Soviet Tank Formations in Enemy at the Gates

By Chris Johnson

Chris just took first place at Historicon’s Early War Nationals tournament with his Soviet Tank Force.

Friends, Romans, bears bearing hammers and sickles, lend me your eyes and ears.

The Eastern Front books for are right around the corner and I am here to tell you what to expect from our long lost friends in the Soviet Armored Divisions and how they will drive the fascists back to Berlin faster than you can say URRAH!

This is extremely exciting for me; Soviet armor is my favorite army to play in any Era. Finally being able to field them in Mid War is going to be so much fun. This is where the Soviet war machine cranked out so many tanks in vast numbers (and borrowed) to overwhelm the Germans and reclaim their stolen land!

Special Rules for Tankovy

Not one step back:  this special rule grants tank units with a +1 motivation to pass last stand checks keeping us on the table longer.

Heavy Tank: which grants heavy tanks a better counterattack rating, giving a +1 to motivation to counterattack. This keeps us in the fight to grind the Germans into our soil.

Turret-Rear MG: this rule has changed from what we all loved to see our opponents face when they had to reroll successful hits to making our tanks better in assault by providing a +1 for our skill in assaults.

Little tanks: Last but not least one of my favorite. This special rule allows us to field a platoon with this special rule even in missions that limit the amount of armor and aircraft we can have on the table because they are so tiny.

Rejoice, not once did I say we have Hens and Chicks.

That is correct comrades it is gone. No longer do we have Hens and Chicks to vex our tanks. As exciting as that may be, most of our tanks now have the special rule Overworked which adds a plus one to hit while on the move for that specific vehicle. For example, if you have two tanks right where you want them and the third moves, only the third tank will take the penalty of the overworked special rule.

Force Organization

We have a grand total of three tanks formations to field in the bloody streets of Stalingrad. The Mixed Tankovy Battalion, The T-34 (early) battalion and our Lend Lease the M3 Lee Battalion.

First, we have the work horse: our T-34 (Early) Battalion.

This battalion is exactly what I think of when I think of the Soviet tank divisions during this time. Tons of tanks that don’t have the greatest skills and are hit easier than you can click your mouse, but have the same weapons we are all used to.

You have to include a minimum of four T-34s in the battalion.

Our other mandatory platoon can be more T-34s or Lend-Lease Valentines (which are cheaper than those used by our British allies). This company allows you to field plenty of armor with built-in support to the company in the form of infantry to clear those pesky nesting Germans in our buildings, mortars to provide some artillery support, and of course, Zis-3 guns to help punch armor our tanks may need a hand with.

When you need help who ya gonna call? The Americans of course with our lend-lease program. The M3 Lee tank Battalion is going to be a favorite especially with the plastic Lee kit out and the ability to field more than both the British (Grants) and Americans (Lees).

Just like the T-34 (Early) Battalion, we need a minimum of four M3 Lees; our other mandatory platoon can be either more Lees or the fast and versatile M3 Stuart tanks. The rest of the company support is the same as the T-34 (Early) Battalion with Infantry, Mortars, and Zis-3 guns.
Finally my favorite armored company from Eastern Front the Mixed Tank Battalion.

Here we have the mighty KV-1 and KV-1s tanks to send the Germans swimming the Volga. The number one thing to note is that we do not have a single HQ Unit for this Tank Formation (do you need that First IC reroll?) Our mandatory platoons are either KV-1 or KV-1s The KV-1 has more armor and an overworked gun where the KV-1s is faster but has less armor. The other mandatory is our beloved T-34s or Valentines.

The KV-1 tanks utilize almost every new rule the Soviet tanks have been granted to help us stay in the fight and to make sure we crush whatever it is we are trying to run over!

The company also has access to the same infantry and mortars as the other tank formations. In all but the lend-lease formations, one platoon that can be taken is our tiny machines the T-60. These little guys are going to be one of my favorite harass units and will see constant play in my lists. They lack HE and do not have scout but they will be worth every ounce of fuel you can muster to help unleash a hailstorm of machinegun shots or to fight off scout cars.

