On the Tabletop
This article is brought to you by guest writer, Luke Daley – an avid Team Yankee Soviet Naval Infantry player, painter and gamer. It is published with his consent. Many thanks for allowing us to bring your hard work to the Team Yankee and Flames of War community, Luke.
– Dunc
The models are from Battlefront, by and large, so it would be great to see the option of adding Soviet Marines to the forces available to Warsaw Pact players.
Soviet Marine players have many options for how they would like to construct such a force. If you do use Polish rules, the Soviet Marines have infantry, tank and airborne units.
Soviet Marine forces have armour as support, but not as the main units. These guys, like Poles, do well with lots of infantry. Because of their great morale and training, they can be played both defensively and offensively. Digging in or calling in artillery support is less of an issue, but on the other hand, if you need to clear NATO infantry out of their foxholes, the Naval
Infantry excels in assaults.
Soviet Marine tank formations are for those who enjoy the large formations seen in East German, Czechoslovakian armies, but with a (Polish) twist. These tanks mainly benefit from being cheaper in points and better in skill than T-62M formations, but they lack anti-tank capability sometimes.
Soviet Marine Airborne formations are essentially the naval counterpart to the VDV or Afghansty and their formations. To get these, you can take elite airborne by having an allied Warsaw Pact Afghansty formation. Easy.
Soviet Marine Infantry is best played like any other Soviet infantry. Primarily, be offensive and try to offset the gap between your opponent – whether that means literal distance – or his characteristics in Team
Yankee. They are however just as vulnerable as Soviet BTR-60 formations, so be sure to support them. If you manage to cover them properly, you can
expect them to get stuck in with their bayonets and marksmanship in no time.
Soviet Marine T-55s are very good flanking units, akin to their East German counterparts. Harassing an enemy and pulling off stunts that only 4+ skill can facilitate is a signature trait.
The slow-firing is not very useful on the move, although these tanks should not be used against heavier armour. Use T-55s to kill light armour or AA. Let your hinds or strike aircraft kill tanks.
Soviet Marine PT-76s are a nice stand-in for BMP-1s. They are a menace to enemy transports, artillery and AA units. Stick these right at the front of a spearhead, and see what havoc they can cause before your opponent is forced to waste anti-tank weapons on them.