The Road To War(fare)

Hello All

So, I'm back again with another painting challenge to get an army painted for a tournament (note to self for next year's resolutions, keep using the same army!). Firstly I need to be honest, I stole the title off of Fez-man's for his Fallschirmjager Glider army for Warfare, I hope he doesn't mind and this little plug helps smooth things over!

Anyway I'm off with Doctor Alex to a 1500pts Early War tournament in Reading at the annual Warfare convention. I have decided to go for a Soviet Tank army as this will be something completely different from my normal veteran infantry armies I have been using. Having a quick read through Rising Sun I decided that the T-26 was the tank for me mainly as it's iconic from the Winter War (well destroyed ones littering the roads of Finland anyway), but also I didn't fancy Armour 0 Tanks!

Now I have ordered a load of the Zvezda T-26's for this army. I'm not a huge fan of the models but when you have 30 odd tanks to get they are good enough for the pricing. When I get around to Early War Fin's I will use the Battlefront models as you only need 5 and I think they are much better models, but trying keep cost down on this army was a goal. After the T-26's I was a bit stuck as to what to get, I haven't played any Early War yet and my idea of Early War is either large armies of light tanks or small armies of heavy tanks with little to no infantry. I might be wrong (infact I'm sure I am) but thats the impression I get. This coupled with the fact that the Soviets get no Recon (thats right no recon!?!) left me a little suck to where to go next. After a little thinking and looking over the FOW forums I saw the potential in the Flame Tank company and so added in 10 T-26 flame tanks to my list. These guys seem like a great assault unit and give me something that I can semi reliably dig infantry out with.

The first 4 platoons.

So 4 platoons down what next? Well still a little worried about infantry the BT-7a Self Propelled Gun Battery seemed like a good buy as it has volley fire and a firepower of 3+, so six of them were added in. Only 180pts left and I'd still need to get one more platoon.... but first I decided I needed (well wanted) the I-153 Seagull air support, the model alone made it worth while adding, also it give me something that can hurt a Matilda II, maybe not a good idea to rely on it but it can hurt them. So what to spend the last few points on? Well I wanted the scout tanks but they share the same slot as the flame tanks and they seem too good not to have, so I ended up with the Portee AA as my 6th platoon, I figure this will send most of the games dug in and hiding as conscript unarmoured trucks are asking for trouble.

Confident    Conscript	Light Tankovy Batalon Light Tank Battalion	Soviet Early-War
Tank Company

Platoon	Qty	Unit	Points
Headquarters
Light Tankovy Batalon HQ  p.57	1	T-26 obr 1939 with Turret-rear MG	40
Combat Companies
Light Tankovy Company  p.57	7 1	T-26 obr 1933 or 1939 T-26 obr 1939 with Turret-rear MG	290
Light Tankovy Company  p.57	7 1	T-26 obr 1933 or 1939 T-26 obr 1939 with Turret-rear MG	290
Light Tankovy Company  p.57	7 1	T-26 obr 1933 or 1939 T-26 obr 1939 with Turret-rear MG	290
Weapons Companies
Flame-tank Company  p.60	10	KhT-26	255
Self-propelled Gun Battery  p.60	6	BT-7A	160
Anti-aircraft Machine-gun Platoon  p.61	5	DShK AA MG on truck	85
Corps Support
Air Support  p.78	3	Sporadic Air Support I-153	90
Company Points:			1500

www.EasyArmy.com

Source document: Rising Sun book

So there you have it the army, now with only 6 weeks before the event and no painted models I would normally be a little worried, but if I'm going to be honest I'm not planning on painting these to the best of my ability. I normally aim for one of two painting standards, table top standard and best of my ability, this army will aim for the former. Thats not to say I will do a bad job, but I will cut corners, rely more on washes than I normally would, at the end of the day 40 odd tanks on a nice board from a few feet away will look cool no matter what and hopefully this will be a fun new gaming experience for me using conscript tanks.

As always thanks for reading and until next time

Ben