Company of Heroes 2 – All Units Mod: USSR Forces In-Depth Analysis

A complete analysis of everything that the USSR can throw at the Axis in Company of Heroes 2 with the All Units Mod.

Foreword

Ah….the Soviets. By far the darkest member of the Allied Powers. I understand that my Russian readers like to feel good about what their country did for the world. Heck, they call WW2 the “Great Patriotic War” over there, and it’s still written in their history books as such, but allow me to offer a different perspective, an unpopular perspective. The whole truth, not just the pretty one, and to do that, let’s rewind a bit in history from present day with Vladimir Putin, a man who hunts whales with a crossbow (which is awesome, I won’t lie, if a little bit evil), starting at August 12, 2000 where a torpedo is dropped on dry dock, which then begins leaking hydrogen peroxide fuel. The dock hand does not opt to tell anyone about this, and it is loaded into the Kursk anyway, leading to the deaths of all 118 personnel on board in a combination of drowning and hypothermia which….as often as I joke about death in my writings, I can imagine no worse way to meet one’s end. The Government opted to cover this up as best as possible at the time, and by the time they sorted through all the political posturing… all hands lost at sea. 

Jump to 1986 where they decide to test and see what happens if they disable all the safety and cooling functions of a fatally flawed nuclear reactor while putting a man on the controls who had been on the job for less than 4 months. Result? They almost succeeded in doing to themselves what the Germans failed to do only a scant few decades ago. It’s even got an HBO mini-series now, and I heard it’s quite good. 

Next at 1954 with the November Class nuclear attack submarine, which was very fast, yes, but to achieve the results from this powerful reactor, the powers that be skimped on the radiation shielding, which made the reactors themselves prone to electrical malfunction and the crew very prone to illness. In order to win at war, they made the decision to turn their submarines into an easy-bake cancer oven. 

Which brings us to the Great Patriotic War where the Soviet Union aided the cause by throwing bodies into the cogs of the German war machine until it all ground to a halt. After the tally of all war-time combatant casualties was taken, the Soviet Union had accumulated a monstrous 60%. That exceeds that of even Poland, Eiffel Towered between Germany and Russia, or France, who suffered Nazi occupation for years and forced their population into a “who can die the most pointless death” competition. And this isn’t because of some great cataclysmic battle. While the battles of Stalingrad where 1,530,000 men lost their lives, and the Battle of Kursk which put another 863,000 into the meat grinder sound like apocalyptic figures, they are but mere drops in the bucket compared to the utterly insane 27,000,000 deaths recorded by the Russian Academy of Sciences at the end of the war. It isn’t because the Germans fielded so much more equipment on the Eastern Front. All things considered, it might have been easier because of the weather disabling a good deal of said German equipment (I.E Stugs getting stuck in deep snow), and in a contest between who can be the scariest, the tacticool Americans or the enraged Russian bear, I think it would be a tie. No, they accumulated this body count because of such treasured tactics as the conscript mine-sweeper formation where their soldiers, forcefully taken from their homes, would be ordered to run across a mine-field and everyone would follow whoever made it to the other side. So many died because they were ordered to rush German machine gun positions without even so much as a pistol, a sharp stick, or a rock to beat the enemy with, and Dwight Eisenhower is on record as being utterly horrified by reports from the east. That if any American or British commander had given orders like that, they would be court-martialed and shot. 

I tell you this history lesson not to crap all over the Russian Government, or their complete disregard for human life. I could write entire books of material on that. I tell you this so you can understand the proper mind-set this faction demands. You are the Zerg, the uncountable horde. When one of your units dies, another must step up. No matter how many are gunned down, you must keep the pressure on because you have reserves! There is no price in blood too high for victory. “The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic” is a quote often attributed to Stalin, but was actually written by a German journalist, Kurt Tucholsky. The reason so many believe it is that it does sound like something he’d say, and to achieve victory in the Great Patriotic War, you must be the kind of person who would say those words too. But enough of this serious garbage, I heard these guys have tank destroyers the size of your mom! BRING ON THE TANK DESTROYERS!!!!

Regimental Field Headquarters (RFHQ)

And this is where the slaughter begins. Unlike the British and American bases who come prepared to take their midterm exams, the Russians need to build the various structures of their bases, consisting of the Special Rifle Command, Support Weapon Kampeneya, Tankoviy Battalion Command, the Mechanized Armor Kampeneya, the Partisan Field Headquarters, and the ever loyal radio post. Also, it just occurred to me that this is the faction that has existed in CoH2 the longest with the most units and improvements made by patches and DLCs, which SneakEye has faithfully implemented into his mod. On one hand, I’m excited by such incredible depth. On the other, I am gonna be here a while. 

Upgrades

Field Infirmary: costs 250 mp. It is one of the planks of socialist theory that all are entitled to universal healthcare. Though, in this case, that health care consists of treating bullet wounds, flamenwerfer burns, and the soft tissue (eyes and the between the legs bits) destruction caused by explosions of every variety, so I doubt you’d really want it. Basically, this creates a healing aura around the RFHQ that regenerates the hp of units arriving at the base who had retreated from combat. At least until the Commissar gets to them, then they’re a bit beyond our medical care. 

Molotov Package: Cost 80 mp/10 fuel. I’m a little surprised they would even call these Molotovs because the man they are named for, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, is still the current Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Soviet Union in this time period (1939-1949). The term came about during the Winter War when Molotov claimed that they were not bombing the Finns, but rather delivering food to the starving population. In reality, the nice people in the Soviet Air Force were making good use of incendiary and cluster munitions against a country a fraction of the size of the USSR. The Finns had started to refer to these bombs as “Molotov Bread Baskets”, and you’ll obviously need a little something to wash that bread down with. Gasoline poured into a bottle with a rag stuffed into the opening and lit on fire really quenches the thirst, let me tell you, and thus the term Molotov Cocktail was born, persisting in our vernacular to this very day. As for the upgrade itself, it allows your conscripts to use these with state certified bottles, rags, and petrol. 

Anti-Tank Grenade Package: Costs 125 mp/15 fuel. Unlocks the RPG-43 anti-tank grenade for all the squads that have said ability to use them. 

Lend-Lease Act: Costs 120 muns/25 fuel. Adds a little ability to your commander hotbar that allows you to spend a great deal of floated resources for a number of random vehicles and troops from the Allied Powers. You might get lucky and get something like a Jackson Tank Destroyer, or a Churchill AVRE, or not so lucky and get a pack of light tanks and vehicles which, while useful, are not worth blowing your whole bank on. Time to roll the dice. 

Research Weapon racks: Costs 150 mp/15 fuel. This unlocks the 3 weapon racks around the RFHQ for use, allowing conscripts to pick up the PTRS Anti-Material rifle for 35 muns, the ROKS-3 Flamethrower for 60 muns, or the DP-28 LMG for 60 muns. 

Tank Hunter Ambush Tactics: Costs 125 mp/30 muns. This is the start of something great. ALL Anti-tank Gun and armored vehicles devoted to tank killing camouflage themselves. Firing breaks the cloak, but this opens up so many options for surprise rear armor fornication.

Combat Engineer Squad

Cost 170 mp
Squad Size 4
Pop Cap 5

The workers of the Soviet Union who maintain a dictatorship over the means of production. Meaning that if they don’t do as I say, I’ll have them shot. These guys seem pretty weak in combat, running around with….I want to say unscoped Mosin-Nagants? Their emplacements will fight for them, though, and without them, nothing else would get done. 

Abilities

Repair: Restores a structure, vehicle, or bridge’s health by using a spectacular new invention from America: Duct tape. 

Forward Headquarters: Costs 250 mp/40 fuel. CES’s can build this structure or just designate an unoccupied civilian building for the job. They act as reinforcement points, healing infirmaries, and grant a small minor combat buff to every unit around them. 

Booby Trap Capture Point: Costs 40 muns. I frequently recommend to place landmines on capture points so when our good buddy, Adolf, swings through town and thinks he can take our fuel point that we worked hard for, he gets a little surprise. CES’s have taken this one step further into its own dedicated ability. It’s a bit more expensive than a mine though, and requires research of its own at the RFHQ to activate. 

Trip Wire Flares: Costs 10 muns and requires Vet 1. Sets up a low-yield anti-personnel land mine at the designated position, and when it is set off, it fires off a flare to grant vision and warning of enemy passage. 

Wire Cutters: Cuts through barbed/razor wire fences. I’ve never actually seen the AI place down razor wire,so I imagine that this is primarily so you can remove your own razor wire barricades. 

Upgrades

ROKS-3 Flamethrower: Costs 60 muns. For all those times where the Germans won’t leave you alone to let you build. Nothing says “let me focus, damn you!” like setting someone’s face on fire. Assigns a flamethrower to a member of the squad but does tend to go bewm if they die. 

Hazard Removal Package: Costs 30 muns. Replaces one of the weapons of the squad with a mine sweeper and unlocks the cut wire ability. But you could just go use the fresh conscript squad to go “find” some mines while saving those muns and remaining historically accurate. 

