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We start off with the Soviets who had three releases on the LW journey starting with Fortress Europe containing formations and units that carry over from Mid War as well as including some of the Lend Lease units in particular M3 Stuart, M3 Lee, and Churchills. The first big release for the Soviets up next was Bagration which included all the cool units such as IS-2, SU-76M, ISU series, SU-85M/100, Engineer Sappers etc. The final release last year was Berlin which introduced the lend lease Sherman alongside the 160mm mortars and 203 howitzers! Whilst some of the formations are the same across the books, each book introduced new equipment or, particularly in Berlin, upgraded to Hero status and gaining better stats. E.g going from Aggressive to Careful and or introducing integral panzerfausts over RPG-6 AT options for infantry.
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First off there are four LW army deals for the Soviets, and I have covered off three of them previously – you can check them out here:
Soviet Army Deal Reviews
- T-34 Army Deal
- Heavy Assault Group
- M4 Sherman Forward Detachment
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Check out the T-34 Tank Battalion in the online store...
Check out the Heavy Assault Group in the online store...
Check out the M4 Sherman Forward Detachment in the online store...
Check out the Kursk Starter Set in the online store...
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We will cover off the fourth army deal shortly but I want to look at building a force using Bagration Force Diagram which gives us access to the Bagration command cards of which we want to take advantage of maximising our cash by purchasing the Mid War 2 player starter set – Kursk! One of the things I love about running a Soviet army is I can field tanks and vehicles from four different nations in one force! What is in Kursk starter set? And how can we use the German tanks I hear you ask? One of the most used Soviet command cards out there – Decoy Tank Company is how.
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The Decoy Tank Company command card allows you to field up to THREE German tanks in place of a Scout Platoon or BA-64 Armoured Car Platoon and gain spearhead. You can choose a combination of Panzer IVs, Stugs, Panthers and a single Tiger. For our purposes, we are replacing the BA-64 Armoured Car Platoon in the force diagram in the support section.
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The Kursk 2 player Starter Set contains the following models:
- 1 x Tiger
- 2 x Panther
- 2 x Panzer IV (late)
- 2 x Panzer III (late)
- 7 x T-34 (both turret options)
- 4 x SU-85/85M/100
- 3 x Valentine (2pdr or 6pdr)
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The most common combos for taking the Decoy Tank Company are either 3 x Panther or 1 x Tiger and 2 x Panther. The importance of taking these vehicles in your Soviet force is the FA9 with ROF 2/1 AT14 gun and range out to 40”. Closest options are either the ISU-122 or IS-2 with FA9/10/11 ROF 1/1* with a range of 28”. The SU-100 has FA7 with ROF 1/1* AT15 with a range of 32”. * These guns have slow firing on the move to go with their ROF1. The captured German options have more range and better ROF. The Panzer IIIs is not much used to you unless you have an alternative army already and the Panzer IVs can be used in the Decoy Company…or they can be turned into Romanian allied (they changed sides) T-34s – more on that later.
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You get a bunch of useful tanks and tank destroyers in the box as well which we will be adding to with the fourth army deal – Tank Shock Group (the first Soviet LW Army Deal released in the series). The army deal contains the following:
- Complete A5 Rulebook.
- Soviet “Start Here” booklet.
- 6 x T-34 tanks (both turret options).
- 5 x T-70 tanks.
- 3 x KV-1 or KV-1s or KV-8 tanks.
- 4 x SU-85 or SU-85M or SU-100 Assault Guns.
- 4 x Katyusha Rocket Launchers.
- 2 x Decal Sheets.
- 12 x Unit Cards.
That brings the total number of T-34s to thirteen and SU-85/85M/100 variants to eight.
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We are going to look at a couple of formations to maximise what we have and use the Decoy Tank Company to our advantage. The first formation is the T-34 Tank Battalion which consists of the following units:
- 1 T-34 Tank Battalion HQ
- 1-2 T-34 Tank Company
- 0-1 T-34 Tank Company or T-70 Tank Company or Valentine Tank Company
- 0-1 ZSU M17 Anti-Aircraft Platoon
- 0-1 82mm Mortar Platoon
- 0-1 45mm Anti-Tank Company or 76mm Anti-Tank Company or 57mm Anti-Tank Company
- 0-1 SMG Company or Hero SMG Company
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Based on what we have from the boxes and in the formation, we would only need to add a box of infantry to round out the purchase to have something like this:
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Five units for the formation break. Uses most of the T-34s, all the KVs, Valentines, T-70s, Panthers and Tiger. Infantry to anchor the formation and use to sit on or help capture objectives. KV-8s with their FA9 SA8 TA2 and flamethrowers to pin, kill and then assault the enemy off the objective along with the Valentines. T-34s as your main force to take on enemy armour and keep your opponent honest. T-70s to go after rear area stuff such as artillery or enemy recon units. Decoy Tank Company for spearhead and or heavy AT work with their ROF2/1 AT14 guns. Katyushas with their salvo template to pin down whole enemy companies of infantry and gun teams and are mobile to avoid counterbattery fire.
