Hero Inomarochnikiy Tankovy Brigada (FOW)

Take that! Emcha's cleaning up a captured T-34/85.

 
With the introduction of some new FOW players to the area I have been motivated to look into some new late war lists. Grayson is building up a German army and since that is my primary force I fell back on my only other late war army, my US. While I like many US lists I wanted to see what additional forces I could build on the cheap. Thus I went to Forces of War and looked at some of the recent Soviet lists that I had completely missed from the Berlin book, and immediately an old favorite jumped out at me, the Soviet Lend Lease tanks, now in hero variant! 

I then put together a  Hero Inomarochnikiy Tankovy Brigada list and realized I could get a 1750 point army for very little money. I had already painted up several platoons of M4A2's and M4A2 76mm Shermans years ago, but had traded them to Robert as I didn't want to buy 30 tanks just to run an army. Now with the hero version I would only need five 76's and three M4A2's with support. And what would you know, I happened to have a box of plastic SU-100's I had bought half priced months ago! Add in some Valentines, ISU-122's and heavy mortars and I'd be ready to take on Grayson's Germans. It may not be the most competitive list but after I traded Robert to get back the M4A2 Shermans, and bought the rest online, I had spent less than $100! 

Not too bad for an entire Flames of War army.

Running the German armor down!

 Above are pictures of the M4A2 76mm Shermans, with Dmitriy Loza in command. One of the main reasons I went with this force was the modeling opportunity. I painted the Shermans in vallejo Russian uniform like I do for my US as I find it keeps them from being too dark and would stand out well from the Soviet green of the support platoons. These Emcha's are a big chunk of points but they are fearless trained, minus Loza who is fearless vet, but they do take all skill checks like they are veterans.

The next addition was four Mk VIII Valentines. I just couldn't resist adding these little guys, even if more M4A2 Shermans would likely be better from a gaming standpoint. I painted them with a slightly lighter shade of the color I used on the Shermans. After researching in books and online I could never find a definitive color the lend lease British tanks would have been for the late war period. One of the other reasons I used Valentines is that the Soviets asked to be supplied with the 76mm Sherman and the Valentines all the way till the end of the war, so the tanks were still being made in England and Canada till wars end!

Next up is the real killing power! SU-100's and ISU-122's provide the punch with their big guns and armor. I really thought about just using two platoons of SU-100's but I loved the ISU-122's so much and they can really help dig out those pesky SS panzerfaust teams. I painted them in the standard Russian green which makes them stand out from the lend lease tanks.

Last up are three M4A2 Shermans. I was not finished with them so there is only a single picture of them.

Now I just need to finish up my 120mm heavy mortars and I'll have the entire 1750 point list done! On a side note this is the quickest turn around for any of my FOW projects. I painted all of these tanks in a single week!