Viva Cuba!

By Jim Naughton

The newest Soviet Ally to join the Team Yankee tabletop is the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias (FAR); or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba.

The troops represented in Red Dawn belong solely to the Tropas Terrestes with the exception of the MI-24 Hind, the other services are not represented. Which is a shame because the Cubans had their own parachute battalions, marines, and special operations forces, as well as a variety of aircraft.  Cuba didn’t use SU-17/22/25 so in the game, they must rely on Soviet aircraft.

In 1985 the FAR’s organization was more akin to the Egyptians and Syrians of Fate of a Nation.  Infantry Divisions with a single brigade of mechanized troops or Armored Divisions with minimal infantry.  Organized regionally into three Ejercitos that incorporated the Milicias. Their focus was meeting an invasion by the USA near the water’s edge with a rapid mechanized counterattack, as was done at the Bay of Pigs.  However, Cuban troops fought in Angola and they provided advisors to many African nations as well as exporting La Revolucion throughout the Americas.

Battlefront hypothesizes that the Ejercito Expedicionario would take the best troops and organize them in the current Soviet style.  So pure infantry battalions equipped with SPG-9 recoilless rifles will have to wait.

Organizing them Soviet style only extended so far, so their tanks remain the venerable T62 and T55 and missiles remain SAGGER.  Although the Cubans would eventually acquire T62M, they were probably last on Ded Moroz’s list for new toys. They also get SU-100 tank destroyers equipped with 1980 export ammunition (AT=17).

These tanks are forward-firing but exceptionally cheap.  The SU-100s can be the third company in either tank battalion.  All tank companies can have from 3 to 10 vehicles.  Both tank battalions can have a third company with a different model tank – an organization familiar to us all from Warsaw Pact. The infantry come in BMP-1s and BTR-60s.  They are organized like Soviets in small, medium, and large companies.  Like Soviets, East Germans, and Czechs, can augment with Gremlins and AGS-17.  The BTR-60 companies can be augmented by two SAGGER stands. A tank battalion can have one infantry company of either flavor.  The infantry can also come in battalions like their fraternal socialist brothers in Warsaw Pact.  The support weapons included in the four represented battalions are SAM and AAA vehicles, artillery, and reconnaissance.

Same as for Warsaw Pact forces, but with a twist – the AAAV includes ZSU-57 and Praga as well as ZSU-23.  The Praga is explained as ‘supplied by the Czechs.’  This is a minor liberty with history as the Cubans had many truck-mounted flak systems, extending back to U.S. equipment abandoned by Batista’s troops.  But not Praga as far as I can find.  I consider it a stand-in for other systems.

The Cubans can take Soviets or other PACT formations as allies and black box support from other Cuban formations.  And cross-referencing the wording in Oil Wars Cubans can take Syrians as allies and vice versa.   The familiar 2S1 Carnation provides fire support within the battalions.  Recon choices are BMP-1s or BRDM-2s.  The Spandrel AT vehicle is found in the infantry battalions. The gray support boxes on the Force Diagram are essentially the same as any of the PACT.

Like the PACT Force diagrams, you can supplement the Formation Recon and SAM vehicles with platoons from the Divisional assets. Sexy DANA and the RM-70 don’t appear, as the Cubans didn’t buy them, and for TOS-1 as well as BM-27 you need to still take Soviets. Cuban heavy artillery includes 2S3 Acacia and BM-21 Hail as well as a supplemental 2S1 battery.  The artillery all cost an extra AP for a 3-pack thanks to their 4+ skill.

Hinds come in a single unit of 2-pack or a 4-pack with the small and medium Assault Landing Companies (Compania Aterrizaje de Asalto).  Strike Aircraft are SU-17s or SU-25 from the Soviet list. All very familiar.  Just to make it more familiar the units are rated the same as the East Germans, making their artillery more flexible than the Soviets and increasing the chance ATGM units can remain behind hills and blitz to hull-down firing positions.

