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Dystopean Wars

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Centurio:
Schick, schick die Russen. Da kommt ja so langsam richtig viel Abwechslung rein. Persönlich bevorzuge ich allerdings die Seestreitkräfte der EobS.

AndréM:
Never Say Die!

--- Zitat ---Foreigners often assume that the Russian military is frivolous with its resources when carrying out military operations. This is, however, a mistaken view. The gratuitous waste of the Tsar’s soldiers is looked at with great disapproval by his Oprichnik agents, for in effect it is a crime against the Tsar himself. Officers with a reputation as butchers of men are quickly removed from their posts.


Russian Coalition Tyumen Class Repair Vehicle

However, an even harsher fate awaits those who also squander precious equipment. Conscript soldiers are relatively easy for the White Army to replace. But its tanks and other armoured vehicles are a vitally important resource whose loss takes much more time and effort to make good. The Oprichnina, the Tsar’s personal interior guard, are ruthlessly efficient in their elimination of the incompetent and inefficient from positions of importance in the Russian military hierarchy.

The concept of mobile armoured repair stations is not a new one to the Russians. The logistical problems of maintenance during offensive actions were first identified by the Stavka, the Coalition’s combined military General Staff, after the White Army’s after its experience during the Russian war against the Chinese back in the 1840s.

The Tyumen Repair Vehicle, which entered service in 1863, represents the ultimate development of this technology. It is equipped with an extensive array of cranes, winches and tools, all incorporated into its structure. It also carries a dedicated crew of mechanics and engineers, a considerable amount of supplies and materials, and a small array of weaponry for self-defence.


A battle-damaged Kursk Land Dreadnought receives some welcome assistance from the Repair Vehicles

The Tyumen makes it possible for maintenance facilities to be brought right up to the front line. White Army field repair crews are renowned for their bravery and unstinting dedication, often carrying out complex procedures while under heavy enemy fire.

Every vehicle patched up on the front lines is one that can be returned to action all the quicker. This allows the Shock Armies to carry out operations more effectively than if they had to send large amounts of equipment to rear-area repair shops. Tyumen crews are even capable of patching up damage to Land Ships and larger machines of war.

The Tyumen’s value is well appreciated. Every Armoured Battle Brigade has an autonomous Repair Detachment under the direct authority of its commander. Individual Tank and Artillery regiments often have an additional company of the machines integrated into their organisation. Russian officers can thus be confident of keeping their fighting power up to strength, allowing the Shock Armies to roll onwards unhindered for the greater glory of the Rodina.


Russian Coalition Tyumen Class Repair Vehicle

A Word From The Designer
Creating special models is always one of the highlights when designing a new fleet; matching out the existing ship rosters is fun, but models that have no analogue are the ones that require the most creative effort and, therefore, are the most satisfying to see finished.

Beside the vast array of mechanical contraptions bent to the vile arts of destruction and mayhem, the Tyumen Repair Vehicle represents a bold new era for the battlefields of Dystopian Wars: attrition carries less meaning when one side can gradually recover from the damage inflicted upon them.

We decided early to use the concept for the Tsar tank as a template for the Russian Coalition’s smallest tanks, as its unique shape would be impractical for us to produce on a larger scale. Specials however, are special, and as a designer it lets us break a few of our little rules. Here the Tsar layout made so much sense: the large wheels fit around the injured vehicle and clamp in place, allowing the massive crane to do its business. The Tyumen became part Tsar tank and part dockside, meaning we finished with something truly unique.

In an effort to encourage the (relative) realism of these massive mechanical contraptions, we have created the illusion that the model is in motion. This has been achieved by emphasising huge, moving parts that even on a static model seem to be ready and poised to break into motion. You can almost hear the resounding clatter of steel grating on steel. The time dilation orb’s closing top is one of our favourite examples of this, and on the Tyumen we had to do the same.

The two outer wheeled sections widen on the central ratchet to envelop the damaged vehicle, or narrow for a more stable drive on its own. It helps with the Tyumen that the model allows you to assemble it in either position, and if you have a spare tank handy you can even put it into action and sculpt on the damage and the crane at work on it.


The Tyumen Repair Vehicles roam the battlefield, tending to any damaged White Army comrades

To War!
Relying on the formidable durability of their heaviest vehicles, White Army Commanders find the Tyumen Class Repair Vehicle an invaluable asset.

Their role is simple – the Tyumen roll forward at the back of the Russian formation, keeping within easy reach of their allies whilst still shielded from incoming ordnance. Then, if one of the White Army Land Ships or Land Dreadnoughts begins to suffer from enemy fire, they will dispatch their repair crews to patch up the damage and keep the vehicle in fighting order.

If a Land Ship begins to take serious damage, one of the Tyumen will move in close to aid repairs with its heavy duty equipment. This allows the repair teams to more easily restore crippled systems to working order, but risks exposing the Tyumen to incoming fire.

