Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I've been looking at those cheap plastic 15mm Soviet infantry and T-34s and I've decided I want to build a soviet force for FoW. I have Fortress Europe as a guide and I want to build a Guards infantry list. Does anyone have any tips.

Well its Russians aint it?

So buy loads of tanks and loads and loads of infantry.

Job done.

Two boxes of Plastic Soldier infantry will give me two full Companies of infantry (sans the Maxims). What I'm after is a nice elite but generic Guards infantry list, does anyone know if any of the FoW eastern front late war books cover this?

If what you're looking for is a generic Guards army, what's wrong with the list in Fortress Europe? I think most of the specifically Eastern front books have lists based on certain units or battles, and some of them have access to more specialized equipment that might have been more common in only a few units. Although, I'm sure you could form a generic list from some of those books too, I'm just not sure what the need is if you already have FE.

There isn't a Guards list in Fortress Europe, it's just a regular Strelkovy list.

I've heard the Udany Strelkovy list is good.

George Spiggott wrote:There isn't a Guards list in Fortress Europe, it's just a regular Strelkovy list.

I've heard the Udany Strelkovy list is good.

I'll have to look again. I know you can do a Guards list in Festung Europa (I just checked), I'll have to double check to see if it's in Fortress Europe as well.

Udarny Strelkovy is Guards I think. Fearless Trained, in Stalin's Onslaught.

powerslave84 wrote:Udarny Strelkovy is Guards I think. Fearless Trained, in Stalin's Onslaught.

Yes. You have 3 t-34 options in this book: flame tanks, mine rollers, regular. George, the list in my post is based on this book. Also, the official fow forums will help out jusr do not tell them what minis you are using!

Thanks guys. I think I'm going to go with the regular Strelkovy list I think as I've heard that the Udarny Strelkovy don't have access to the iconic T34-85.

With soviet infantry does massed infantry really pay or is it just a points sink?

Using Plastic Soldier and Peter Pig I can make an army with two full Strelkovy Companies and a Company of five T34-85s for about £55. That may well be my first 1,100 points sorted.

Only five? Should add some super nasty things in that list too for bigger games. IS-2's and ISU-122, 152 are very very nasty. I play Germans, and being on the receiving end is not fun.

I plan to make a 2,000 point list, this is just the first 1,100 points.

Annoyingly Late War brits are coming as well, just after I spent a small fortune on them in tin. Bum.

Have you looked into Old Glory? I know theres some UK companies too, but I can't remember.. Peter Pig maybe..?

powerslave84 wrote:Have you looked into Old Glory? I know theres some UK companies too, but I can't remember.. Peter Pig maybe..?

Old Glory are quite slender by comparison to BF, but they might compare well to these plastic chaps.

Mr Spiggot, does this mean you will finally have a use for that T-34 you bought way back in the dawn of time? Do you even still have it?

It's a T34 obr. 40 IIRC so it'll keep its beutepanzer paint scheme for if I ever run a Grenadier list. Besides with T34-85s being about £3 a pop I think I can afford to splash out.

It's unlikely that much of this army will be BF miniatures, just the stuff that I can't get or get cheaper.

I've changed my mind again and I may opt for a Motostrelkovy list as it seems to provide more tanks than the Strelkovy list. Two of the four 'tank' companies I can field can have T34-85s.

There's motostrelkovy in Hammer & sickle as well. In H&S the motos all have SMGs with the option to take one as rifle/mg and it's the opposite in Fortress Europe. The one thing that's nice about H&S is you can take a full 10 strong t34/85 rather than the limit of 5 per unit in FE (the other 5 would be the older t34/76s).

Motos have a lot more vehicle options than strelks. They loose the heavy artillery and the flame thrower teams on foot, although if you take the armored motos in transports you can get one flamethrower for free. The other gaming difference is motos are considered a mechanized company as opposed to infantry so you'll be the attacker more often than strelks.

I picked up Stalin's Onslaught and Hammer and Sickle the other day. Thanks for the tips, I'll ruminate on them. More to come...

