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On of my friends is forcing me to actually play Flames of War, and I have decided on the Russians since I sort of have some that I bought to paint.

I don’t actually have the rule book, though its on its way, along with fortress Europe.

I have T-34’s and lots of infantry that I purchased for a diorama that never happened, and would like my force to include lots of T-34’s (since I have 10 already, and they are painted) and lots of infantry. I would prefer an infantry force with supporting tanks, since I gather as infantry I don’t have to attack, and I kind of suck at actual war game tactics, so defending seem easy.

Anyone have a suggested list or briefing to look at? I am going to be playing at the 1000pts and 2000pts levels mostly, or so I am told. Again, an infantry force backed by T-34’s would be ideal.

Thanks for your suggestions!

I shall be watching this thread. I'm interested in starting Russians too... in fact starting FOW in general.

What period of the War? What Mk of T34's have you got? and whats the make up of the infantry you have?

That'll give people a better idea of where to direct you.

I have 10 assembled T-34/76's (I think) that I have painted, and 10 more T-34/whatever-the-other-ones-with-the-bigger-guns-are primed, but I haven't started them yet.

Uh, for infantry I have a bunch of little guys with rifles and such, as well as some type of little water cooled machine guns and some mortars. But I can buy the other infantry, if other stuff is needed. I have been told mortars are good.

I don't play russians, but you will find what you need in Fortress Europe. Russian forces are good for masses of infantry supported by a large number of tanks. Soviets will usually get 6+ tanks for the same price as the enemy gets 3 for. They do have limitations on them, though. Once you get your fortress europe book, you'll easily find an appropriate list that fulfills the limited requirements you list above.

Just keep in mind that the Russian strength is definitely their infantry. Masses of fearless infantry can be really scary to face and very hard to remove from dug in positions. As an infantry company you will always be the defender in a defensive battle against Armored or Mechanized forces. You will roll off to determine attacker and defender when facing other infantry companies and in battles that do not use the defensive battle rule. So there are sometimes you may find yourself as the attacker, which is where adding in the waves of T-34s come through.

Welcome to FoW. It is a really entertaining and well written game, especially if you have a GW 40k/WFB background.

Skriker

That'll be T34/85's then.

If I can add to the discussion, I'd suggesting the use of Easy Army: http://easyarmy.com/.

It's a semi-free list builder, and the author is currently working on adding the Fortress Europe lists - he already has the Germans and the Soviets up and running. It's $1 USD to pick up all the lists from a single book, so $4 has gotten me all the lists from Turning Tide, Earth & Steel, and Eastern Front. He also gives out the lists for Cassino, Dogs & Devils, and Blitzkrieg for free.

As for the list, my friend and I are currently using 1000 pt infantry companies (my Brit Rifles, his Fallschirmjagers), and working on our 1000 pt tank companies (my Panzerkompanie, his may-be US Medium tank company) all from the D-Day books.

I'd suggest a list 5 necessary things for a 1000 pt list (which you will build upon later), which both my friend and I have based ort own companies around:

1. 2 Full platoons of infantry. Don't skimp on these guys. As a soviet, however, you'll be fielding Companies when the rest of us field platoons, which means you'll have 2-3 more platoons of infantry when it comes to combat platoons.

2. A tank platoon. When you go for 1750 pts (which is the norm for late war games), you'll want at least 2 mobile units, and the Soviets have those in spades. Whether you want to field T-34's or T-34/85's (or even a combination of both) is up to you.

3. A dedicated AT unit. Usually big guns. For a strelkovy batalon, this comes in the form of a tank destruction company. They're great in ambushing situations, and the trucks in the company allow for fast movement if you need to get away while defending, or move up while attacking.

4. Artillery. If you're used to GW games, get ready to rethink how artillery works. The only way you'll reliably kill anything with artillery is if you're playing Brits, fielding 8 Priests, and using an AOP. Otherwise, you'll use artillery for 2 things - pinning enemy platoons, or putting down smoke. Pinning becomes useful when you want to assault, since it cuts down the amount of defensive fire the enemy platoon gets. It also means that there may be a chance that enemy platoons will be forced to halt their advance.

Smoke is useful for cutting your enemies field of vision. Dropping a smoke template on an enemy platoon means that they can only see 6", and dropping one in front of them means that they won't be able to see anything over 6" in front of them.

So, for me (who's not really experienced in Soviets, but willing to try), a 1000 pts list for me would be:

Strelkovy Batalon HQ

Strelkovy Company
-2 Rifle Platoons

Strelkovy Company
-2 Rifle Platoons

Heavy Mortar Company
-2 Heavy Mortar Platoons
-Observer Team

Tank Destruction Company
-2 Anti-tank platoons (45mm obr 1942 guns)

Tankovy Company
-3 T-34 obr 1942
-2 T-34/85 obr 1943

The thing is, this Strelkovy list is still Confident Trained, which means you'll mostly be sticking around, and your shooting shouldn't be too terrible.

A couple of notes from a fellow Soviet infantry player.

Firstly, take large units. Since you'll be trained and probably suffering a lot of casualties you'll want to make sure that you have plenty of teams to spare. You'll want to try to stay above the 15 team level for as long as possible to take advantage of the Quantity of Quality rule. QoQ is extremely important when launching an assault since the Soviets don't get smoke bombardments.

