Leviathan Wakes – An Overview of Late War Leviathans

Lee takes a look at the new Late War Leviathans book. Yes. Lee.

1946.

Operation Unthinkable.

Team Yankee – Really Early War.

Late War Leviathans is Battlefront’s stab at addressing the question that often gets asked by many wargamers;

“Where is the Italian Front book?” What happens if WW2 doesn’t end in April 1945? It feels like every wargames company eventually feels compelled to take a stab at this, often devolving into werewolves, Tesla weapons, zombies and fetish gear.

Like, its oddly impressive how consistent the fetish gear appears in the inevitable Nazi faction. Impressive and very disturbing.

Thankfully, Battlefront avoid any rubberised plastic wearing Übermensch and instead stick to a more grounded experience. The lists that appear in this book are grounded in equipment that either appears before or immediately (for varying degrees of immediacy) after the war, either as a prototype or as an operational piece of equipment.

Those who have been following World of Tanks or Clash of Steel will have an inkling what pieces of classic heavy metal may be appearing, but there are some surprises to be had. Infantry benefit from the time skip too! Mainly this is in the form of prototype or early Cold War APC and recoilless guns but early anti-tank guided weapons appear too, including the earliest in the form of the X-7 “Rotkäppchen, the SS-11’s German speaking predecessor…

Let’s open up the book and take a look.

An introduction to Leviathans

The book opens up with a repeat of the Leviathan rules for playing larger point games without getting bogged down by low point chaff. The list of “Leviathan” units has been updated to include all the tank formations in this book, as well as a selection from the Berlin, Bulge and Bagration books. I’m still not sure why the Churchill Squadron of heavy infantry tanks doesn’t join the Comet in making the grade, though.

Next, the book isn’t content to give you just one “what if” scenario, instead providing four to choose from! These are:

• The War ends as before, but insurgents stir unrest, the British government collapses, Churchill becomes PM and decides to liberate Poland and the rest of Eastern Europe. I guess we don’t get the NHS…
• March 1945 and USSR tries to push on into Denmark and the Low Countries. The British object to this.
• Britain eggs on Patton to rush Berlin.
• Hitler gets assassinated in 1944, Dontz takes over and sues for peace with the Western allies. Stalin is not amused.

Ultimately, the reasons for the war extending or a new one brewing with the four original protagonists are unimportant. What matters is buying Pete a new boat is having a reason to throw down with some super heavy tanks.

Military Industrial Complex – The USA

The Yanks ended WW2 with the Sherman still in dominance, but with the M26 Pershing ready to start a slow rise to the Patton family. The LWL book picks up from there and wonders what would happen if the Pershing got the full Sherman treatment and squeeze all the utility we can from one chassis. The basic M26, now available as a whole formation, gets joined by:

• A jumbo-like Assault Pershing sporting the original 90mm, but an impressive FA16 and a less impressive movement line. This can be taken as a whole platoon, a whole formation, and as a one-tank upgrade of a standard Pershing platoon.
• The up-gunned and armoured T26 Super Pershing. No longer a one-off, this can be taken as an “any or all” upgrade of a standard M26 platoon or as a whole concentrated platoon in the M26 formation.
• The M45 Assault Gun Pershing, marrying the 105mm tank howitzer from the M4 with the M26 chassis. This is available as a weapons platoon in a number of the formation, including the M26 company.

Joining the M26 family are a couple cousins, the T29 and T30 Heavy Tank. These can be taken as one of the compulsory platoons in the M26 formation but also as a formation in their own right. The T29 sports a high velocity 105mm, able to pick tanks off 48″ away (yes… it can out range most gen 3 tanks in Team Yankee. No, I don’t know why…) whilst the T30’s 155mm is a still impressive 36″ but Firepower Auto and brutal. Both have RoF2 statically, RoF1 Slow firing on the move and a hull shattering AT19.

The T34 is not your (Russian) father’s T34. This sports the same M26 derived hull and over-sized turret but mounts a modified 120mm AA gun to give a range 48″ AT20 shot. The T34 only appears in its own formation. Armour and mobility match the T29/T34.

US Flat Panzers? Why not! The T28 Assault Tank was designed to crack the German and Japanese bunker complexes and sports a might FA17 but a snails pace maximum move of 10″ at Dash! The T28’s 105mm is much the same as the T29’s but only has a single loader for the two part ammo so has ROF1 static and is forward firing, making the assault tank cheaper than its turreted heavy tank peer.