Salvage Kit: Costs 100 muns. Looks expensive, but depending on the quality of tanks you can scrap, it’ll break even in a few salvage ops. 

Builds

Mun/Fuel Cache: Cost 250 mp. Increases a resource point’s yield by either +6 munitions for +10 total, or +4 fuel for +6 total. It stacks on the resources the point was yielding already, y’see? 

Observation Post: Cost 80 muns. Oh hello! This is a new and unique building, and is built on resource nodes the same as muns and fuel caches, but instead increases mp gain by 10 per minute. Quite useful in accumulating your own 27 million strong soviet body count. 

Various Production buildings. Varying costs. I will cover all of these in their own time as I make my way through the USSR military. For the sake of text editing, clarity, and my own sanity, I won’t try to cram them all in here. 

Machine Gun Emplacement: Costs 150 mp/60 muns. This is just a nice little bunker dug into the dirt with a roof of logs and a machine gun aimed out the front. There’s room for a squad to take cover in here too. 

Mortar Pit: Costs 280 mp/20 fuel/7 Pop Cap. A put dug into the Earth that hides a Mortar team so a German sniper doesn’t go all Gallagher on their gray matter. 

Wooden Bunker: Costs 50 mp. A box made of logs that holds a single squad. Cheap on mp, and can be built practically anywhere. 

Light Anti-Tank pit: Costs 320 mp/20 fuel/8 Pop Cap. Clearly, the Russians are learning from the British, and they dig an emplacement for anti-tank work. Sadly, their guns suck, and I doubt a 45mm round is going to do anything to a Panther except maybe p!ss it off, regardless of how fast this emplacement can spit out those shells. 

Field Camp: Costs 150 mp. Constructs a tent on the front line with a trio of medics who will provide the wounded heroes of the Soviet Union with only the finest in socialized medicine. (I think they’re just shot and replaced when I’m not looking, but I haven’t been able to catch them doing it yet.) 

Repair Station: Costs 120 mp/45 muns. Constructs a station with a trio of engineers who will run forth and repair vehicles. Nice little support station. 

OT-34: Costs 380 mp/40 fuel/10 Pop Cap. This is a variant of the T-34 tank fitted with a hull mounted flamethrower and buried in a hull down position. The toaster has a long, narrow angle of attack with surprising range, but can’t twist to engage new enemies. The turret rotates just fine, though. 

ML-20 152mm Gun-Howitzer: Cost 400 mp/50 fuel/15 Pop Cap. Well…that’s a little excessive. For frame of reference, the 25-Pounder gun fielded by the British would weigh in at 87.6mm, and this is nearly double that. I feel sorry for anyone that gets struck by this monster’s shell, but then again, I don’t think they’re even going to realize they’re dead immediately. Just look down and wonder where all this blood came from and why they can see through their own body. 

B-4 203mm Howitzer: Jesus Christ. This is 2.3 times the 25-Pounder of the British. It only fires 1 shot at range, and, amusingly, can be directed to strike vehicles at close range. Honestly, it’s kind of fun to turn Panthers inside out with one pull of the trigger. 

Sandbag Fighting Position, because while the USSR may not care about casualties, you aren’t going to kill many Germans if your troops are too dead to fire anything back. 

Razor Wire, creating infantry barriers. 

Tank Traps, which are little more than steel girders driven into the ground, but they’ll stop a tank all the same. 

Barricades, for super heavy vehicle denial. 

Mine laying: One can lay down PMD-6 Anti-Personnel mines for 15 muns each for fun infantry shenanigans, the PMD-6M Light Anti-Vehicle mines for 10 muns each for light vehicle destruction, and the TM-35 mine for 30 muns each for everything heavier than that. I am a fan of land mines, and appreciate the amount of choice in regards to such. 

Fresh Conscript Squad

Costs 195 mp
Squad Size 6
Pop Cap 6 

Welcome to the death factory, Comrades. To be honest, these guys are pretty useless, and serve as cannon fodder or supplements to other squads. Good to have in early game for rapid point taking, or to hopelessly overwhelm the enemy in sheer numbers. 

Abilities

Repair: Now, see, I am told that conscripts have the option to repair stuff, but for the life of me, I can’t find it outside of the DLC commander option. I plan on mentioning this to SneakEye at some point, but at of the time of writing this, I really don’t know what’s going on. 

Oorah!: Costs 15 muns. Oh! THIS is the thing you guys were talking about! Okay, that makes sense now. This makes Conscript squads move at maximum speed for 10 seconds. Also ignores suppression, so they’ll just rush headlong into those machine gunners, beat them to death, and steal their guns. Go get the best guns, guys. I’ll be rooting for you back here. 

Trip Wire Flares: Costs 10 muns, and requires Vet 1. Sets up a low-yield land mine that fires off a flare for damage and vision when an enemy trips it. Usually followed by a B-4 round within moments. 

Merge: This orders this squad of conscripts to file into another depleted squad. Useful to front load mp in anticipation of mass casualties. When are there going to be mass casualties? This is Russia in the 40s. Death is under every rock and behind every corner. There are always tons of folks dying. 

Upgrades

Attach Ammunition Bearer: Costs 40 muns. The in-game description states that these conscripts do not shoot accurately, are not well trained, and have little battlefield experience. Battle can be a horrifying place to the unprepared, and the constant explosions, fears for your life, and just horribleness of it all can make calming your nerves to aim precisely outright impossible. Fortunately, you can attach an ammo bearer to the squad to carry more up, improving their reload speed and ability recharge cooldowns. 

Builds

Sandbags. Green cover means a long life. 

Trenches. Russians sure do love digging in the dirt. Seriously, I’ve covered 2 units so far and found 4 things that are buried.

Frontoviki Conscript Squad

Cost 210 mp
Squad Size 6
Pop Cap 6

I’m not exactly sure what Frontoviki means, but I assume this to mean front line troops. Compared to other infantry types, Conscripts tend to suck, but these guys suck very very slightly less than the previously mentioned Fresh squad who are little more than teenagers plucked from their homes, crammed into an ill-fitting uniform and, at best, given a rifle and told which way to march. Frontovikis have been given a bit more equipment for a more reasonable chance of survival, including an assault package upgrade, and molotov cocktails, so….suck slightly less, yeah. 

Abilities

Oorah!: Costs 15 muns. Motivates conscripts to move at maximum speed, which tends to synergize well with their assault package. 

Throw Molotov Cocktail: Costs 20 muns. Cheaper than a grenade and burns in an area for some time after the initial impact. Burns Nazis up real good. 

Trip Wire Flares: Cost 10 muns. Rigs up a cheap, low-yield land mine with a flare that is fired off and grants vision in the area when it is tripped. 

Merge: Orders this squad to file into another depleted squad, giving you some flexibility in your mp usage. 

Hit the Dirt!: Toggled ability. Requires the Conscript Assault Package. This is an odd ability. The Squad will dive to the ground, taking 10% less damage, but losing 20% accuracy, and can’t move at all until you toggle it off. Artillery strikes already wipe squads if they land a direct hit, and being still isn’t going to help that, and it’s not great for general combat because that 20% accuracy loss is going to increase the TTK values to such a degree that the enemy will gain the advantage. 

Upgrades

Conscript Assault Package: Costs 60 muns. The PPSh-41, likely named for the sound you’ll hear coming from German trousers when pulling the trigger, is a ridiculous bullet hose of a weapon. It fires at 900 rounds per minute, which is impressive even by modern standards, and can empty it’s 35 round clip in about two and a half seconds. The Soviet Union manufactured roughly 6 million of these guns in the years between 1941 to 1947, and this upgrade package provides this conscript squad with a pair of them. 

Attach Ammuntion Bearer: Costs 40 mp. With Ivan and Alexi wailing away with their PPSh’s, they’re going to be tearing through ammo at a rapid rate, so it’s a good idea to have one of these guys. His presence improves squad reload speed, and the cooldown on their special abilities. 

Conscript Infantry Squad

Cost 240 mp
Squad size 6
Pop Cap 6

Taking the prestigious award of sucking the least out of the conscript family, the ‘scripts still are VERY zergy with no one member providing an impressive combat boost. It is the horde that is dangerous, and they have a few unique abilities and upgrades that can help said horde fling a few more bullets down range. 

Abilities

Oorah!: Costs 15 muns, and motivates to move at maximum speed. Shrugs off suppression effects, just like every other ‘script squad can. 

Molotov Cocktail: Costs 20 muns. Throws a burny grenade on the cheap. 

RPG-45 Anti-Tank Grenade: Costs 25 muns. Ooohh, something interesting! This is a fairly cheap grenade with a short range, but does some impressive damage. One might not be enough to kill a tank, but there’s never just one conscript squad around. 

Hit the Dirt!: Requires conscript assault package. Toggled ability. Locks squad in place and makes them take 10% less damage, but lose 20% accuracy. 