Ok, I had my first game with Soviets last night using the Pervertedly Otryad PDF. Here's my list.

Pervertedly Otryad HQ (50)
Company Command Rifle Team & Jeep, 2iC Command Rifle Team & Jeep, Batallion Kommissar Team & Jeep

Motostrelkovy Company (330)
Command SMG Team 2x Motor Rifle Platoons (7 SMG Teams, 7 Rifle Teams) 2 Maksim HMG Teams

Tankovy Company (385)
5 T-34/85 obr 1943

Motorised Mortar Company (75)
Command Rifle Team, Observer Rifle Team, 3 82-BM-41 Mortar Teams

Guards Heavy Tank Company (470)
3 IS2 obr 1943

Limited Air Support (200)
Il-2 Sturmovik

Total = 1510

I won the battle, but only just, thanks to a T34 that refused to die and ran over an entire Fallschirmjäger platoon by himself to contest an objective. I'm already aware that the list sucks, but I wanted to field a bunch of iconic stuff in my first battle.

Here are some of my post battle thoughts.

1) T34/85s seem pretty pointless, if they move over 6" Hen and Chicks means I can't fire and they lose all the maneuver and terrain bonuses that regular T34s have. In future I plan to take regular T34s. Thankfully the Plastic Soldier kits give me the option to swap turrets if I change my mind again.
2) Sturmoviks are brutal when they arrive. They are fickle though, as all aircraft are, so not to be relied upon. Does anyone know of a company that makes 1/100 Sturmoviks?
3) My army feel really small, even though I had large Platoons. I think I'm going to go with a regular Motostrelkovy list (from Fortress Europe) for now. Here's my new list, note that we usually play 1,750-2000 so there's wiggle room to add more stuff later on.

Motostrelkovy Batalon HQ (30)
Company Command Rifle Team, 2iC Command Rifle Team, Battalion Kommissar Team

Motostrelkovy Company (265)
Command Rifle/MG Team 2x Motor Rifle Platoons (7 Rifle/MG Teams, 7 Rifle/MG Teams) 2 Maksim HMG Teams

Motostrelkovy Company (135)
Command Rifle/MG Team 1x Motor Rifle Platoons (7 Rifle/MG Teams) 1 Maksim HMG Teams

Tankovy Company (265)
5 T-34 obr 1942

Motorised Mortar Company (135)
Command Rifle Team, Observer Rifle Team, 4 120-PM-38 Mortar Teams 4 Truck Teams (optional)

Guards Heavy Tank Company (470)
3 IS2 obr 1943 (fearless)

Limited Air Support
Il-2 Sturmovik 200

Total = 1500

Anyone have any advice for expanding or improving this list?

http://quickreactionforce.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=440_441_684_713&products_id=5427

QRF Sturmovik

Nice find. I'll pick up a trio of those at Triples.

I can't remember how the squadron discounts work, but that's why I bought three tiffies online from QRF..because of the knock-off. Might be cheaper to get them that way.

Squadron discount seems to be about 80p. Given that the postage is £1 minimum, buying them at a trade show seems to be the best option.

I'm thinking more about who are the best manufacturers to go for for my individual purchases. My Motorstrelkovy platoons will be made up from a single box of Plastic Soldier 15mm Soviet infantry, my T34's will come from the same source. I already have my 120mm mortars, they're second hand BF figures that cost me £3 for the platoon. Unfortunately they're missing a few figures so I'll have to fill out the company with spare Peter Pig and Plastic Soldier minis, my HQ will be made in the same way. My Sturmoviks will be QRF minis because the BF ones are super expensive and the wrong scale (I really hate out of scale stuff). The only component remaining is my IS-2s. Does anyone have any suggestions for cheap good sculps for IS-2s?

[edit] Renamed the thread.

I finally sat down and glued some infantry together today, this is my army so far.



There's a HMG team missing from my SMG company which I built after I took the photo but 99% of my infantry is now built, I just need a blister of Peter Pig command figures to complete it.