Let’s take a detailed look at the T62 Batallon de Tanques, which is the one thing PACT allies can’t have.  Facing the American National Guard’s M60s (BF still hasn’t given us a plastic M48 kit) the T62 Batallon is the logical choice for Cuban heavy armor.

The main gun is AT-19, slow firing, range 32”.  Front Armor (FA =13), Side Armor (SA) = 9.  Three machine gun dice moving and four stationary.  No bazooka skirts.  Cross check 4+.  Essentially a mirror of the Iraqi/Syrian T62 EXCEPT the ratings.

The Skill is 4+ and the Morale is 3+.  And that is reflected in the price – at five tanks the Iraqi and Cuban tanks match up at 7AP, but the Cubans have extra cost built into 6-pack and 7-pack units.  At the 10-tank company, you spend 2 extra points (17 AP).

The T62 Batallon can have three compania of T62.  Or switch to T55/SU-100 for the third compania. The T55 Compania is (unsurprisingly) priced the same as East German T55s.

Starts at 5 AP and finishes at 13 AP.  The armor, ratings, and machine guns are the same as the Warsaw Pact T55s.  And the main gun is AP=17, slow firing, and 32” range.   The SU-100 starts at 4 AP.  Unlike almost every other PACT tank, the cost is linear – 10 tanks cost 9 AP.  However, it has some big warts.  It has a horrible cross check – 5+ – carried over from Flames of War.  And its armor package is weak – FA=7, SA = 5.  So its main attraction is that a large compania can deliver a tank charge to flank big kahuna NATO tanks, but it is as vulnerable to a Gepard ambush or charging Marder II as BMP-3s.  And annoyingly, its weak front armor is just strong enough to make it a pain in Deep Reserve Scenarios.

The T62 Batallon has the standard choice of infantry units and support weapons found in PACT battalions to round out the Formation.  A formation with 16 T62s and 14 BMP-1s (3 Exploradores and a medium infantry company) plus support rings in at 52 AP, leaving plenty of room for a second formation and Divisional support.  Just to give it a different feel, I’d use ZSU-57 or Praga for the AAAV.  Gaskin would remain my SAM choice.

Battlefront recommends Iraqi infantry for the Cubans, showing them with a bright green fatigue uniform and light olive helmet. There are two annoying issues with this, both associated with the heavy weapons teams. The Iraqis don’t get the AGS-17, and the Iraqi heavy weapons pack comes with only one SAGGER team (plus a MILAN team).

When the FOAN range was available, SAGGERs had their own pack. Frustrating. The AGS can only be remedied by buying the Afghansky or Motor Rifle Heavy Weapons Pack – even the new Air Assault Heavy Weapons Pack doesn’t offer them.  And having bought that you might as well substitute the Spigots for the SAGGERs.

For classy modeling, if building dedicated Cubans think about buying an Air Assault Platoon with their berets and mixing them in with the helmet-equipped soldados.  The Cubans were endlessly fascinated with berets after Che, and often wore black or olive ones in training.  After all El Coronel Bella wore one in the original movie, didn’t he?

Painting Cuban tanks is easy.  Choose your favorite color of olive drab spray and have at it.  The Musee Giron has two examples – Fidel’s personal tank from the Bay of Pigs and a T34-85 allegedly used at the Bay of Pigs.  Both are olive drab, with the SU-100 in better condition.

They weren’t camouflaged (We are a poor country! We have no money for frivolous decoration!).  The Soviets effectively donated Cuban armor, at first bringing their own and then leaving it behind. Eventually, the tropics forced repainting.  To my eye, they used a local paint color.  If staging through Mexico to invade America’s Southwest, they might have taken the time to tiger-stripe in Sand or Khaki as the Syrians did or repaint entirely but that’s speculating.

So that’s a quick recap of the FAR, the newest Soviet ally entrant in Team Yankee.  Viva La Revolucion!