Rounding out the formations are two twists on old favourites.

Firstly we get a Sherman formation! A whole formation of Easy Eights, to be precise. One per platoon can be upgraded to a Jumbo or Jumbo 76mm.

Next, and to my surprise, we get an infantry formation. Yes, it turns out each country gets a mechanised infantry formation of some sort, upgraded with new technology. The US has the M3 mounted Armoured Rifles that can now upgrade the Bazooka to an M20 Super Bazooka with AT14 and FP4+. The formation can also take 105mm recoiless guns mounted on Jeeps and its assault gun platoon can be the M4 105 or the M45 Pershing Assault Gun.

Support options see a few tweaks. Artillery is unchanged but the OP is now an E8 Sherman. Cavalry platoons can ditch the M8 Greyhound and take a Chaffe instead, boosting mobility (though still somewhat restrained by the accompanying jeeps) and firepower.

I was hoping we might see a boost in airpower with one of the early US jet fighters like the Lockheed P80 (two airframes saw recce use in the last few days of the war) but we are left with the ever fearsome Thunderbolt.

Heavy Cruisers – The British

The British are next up. They don’t match the US for formation count but it’s not all about quantity, right?

The Tortoise Assault Squadron leads the pack on the hunt. The British equivalent of the T28 Assault Gun, in role at least, the A39 Tortoise is another anti-fortification assault gun that arrived too late for its role. Combining the AT18 32 pounder (94mm) AA gun with a heavily armoured (FA21!) turret-less hull, the Tortoise is slightly edged out by the 105mm of the T28 in raw AT but does have RoF2 and no slow firing on the move! It’s twin BESA cupola and hull MG also give a shredding RoF5 MG burst to deal with enemy infantry and it can also out run its US counterpart though that’s just about all it can out-run 12″ dash is as good as it gets!

The formation can also take Churchill Armoured Troops, including one of the compulsory platoons, that have the typical mix of 76mm, 6pdr but now with the option of upgrading any or all to MkVII. Chaffee recce patrols replace the Stuart platoons of old but the 20mm Crusader AA is unchanged (I had wondered if we may see the 40mm Bofors Crusader Mk.I since Company of Heroes III popularised it).

Having arrived on the continent in the last days of the war, it’s no surprise that the Centurion Mk.1 makes an appearance in the next formation. Sporting a 17pdr (complete with HE rounds, apparently) and a co-axial 20mm Polsten, the Centurion provides the British equivalent of a Panther, albeit not as nimble in a dash. Of more of a surprise is the appearance of the Centurion Mk.3 and its 20pdr gun. This out ranges the 17pdr and improves the AT to 17 but also includes a stabiliser. The formation can mix the two types, albeit segregated by troop, and also sports Chaffee and Crusader AA platoons too.

Another surprise, as a very 1950s unit, is the Charioteer. How do you deal with a quantitive disadvantage versus the reds? Why, you take a bunch of your old Cromwells and replace the turret and its 75mm with a thinly armoured one sporting the same 20pdr as a Centurion! This retains the agility of the old Cruiser but is the proverbial glass cannon, effectively being a tank destroyer being used, ill advisably, in a tank role. Thankfully, the British territorial were never forced to put the Charioteer to the test, though it did see some action in the Six Day War, apparently.

The final formation is a Motor Company mounted in the 1950’s APC, the Saracen.

Compared to their old mount of the M5 halftrack, its not qute as fast in a cross country dash, but its ports better armour and an MG turret. The platoon composition remains unchanged but the formation sees the 6pdr partially replaced by the new 120mm BAT (Battalion Anti-Tank) recoiless gun. One AT box can only take the BAT whilst the second box can choose between another BAT platoon or the 6pdr.

The BAT only has RoF1 but packs a hefty punch and is ‘accurate’ so can make that shot count! Being a recoiless, it gives its position away by firing (can’t be concealed in the next turn) so make the shot count and hope the gunshield saves you!

In support the British see the towed 17pdr give way to the Archer and M10C (neither gaining the HE rounds the Centurions Mk.1 do) whilst artillery remains much the same. The Cavalry units can still take Daimlers but they can alternatively take a troop of three Saladin six-wheel armoured cars, based on the same chassis as the Saracen . These are more expensive but sport better armour, mobility and a 76mm gun!

