running with 31 x T-55AMs (10 with missiles) you have seven units in the formation – very durable with AA and spearhead.  You get two companies of the best infantry (outside of Shock Motor Rifle Infantry) equipped with the enhanced RPG-7s along with eight Hinds with AT24 missiles!  BM-27s to fire salvos and minelets.

How could this formation work with black box units – let us have a look:

Running with 31 x T-55AMs (10 with missiles) you have eight units in the formation – hard to break and has AA and spearhead.  You have intrinsic infantry with the formation plus one company of Air Afgansty infantry for assaulting or defending the key objective.  Platoon of shock T-80s – hit on 4s – oh yeah!

Want more of the support options for a more surgical strike force – here is an option :

Your T-55AM formation will hold the field with eight in the formation with one infantry company to anchor it.  The TOS-1 is there to wreck infantry formations with its brutal salvo and auto firepower.  The six hinds with AT24 and six Frogfoots with AT27 are your surgical strike instruments.  Use your T-55AMS to bum rush your opponents AA so your air assets can rip apart the enemy armour whilst the TOS-1s suppress enemy infantry.

Looking to 100pts now, we could remove the Frogfoots, swap out the TOS-1 for BM-27s and add some Storms:

The Storms add more AT24 goodness.  Storms and Hinds are you surgical instruments for taking on high end tanks.   You could also change out the BM-27s for 2S1 Carnations or 2S3 Acacias to add missiles to one of the T-55AM companies to bolster your missile count.

For me, I find that running 10 tank companies are difficult to manoeuvre, so I prefer running them in units of 7-8 tanks.  This allows more tweaking of points to get other units I want for my force.  Here is an option that suits my playstyle:

This list has two small infantry units, the formation still has eight units, and I can incorporate the new BMP-3 with its firing on the move AT21 missile! 6 x AT24 and 28 x AT21 missiles!  As you can see, you can tweak the T-55AM list to suit your playstyle at 100pts and 120pts.

Having played at NukeCon here in Auckland a number of weeks ago, I thought I would see if I could get a T-55AM Tank Battalion list together that I could have taken if it was available then (I took an Iraqi T-72M force – which was fun to play):

Still have 4 x AT24 take on the heavy tanks with back up of 8 x AT21 missiles.  Formation is strong with seven units.  AA in the form of Shilkas and Gremlin.  Smaller infantry unit but has the upgraded RPG-7VR so can hold off tanks in assault.  Use the remaining T-55AMs to bum rush the enemy (from reserve if required) or from spearhead.

So, there you have it – this formation gives plenty of options depending on your play style and the points you are playing to.  I love all the options you can add from either black box formation support or the support options.  The horde rides again!

~John Lee

Like most of the Big Four Of Late War I was super-jazzed with the T-80 arriving in the WWIII: Soviet book, and decided to join in the fun and paint up a new army for the launch (evil glares at Chris for not participating).

Now I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to painting which means I’m normally a slow painter, so I thought I would just this as an opportunity to challenge myself to pump out an army quickly.

Rather than noodling an army list to build my army around I decided to just paint some of the new models that I thought looked cool, points and army composition didn’t really make me decide what to paint.

The core of my force are some T-80s. I figure 10 should be enough to cover me for most situations. Next up are some BMP-3 Scouts, again because they are new plastic and look super cool.

One of my favourite new units in the book is the TOS-1. I have been badgering Wayne, Phil, Chris, Evan, and Pete to make the TOS-1 since the start of our WWIII journey, so now that we have it I thought it would be rude not to paint some. As well as looking cool, game-wise I think it will be a good choice to have available to my Soviets since I tend to run tank heavy armies and struggle to deal with infantry. Their Brutal bombardment will certainly help with that.

Lastly, I’m painting a platoon of 2S6 Tunguska AA tanks, mainly due to rule of cool, I just think they look awesome.

Plugging this into Forces it comes out to an inconvenient 101 points, so I’d probably have to drop a BMP-3 if I were to take it to a tournament.

Amongst the Big Four Of Late War we have been discussing playing big boy games of 150 points using the more modern equipment that has started appearing (T-80s, M1A1 Abrams, Challenger I’s, Leopard 2’s etc). Luckily I can make this a 150 point list just by making them Heroes and adding the Mi-24 Hinds that I have already painted, a few infantry stands, and a pair of Gophers for a bit more AA. The TOS-1s are probably a suboptimal option given that none of the guys are going to go particularly infantry heavy for these games, but sometimes you don’t always get given the tools that you need to do a job and just have to make do with what you have available.

As far as the fast paint challenge has gone, I’m about 3 weeks in and I’ve managed to finish the T-80s apart from the tracks and the rest of the army is not far behind. With another week I think I’ll have the army completely finished. The army is definitely not painted as well as I would usually paint, but I’m pretty happy with it, and I think looking at effort vs reward it’s pretty good. I’m just looking forward to putting it on the table for a few games.

– Casey