Second, you'll want to buff your infantry companies with some important extras. I never go into battle without buying a komissar, adding a squad of flamethrowers and a few stands of sappers. The komissar you can usually take as an upgrade to the company, they'll help you stick around. The flamethrowers are a support option that you can combat attach to the infantry. They will make the hitlerite dogs think twice about coming near your company. The sappers usually can be bought with your HQ and will enable to you to deal with even the heavy tanks in close assault.

Lastly, as mentioned above take some armor in support. A big company of T-34/85s does well. At larger point levels, a platoon of heavy tanks like the IS-2 or ISUs are good to deal with the German Tiger and Panther tanks.

I like that list infinite_array! I suppose I could drop smoke on anything I could not kill so it cant shoot me, and use my tanks to pick of transports and machine guns, and infantry to claim objectives or what have you.

Tabitha wrote:I like that list infinite_array! I suppose I could drop smoke on anything I could not kill so it cant shoot me, and use my tanks to pick of transports and machine guns, and infantry to claim objectives or what have you.

Erm...well... actually, what Kymera said is right - you won't be getting smoke - again, this was coming from a Brit and German player.

Definitely look at Kymera's post. Plenty of great tips in there.

Kymera wrote:A couple of notes from a fellow Soviet infantry player.

Firstly, take large units. Since you'll be trained and probably suffering a lot of casualties you'll want to make sure that you have plenty of teams to spare. You'll want to try to stay above the 15 team level for as long as possible to take advantage of the Quantity of Quality rule. QoQ is extremely important when launching an assault since the Soviets don't get smoke bombardments.

Second, you'll want to buff your infantry companies with some important extras. I never go into battle without buying a komissar, adding a squad of flamethrowers and a few stands of sappers. The komissar you can usually take as an upgrade to the company, they'll help you stick around. The flamethrowers are a support option that you can combat attach to the infantry. They will make the hitlerite dogs think twice about coming near your company. The sappers usually can be bought with your HQ and will enable to you to deal with even the heavy tanks in close assault.

Lastly, as mentioned above take some armor in support. A big company of T-34/85s does well. At larger point levels, a platoon of heavy tanks like the IS-2 or ISUs are good to deal with the German Tiger and Panther tanks.

Do we really need to deal with super expensive tanks as the soviet infantry?

I mean from what I understand if tanks get to close to infantry we can assualt and kill them. But say you have a big german super tank. If it kills even two of my little bases every turn then would it even make up its point cost by the end of the game? Cant we just ignore them and kill their softer things and force some sort of moral check?

Kommisars are just a cool concept so I am pretty excited about using them. I will be almost giddy with excitment when I take looses so I can roll to have my Kommisar motive my lads back into the fray.

Also what do sappers do for me?

Lastly, is there a big difference in mech and infantry? Both seem to be troop based forces with simular support, though the Mech can take more tanks and has trucks for some of their stuff. I ask because it seems I could still take two full companies of infantry with support and two companies of 10 T-34's at 2k points, though I dont know if getting so many tanks with an infantry force would be spliting myself in to many dirrections.

Anyway I bought some Plastic Soilder Company plastic soviet infantry and I really like the way they look. Much better than the chibi official flames of war ones (though I guess I still have to use the machineguns and mortars from battefront until PSC releases their infantry weapons pack this autumn in 15mm). Having alot of fun painting them and planning my force out. I imagine TONS of soviet infantry massed up togeather look great on the field and are probably pretty intimidating.

Tabitha wrote:[Do we really need to deal with super expensive tanks as the soviet infantry?

I mean from what I understand if tanks get to close to infantry we can assualt and kill them. But say you have a big german super tank. If it kills even two of my little bases every turn then would it even make up its point cost by the end of the game? Cant we just ignore them and kill their softer things and force some sort of moral check?

This is exactly the way to deal with the big boys in FoW. Either give them a big unit to keep them busy and away from anything important or totally ignore them and wipe out everything else. Of course this does all depend on the mission being played. In a none defensive battle when you find yourself the attacker you might need to remove those heavy tanks from objectives to claim them.

Skriker

Agreed; Soviet infantry (Strelk Battalions) and their forces in general for that matter, are about managing their casualties......just bleed slowly because usually time is on your side for the missions.

In contrast, the Germans are on the clock and they have to maximize the casualties done to the Soviets at every turn.

A friend of mine runs a Soviet Strelk force (Red Army not Guards) and he keeps everything cheap, ie, no rifle/mg infantry, just rifles. He has a good proportion of PTRD teams and he has his Kommissar teams for the re-rolls for motivation. He runs about 30-32 stands per company (aka Platoon) and he runs two of these plus his corps support in artillery and maybe a spetznaz platoon.

Given good terrain, they're tough to deal with for the Germans. They can swamp armor easily enough, but when running into heavier tanks with top armor of 2, it's going to be a no-go unless you have some dedicated pioneer units or some improvised explosives (grenades/bombs).

That being said, it's still a tough force to deal with and if you want tank support, you can easily have it or go with tank-destroyers or whatever heavy-guns you favor.