Another interesting addition is the Malkara missile. An early 50’s Australian ATGW, the Malkara sports a HESH round that can match the BAT for anti-tank punch but can also do so at a range of 48″.

Leviathians and Wher(mact) to find them – The Germans

The Germans benefit the most from the post-war obsession was paper panzers, ensuring a lot of them were converted to plastic early on in World of Tanks and thus appearing here. The Germans get three tank formations, two tank destroyer formations and a mechanised infantry formation to play with.

The Maus is the default 1946 tank. Any kind of “WW2 goes on a bit longer” scenario will always insist on bringing them along.

In game, the Maus is the Tiger 1 on steroids, a thickly armoured breakthrough tank that punches a hole for more mobile Panzers to exploit. With armour 20/13/2 its about as well armoured as turreted tanks get, whilst sporting a hard hitting 12.8cm main gun and an entirely redundant 7.5cm co-axial because BF made the 12.8cm ROF2 as well! I can’t think of any scenario where you would fire the smaller gun. It marginally better on the move by not being slow firing, I guess…

The formation requires a HQ Maus and a platoon of at least two, but the remaining two platoon boxes can be Tiger or Tiger IIs and there is also an Ostwind/Wirbelwind box and a Kätzchen Panszersturm infantry platoon (more on those in a sec).

The E-100 is unbeleivable. Its armour (18/9/2) sits somewhere between the King Tiger and the Maus, its mobility resembles the latter tank (Tactical 10″ for a 123 ton tank!) and its firepower is the same as the larger tank. This feels more like an extension of the Tiger II; less a breakthrough tank, more a super heavy exploitation tank.

One neat feature is its steroscopic rangefinder that gives its main armament “accurate”. This is handy if you up-gun it to the 15cm (yes. 15cm) version, at about 4pts a tank extra, as its RoF1 static and can’t move or shoot so you need to make that shot count! If you hit, then just take the enemy tank off the table. It’s AT26 and firepower AUTO. The only downer other than its RoF is its “shorter” range of 36″.

The formation follows much the same pattern as the Maus, with only the HQ and one mandatory box needing to be E100, the second mandatory and the third optional box being E100 or one of the two Tigers.

The final Panzer is the Panther (8.8cm), an up gunned version of the Panzer that mounts the 8.8cm of the King Tiger into a low profile turret and adds a stereoscopic rangefinder and night fighting capalities! All for no detriment in mobility or protection. Confident Veteran and Careful, makes them more expensive than a similarly crewed Panther G, about 2pts a tank more. Given the jump in firepower and accuracy, it seems a no-brainer upgrade.

As with the last two formations, only the HQ and one mandatory box have to be the new model Panther, the second complulsory box and third optional one can be the older 7.5cm armed model or, for the second box, a mechanised platoon, making for a compact battlegroup formation. An AA box rounds out the formation.

Turning to the tank destroyers and we get two new models. The Jagdpanzer E-100 is the Elephants bigger brother, combining the E100’s chassis and armour with a 17cm gun! oddly the extra 2cm over the 15cm on the E-100 are apparently detrimental as the range drops to 32″ and the AT is “only” 25. This and the limitations in mobility and close assault do make for a cheaper platform than the E-100-15. A coaxial 30mm and an MG round out the close protection for the tank destroyer.

The formation requires a HQ and a mandatory platoon of Jagpanzer E-100 but the second compulsory box and third optional box can field the other tank destroyer, the Skorpion.

The Skorpion is the result in German interest in the Waffentrager concept, basically a portee based on a tank chassis; the tractor could fire its gun whilst mounted, much like a Marder, or deploy its turret to the ground to fire as an emplacement. Krupp’s “Grille” concept garnered the most interest but the model is based on Rheinmetall’s failed Skopion concept.

In game, the turret stays permantly mounted and basically acts much like a slightly better armed and armoured Marder or Nashorn, sporting a 12.8cm gun.

The tank destroyer is compartitively cheap (albeit still matching the better armoured and marginally less well armed Jagdpanther), so can help round out an E-100 Jagdpanzer company or form its own. This formation combines Skorpion mandatory units with optional Jagpanthers and Panzer IV/70s.

The final formation is the Kätzchen Panzersturm Company. Combining Assault Rifles with fully tracked APC that mounts an Anti-Tank Guided Weapon (AGTW) missile, the Kätzchen Panzersturm feels like a peek at a proto-Team Yankee. The Kätzchen is better armoured and more mobile than the venerable SdKfz251 and can also mount a X-7 ATGW, one of the first operational ATGW in history. It can also still do mounted assaults should you find an enemy without any anti-tank fire to prevent the charge coming into contact.

