Box cover
Background
As I had the majority of units I wanted for my Mid War British, German, and American forces, I decided to look elsewhere for my next fix. Deciding that I wasn’t ready to go for one of the “niche” countries like Romania or Finland quite yet, the obvious choice was for the only other major faction in the game, Soviet Russia.
One of the defining characteristics of Soviet armies appears to be their waves of men and tanks. With this in mind I grabbed the T-34 Tank and Hero Rifle Battalions. However, this didn’t really give me enough tanks to work with as, while the other armoured vehicles included in the T-34 box are good to have on hand, a meagre six T-34s feels like a pretty paltry “wall of steel.” So, more T-34s I needed to find!
Luckily for me, Battlefront do just the thing in the form of the T-34 Tank Battalion (yes, it’s got the same name as the other box, so it can be a little confusing when searching your hobby store). This box contains a whopping 21 T-34 medium tanks, exactly what I was looking for! Although the box is billed as a Late War set, this is only due to the large number of tanks included and the fact that the unit cards are for the Late War period: the actual sprues are the same as the ones used for Mid War, and so are entirely serviceable here.
Contents
One of the 21 (!) sprues included
As stated above, the box contains 21 tank sprues. Also included are 10 unit cards for Late War (although one of these is the forge organisation one that most people don’t use), a couple of nice little transfer sheets, some commander figures, and the standard-issue mini Flames of War rulebook. As there are so many ways to build the tanks I won’t go into the points values, but there are enough tanks to make either an HQ and two full-strength companies, or smaller companies and grab yourself some flamethrower tanks. As each sprue can also be built as either the 76mm or 85mm version, there’s a good amount of variation here with plenty of modelling options.
Summary
This is a great value purchase for anyone looking for a Soviet armour spam list. The sheer number of tanks included mean that it might be a little overkill for Mid War lists, but who cares? I’m not sure you can ever really have enough T-34s. Just be aware that if you’re not grabbing this box for a Late War list, the unit cards won’t be much use to you.