Infantry assembled and based.



Just a little cleaning up to do on the models and bases and my infantry will be ready to paint.

Hopefully I'll have my Sturmoviks at the weekend, and my IS2s if I find a bargain.

Full list:

Motostrelkovy Batalon HQ (30)
Company Command Rifle Team, 2iC Command Rifle Team, Battalion Kommissar Team

Motostrelkovy Company (265)
Command Rifle/MG Team 2x Motor Rifle Platoons (7 Rifle/MG Teams, 7 SMG Teams) 2 Maksim HMG Teams

Motostrelkovy Company (135)
Command Rifle/MG Team 1x Motor Rifle Platoons (7 Rifle/MG Teams) 1 Maksim HMG Teams

Tankovy Company (265)
5 T-34 obr 1942

Motorised Mortar Company (135)
Command Rifle Team, Observer Rifle Team, 4 120-PM-38 Mortar Teams 4 Truck Teams (optional)

Guards Heavy Tank Company (470)
3 IS2 obr 1943 (fearless)

Limited Air Support
Il-2 Sturmovik (200)

Total = 1500

Total cost do far about £40 (everything except the IS2's and the Strumoviks).

My 1500 point army (with Panthers proxied as IS-2s). Total cost of this army is around £55 so far.

Progress so far: I picked up some Sturmoviks at the weekend so all I need now are some IS-2s to complete this list without proxies. I'm also starting to look into upgrading this to a 1750 list. Anybody have any suggestions? I'm thinking a little AA, some AT assets for my infantry and some tank riders, maybe more infantry as well.

I also had my second battle with my Soviets this evening, a glorious victory for the Soviet Union against a British list (must have got lost) in a Breakthrough mission.

Headquarters
Motostrelkovy Batalon HQ 30
Company Command Rifle Team
2iC Rifle Team
Battalion Kommissar Team
3 ZSU M17 MGMC 75

Combat Platoons
Motostrelkovy Company 265
Command Rifle/MG Team
7 Rifle/MG Teams
7 SMG Teams
2 Maksim HMG Teams

Motostrelkovy Company 135
Command Rifle/MG Team
7 Rifle/MG Teams
1 Maksim HMG Teams

Motostrelkovy Anti-tank Rifle Company 45
Command Rifle/MG Team
3 PTRD Anti-tank Rifle Team

Weapon Platoons
Heavy Mortar Company 145
Command Rifle Team
Observer Rifle Team
4 120-PM-38 Mortar Teams
4 Truck Teams (optional)

Support Platoons
Tankovy Company 360
8 T-34 obr 1942

Guards Heavy Tank Company 485
3 IS-2 obr 1943 with .50 Cal AA MG

Limited Air Support 200
Il-2 Sturmovik

1740

Experimenting with taking my force to 1,750. Any advice appreciated.

From a competitive stand point you might be better off just doing regular Strelkovy, since they can get sappers and flamethrowers attach to their infantry companies.

There is also the nice Forward Attachment PDF, which is like motostrelkovy except you can run a tankovy company as combat, freeing you up to get more combined arms support. Dont know if you can still find it though.

Thanks. I'll have a crack at running this list and models throught the Strelkovy one to see if I can interchange. I'm thinking about dropping the AA and sappers may be an option to try instead. The drop from Mororised to Infantry company can be a boon in some missions.

I have the Forward Detachment PDF, things are quite expensive as the're Fearless instead of Confident.

To be honest I've not been having much trouble with armour. Most things give the IS2s a wide berth and the Sturmoviks can handle the rest.

[edit] Ok, if I drop one HMG and the AA (that I was thinking about dropping anyway) and add a single PTRD AT gun team I can field this as a Strelkovy Batalon. In either organisation I can take an Anti-Aircraft Company (one Platoon) for 55 points, so I may go for that option instead of the M17 MGMCs.

Now to find someone who makes 37mm obr 1939 guns. I may have a crack at making some home brew ones out of camo nets and some spare Pak36s I have.