The infantry themselves sport IR equipped StG44 assault rifle and “Limited 3″(!) Panzerfausts that can be upgraded to the Panzerfaust 250, a reusable launcher firing a heavier and longer ranged projectile. Its a hefty pointed upgrade, mind! A fully equipped platoon costs does not leave much change out of 30pts!

All three platoons in the force can, instead, be “Leviathans Panzergrenadier Platoons”. These are equipped with MG42 and rifles, and ride around in 251s, but still have “limited 3” Panzerfausts and can upgrade to the Panzerfaust 250, for a cost.

The rest of the formation brings Pak40 armed Tank Hunters, Mortar halftracks and a Panther (7.5 or 88) platoon. There’s no Stummels and only a single platoon of drillers, likely ensuring that the tournament meta passes them by…

Looking to support, the only new option is a Panther OP tank. This has a dummy gun but still sports the FA10 you would expect. The rest of the support options are somewhat lacking compared to Berlin as a late late war book. There is nothing to prevent you taking one of the formations from here with a Berlin force, but it still seems a somewhat backward step.

IS you IS or IS you ain’t… – The Soviet Union

The Soviets round out the book and, as one could likely expect, the IS series features…heavily.

Get it.

Heavily?

Never mind.

The Soviets get seven new formations. Four Guards Heavy Tank (well, one is a Self-Propelled Gun unit) formations, two tank formations and an infantry formation.

The Guards Tank formations almost serve as an example of the evolution of the IS series from the IS-2 through to its final, de-stalinsied, form; the T-10.

The IS-3 formation acts as a stepping stone from the IS-2 Late of Berlin; the two tanks being mixed in one formation.

The IS-3 took the main gun, engine and running gear from the IS-2 but mounted in a new superstructure and turret and a slightly revised chassis. The “Pike” nose and hemispherical turret gave excellent armour protection whilst minimisng the weight increase, making the tank only marginally slower on the cross country and road dash categories. This also goes someway to mitigating the points increase over the older IS, too.

IS TOO.

No?

Tough crowd.

The IS3 arrived at the western front just too late to see combat, putting it much in the same category as the Centurion Mk.1 It’s FA14 is pretty great for that more grounded 1946 but does seem to fade in significance when the paper tigers are considered. So time for a Russian one!

The IS-7, in reality, never entered series production. It went through trials in the mid-late forties, seems to have been well liked, but was dropped in favour of the IS-8 (later designated T-10, but we are getting there…).

All of that is a shame (for the Soviets) as this thing was a beast! 68 tons of steel that could reach 33mph on road thanks to a 1050Hp engine. The large hemisperical turret housed a 130mm naval gun with an early autoloader (more of a load assist) to allow the crew a theoretical rate of for of one round every ten seconds. This main armament was backed up by a 14.5mm cupola AA MG, plus no less than three 7.62 coaxial MG (begging the question why it only gets ROF2!) plus rear firing hull MG.

All of this translates to a tank that can go toe to toe with the Maus and can even, occasionally, survive a hit from an E100-15. Outside of the Maus and E100, only the Tortoise and T28 can really take a hit to the face. Even ignoring its main gun, it can crush infantry under its tracks thanks to its “Assault Tank” and “Turret Rear MG” rules, not really caring about any hand held AT they may have.

There is a price tag to this; its almost double the cost of an IS2, but its hard to argue that maybe the Soviets should have backed this horse over…

The T-10 bring a smile to my face because it reminds me of one of the regulars on the Team Yankee group always asking when it would come into TY. Ironic that it makes it to FoW before that!

I’m also not sure why he was so keen because, honestly, this feels like a maginally better IS3. Mainly because that’s exactly what it is! An incremnetal improvement with a slightly better engine (making it slightly faster than an IS3 in dash), a slighty better armour arrangement (16/12/2) and a slightly better 122mm (getting to AT15 and shooting 32″). If playing TY Early Cold War, then that’s great versus US 90mm M47 and Centurion Mk.3s. But against Nazi Ubermensch from the fevered dreams of World of Tanks, its not terribly impressive.

