American reinforcements move toward Wurzburg.

Just to be fair, the Americans have not been inactive either.  A number of new units have arrived from the painting table to reinforce the current units.

An M-1Abrams leads the column of reinforcements for the beleaguered American forces.

 An M48 Chapparral SAM Platoon guards against any sorties from the Red Air Force.  

An M901 ITV anti-tank section has the TOW missile but a relatively low rate of fire.  

An M106 heavy mortar platoon will be needed to suppress the massed Soviet infantry.

An M163 VADS AA section will have to worry about Su-25s instead of shooting up my BMP-2s!

A 20mm Vulcan Gatling gun can ruin your day.

Another M-1 Abrams!  This is a Khurasan model which is also nice. 

This brings the US force to 11 M-1 Abrams tanks.  This is not good, regardless of the manufacturer.  

With another M109 field battery about to arrive, I think we should be able to put 300 points of WWIII material on the table.  I wonder what a tactical nuke would cost points wise?  A small one, 5 kilotons, tops!  We may need one just to make it manageable.

. . . and THIS is your BMP-2 formation on drugs!

In the finest Soviet mindset, if some firepower is good, some more (OK, a LOT more!) must be better!  We have proved it with our scientific theories of warfare!  Really!

In this case, what I did was to create a new BMP-2 unit by building seven more BMP-2s (ugh . . . ), painting four more AK-74 stands and three RPG-2 stands, shifting a platoon from the first company to the second, and then splitting up the AGL and SA-14 assets between the two companies.  This gives me two companies at 10 BMP-2s apiece, each with 7 AK-74 stands, six RPG-2 stands, two PKM stands, and either the AGL or SA-14 stand apiece.  Through in the battalion HQ with another BMP-2 and command stand, and that's a LOT of BMP-2s and Soviet infantry.  I think this will actually be more manageable and maneuverable than the previous horde.  Add in a T-64 unit, the 2S-1 122mm self propelled gun battery, the Su-25s, and sundry AA/SAM units, and you have a true Soviet horde.

A BMP-2 Motorized Rifle Battalion with two companies each with two platoons.  Bigger is better, da?  DA!

 

First Company is led by a Kirov Officer candidate school graduate.  He's from Orel even!

The second company's commander is from Belorussia.  With a family in Brest, he is probably a Pole.  Hmmm . . . 

The battalion commander in his glory!

The Battalion commander has his command BMP-2, but also a BMP-1 KSH command vehicle to keep track of his subordinates and accept orders from higher headquarters.

The BMP-1 KSH is a Skytrex casting.  It is all metal and not as detailed as the Battlefront models.  They are easy to construct and look fine to me.  I am not sure what you can do with this vehicle but since I made an experimental order, I figured I should get a couple of odd "one-of" tracks to round out my Soviet horde.  It is not as long as the Battlefront BMPs, but not really noticeable from a distance.  

Another view of the Skytrex BMP-1 KSH.  This may be important for battalion/brigade level battles, but for Team Yankee, all it would do is absorb incoming rounds from more deserving tanks and APCs.  

Overall this is a strong and large force that with the other assets I have built, should give the American player a lot of problems to resolve.  Too many I hope.  We shall see. . .

This is your BMP-2 Formation . . .

Nothing breeds excess like a Soviet tank formation, unless its a Soviet Motorized Rifle Detachment.  I did mine using BMP-2s because I liked this vehicle more than the BMP-1s or BTR-60s.  Both of the latter vehicles have their place in any World War III Soviet force, but I liked the BMP-2 better, mostly due to the look of the turret.  The BMP-2 is a more effective infantry fighting vehicle with a nastier anti-tank guided missile and 30 mm main gun, but looks are more important here.

The whole kit and caboodle.  A full BMP-2 company and all possible augments for a total of 28 highly uninflationary WWIII points. 

So, I started my force thinking I would build a ~ a platoon's worth of Soviet vehicles and infantry.  This was a rough start as the Soviet infantry castings are horrible in terms of flash and miscastings, and the road wheels on the BMP are a pain.  But, I persevered and finally finished a platoon.  Well, if a platoon is good, a company must be better, so I started on that road.  And accelerated, adding each of the permittable formation additions.  When I finally finished this, I had painted 14 BMP-2s to field a full company, as well as the command AK-74 stand, 9 other AK-74 stands, 9 RPG-7 stands, 2 PKM stands, and even an AGL stand and a SAM-14 AA missile stand for fun.  This looks pretty impressive!

In game turns though it is pretty unwieldy. The size of the augmented unit (14 total BMP-2s!) and the movement rules pretty much ensure the company will end up as Out of Command, struggling to deploy as various American assets rip them to shreds.  This may actually be realistic, but it isn't necessarily fun.  Trying to discharge the passengers under fire is no fun either.  Once disgorged, the surviving Soviet infantry can be deadly.  RPGs are not a threat to most NATO frontal armor, but can be formidable when used in mass against the side armor of just about everything.  The infantry just have to survive to get close enough to do so, which isn't easy.  Still, quantity has a quality all its own . . .

The Company Commander is glad he doesn't have a Commissar to egg him on like his father had to deal with in the Great Patriotic War.  

The first platoon is led by a stalwart Party member from Irkutsk.  This was the first platoon I painted and I used little to no ink wash on them.  

The second platoon is commanded by a neophyte from the Ukraine.  He bears considerable watching.  The second platoon got additional inkwash as well.  

The third platoon is commanded by a Tartar from the Crimea.  This got even more inkwash.  Probably too much. . . .

The company PKM sections can lay down a lot of fire.  That is if the Lithuanian section leader can be trusted!

The battalion commander has graced the company with an Automatic Grenade Launcher (AGL) section to increase my firepower.  Or was it to keep track of my immediate obedience to orders?  

The SA-14 Gremlin AA missile team can keep the cursed American helicopters at bay, if the sergeant has recovered from his vodka binge!

With the size, firepower and overall coolness of the BMP-2s, this is a powerful though hard to maneuver force.  There must be a better option!