Knowing that these fragile vehicles will attract enemy attention, the Tyumen are fitted with light weaponry. However, these are very much a last resort as bringing them to bear means exposing the Squadron to concentrated return fire.
--- Ende Zitat ---

Chilln:
Sind da schon die Werte bekannt für die russischen Einheiten?

AndréM:

Russian Coalition Vorkuta Class Land Driller and Tikhvin Class Small Tanks


(From left to right) Russian Coalition Tikhvin Class Small Tank, Belgorod Class Land Ship, Vorkuta Class Land Driller, Tower, Myshkin Class Bomber


Russian Coalition Moskva Class Dreadnought


(From left to right) Russian Coalition Suvorov Class Cruiser, Moskva Class Dreadnought, Borodino Class Battleship, Tiny Flyer Tokens

AndréM:
Kremlin Of The Seas

The mighty Moskva Class Dreadnoughts are the pride of The White Navy. Although not the largest ships in its fleets – a status that rests with the great Kostroma Fleet Carriers – the Moskvas are undoubtedly the most revered. Commanding one of these titans of the sea is seen as the highest honour to which a White Navy Battle Brigade Captain can aspire.

Developed to replace the older Nikolaev Class, the design of the Moskva is an outgrowth of the modern Borodino Class Battleships. Its origins date from 1865 but, like almost all Russian war machines, the Moskva’s design was radically recast in the light of developments made by Markov and his Circle after 1866.


\'Bigger is Better\'

In appearance and function, the Moskva is a larger and more powerful version of the Borodino – ‘bigger is better’ is a maxim enshrined in almost every aspect of Russian design, especially in regard to war engines.

White Navy Admiral Leonid Zhdanov remarked that the ship would be ‘a veritable Kremlin of the seas’ on seeing its blueprints for the first time. When the Tsar heard of this, he personally decreed that the class be named in honour of the city of Moscow, home of the greatest Kremlin, or citadel, in the Russian Coalition.


‘The Devil’s Triangle’ unloads on the cornered Toulon Class Armoured Cruisers

The Moskva carries armament fitting for its great bulk. Like the Borodino, its primary weapons are the so-called ‘Devil’s Triangle’ of three forward turrets, mounting heavy-calibre smoothbore cannons. However, unlike the battleship, the dreadnought supplements these with a wing turret on either beam.

These turrets, mounting slightly smaller calibre ordnance, were fitted to assist in covering the blind arcs abeam and astern that had proven somewhat problematic in the Borodino Class.

Combined with the vessel’s standard hull-mounted secondary broadsides of lighter rifled guns, they ensure that anyone attacking a Moskva from abeam or abaft of the forward turrets, hoping to find a potential weak spot, will soon regret their foolishness.


Russian Coalition - Borodino Class Battleship with the Moskva Class Dreadnought

Of course, the turrets may also be turned forwards to supplement the main armament, resulting in firepower of apocalyptic proportions over short to medium distances. Any enemy vessel crossing a Russian dreadnought’s ‘T’ at its optimum range is almost certain to be blown out of the water. Likewise, a Moskva can reduce even the strongest enemy coastal fortifications to rubble in just a few salvoes.

Like the smaller Borodino, the Moskva is designed with aggressive frontal assaults in mind. Its massive hull is clad in ablative armour, concealing thrumming defensive Generators and powerful Sturginium Thermal Pressure Engines capable of granting it an increase in speed over short distances. The White Navy treats the Moskva like a great barbed spearhead, capable of driving deep into enemy formations and inflicting catastrophic damage, and leaving at best crippled victims ripe for destruction by other Russian warships.

A Word from the Designer

The Russian naval forces are already some of the most imposing ships in Dystopian Wars, their grungy industrial profiles a frightening sight across the waves. The Borodino Class Battleship already sets the benchmark in terror next to enemy ships in the same class.

It’s all fun and games making impressive ships and exciting models, right up until the point where you have to make something even bigger and meaner than the biggest, meanest thing you’ve made to date, while trying not to eclipse some of the old classics in the product range. A one player game of one-upmanship isn’t nearly as fun as it sounds.

The Moskva towed the fine line of making a truly fearless fighting vessel while not outstripping the rest of the product range in size or style. The biggest difference between the Moskva and Borodino is that the dreadnought has no less than five forward facing turrets, and though several of them do have restricted beam arcs, the forward profile of the ship is terrifying. We originally played with the idea of having the full double barrelled turrets set in the beam mounts rather than the final single turrets, but ten forward facing barrels is over the top even for the world inhabited by the likes of the Metzger giant robot.