The medium tank squadrons are up next. The T44 would have been awesome in 1944 but its less impressive in 1946 being basically an uparmoured and up-engined T-34/85. You can field twice as many as a British player can field Centurions Mk.3s but you can’t do much to kill the British tank from the front and he’ll be killing one or two tanks per Centurion, each turn. The formation is basically a HQ and two manadtory tank companies, plus AA, AT guns and infantry.

It does look nice though.

The T-54-1 is more threatening. Relatively fast, with a 12″ tactical (though the cross 4+ of the later T-54 establishes itself here), decent armour with FA12 and the same gun as a SU-100, all whilst still managing a 5:3 numerical advatange versus the Centurion 3 is all very promising. It does suffer somewhat versus the paper tigers but quantity has a quality, etc, etc. The slow firing RoF1 main gun is a burden.

Last up for AFV is the ISU battery. 2-4 ISU-XXX batteriers which can be ISU-122, ISU-152 or the new ISU-130. The ISU-130 packs the same 130mm as the IS-7. It doesn’t pack the autoloader so it’s only RoF1 but it can obviously elevate enough to bombard (though its only AT2 versus the 122mm AT3?).

It is a lot cheaper than an IS7; you get almost 5 ISU-130 for the same as 2 IS-7, so can put a lot of AT18 down range. It’s just a bit of a glass cannon and can’t assault its way onto an objective.

Finally we look at the mechanised infantry formation, the BTR-152 Motor Rifle Battalion. The BTR Motor Rifle Company packs 6 MG teams, 5 RPG-1 teams, a Komissar and 5 BTR, plus up to two optional Maksim teams. The RPG-1 was the first of the RPG family that eventually culminated in the RPG7 and is basically a slightly better bazooka at AT11 and firepower 4+.

The formation can have 2-3 such companies, plus a T-35/85 or T-44 company, the normal selection of mortars and SMG, a Maksim company, armoured cars, ZSU M17 and up to two Anti tank platoons with either the 76mm AT gun or 82mm B-10 recoiless. The B-10 outperforms the ZIS-2 in AT (11 HEAT vs 9 and HEAT isn’t the negative it is in TY), matches it in RoF and firepower, but is outranged (20″ vs 24″) and suffers from the “Back blast” rule so can’t be concealedf if it fired the turn before. I’d say the B-10 is a winner here.

Soviet support is much the same as Berlin, less the 203mm gun and combined T-34/Assault Gun platoons. The units are joined by the 3M6 Shmel jeep mounted ATGW. These are fielded in a platoon of three to five and the missile packs an AT16 attack out to 36″. Again, great in a Cold-War game or versus most “real” German tanks. Less useful versus the superheavies.

Final Thoughts

I had largely dismissed this book when first announced as the free lists released made it look like tanks would be the only focus. I was really pleased to see the mechanised infantry added to each nation, along with recoiless guns and early ATGW.

My problem is that the book has something of an identity problem.

I don’t mean the battle between a more grounded 1946 game of Centurion Mk.1 and M26 versus IS3 and T-44s, versus a 1946 of paper tigers and T-series US tanks. That can all be addressed by player agreement and acting like adults and the book gives the players all the tools they need to construct a 1946 scenario that works for them. For those that want that in the form of a codified set of army lists then the book adequatly addresses that whilst also being self contained enough that TO can allow it as much as they want into the wider LW competitive scene. All of that is commendably well handled on BF part, compared to the more antagonising introduction of the mid-war counterparts.

No, I mean this book does something that really intrigued me and made me start respecting this as a far more intersting proposition but didn’t quite stick the landing.

This book is *almost* Team Yankee 1950s.

The British book adds a bunch of units that don’t enter service till the 1950s; the Charioteer, Saracan/Saladin and the Hornet. The Soviet section adds the T-54 and T-10. If the Conqueror, M47 and M103 had been present (all being supported by Clash of Steel) then this book would likely have got me putting down some cash on a 1950s British force for some Iron Curtain busting action. As it is, I can only hope that Wave 2 of Clash of Steel, being marketed as a 1950s game, eventually manifests as a FoW/TY hybrid book down the road. With Jets.

Till then, I’ll be pining for my Italy book..

Authors note – my second ever game of v1 Flames of War, way back in 2005, was an Operation Unthinkable game of Soviets versus US. This was largely driven by the fact that the German player couldn’t make it so the chap running the game (who I want to say was Truscott Trotter of old, but I may be mixing up later games) just decided we should do a 1945 Unthinkable game so we could learn the rules.

It’s funny how these things come around…