Soviets

By Troy A. Hill

Images courtesy of and ©Osprey Publishing Ltd, Warlord Games 2019

I have to admit that I had only a casual sideline historical interest in Europe’s eastern front in WWII. To me, Hungarians and Romanians were always the armies of minor nations that gave the Germans some “cheaper” allies to play in campaigns or tournaments depending on which game system I was playing. How wrong I was.

Thanks to taking the challenge of reading and reviewing new Fortress Budapest Campaign book for Bolt Action, I have a new appreciation of just how important this section of the late war period was to Hitler’s war machine, and why he and Stalin invested so much time, blood and resources into battles that lead the Red Army to conquer Hungary.

By Benny Christiansen

Following up on my Tactical Suggestion article about the Red Banner Command Card with Leonid in it, I have had a game with a friend, where we tested a list using that card.

I have already had another game with the list, but in that game, he never got to be a part of the game, and I found it hard to make any real analysis based on that game.

Be aware that the game is a Fog Of War game, as I am going to a tournament with all Fog Of War matches, and this was a test of a list for that event as well. We played Dust Up.

By Benny Christiansen

In the middle of a steaming hot summer, with a pregnant wife and a job, where a lot of colleges are on holiday, I found the time for a game with one of my friends. We are going to play in a Total War battle in October, where we will be fighting for Kiev. We decided to test some of my 4000 points list in a friendly game. The game would be on his new table, which is meant for a Stalingrad battle, that is also in the making.

by Tom Burgess

Our local Flames of War gaming group got in a second City Fight game. Last time we fought out “The Square” mission from So this time we turned out attention to Iron Cross with “The Boulevard” mission. “Battle Buddy” Ed would be playing his Soviets while Charles “6by9” would be rolling out the Germans. The point level was 55 points.

We played the game at Hard Knox Games when we could make great use of the in-store terrain collection. We used a 28mm city game mat as the base, which we thought looked much better than the plain black base we used last time. We the two halves of Miniature Building Authority (MBA) “Factory Building” to make the two main objective buildings.  To further subdivide these two buildings into four “rooms” we simply added some Battlefront Desert Walls.  We added some other MBA building halves to add to the boards generic “rubble” look. We also added some building around the perimeter edge of the board which were “off table” but helped with the visual back-drops.

By NDNG_Dane and Mitch Reed

Today, our resident Historian Dane takes a look at Street Fighting on the Eastern Front of WWII, and Mitch ties the real-life tactics into the new Flames of War (FOW) Eastern Front books.

During the summer of 1942, the German 4th Panzer Army and the 6th Army were given the task of capturing Stalingrad. These veteran soldiers were to learn a whole new level of urban fighting. The initial German offensive and invasion of Stalingrad started with 270,000 German military personnel, 500 tanks, 3,000 artillery pieces and 1,600 aircraft. The Soviet defenders included 187,000 military personnel, 400 tanks, 2,200 artillery pieces and 300 aircraft.

After a look over the new Version 4 book Soviet book, Enemy at the Gates, I could not imagine anything better for them, good infantry, good tanks and good special rules. They seemed to have it all.

Over all I was pleased with the release of Russians into V4 MW. How could it get any better Then I opened up the Command Cards and I saw this:

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!

by Tom Burgess

Enemy at the Gates at last answers the question that we’ve had for over a year “how will big Soviet infantry units be treated under Version 4 ?”  I like the answer and am eagerly looking forward to getting my “Strelk On” with this new book.

Why am I so excited? Diversity! Even before we get to Command Card options, the “Enemy at the Gates” brings the interesting Version 3 Flames of War Late War Soviet Infantry options into Version 4 Mid War.

There are two glorious Soviet Infantry Formations that allow the faithful Soviet gamer to employ no less than six Soviet Infantry Companies types: Rifle Company, Submachinegun Company, Penal Company, Hero Rifle Company, Hero Submachinegun Company, and Storm Groups.

By Dennis Campbell AKA Matt Varnish

Photos by the Author, except the above and left.

Plastic Soldier Company was kind enough to send us a 1/72 scale (20mm) T-55 kit for review. I decided to build it as an Iraqi T-55A, which my research indicates was of Czech manufacture originally. I almost wanted to make it a modified Type-69 (Chinese knock-off) but decided on the stock variant, which thankfully PSC has the parts on-sprue to make. This kit can make Soviet/Polish T-55, Soviet/Polish/Czech T-55A, and finally, the T-55AM which has the modernized armour on the turret and the better sensors on the main gun barrel (East German Team Yankee).

By Dennis Campbell AKA Matt Varnish

Photos by the Author

Rob and I did a test game with the new Nam rules for Team Yankee (Team Yankee Early War?) but instead of using traditional lists, we decided that since Team Yankee the novel is a what-if scenario, then why not do a what-if of the Oil Crisis of the 1970s!  In our case, we did a Canadian Tank force (Aussie Centurions) vs some T-55s and Motor Rifles out in a desert oil facility.    As usual, video bat-rep at the end.  Thanks to Rob for hosting as usual, this time on his awesome AFG board where I added my 15mm terrain to good effect:View from the industrial center