Volks Armee players need to thank Santa Phil for an early Christmas gift called Allied Formations. Thanks Phil! Whether intended or inadvertent, VA needed the love and VA players should happily accept.
The strong suit of the VA has always been the beloved and much maligned T-55 spam (in an upcoming blog, I will explain why spam is good). The main problem with T-55 lists is the inability to economically kill NATO MBTs from the front, as the T-55 horde moves forward seeking the (hopefully) eventual side shots. VA T-55 armies need to hold it together and take their lumps as they move forward on the NATO MBTs which are impervious from the front to aged 100mm D-10T. Once the T-55s are in position for side shots, the story changes, but only after the T-55s have sustained horrible losses. The VA desperately need something that can reliably kill NATO MBTs as the T-55s advance. The T-55 horde with massed 100mm D-10Ts and often dozens of dice of machine gun shots should be up to all other tasks (including taking out reasonable numbers of dug in Brit infantry..again, for another post).
Currently, the VA have a few options to front kill NATO MBTs, but none are better than mediocre. The first option is the arguably over priced T-72M which has limited ability to kill NATO MBTs from the front, but is prohibitively expensive and thus cannot be fielded in numbers that make it effective. The second option is to field BMP-2s and BRDM-ATs with Spandrels. These are good choices in regards to points, but the VA list does not allow for these vehicles to be deployed in sufficient numbers to have a reliably significant impact on the battlefield. The third option is to deploy Mi-24 and Su-25s. Aircraft are relatively effective at destroying NATO MBTs from any aspect, but are easily countered by NATO AA units. None of these options really give the VA the needed capability.
Allied formations change everything for the VA. Allied formations help every army to varying degrees, but by adding a BMP-2 formation to a VA T-55 army, I believe the overall impact is unmatched. A Soviet BMP-2 formation provides up to 43 BMP-2, up to 4 BMP-2R and up to 3 BRDM-AT vehicles armed with Spandrels. Now, the issue will be points rather than availability of Spandrel carrying vehicles. This formation allows a VA player to field a significant force capable of killing NATO MBTs from the front economically. Each vehicle costs 2 points or less.
Now, with charging T-55s and supporting Spandrel launching vehicles, the VA have a proper One-Two punch. One, drive the T-55 horde forward like bats out of hell until they can machine gun enemy infantry, blast away light/medium vehicles and side shot MBTs. Two, support vehicles dump tons of Spandrels from long range on MBTs and significant targets of opportunity.
Meanwhile, the NATO player will have some variation of two difficult choices. The first NATO choice is to engage the Spandrel armed vehicles. This choice will help reduce the immediate losses at the expense of allowing the T-55s to close the distance without sustaining significant immediate losses. The second NATO choice is to engage the T-55s. This option has the upside of trying to break formations and limit the number of T-55s that close for side shots. The down side is that the NATO vehicles will still need to weather the storm of incoming Spandrels. Some players may choose partial options. Regardless of the option chosen, there will be lots of maneuver and tactics, but in the end, the NATO player will need to choose...
...and, for the moment, VA owns Meta.