Example Formation

Now that we have had a taste of our Borscht, let’s skip right on over to happy hour and have a shot of potato water with a list I have been working on at 71 points. I have chosen to take the Mixed Tank Battalion. KV-1 and the KV-1s are 24pts for three tanks. Starting there I went with three of the KV-1, taking the KV-1 over the KV-1s I believe will be better because of the extra armor available providing more longevity for the unit. I am used to the old hens and chicks so Overworked will be nothing new for me.

The next combat platoon I have chosen to go with is five Valentines. These tanks are as meaty as the T-34 (early) but have a smaller gun at AT 7 FP 4+ instead of AT 9 FP 3+. The five tanks come in at 12 points with front and side armor 6, these guys won’t just be pushed off the table by enemy panzers.

For the third tank platoon I had to go with the micro machines the T 60s, five of these little guys comes in at tremendous 4pts. The last combat platoon I have taken are nine, yes nine 82mm mortars, these will be essential for pinning and hopefully killing some enemy guns as our tanks slowly roll up and over the enemy. So far the list is only at 46 points, for the remaining 25pts I have chosen a single support option. So why not take more KVs, but not just any KVs, I have taken three of the KV-8 flame tanks for 24 pts pumping out fifteen flamethrower shots leaving us at 70pts even.

So we have a combined total of six KV tanks, five Valentines, five T-60s and nine 82mm mortars. The way I plan on utilizing these monsters is to let the KV-1 platoon do the heavy lifting with their massive armor and decent cannon AT 9 FP 3+.

Having them supported by KV-8s to burn anything that is brave enough to assault us. Even though the KV-8 isn’t great in assault it can always be used to jump in when you may fail your motivation with your KV-1 platoon.

The Valentines are there to fight against light, medium armor and scout cars. Also able to hold backfield objectives in such missions where we as the attacker also need to defend an objective. The T-60s will be used to harass unprotected artillery and keep infantry honest from moving out in the open.

Finally, our mortars are to provide a way to engage enemy AT guns from afar. Having nine allows us to reroll misses and to take some punishment when counter batteries start shooting at us. This list is going to be an extreme amount of fun as you rumble forward with six tank teams having front armor nine to assault and claim an objective as soon as possible. If you choose to play this list just be wary of your T-60s and mortars as all your opponent needs to do is kill these units off and your formation will almost be running home to Moscow.

The KV tanks are going to be monsters on the table, with command cards coming out to further boost their power. One such card is Unkillable, which allows a bailed KV-1 or KV-1s that is bailed out make a motivation check in the shooting step if it is passed the tank can fire as normal.

This is going to be so much fun because if one of these behemoths gets bailed your opponent may feel less pressured; however, allowing it to fire in your shooting step will be like it still there fighting the good fight for Mother Russia! Remember even if you feel you don’t want to run a tank company you can always field a black box unit from another formation as support for your formation. Mixing hero infantry with KVs should be a tough list to crack for any opponent.

Not everything is sunshine and rainbows; there are a few armored units I wished to see for the Soviet armored forces. The T-34/57 which had AT 11 FP 3+ gun which could be integrated into the T-34 platoons in V3. Any of the assault guns or even an assault gun company for the SU-76m.

The number one tank I was shocked to not see is the KV-2, our giant box turret with a howitzer crammed in it to dislodge any German brave enough to sit in a building. Alas, we can hope some of these will appear in the later Kursk book or as command cards.

This book has me excited to start painting new tanks and infantry suitable for city fighting and to be able to play more V4 Mid War. Tons of new models are on the way with plastic KV tanks, new infantry, and my number one excited model; plastic Katyusha without bases! New rules and force organizations are a breath of fresh air for Soviet players and I can’t wait to see what armies come out of this book. I hope to see you all on the battlefield soon and we will see who will win the race to the Volga and eventually Berlin, Za Stalina!