In Defense of the Red Army

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by chico20854

We made some adjustments to the model Soviets in GDW's Third World War wargame. We made the T-90 (GDW T-90, not IRL upgraded T-72 that is now called T-90) on par with the M1A1.

I was thumbing through the v.1 vehicle guide and I have a little suggestion for you. The T-90 envisioned by GDW in the mid eighties seems to have appeared in some guise IRL as the T-95, a turretless MBT with a massive 152mm main gun (or a 135mm gun- reports differ).

By the time West Germany makes its move, the Soviets could have a regiment or two (or brigade) of these monsters stationed in E. Germany. I doubt they would send them to China when their T-80s and T-64s could handle any tanks the Chinese would be able to throw at them at that point.

GDW also imagined the T-86, an upgrade of the T-72 with an up-armored, slightly more angular turret. This both looks and sounds like the T-90 of our timeline.

Anyway, it's not a major issue or anything but I like to try to slip the newer tech into the v1.0 timeline, where plausible.

[TiggerCCW UK]

For information on post cold war operations in Chechnya can I again recommend "One soldiers war in Chechnya" by Arkady Babchenko. For him as an individual soldier the bullying in the army seems to have presented a much greater threat than enemy action. Its a hard brutal read, but it explains a lot of why the Russians performed so badly in that war.

[chico20854]

Originally Posted by Raellus

I was thumbing through the v.1 vehicle guide and I have a little suggestion for you. The T-90 envisioned by GDW in the mid eighties seems to have appeared in some guise IRL as the T-95, a turretless MBT with a massive 152mm main gun (or a 135mm gun- reports differ).

By the time West Germany makes its move, the Soviets could have a regiment or two (or brigade) of these monsters stationed in E. Germany. I doubt they would send them to China when their T-80s and T-64s could handle any tanks the Chinese would be able to throw at them at that point.

GDW also imagined the T-86, an upgrade of the T-72 with an up-armored, slightly more angular turret. This both looks and sounds like the T-90 of our timeline.

Anyway, it's not a major issue or anything but I like to try to slip the newer tech into the v1.0 timeline, where plausible.

I'm not getting too specific on how RL models of tanks translate over. The modeling system we're using (Third World War) basically (very broadly) rates tanks by gun caliber and armor. T-55, T-62, M-48, M-60 & Leo-1 all rate the same, as do T-64/72/80 and Chieftain. M1 and Challenger rate a little higher on defense due to their heavy armor (and in the case of M-1) mobility.

On the orbats, I'm trying to use the v1 tank progression. I'm using GDW's T-74 designation for RL T-72B and later models, T-86 for RL T-80U and BV variants, T-90 for RL T-95 & the enigmatic Black Eagle. As far as the modelling goes, the T-64/72/72/80/86 all come out the same, and the T-90 is equal to the M1A1. I took the RL 1990 tank assignments for Soviet forces and generally upgraded them one generation, as follows:

RL T-80 -> T-90
RL T-64 -> T-86
RL T-72 -> T-74
RL T-62 -> T-64
RL T-55 -> T-72
RL T-54 -> T-62

T-90 ends up mostly in Soviet forces in Germany and Poland. (Historically Soviet forces in Czechoslovakia had T-72 series, those in Hungary used T-64s until the late 80s, when they started getting early-model T-80s).

I prefer to leave it up to the GM as to what the exact RL (or fantasy!) vehicle a T-90 (and on the NATO side, the LAV-75/XM-8/AGS) is, since there are a few options. But I agree, there are some advanced Soviet monster tanks out there that throw NATO for a loop!