T-34

"Quantity has a quality of its own."

– Joseph Stalin

A legendary tank, and one of the most iconic of the Second World War. The T-34 is the posterchild of the Soviet Union, the glorious tank of the proletariat, and the most versatile platform available to you as a Red Army commander. Cheap, simple, but capable, the T-34 became the most produced tank of the war at 80,000 units and was one of the only tanks to serve all the way through the war from the start of Operation Barbarossa in 1941 to the Victory parade in 1945. In 1943 after the Battle of Kursk the T-34 was up gunned with an 85mm cannon to help it deal with heavier German armor and in this guise it pushed all the way from Leningrad to Berlin.

Flames of War

In game, the T-34 is a solid medium tank with a few interesting features that make it difficult to play in most situations but also help drive the price down. It is exceptionally mobile with a 2+ cross check and a 12" tactical move, but have a -1 to hit on the move. They have good armor for a medium tank, but are aggressive at best. They only have penetration 9 on the main gun, meaning they struggle against even German medium armor in late war. Fortunately, Late War players have access to the T-34/85, which pretty much resolves all these issues while keeping the strengths of the previous model. When used right, you can drown your opponents in a tide of glorious stalinium. When used clumsily, however, you'll simply waste lives and bring shame to your country.

Late War

T-34/76

The T-34/76 is an interesting beast in Late War. Just like in Midwar, it comes in 2 flavors: Regular and Hero. Here the T-34 has a lot more predators, with a plethora of AT11+ guns making short work of your front armor of 6 and FA6+ tanks giving your AT9 cannon pause. This makes your tanks exceptionally cheap though at around 3 points per tank. Just make sure to bring something a little heavier to help take care of the heavier enemy tanks.

The Regular T-34s are crewed by illiterate conscripts with a 5+ skill but a last stand of 3+, but they at least have a 3+ to hit, representing lessons learned by the Red Army in the furnaces of Kursk and Stalingrad. These tanks can be taken in companies of 5 to 10; massive Napoleonic blocks of Soviet engineering that are durable for the sheer number of hulls they bring. Roll your tanks up to the enemy, park, and start blasting. Your overworked trait makes it hard to be super lethal on the move, and your low skill makes it hard to use movement orders to overcome this or protect your tanks, but your mobility helps you get into position quickly. Interestingly enough, T-34/85s can be sprinkled in among your regular T-34/76s to help mitigate this, though you'll get a bit better value out of a full T-34/85 company.

The Hero T-34s represent your hardened veterans of some of the most brutal fighting of the war. They lose the 3+ last stand, but have 4+ skill and a 3+ tactics. This, combined with the T-34s 2+ cross and mobility, means that they can better use terrain to help protect their their low numbers. They only come in units of 3 or 4, with the option to switch out up to half their tanks for T-34/85s. These formations are a lot easier to maneuver and use, being a lot more similar to traditional units in other armies.

T-34/85

The T-34/85 is the final evolution of the T-34 tank. It mounts a powerful AT12 fp 3+ cannon in a 3 man turret that gives it the ability to deal with enemy medium tanks far more reliably as well as shoot more accurately on the move. This really unlocks the T-34s full potential as a fast, brutal knife fighting tank that excels at exploiting breakthroughs and flanking enemy positions.

The Regular T-34/85 tank company suffers from the same poor skill and survivability as its weaker T-34/76 equivalent, but maintains the same mobility and improves greatly on the firepower. The 3 man turret and improved firepower combined with that mobility give you great alpha strike potential. Help mitigate your casualties by blocking enemy line of sight with terrain, then pushing up and hitting with everything you have to help mitigate your own casualties.

The Hero T-34/85 tank company benefits from the same exceptional tactics and improved skill as their T-34/76 cousins. Use the skill to help increase your alpha strike ability and use your smaller companies to take advantage of cover and concealment. Maneuver is key here, you need to mass your tanks against the enemy and deal as much damage as possible up front that your enemy won't have a good chance to recover his footing. This will protect your relatively small numbers of tanks from enemy fire and help your tanks hit well above their weight.

In Real Life

The T-34 was, at its introduction in 1940, one of the most advanced tanks in the world. Incorporating lessons learned from the tank battles at Lake Khasan and Khalkhin Gol, the T-34 had better armour, mobility, and firepower than many of its contemporaries, and was an extremely rude surprise for the Germans who first encountered it in Operation Barbarossa, banking on their technological superiority against the Russians and finding that their only real advantage against the T-34 was that poorly trained and inexperienced Russian crews of conscripts often didn't know how to take full advantage of the T-34's strengths.

Not to say the T-34 was perfect, though. Initial batches and variants were plagued with many issues, like poor mechanical reliability to bad steel quality, and a two man turret, meaning the commander had to also load the gun while also leading, but as the war progressed, many of these issues were ironed out. BY 1943, with the introduction of heavy German Tiger and Panther tanks (the latter being made in direct response to the T-34) with heavy armour and more powerful guns, it became increasingly obsolete, as the 1st and 5th Guards tank armies experienced firsthand at Kursk.

As a result, the Soviets up gunned the T-34s with a new turret and 85mm gun, dubbed the T-34-85. This variant was capable of penetrating the Tiger and Panther tanks at reasonable distances, and the addition of a third crewmember in the turret allowed the commander to do his job efficiently. While still not a one on one match to the newer German designs, the T-34-85 was far more cost effective, with production figures of 1200 tanks per month, compared to the total production of 6557 Panthers, and so Soviet tanks would routinely enjoy numerical superiority in battle. After the war, T-34s were sold or given to many friendly powers around the world, from China and North Korea in the Korean War, to the MPLA during the Angolan Civil War. Virtually every Warsaw Pact member used the T-34 at first, including Poland and East Germany. Most were refurbished with new engines, tracks, and additional equipment, and some militaries like North Korea and Vietnam still have them in service.

Soviet Forces in Flames of War
Tanks:	T-70 - Valentine - M5/M3 Stuart - M3 Lee - T-34 - KV - Churchill - IS-2 - Captured Tank Platoon - T-28 - BT-7 - KV-2 - T-26
Transports:	M3 Scout Car - Universal Carrier - SdKfz 251
Infantry:	Rifles - Motor Rifles - Penal Company - Storm Group - SMG Company - Engineer Sapper Company
Artillery:	Katyusha - 152mm Artillery - 122mm Artillery - 76mm Artillery - 120mm Mortars - 82mm mortars
Tank Destroyers and Assault Guns:	45mm Anti Tank - 57mm Anti Tank - 76mm Anti Tank - 100mm Anti Tank - SU-76 - SU-85 - SU-100 - SU-122 - SU-152 - ISU-122/ISU-152
Recon:	Scout Platoon - BA-64 Platoon - Armored Reconnaissance Platoon - Reconnaissance Platoon
Aircraft:	Il-2 Sturmovik
Anti-Aircraft:	ZSU M17 - DShK AA MG Platoon
Midwar Monsters:	KV-3 - KV-5 - T-43