Trip Wire Flare: Cost 10 muns. Rigs up a cheap, low-yield land mine with a flare that is fired off and grants vision in the area when it is tripped. 

Upgrades

Conscript Assault Package: Costs 60 muns. Equips the squad with a pair of PPSh-41 SMGs. 

Tank Hunter Package: Costs 50 muns. Now this is an interesting weapon. It’s no secret that, during the early stages of Operation Barbossa, Hitler was issuing a dictatorship over Stalin’s means of not getting his face kicked in, and AT weapons were kind of hard to come by due to the blitzkrieg tactics being used against them. So, the Soviets created the PTRS-41, a 5 round anti-material rifle that fires a 14.5mm round, capable of piercing a 40mm thick armor slab at 100 meters. Sadly, German Panthers have armor up to 100mm thick, and this translates into the game as scratch damage. PTRS’s tend not to do that much unless you have a LOT of them. Fortunately, since this upgrade issues the squad 3 of them, lots of them aren’t hard to accumulate.

Demolition Engineer Squad

Cost 170 mp
Squad size 4
Pop Cap 5

These guys play double duty. They have several abilities relating to the blowing up of things, but also act as your salvage team with a PRICY upgrade. 

Abilities

Repair: Like most other infantry squads belonging to Mother Russia, they can fix your broken things for you. 

Place demolition charge: Costs 90 muns. Plants a large bundle of TNT at the assigned location after a brief delay to get it all set. After that, click it to blow it up. 

Booby Trap Capture Point: Costs 40 muns. Explosive charge that goes off when an enemy tries to capture your resource point. Always funny. 

Scorched Earth Trap: Costs 35 muns. Sets an incendiary charge rigged to go off when enemy troops enter the trapped sector. Works way better at welcoming Nazis to the Motherland than greeting cards. 

Decoy Barrage: Costs 50 muns. Otherwise known as a troll barrage. This flings flares at the targeted location to trick the enemy into thinking that they’re about to get blasted, but the pain never comes. Don’t think this works on AI though, so might as well save your muns for the real thing. 

Upgrades

ROKS-3 Flamethrower: Costs 60 muns. I LIKE flamethrowers! Does area of effect damage, extra damage to enemies in cover, and, unlike many MANY works of fiction that depict flamethrowers as belching clouds of burning gas (because Hollywood stocks the gas fuel mix flamethrowers), CoH2 actually gets it RIGHT and squirts a burning mix of napalm liquid onto its targets. 

Salvage Kit: Costs 100 muns. This gives demo squads the ability to salvage wrecks of destroyed vehicles. Now that high price tag might look bad, and I thought for sure that they’d never break even, until I kept track of how much they were extracting from a wreck. It depends on the tank, but they’ll make up their cost in just a few salvage operations. When you can make the enemy’s loss, your gain, that is tactical superiority.

Special Rifle Command

Cost 160 mp/10 fuel

This is your tier 2 production structure and cannot be built anywhere but your HQ sector. This offers a few of the more odd ball units, a scout car, and your reinforcement support half-track.

Isakovich: Lieutenant

Cost 280 mp
Squad Size 5
Pop Cap 8
Unique unit. Can only have 1. 

I suppose that this guy is the main character from the CoH2 Soviet campaign. He doesn’t have an aura like other officers, but his squad has a decent mix of long and short ranged weapons while Isakovich himself gets by with what looks like a revolver. He’s got a few useful abilities too, and only costs as much as standard infantry from other factions, so why not grab him on your way? 

Abilities

Throw Molotov Cocktail: Costs 20 muns. Throws a burny grenade. ‘Nuff said. 

RGD-1 Smoke Grenade: Costs 15 muns. Throws a grenade that creates a cloud of smoke and blocks line of sight. So if your blob is getting gardened back by machine gunners, toss one of these in to save the situation. 

For Mother Russia!: Costs 70 muns. While he doesn’t have an aura, he certainly has one kickass ability! This activates a map wide buff where infantry and weapons squads move at high speed, see a 50% increase to accuracy (!!!!), and the whole shebang lasts for 45 seconds. A single usage of this power at the proper time can turn even the most ragged of hordes into an army destroying monster. 

Halt Retreat: Costs 30 muns. Apparently, Isakovich has seen what happens to troops who take one step back, and stops them during their previously unstoppable retreat animation. 

Upgrades

DP Light Machine Guns: Costs 75 muns. Assigns 2 DP LMGs to Isakovich’s squad. The DP is an interesting little niche weapon with an odd shape, carrying 60 rounds in its pan magazines, a pair of these is capable of spitting quite a few bullets downrange. 

Scout Sniper Team

Cost 360 mp
Squad size 2
Pop Cap 9

Now here’s something you don’t see every day, at least in the other factions, but we’ve been told about them many times: Russia’s female soldier divisions. These girls are trained in the art of long range head shot shenanigans and have the usual abilities as far as snipers go. 

Abilities

Sniper Prone: Normally, snipers only cloak when in cover. When toggling this ability, they drop to a crawl, see further, and cloak regardless of cover status. They will break concealment when firing, however, and will recloak slower than if they were in cover. 

Hold Fire: Orders the team to not fire. If snipers never open fire, they can stay in cloak as long as they like, observing the enemy and spotting for artillery. 

Set up Tent: Costs 50 mp. Deploys a camouflaged field tent that the girls can use to regain their hp when wounded, as, given their isolationist line of work, a medic is often not available to heal them. 

Flare: Costs 40 muns and requires vet 1. This fires off a slow falling flare in the targeted area that grants sight there for 35 seconds.

M3A1 Light Scout Car

Cost 190 mp/15 fuel
Pop Cap 3

Remember how I talked about America’s lend-lease program? This is one of the fruits from that. The M3A1 is a nice little early game battle bus with a pair of machine guns, and room in the back for a squad to garrison and fire out at the enemy. Like most Soviet units, it’s cheap, and easily spammable, so you could have Mad Max style jeep gangs roaming over Russia, blasting Nazis. 

Abilities

Vehicle Crew Self-Repair: Costs 35 muns, and is toggled ability. Disabled vehicle weapons and movement, and triggers an automatic repair buff. It also reduces muns income while active. This ability is likely a testament to a time when we didn’t have the All Units mod to enjoy, and crews couldn’t exit their vehicles to do spot welds. But now we can. Save your muns. Never use this. I mean….unless you’re like repair damage soaking a tank or something. 

Overdrive: Costs 10 muns and requires vet 1. Presses the little red button in the center console for +60 acceleration, and enemies targeting this unit have 25% less accuracy. Enemies targeting the guys in the back have 50% less accuracy.

ZiS-6 Transport Truck

Cost 210 mp/15 fuel
Pop Cap 3

This is a cheaper than cheap rolling reinforcement point that can fit two squads in the back. It can rip out the seating to deploy PTRS and DP-28 weapons, however, but it doesn’t lose its ability to reinforce from this. 

Abilities

Weapon Deployment: The ZiS-6 can produce PRTS Anti-Material rifles for 35 muns each, and DP-28 LMGs for 60 muns each. 

Vehicle Self-Repair: This seems to be the factional vehicle ability that almost every Russian vehicle can use. Time to copy and paste then! [ahem] Costs 35 muns. Turns off the movement and guns and activates auto-repair. Diminishes muns income while auto-repair is active. 

Upgrades

Weapons Supply: Costs 50 muns/5 fuel. Rips out the 2 squad seating for weapon deployment options. 

Penal Battalion

Cost 300 mp
Squad size 6
Pop Cap 8

Oh, I feel sorry for these guys. See, under Soviet Communism, you are, in fact, given freedom of speech. So long as you agree with what the party thinks. You fail to toe that line, you might be sent to a Gulag, executed, or find yourself shipped in with these guys. The Soviets first witnessed the Germans doing this with towns that they had taken over, and formed Strafbataillon from those who would be deemed disruptive to military discipline, but were otherwise “worthy of service”. Stalin loved this idea and in 1942, really started to churn these out from political prisoners, unauthorized retreaters, and disgraced soldiers. But really, if you look at something the Nazis were doing, and think “Wow…that’s a great idea!”, I think it’s time for some introspection. 

Abilities

Throw Satchel Charge: Cost 45 muns. These are lovely little bundles of bewm. The fuse is a bit long to use like a grenade, but they’re awesome at busting bunkers. 

Throw Anti-Vehicle Satchel Charge: Costs 45 muns. This throws a satchel charge onto a vehicle so that it can’t escape imminent doom. Que Penal Battalion fist bumping amidst the explosion. 

Upgrades

ROKS-3 Flamethrower: Costs 60 muns. Because giving hardened criminals, political prisoners and soldiers who might have a grudge a flamethrower is just the kind of keen, forward thinking that we need in the Soviet Union. 

PTRS-41 AT Rifles: Costs 50 muns. Do damage to light vehicles and defenses (and impale infantry) by launching 14.5mm spikes at them!