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To buy this army you need only to purchase the following for $235:
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1 x SUAB11 Soviet Shock Tank Group
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110
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1 x FWBX14 Kursk 2 Player Starter Set
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65
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1 x SBX81 Storm Group
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25
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1 x FW266 Bagration Soviet Book
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25
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1 x FW266C Bagration Command Cards
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10
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TOTAL
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$235
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Next up is the Medium SP Regiment. You can pick and choose what versions of the Assault Guns you want to use, but we will go with SU-85M for their ROF 2/1 AT12 out to 28” as our main choice. The formation is made up of the following units:
- 1 Medium SP Artillery Regiment HQ
- 2-4 SU-85 Tank-Killer Battery or SU-85M Tank-Killer Battery or SU-100 Tank-Killer Battery
- 0-1 SMG Company or Hero SMG Company
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If we were not using the Tank Decoy Company, I would opt for one SU-85M Battery and SU-100 Battery. I like this formation as the units are Fearless Veteran Careful (except for the infantry):
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Four units for the formation break but three of them are Careful instead of Aggressive, so are harder to hit. Decoy Tank Company for spearhead and ROF 2/1 AT14 for heavy lifting. T-70s to take on enemy recon and rear are units. Katyushas for counterbattery fire and pinning the enemy before any assaults. The Unditching Log command cards to reroll any failed cross tests for the unit as the SU-85Ms are 4+. SU-100s are 5+, so are an auto include for them.
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One of the interesting choices you can add for a Soviet force are Romanian allies. You can either add a unit or a formation. Those two Panzer IVs along with an additional sprue can make a unit of T-4s for 12pts that you could substitute into a list. A T-4 formation or R-2 formation as allies can make for some interesting, combined Soviet/Romanian list combinations with cheap tanks!
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For 31pts we could add a small Romanian T-4 allied formation if we rejig our T-34 Tank Battalion Force and add one box of Panzer IVs and 3 blisters of R-2s:
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Reduced main formation to four units for the main formation break but upgraded the HQ and added another T-34 in the main platoon taking the unit to 7 T-34s. Having seven T-4s gives ROF 2/1 AT11 out to 32” giving more flexibility. The R-2s whilst slow, can be used in tandem with the T-70s.
The additional cost for the extra Romanians is $50 for the box of five Panzer IVs and $42 for the three blisters of R-2s bringing the total spend to $327.
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That’s some food for thought around the last army deal and thinking outside the square with the Kursk 2 player starter set.
To finish off, if you want to build the nucleus of a Soviet force where you can run multiple different formations and units for the best overall price, then I would suggest to purchase Kursk plus three of the four army deals and a couple of other boxes to maximise your spend:
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1 x SUAB11 Soviet Shock Tank Group
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110
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1 x SUAB13 Heavy Assault Group
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110
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1 x SUAB16 M4 Sherman Forward Detachment
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110
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1 x FWBX14 Kursk 2 Player Starter Set
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65
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1 x SBX81 Storm Group
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25
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1 x SBX77 Shturmovik Assault Company
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32
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2 x SU871 82mm and 120mm Mortar Company
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30
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1 x FW266 Bagration Soviet Book
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25
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1 x FW274 Berlin Soviet Book
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25
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1 x FW266C Bagration Command Cards
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10
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1 x FW274C Berlin Soviet Command Cards
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10
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TOTAL
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$552
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| You end up with enough infantry to make any of the rifle type of battalions that come from two of the army deals. Lots and lots of tanks to give you options of what to run whether infantry or tank based along with mortars and guns that are intrinsic for a lot of formations, and the aircraft are a useful choice to take as another option. As you play more of this army, you can just a box here or there if needed.
I hope that helps and gives some insight on how to maximise your spend. If you want to get into Mid War as well from here, you can reuse most of the purchases from the above. Enjoy!
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| ~ John Lee |