Anti-Tank Conscript Squad

Cost 320 mp
Squad Size 6
Pop Cap 8

If you don’t have AT grenades researched, these guys are as useful as a screen door on a submarine. They don’t spawn in with ANY anti-tank weapons, and really, all they have going for them is the grenade. It can, however, delete light vehicles nicely for a very economical price. 

Abilities

RPG-43 Anti-Tank Grenade: Costs 25 muns. For a cheap, short range ability, this actually does some surprising damage. Slaughters light vehicles in one shot, and seriously messes up tanks. 

Trip Wire Flares: Cost 10 muns. Rigs up a cheap, low-yield land mine with a flare that is fired off and grants vision in the area when it is tripped.

Upgrades

Attach Ammunition Bearer: Costs 40 mp. Speeds up reload speed, and improves ability cooldown, which means the AT squad and throw more tank busting grenades. 

ROKS-3 Flamethrower: Costs 60 muns. How can a flamethrower help with tank hunting? Because if you can pour the fiery liquid onto a tank’s engine block, you can damage it. 

PTRS-41: Costs 50 muns. These things are freakin’ everywhere in the Soviet army, and this assigns 2 to the tank hunter squad.

Shock Troops

Cost 360 mp
Squad Size 6
Pop Cap 8

Woah! These guys have body armor! Why aren’t we doing this with everyone? It just seems like a good idea. This squad spawns in wielding SIX PPSh’s and these aren’t the whimpy 35 round magazine versions. No, these are the drum clip monsters that carry 71 rounds before needing to reload. This means they can put thousands of rounds down range in just a few seconds. So what if they’re not accurate! ACCURACY THROUGH VOLUME!!! 

Abilities

RG-42 Anti-Personnel grenade: Costs 30 muns. A more official and professional frag grenade than the molotov, these things are POTENT and turn Axis infantry into finely shredded cheese over a pretty wide area. 

RGD-1 Smoke Grenade: Costs 15 muns. PPSh’s aren’t that great at a distance, which is why the Shock Troops like to toss smoke near their target and then charge through to gun them all down. With body armor and that many bullets at close range, no one stands a chance. 

Fire Superiority: Costs 25 muns and Vet 1. Shock Troops hold down the trigger and terminator walk toward their target, which is quickly suppressed. They’re not in any particular hurry to get to the pinned down Germans, but when they do, they’re going to snap into their spines like a slim jim.

Guards Rifle Assault Infantry

Cost 360
Squad Size 6
Pop Cap 6

This guys have a decent mix of long and short range weaponry, as well as AT weapon upgrade possibilities. At a very reasonable price tag, these guys seem to have an answer for everthing. 

Abilities

RGD-33 Fragmentation Grenade: Costs 30 muns. This is similar to most other frag grenades, but does more damage to units in cover. 

Trip Wire Flare: Cost 10 muns. Rigs up a cheap, low-yield land mine with a flare that is fired off and grants vision in the area when it is tripped.

Upgrades

4x Thompson SMG: Cost 60 muns. More gifts from the Americans! This removes a good chunk of the GRAI’s long range capacity for close range blood murder fun time. 

2x M9 Bazooka: Cost 100 muns. ANOTHER gift from the Americans??? Someone over there likes you. These blow up enemy vehicles real good, giving the GRAI’s 2 short range weapons, 2 long range bolt actions, and 2 AT weapons. A very well rounded unit!

Support Weapon Kampaneya

Cost 160 mp/20 fuel

This building contains all your support weapons, a few officer units, a unique hero sniper and AW CRAP… I was wondering when those guys would get here.. You’ll see when I get to them.

Pozharsky: Sergeant

Cost 150 mp
Squad Size 3
Pop Cap 6
Unique unit. Can only have 1.

This guy is similar to the British General Officer in that he is a double edged sword. He generates a command aura around himself to make all Soviet troops fight better (though exact stats on that are hard to come by), but if he dies every unit he was giving his buff to is immediately pinned. Pozharsky has a number of powerful, useful abilities and gains exp from nearby allied infantry. 

Abilities

Scorched Earth Policy: Costs 200 muns. For 45 seconds, enemies in friendly territory are mercilessly pummeled with rockets. A bit pricey as far as powers go, but this is a great way to get the Axis off your lawn. 

Spy Network: Costs 100 muns. Reveals all enemy units on the mini-map so you can set them up to have an “accident”. 

IL-2 Precision Bombing Strike: Costs 200 muns. 

KV-2 Heavy Assault Tank: Costs 630 mp/230 fuel/19 Pop Cap. This thing looks bloody rediculous. It’s like a tank wearing a tin hat. I’ll cover this in greater detail in the heavy armor section.

Commissar Command Squad

Cost 260 mp
Squad Size 5
Pop Cap 7

This is what I was talking about. Also known as political officers, Commissars have sinister reputation. As the vernacular goes, they are team killing f*ckheads. When order 227 came down, there were instructions to create blocking squads that would execute those engaged in unauthorized retreats, and Commissars were the ones elected to manage all that. This reputation is so ingrained into them that they appear in Warhammer 40,000, often in similar garb to what they had in WW2, and killing disruptive or unproductive guardsmen to instill discipline is literally all that they do. Thankfully, while they do have several unique powers, none of them deliberately kill your men. They only put them in an easier position to die. 

Abilities

Distribute Medical Supplies: Unlike their 40k counterparts, Commissars are full-well aware that if all the men under their care die, the Germans are going to leap on them like methamphetamine soaked circus monkeys. So, making sure they don’t die from blood loss is probably a good idea. Clicking this creates a healing aura that regenerates the hp of every squad around the commissar as well as the commissar himself. 

RGD-33 Fragmentation Grenade: Costs 30 muns. Click, throw, bewm, lots of dead enemies who thought cover would save them. In the end, it only doomed them as RGD’s do extra damage to enemies in cover. 

Hold the line: Increases a squad’s defense and forces enemies to take significant penalties to accuracy when shooting at them, but greatly reduces targeted squad’s movement speed. Retreating cancels these bonuses. 

Not one step back: The infamous words of 227. Targeted squad will have increased accuracy and rate of fire, but be easier to hit by the enemy. 

Fear Propaganda Artillery: Costs 45 muns. This calls in a barrage of… papers. Sternly written papers describing an enemy’s certain and utter doom, or it could just be bad fanfiction. I don’t know. Anyway, the results are a bit of a mixed bag as each shell has a certain percentage chance of triggering an effect. There is a 25% chance of nothing happening, a 35% chance of being slowed and making it 100% easier to aim at them, a 30% chance of being suppressed and pinned, and a 10% chance of being forced to retreat.

Ania: Sniper

Cost 360
Pop Cap 9

Ania is a member of the Armia Krajowa, translated to Home Army, a resistance movement dedicated to freeing Poland from the Nazis and the Soviets, which really makes me scratch my head as to why she is here. I guess it’s true what they say about the enemy of your enemy. Ania is a mix of a sniper and a commando with the ability to cloak in cover, pop infantry units with a single shot, and possesses the usual range of sniper abilities. She also has some extra little additions to make herself useful.

Abilities

Sniper Prone: Toggled ability. Ania drops to a prone stance and extends her sight range, cloaking anywhere she deems fit instead of just in cover. Cloaking does come back more slowly in this stance as compared to in cover though. 

Set up Sniper Cover: A deployable ability. This creates a makeshift array of twigs and brush that appears, to the untrained eye, as a bush, but in reality, a sniper has likely taken up position behind it. So if you see foliage on a map that looks like it doesn’t belong, go ahead and take a quick tally of everyone who is still alive. You’re likely missing a man. 

Hold Fire: Toggles weapons on and off. Like all other snipers, Ania can be instructed to hold her fire for ambush timing, or to act as a long range observer. 

Demolition Charge: Costs 80 muns. Sets up a rather large TNT brick, which then detonates when you click it again. I’m sure you can find all kinds of wonderful uses for this. 

Set up tent: Ania brings her own bed roll to the front lines and can deploy it into a camouflaged tent to rest in an regain hp. 

Flare: costs 40 muns. Fires a slow falling flare into the targeted area, granting sight there for 35 seconds. 

Sprint: Costs 10 muns. With this, Ania will move at top speed for about 10 seconds.

M-42 45mm Anti-Tank Gun

Cost 200 mp
Squad Size 6
Pop Cap 6

I feel that calling this an anti-tank gun is being generous. Smaller than even the American 57mm, this is a pop gun that struggles to bother anything larger than a medium tank. You might still have a chance with ambush tactics if you can secure some surprise rear armor fornication. Another tactic is to mass these. They’re cheaper than an infantry squad and fire rather quickly, so you’re able to give Hans a hell of a migraine from all the clanging against the hull, if nothing else. But, like everything else in this game, where the M-42 lacks in direct firepower, it makes up for in useful abilities. 

Abilities

Load High Explosive canister: Toggled ability. This turns the M-42 from an Anti-Tank gun into an anti-personnel field gun that fires canister shots, little shells filled with steel balls and explosives that rend infantry rather nicely. Given that these are cheaper than MG teams and fire quickly, you might reach a point where you can tell the guys running the Maxim to go home. We got this. 

Anti-Tank Ambush Tactics: Toggled ability. Maskirova is a Russian term meaning “Military deception”, though we take this in capitalist pig-dog speak to just mean “camouflage”. The M-42 applies this by cloaking itself from view until it breaks it by firing. It does move at a slower pace while this is enabled tough. 

Vehicle Tracking: Passive ability. Requires Vet 1. After striking a vehicle, the M-42 teams can track that enemy on the mini-map and through the fog of war for 10 seconds. This lets someone who brought a REAL gun to the fight go and kill it.

M1910 Maxim Heavy Machine Gun

Cost 260 mp
Squad Size 6
Pop Cap 6

Named after inventor, Hiram Stevens Maxim, the Maxim gun is a neat little MG set upon a wheeled body, and possessing a gun shield. It was created in 1910 and was used by everyone from the Russians to the Vietnamese, from Finland to Turkey. It can put a respectable 600 rounds per minute down range, and with water jacket cooling, it can maintain suppressive fire without worry of overheating the barrel. 

Abilities

Sustained Fire: costs 15 muns. Increases burst length and reduces weapon cooldown for 30 seconds. For all those times where the enemy decides to rush your position, and they all need to be quite dead.

DshK-38 Heavy Machine Gun

Cost 300 mp
Squad Size 6
Pop Cap 7

The Maxim gun fired a 7.62mm bullet, the same used as the omni-present Mosin-Nagant, which was great because in most situations you’d only need one size of bullet to provide for everyone’s murder needs. But variety is the spice of death, and the DshK, or the Dakka as I call it, fires 12.7mm bullets. Almost twice the size. I’m sure you can imagine what this does to fleshy targets, or even light vehicles for that matter. 

Abilities

Armor Piercing Rounds: Costs 15 muns. Increases the penetration value of the Dakka’s bullets because those German flamethrower half-tracks are getting entirely too uppity. 

Sprint: Costs 10 muns. Forces to squad to run at top speed, useful for getting to a covered position and getting the gun deployed before the enemy can get themselves situated.

PM-41 82mm Mortar Squad

Cost 240 mp
Squad Size 6
Pop Cap 6

One of the two types of mortar teams the Soviets have at their disposal. There’s nothing terribly complicated about these guys. They fire little bombs up in an indirect fire trajectory and when they land, they explode. They’re best buds with the machine gun teams who can suppress and pin enemy squads, leaving them open to a strike from above IF the team can hit their target. 

Abilities

Mortar Barrage: Click the pane, designate an area, and the team will start giving Mother Russia a few new craters, hopefully with dead Germans at the bottoms of them. 

Fire Smoke Barrage: Fires a trio of rounds that create a smoke cloud at the targeted location. Which then is likely followed by a butt ton of conscripts bursting through said smoke, screaming OOOOOOORAH, and slaughtering everyone with PPSh fire. 

Flare: Costs 35 muns. Fires a slow falling flare that grants vision in the targeted area for 35 seconds. 

Hold Fire: Toggles the weapons on and off. Good for setting an ambush where an enemy is smothered by several mortars at once.

HM-38 120mm Mortar Squad

Cost 340 mp
Squad Size 6
Pop Cap 10

This is just like the mortar team I just mentioned with the same abilities, but has a bit more range, and the explosions are visibly bigger. It’s a touch more expensive though, but you get what you pay for.

ZiS-3 76mm Divisional Field Gun

Cost 320 mp
Squad Size 6
Pop Cap 7

Now THIS is an AT-gun! Comparable to British 6-pounders, this has a good mix of range, penetration and damage output, this gun is more than capable of turning Axis armor into a piping hot fresh mess of twisted metal. 

Abilities

Light Artillery Barrage: Costs 35 muns. Turns the ZiS-3 into an artillery pierce and can bombard an area with a SHORT range. It’s only barely more than its sight radius, but hey, if you see a blob pooling on the horizon, fire a few shots their way. 

Anti-Tank Gun Ambush tactics: Toggled ability. Slows the movement speed of the gun but camouflages it. Firing breaks the stealth, but this gun can certainly give a Panther a surprise when it jams an AT shell up its uber pooper. 

Tracking: Costs 35 muns. This significantly increases the sight radius of the ZiS-3, and lets the gun track infantry through the mini-map. I would have figured that vehicle tracking would have been more appropriate for its role, but you can forward the information to the M-42 crews for infantry happy hour at the explosive trauma bar and grill. 

Prioritize vehicles: Toggled ability. This makes the ZiS-3 ignore infantry in favor of punching holes in vehicles. Practically any AT weapon can one-shot an infantry squad member if it hits them, but actually striking your target relies heavily on RNG, and is generally a waste. 

Hold Fire: Toggles the weapons on and off. Ideal for tank ambushes.

Tankoviy Battalion Command

Cost 240 mp/85 fuel

Required for Tier 4 for the Russian military. This building starts to get to the good stuff with half-tracks and medium tanks and such. 

Upgrades

Vehicle Crew Repair Training: Costs 150 mp/15 fuel. Activates the ability of the same name where crews can expend muns to start an auto-repair function on their vehicle, and will decrease muns income while it remains active. I can see a few limited uses for this, like using a tank to soak damage or something, but generally, probably better to just have the crew get out and repair. 

Vehicle Repair Crew
Cost 140 mp
Squad Size 4
Pop Cap 4

These guys show up for free everytime you purchase a vehicle, and can get out to make repairs when there’s downtime. During the Great Patriotic War, sometimes a crew got lucky and managed to disable a a German panther. They killed the crew, removed their bodies, fixed it up and drove it around for themselves. This was so common that they ended up translating the field manual for Panther maintenance and operation into Russian. In CoH2, while it might not happen as often, when you disable a vehicle, you can call up some of these guys to make some field repairs and steal a free vehicle for yourself, though you might show up on that new reality TV show, Bait Tank. 

Abilities

Repair: Obviously, these guys can fix vehicles, structures and bridges, just like every other vehicle crew can. It’s even in their squad name. 

Repair critical: Costs 25 muns. This quickly repairs a single vehicle critical and a bit of damage. Doesn’t seem to work right if the vehicle is not occupied. I’ve tested this multiple times and if the vehicle is vacant, the little bit of health is restored, but the critical is not repaired.

Guard Rifle Infantry

Cost 360 mp
Squad Size 6
Pop Cap 9

The game description claims them to be elite and I believe it. They spawn in, by default, with 2 PTRS rifles that do scratch damage to tanks, but can bring one down if you have enough of them, so the Soviet version of the British tank hunters unit. They really come into their own when you equip them with DP’s and unlock the special ability. With those weapons, they have an answer for everything that approaches, and can wander the land dispensing Stalin’s wrath. 

Abilities

RGD-33 Fragmentation Grenade: Costs 30 muns. Throw at an enemy who has taken cover and watch him get blown to bits. 

Hit the Dirt1: Toggled ability. Immobilize the squad and suffer a 20% penalty to accuracy, but see a 10% reduction to incoming damage. 

Button vehicle: Costs 40 muns. To button a tank means to make it close all hatches and and view panels because you are doing something hazardous the crew wants to protect themselves from. In this case, you’re spraying bullets wildly from a DP-28. This reduces their sight, rate of fire, and movement speed to almost nothing. Once a tank is crippled and isolated, the GRI’s can do their work. During testing, 3 squads almost brought down a Panzer IV, but the effect ended early because of suppression from a MG team. These guys can most definitely kill tanks.

M5 Half-Track Transport

Cost 270 mp/30 fuel
Pop Cap 5

YEEEEESSS!!!! I adore this thing! This is a half-track from the Americans, and does the same things it does in their arsenal. It acts as a mobile reinforcement point, packs a MG up top, carries two squads for battle bus shenanigans, and does an excellent job supporting the horde. 

Abilities

Vehicle Crew Self Repair: Costs 35 muns. Turns off the movement and guns and activates auto-repair. Diminishes muns income while auto-repair is active. 

Overdrive: Requires Vet 1. Enemies targeting this vehicle receive a 25% penalty to accuracy, and those targeting the occupants have a 50% penalty. The vehicle has 60% more acceleration. 

Upgrades

Anti-Air Package: Cost 100 muns. This upgrade removes the front gun and seating for 12 with a quad linked .50 cal machine gun that knocked infantry flatter than hammered crap. This doesn’t remove the M5’s ability to reinforce though, and new conscripts just pop right out of the back like daisies.

M5 Half-Track Assault Group

Cost 530mp/35 fuel
Pop Cap 5

This is a lovely little deal where a M5 is shipped up with a load of Guard Rifle Assault Infantry in the back. Like the other Half-track squad deals, this is more efficient in terms of mp, and you’ll get a GRAI squad for 170 mp instead of 360. So if you need a half-track and need more GRAIs, why not save by buying in bulk?

T-70 Light Tank

Cost 260 mp/70 fuel
Pop Cap 6

This little guy is just adorable. He has the same 45mm gun as the M-42, which means he is NOT winning any tank fights, but like the Valentine, he is capable of spotting for much bigger guns to come and save him. Like all light vehicles that don’t appear that impressive at first glance, he has a number of useful abilities to make him viable. 

Abilities

Recon Mode: Toggled ability. This shuts off the guns and almost doubles the line of sight of the tank. Quite useful if you want to give someone a 203mm wake-up call from Stalin’s Sledgehammer. 

Tank Ambush: Disables movement and cloaks the tank in shrubbery. This turns the T-70 into a long range observation platform or a tank version of Jason Vorhees, ready to come out of nowhere to slaughter hapless infantry. 

Vehicle Crew Self Repair: Costs 35 muns. Turns off the movement and guns and activates auto-repair. Diminishes muns income while auto-repair is active. Combining this with tank ambush means the T-70 can fix itself while remaining cloaked. 

Secure Mode: Requires Vet 1. Toggled ability. This allows the T-70 to capture points like infantry can! I can see this providing all kinds of harassment abilities. I mean, it’s a cloaking tank that can see far, fix itself under cloak, cap points, and is fast enough that you’ll likely never catch it. 

Prioritize vehicles: Tells the T-70 to ignore infantry and fire on vehicles only. I mean… it’s still a 45mm gun, so I don’t know if it will do that much. 

Hold Fire: Toggles the guns on and off.

SU-76M Assault Gun

Cost 280 mp/75 fuel
Pop Cap 8

A rather cheap tank, though one apparently without pants. The entire back end is open. The SU-76M shows all the classic signs of a tank destroyer with a 76mm gun, no machine gun or even the ability to acquire one, good speed and paper armor. 

Abilities

Light Artillery Barrage: Costs 35 muns. Like the ZiS-3 that it’s carrying around with it, the SU-76M can bombard an area with indirect fire, and like the ZiS-3, it’s not going to win any academy awards for range. 

Tank Ambush: Buries the tank in shrubbery to cloak it from view and renders it immobile, putting the surprise in surprise rear armor fornication.

Vehicle Crew Self-Repair: Costs 35 muns. Turns off the movement and guns and activates auto-repair. Diminishes muns income while auto-repair is active. Combining this with tank ambush means the vehicle can fix itself while remaining cloaked. 

Tracking: Costs 35 muns. Vastly increases the sight radius of the tank and tracks infantry through the fog of war on the mini-map for 20 seconds. 

Prioritize vehicles: Makes the vehicle ignore infantry. Tank destroyers should focus on destroying tanks. 

Hold Fire: Toggles the guns on and off, useful for remaining in concealment.

T-34/76 Medium Tank

Cost 300 mp/90 Fuel 
Pop Cap 10

This tank is…well, a legend. Not for any great feat of engineering. The engines themselves tended to give out after 1,000 kilometers or so, but it was enough to get them to the front. No, anyone who has studied anything about any part of WW2 knows a T-34 when they see one because of the sheer nauseating amount of them produced. Let’s give this a bit of perspective. The Germans produced a total of 6,334 Panthers during the war. The United States produced approximately 50,000 Shermans of all varieties. The Russians produced 84,000 T-34’s, and hopelessly overwhelmed the Germans. That’s 13 T-34s to every one German Panther, just to break even. Gameplay wise, the T-34 fills the same niche as the basic M4A3 Sherman or the Cromwell, but has a few extra abilities because we’re dealing with the Russians here. And Russians are f*cking crazy. 

Abilities

Ramming Maneuver: Commands the T-34 to acclerate to top speed (53 kph), and slam into an enemy tank inflicting all manner of possible critical damage to it. If the T-34 cannot reach the target before the charge duration expires, this will result in temporary engine breakdown, and regardless of what damage the ram inflicts on the enemy, the T-34 doing this will always suffer engine damage and a broken main gun upon impact. And…. don’t do this against an Elefant or King Tiger. Just don’t, man. 

Tank Ambush: Shuts down the engines and covers the tank in shrubbery, cloaking it from view. 

Vehicle Crew Self-Repair: Costs 35 muns. Turns off the movement and guns and activates auto-repair. Diminishes muns income while auto-repair is active. Combining this with tank ambush means the vehicle can fix itself while remaining cloaked. 

Secure Mode: Requires Vet 1. Toggled ability. Disables weapons, but allows the T-34 to capture territory like infantry does. 

Prioritize Vehicles: Toggles infantry ignore for the tank. With a 76mm gun, and a hull mounted machine gun, the T-34 is decent at either target, so its your call. 

Hold Fire: Toggles the guns off and on. 

Upgrades

Critical Self-Repair: Costs 75 muns. The crew fixes critical damage on their own after a little bit. Useful considering how often ramming is done and messes up…well…everthing. 

Armored Skirts: Costs 80 muns. Bolts on extra armor side skirts that makes the T-34 a bit more durable.

M4C Sherman

Cost 380 mp/125 fuel 
Pop Cap 12

What?! Oh no way 😀 It feels like it’s been forever since I wrote about these. This is another piece of the lend-lease program from America, and the Russians have modified this Sherman chassis to hold a 76mm gun, so it’s the rough equivalent to the 76 variant. 

Abilities

Tank Ambush: Locks down the tank and shrouds it from view. A cloaking Sherman….damn, why didn’t we think of that?! 

Vehicle Crew Self-Repair: Costs 35 muns. Turns off the movement and guns and activates auto-repair. Diminishes muns income while auto-repair is active. Combining this with tank ambush means the vehicle can fix itself while remaining cloaked. 

Secure mode: Disables the guns but lets the vehicle take resource points like infantry can. 

Prioritize vehicles: Shoot only the tanks vs shoot everybody mode. 

Hold Fire: shoot no one vs shoot everyone mode. 

Upgrades

.50 cal Browning M2HB Machine gun: Costs 60 muns. This adds a nice little machine gun to the top part of the tank. Another lovely gift from America.

T-34/85

Cost 380 mp/130 fuel
Pop Cap 14

This is basically the same thing as the 76 variant, except that this has an 85mm gun to bust open tin cans all the better. See how the numbers at the end of the designation work now?

Elite Red Banner T-34/85

Cost 420 mp/150 fuel
Pop Cap 16

The big daddy of the T-34 line. Not only does the tank itself sport improved durability, speed, and sight radius over the standard 85, its crew spawns in with 1 star of veterancy already achieved.

Mechanized Armor Kampeneya

Cost 240 mp/90 fuel

This is it. The big one. Most other factions don’t even have a tier 5. This is where you deploy the Motherland’s mythic slaughter beasts. The building itself has no upgrades and no abilities. It just calls doom.

BM-13 Katyusha Truck

Cost 360 mp/85 fuel
Pop Cap 12

The Americans have their Calliope, the British their Land Mattress, and the Russians have their sweetheart, Katyusha. I’m sure at least a few of you have seen that Girls Und Panzer anime, and there is a scene where Pravda is singing a song about Katyusha. This vehicle was nicknamed after the popularity of that song, and remains a powerful patriotic tune to the Russians to this very day. Amusingly, only the BM-13 launcher itself is of Russian manufacture. The truck beneath it carrying it about is an American Studebaker 2 ½ ton truck on Lend-Lease. 

Abilities

132mm Rocket Barrage: The good people of the Soviet Union play us a fun little tune on Stalin’s Organ, and send all 16 rockets racing toward the target location. It’s really a beat one can dance to.

Creeping Barrage: Costs 45 muns. Katyusha plays the song of her people, and fires in a line starting at point A, and ending at point B. If you have multiple Katyushas, you can make some really intricate bombardment patterns with this.

SU-85

Cost 360 mp/130 fuel
Pop Cap 15

This tank destroyer had the cannon mounted directly to the body with no turret, so firing on the move is not going to happen, so we should treat this unit accordingly. This is a long range tank sniper that is meant to sit behind the lines and pluck off German armor. It has only one unique non-shared ability, and this facilitates said sniping. 

Abilities

Focused Sight: Toggled ability. Otherwise known as “tunneling”, this extends sight radius by detracting from sight angle. You’ll see very far ahead, yes, but do be aware that someone could just walk up and demo charge you. 

Tank Ambush: Locks down the tank and camouflages it from view. 

Vehicle Crew Self Repair: Costs 35 muns. Turns off the movement and guns and activates auto-repair. Diminishes muns income while auto-repair is active. Combining this with tank ambush means the vehicle can fix itself while remaining cloaked. 

Tracking: Costs 35 muns. Increases sight radius and allows infantry to be tracked through the fog of war.

KV-1 Heavy Tank

Cost 420 mp/145 fuel
Pop Cap 14

And here we get into the Kliment Voroshilov tanks, or KV series, named after the Soviet Defense Commissar. The KV-1 was one of their first attempts, and unless I miss my guess, this is the 1942 version, the KV-1C, with most of the kinks worked out, the 76mm gun, a front hull mounted machine gun, and another machine gun mounted to the back of the turret, because sneak up on me and get ventilated, Hans. Despite the KV series being renowned for its armor, it won’t stand up to a Tiger in a straight fight. A Panther, maybe… point is, don’t be too reliant upon it, and fight smart. The KV-1 doesn’t have any really unique abilities, just the standard shared factional ones that all other armor has: Tank Ambush, vehicle repair, secure mode, prioritize vehicles, and hold fire. It does have one unique upgrade, though.

Upgrades

Defend with grenades: Costs 70 muns. With this upgrade, Grigori swipes a crate of grenades when the commissar isn’t looking and his crew will defend the KV-1 with them, winging them out at enemies that get too close to the tank.

KV-8 Heavy Flamethrower Tank

Cost 390 mp/145 fuel
Pop Cap 14

I’m not sure how good an investment this is because it swaps out the 76mm gun and replaces it with a 45mm pop gun. This makes room for a flame projector, which has more range than a flamethrower, and just wrecks infantry, filling a similar role for the Soviets that the Centaur does for the British with different avenues of utility. The 45mm can, in theory, still do some damage to enemy vehicles and armor, and it helps if you’re at point blank range and firing into their rear armor, but you might still get lucky sometimes. The KV-8 has the same standard gamut of abilities that all soviet vehicles share with Tank Ambush, because what says fun like a flame tank coming out of nowhere and shocking everyone, and vehicle crew self-repair, for sneaky muns repairs on the side, but it does have one other ability that got my attention. 

Abilities

Inspire Infantry: Costs 25 muns. This triggers a buff for all infantry around the tank to move faster and have their weapon cooldowns reduced by 20%. So not only do you have this flame tank that looks like it came straight out of Hell charging at you, you also have to deal with tons of PPSh wielding conscripted maniacs, firing 900 rounds per second at you EACH.

IS-2 Heavy Tank

Cost 640 mp/fuel 230
Pop Cap 21

This is one of the first tanks to really give Germans a pause and trigger some introspection. Named for the dictator of the Soviet Union himself, Iosef Stalin, you KNOW that this is going to be a good one because the engineers who made it are all still alive after it hit the field. The gun on this thing is bloody massive, eclipsing even the mighty Pershing by a fair margin at 122mm, and possesses a good mix of armor and maneuverability. However, since it’s a heavy tank and can stand and fight on its own, it doesn’t really need or possess cheeky abilities to make itself viable (beyond the standard load out of Tank ambush, Vehicle crew self repair, secure mode, prioritize vehicles, and Hold fire, but I get tired of writing the same thing. Every vehicle has these. You know this, ya?). You got one of these, you pretty much won, but there’s still two even BIGGER tanks we need to cover. 

Upgrades

D25-T 122mm gun: Costs 60 muns. This improves the reload and accuracy of the main gun to the point where it could probably shoot better than Stalin himself, especially after he’s had a few. 

DshK 38 12.7mm Heavy Machine gun: Costs 60 muns. Or if infantry are bogging you down, you could slap an additional dakka on there and do some gardening. These upgrades are mutually exclusive, and if you grab the dakka, you can’t have the D25-T, and vice versa.

KV-2

Cost 630 mp/230 fuel
Pop Cap 21

You know… as much as I pour scorn on the Soviets for having a dictator possibly worse than Hitler, having a hopelessly flawed ideology, how vodka tastes like an old mechanic’s colostomy bag, having the highest body count in WW2, etc, I really just have to take a step back and admire the insanity that went into the creation of this. First, it’s armor is utterly rediculous, ranging between 75mm thick and 110mm thick, surpassing that of even the mighty Tiger (though not by that much). Second, it’s primary weapon is a 152mm howitzer. Even a near hit from this is enough to turn infantry squads into a wet stain on the Siberian plains, and utterly wreck a vehicle that was dumb enough to come after you. As for speed….well, no. With a gun that large and armor this thick, this beast gets nowhere fast, but considering the crew realizes that they are driving a house sized mass of f*ck you right through the valley of the shadow of death, they’re not in any particular hurry. And as ridiculous as this thing is, we’re still not done. There’s one more that’s even BIGGER! 

Abilities

Firing Positions!: Togged ability. This pulls people off such non-sense as driving and making sure the engine doesn’t explode, and focuses on what really matters: reloading the 152mm. This shaves about 25% off the gun reloading speed, and increases its range by a HUGE amount. To the point it acts like stationary artillery. It does have a fairly large minimum range as well, so you won’t be able to switch this on and nuke an enemy panzer right in your face out of existence. But if bombardment is what puts the corium in your chernobyl, the KV-2’s got you covered. 

Smoke Screen: Costs 30 muns. Because the KV-2 moves about as fast as an actual cold war, it might get into trouble sometimes. Anything can die if you try hard enough. So it’s equipped with some smoke bomb launchers that will fire off a point blank cloud of smoke and block line of sight. This thing is pretty loud though, so the enemy is probably going to guess where you still are. 

Inspire Infantry: Costs 25 muns. This triggers a buff for all infantry around the tank to move faster and have their weapon cooldowns reduced by 20%. I’ll be honest, if I saw that we had this thing on our side, I’d be pretty inspired too. 

Tank Ambush: Toggled ability that immobilizes but cloaks the tank. Let your imagination run wild over what a 152mm howitzer is going to do to someone should you engage in surprise rear armor fornication.

Vehicle Crew Self Repair: Costs 35 muns. Turns off the movement and guns and activates auto-repair. Diminishes muns income while auto-repair is active. Combining this with tank ambush means the vehicle can fix itself while remaining cloaked. 

ISU-152

Cost 680mp/260 fuel
Pop Cap 22

Nicknamed “Zveroboy” or “Beast Killer” because of its tendency to murder Tigers and Panthers, this is the biggest tank destroyer of the war. With even THICKER armor than the KV-2 at 120mm in places, this incredible hulk is going to shrug off everything from your Mom’s insults over how you’ve wasted so much of your life playing this game and reading some loser’s guide on the internet to enemy tank shells to airstrikes to everything short of an actual NUKE. Now, it’s 152mm main gun is impressive, but rather low velocity. So, more often than not, what they were shooting at was fine. The crew was dead. They’d been splattered all over the interior by the sheer concussive force like a Polluck painting, and kleenex was added to the list of materials required for the salvage work. So if you’re dealing with a dug in, entrenched, irritating enemy that likes to field heavy armor and just won’t give up, send in the ISU-152. It’ll at least be a hell of a fight. 

Abilities

G-530 Concrete Piercing Round: Costs 70 muns. This is basically a single round that is set to explode at a distance from the ISU-152, and it doesn’t care what is in the way. Terrain, infantry, tanks, trees, fortifications, especially concrete for some strange reason, it smashes through them all. Whatever happens, you can be assured that this round IS going to go to the exact location you specify, and it WILL explode there. 

Ammunition Swap: Toggled ability. The thing you have to bear in mind is that the ISU-152 wasn’t really designed to be a tank hunter, and was intended to be an assault gun. Those units tend to have shells of higher velocity that penetrate a tank and explode inside of it. The 152mm gun is, as previously mentioned, low velocity, and can be swapped out with shells that make a bigger bewm for infantry disposal. Which is important because the ISU has no machine gun by default. 

Tracking: Costs 35 muns. This significantly increases the sight radius of the vehicle and tracks infantry on the mini-map for 20 seconds. 

Focused Sight: Toggled ability. This increases maximum sight range by diminishing sight angle, so your view becomes long and narrow. When combined with tracking, you can see quite a distance. 

Upgrades

Dshk 38 12.7mm HMG: Costs 60 muns. By default, the ISU comes with no way to deal with infantry, and the massive cannon is built right into the body of the vehicle with no turret, so even using HE shells is a little cumbersome. This puts a gunner up top to run off the riff-raff. 

Spotter: Costs 30 muns. Replaces concrete piercing round with focused sight. Sometimes you want more advanced scouting instead of the ability to explode a determined place with pin-point precision. It really depends upon the situation.

Radio Post

Cost 80mp/5 fuel

I do so love the radio post and it’s menagerie of spell caster officers. This offers 3 upgrades and those are simply there to unlock its 3 units for deployment: the Heavy Assault Commander, the Air Support General, and the Ground Support Officer. 

Heavy Assault Commander

Cost 180 mp
Squad size 3
Pop Cap 6

Wow… this guy doesn’t actually have very much going for him in terms of abilities. Less than 1/3 the usual amount as compared with other officers. I guess there’s not much need for artillery call-ins since the Russians can build their artillery on the field, and tend to mount it to their super heavy tanks. Fortunately, what call-ins he has are quite good. 

Abilities

Fear Propaganda Artillery: Costs 80 muns. This fires a shell loaded with papers that make Nazis question the morality of their actions. I’m sure they’ll just give up on this whole Ubermensch world conquering thing because they read a sternly worded letter. Anyway, this fires 3 shells at the targeted area, and each one has a certain percentage chance of proc’ing an effect, so more than one effect could be applied. There is a 25% chance of nothing happening, a 35% chance of being slowed and making it 100% easier to aim at them, a 30% chance of being suppressed and pinned, and a 10% chance of being forced to retreat. 

Incendiary Artillery Barrage: Costs 120 muns. If you’re losing a point to an infantry blob, fire this at said point when they make their next charge and let them have it. Bathing in napalm is GOOD for you, Hans!

Artillery Barrage: Costs 120 muns. Fires a series of 152mm artillery shots into the designated area. The targeted zone is pretty tight, and the shells have quite an AoE with about a 2 and half second delay between each hit. The odds are good that you’ll get something to splatter for you. 

Scorched Earth Policy: Costs 200 muns. For 45 seconds, enemies in friendly territory are pummeled by katyusha rockets. If you’re on the losing side of a battle, masterfully bait the enemy into charging into your territory. Then, pop this power, and hold up your plastic sheet because the first 3 rows of audience seating are a splash zone.

Air Support General

Cost 180 mp
Squad size 3
Pop Cap 6

The aerial equivalent to the Heavy Assault Commander, this guy adores the sight of Nazis disappearing in a flash of fire and death, and observing their remains at the bottom of a smoking crater. He’s a bit more well provided for in terms of abilities than the Heavy Assault, and like other air force officers from other factions, he has a decent mix of recon, utility and destructive powers. 

Abilities

Recon Overflight: Costs 80 muns. Pretty simple power. Pick a location and direction, and a recon plane will fly over the area starting from the closest map border and proceeding in the angle you chose for it. Any amount of AA tends to wreck it pretty fast though. 

Tactical IL-2 Sturmovik Attack: Costs 90 muns. Pick a location and direction, and 2 attack planes will be called in to turn it to swiss cheese with 23mm cannons. 

IL-2 Sturmovik Attacks: Costs 180 muns. Similar to the previous ability, but the attack planes hang around for a while to attack any infantry that you can see. You’ll need to have scouts on the ground to make the most of this ability, and is best used in conjunction with a big push. 

Incendiary Bombing Run: Costs 120 muns. Drops napalm on the target location. Great for wonderful area denial, or punishing an enemy for fortifying an area you’d really rather they didn’t. 

IL-2 PTAB Anti-Tank Bombing Run: Costs 180 muns. Drops a spread of anti-vehicle bombs with AMPLE bomb saturation. Doesn’t do much to infantry, but utterly shatters tanks. 

IL-2 Precision Bombing Strike: Costs 200 muns. Makes a high speed bombing run to the location you specify and drops 4 50kg bombs on it. Great for Tiger Ace popping. 

Anti-Tank Overwatch: Costs 200 muns. Hey! This is an artillery ability! The Heavy Assault has so few abilities, and now you’re stealing one from him?! C’mon, man…. Anyway… artillery will be called in on the target zone, which is pretty large, and “charges” on a visible vehicles. At the end of the charge up time, the targets will be struck, and the longer they were visible, the more intense the bombardment will be. Dammit, that would have been really cool for the artillery officer to have…

Ground Support Officer

Cost 180 mp
Squad Size 3
Pop Cap 6

This officer deals mostly in the realms of supply and partisan warfare, but compared to his counterparts in the US and UK military, his ability count is a bit lacking, and some of it just….confusing. Honestly, the Ground Support Officer is kind of garbage, and I’d recommend that you skip this one. Sad, really…his counterparts in the other factions were so useful… 

Abilities

Allied Supply Drop: Costs 100 muns. This hurts my very soul because of how muns hungry the Soviet army is to do anything of note, from PTRS spam to buying bazookas for GRAIs, and while T-34s tend to be cheap and easily available, Soviet heavy tanks are some real gas guzzlers. Fact of the matter is that you need BOTH in order to thrive, and giving up one for the other doesn’t help much. This ability sacrifices 100 muns to call in 3 crates of 10 fuel each. Not exactly thrilling me either. 

Mark Vehicle: Costs 80 muns. This marks a targeted vehicle to take more damage from allied forces, but really, if your spell caster officers are able to see an enemy vehicle with their eyeballs instead of having its position relayed to them by front line units, I’d say that there’s a problem here. Besides, for the price tag attached to this, unless you’re trying to vaporize a Tiger, I’m not impressed. 

Partisan Call-ins: These 3 abilities confound me quite a bit. They require an ambient building to summon partisan troops, but said partisans just approach from the nearest corner of the map instead of coming out of the building. So why did we even need that to begin with?! One could have just selected a location on the ground instead, but… it is what it is. I’m not going to go into detail about this because the very next building to cover has more partisans than…well..pick the politics of any nation.

Partisan Field Headquarters

Cost 180 mp 

Partisans, in this time line, does not refer to any political agenda or what have you. No, these Partisans are plain clothes soldiers schooled in guerrilla warfare who go behind enemy lines and do something, ANYTHING to screw up the advance of the soldiers they just slipped past in the hopes of getting some of them to come back and deal with the situation. On one hand, they were very effective and severely disrupted the German offensive. On the other, they were rather cutthroat individuals with power, training, and a complete lack of oversight, and a lot of unspeakable things happened to the civilian population because of them. A civilian population who had just survived having the Nazis blow through their town. Gameplay wise, Partisans are all cheap as dirt, and have rather small squad size for the Soviet faction, but their HQ can be built anywhere on the cheap, so these guys have a nasty habit of popping up where least expected/wanted. 

Upgrades

Forward Retreat Point: Costs 200 mp. This allows the Partisan HQ to be used as a retreat point instead of the RFHQ. I feel this is the safe option because the Commissar doesn’t really know where this place is. 

Bolster Infantry Squads: Costs 150 mp/25 fuel. This increases the squad size of all partisans and Irregulars by 1. This also throws off the pop cap count and increases it by just the tiniest little bit.

Partisan Forces

Partisan Heavy Machine Gun Squad
Cost 160 mp
Squad Size 4
Pop Cap 4

Plain clothes soldiers who had stolen a maxim machine gun. Sadly, these guys don’t cloak and have only one ability; Sustained Fire: Costs 15 muns, and increases weapon burst length while decreasing weapon cool down. Lasts 30 seconds. 

Partisan PM-41 82mm Mortar Squad
Cost 200 mp
Squad Size 4
Pop Cap 4

These guys don’t cloak either and are just a cheap mortar team with the standard abilities: Mortar Barrage, Smoke Barrage, and Flare. Consult my entry on the conscripted mortar teams for more info. 

Soviet Irregulars
Cost 190 mp 
Squad Size 4
Pop Cap 4

A small squad that spawns with a mix of anti-infantry weapons (2 Dps, and 2 Mosins), and have access to frag grenades, anti-tank grenades, sprint, and trip wire flares. 

Partisan Snipers
Cost 280 mp
Squad size 2
Pop Cap 8

A cheap squad of snipers that has a chance to spawn in with a female model, if you’re the sort to have their attention grabbed by that kind of thing. As far as I’m concerned, so long as they’re good at killing Nazis or have a skill set to facilitate the killing of said Nazis, we’ll get along just fine regardless of your gender, race, orientation or creed. Anyway, these snipers have the usual set of sniper abilities that is more of less the same as the scout sniper squad as listed above, but for a much lower price tag. 

Partisan Soldiers 
Cost 210 for rifles, 240 for SMG/LMG
Squad Size 4
Pop Cap 8

See, here’s the deal about these guys. They are all largely the same. The rifle squad costs 30 less mp than the other 2, but all three have the same abilities (cept the SMG squad has a tank grenade). They can all cloak in cover for behind enemy lines shenanigans, they can all throw molotovs, sprint, set trip wire mines, and lay down some basic fortications (sandbags, razor wire, and TM-35 landmines), and they can all build a new partisan HQ if you want to move or the old one gets toasted. Just ONE of these squads survives, and the cloaking and endless harassment starts right back up again. They also have one upgrade for 40 muns each: Partisan survival training, which improves their hp and makes them a little less squishy. But really, they’re all cheap as dirt and easily massed, and the expenses of 50 muns each can add up fast. Instead, why not try using Partisans to reveal an enemy strong point and when they have engaged in combat, call in an artillery bombardment with what you would have spent on training? 

Partisan Tank Hunters
Cost 270 mp
Squad Size 4
Pop Cap 8

These guys managed to steal themselves a Panzershrek from the Germans to turn themselves into cloaking tank busters. Soviets tend to struggle a bit with AT work, so having a few of these guys moving from cover to cover behind a big armored push sets up for rear armor plating fornication rather nicely.

Created by Admiral Casual

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*