A truly terrifying amount of forward-facing and flanking turrets

Finding room for those turrets was another issue entirely, as widening the ship to fit them all into forward facing mounts broke the overall profile of the Russian fleet and that dagger-like shape that makes them so mean. The trick came in breaking the smooth line of the hull and bringing the beam mounts out in fin-like protrusions. It was a nod to the Russian piscine prototype Black Wolf and one that works nicely on the final model. Not only does it keep the imposing profile, but the way the hull lines break screams out just how tightly the Russian Coalition engineers had to jam in all these guns to make this monster.

To War!

The intimidating Moskva Class Dreadnoughts are a Russian Naval Commander’s weapon of choice when an enemy line needs to be broken. Frequently fielded alongside the smaller Borodino, these vessels can soak up even more firepower than the Battleship and can pay out significantly more in return.


Your opponent will do well to find a weak spot here

Although its weapons are still forward focused, the addition of flanking turrets and more powerful broadside armament means the Moskva’s true place is the centre of the foe’s battle line. Once there, its matchless close range firepower spitting from both flanks will fracture enemy defences for the remainder of the fleet to mop up.

The greatest challenge Coalition Commanders face then, is getting the behemoth into position. Understandably for its mass, the Moskva is even slower than its Battleship cousins, and can be left behind by an unwary Commander. However, the ability to periodically overcharge its engines for a sudden boost of speed helps to mitigate this.

The Dreadnought is also loaded with even thicker armour and more defensive generators than any other vessel, keeping the fleet protected as it makes its ponderous approach.

Finally, as befits its station, the crew of a Moskva is comprised of hardened veterans, notably superior to the conscripted marines who serve aboard other Russian ships. The final card in the hand of a Dreadnought captain is then to swamp a valuable target with highly trained riflemen and seize a fresh prize for the Tsar.



It Came From Below

Some of the most frightening, and certainly the most infamous, of The White Army’s new war machines are the fearsome drilling engines it employs to perform shock assaults on heavily defended enemy positions, especially those that are fortified.


The Vorkuta Land Driller breaks through and releases its embarked Ground Support

The designs for the Vorkuta and its prototypes originated, as with so many of the Russian Coalition’s new engines of war, from the activities of Markov and his compatriots. However, unlike many of his other ‘liberations’ of Covenant technology, the arch-spy leaked the designs of the drilling engines to the Tsar’s secret service some time before his eventual defection.

As a result, when the Coalition moved to attack the Prussian Empire’s eastern borders, and the Ottoman garrisons in the Caucasus Mountains, fleets of the drillers, built in secret at workshops deep in the Urals, were readily available.

Machines like the Vorkuta were in fairly common usage in the Covenant itself. In fact they were – and are presumed to remain – essential in the expansion and development of the Covenant’s holdings on the southernmost continent. Such engines were used to grind and bore many tunnels and caverns deep beneath the ice-encrusted surface of Antarctica, in which Lord Sturgeon and his people established their new domains.

However, the Covenant’s drilling engines were restricted to peaceful purposes, and were essentially items of heavy industrial machinery. Markov’s genius was to militarise the design, turning them into assault machines of unparalleled ferocity and effectiveness.

Such has been the success of the Vorkuta in this role that Sturgeon and his advisors count Markov’s perversion of this otherwise innocuous device to warlike purposes as one of his most serious crimes against science.

Vorkutas are deployed in special Independent Assault Engineer Detachments, attached to the Shock Armies. Like artillery units, they are usually placed under the direct control of the commander of the Armoured Battle Brigade to which they are assigned. Individual units from Tank Regiments are then detached to act as subterranean spearheads during major offensive operations.

The Vorkuta’s purpose is to act as a heavy assault transport for squadrons of Russian armour. Travelling below ground, the driller allows its cargo to bypass surface fortifications. Used in conjunction with conventional assault forces, the drillers burst forth from the ground behind enemy lines, disgorging squadrons of tanks in the foe’s rear areas. The resultant chaos and disruption aids the main Russian forces’ ability to break through even the most stubborn enemy defences.
Protecting its Comrades, the Vorkuta\'s cargo immedietly link fire on their Britannian target


The Vorkuta has certainly earned its nightmarish reputation.

The drillers are sometimes employed to attack certain components of enemy defences themselves, as it has been found that the shockwaves produced by these giants when they surface is a very effective means of mine clearance.

Vorkutas have seen much use in the fierce battles along the Prussian Empire’s borders. They have proved a hugely valuable asset in the White Army’s continued assaults on the vast defensive networks of the Wolfgang Fortresses.

They are also beginning to see service on the Carpathian Front where, as in their earlier deployments in the Caucasus, they are being used to burrow new passages through otherwise impassable terrain.

The driller’s final military value is psychological. The Vorkuta has garnered such a nightmarish reputation amongst the enemies of the Tsar that not even the ground beneath their feet is to be trusted any longer!


The Jaws of the Beast

A Word from the Designer

Since the early drafts of the background pieces for the Russian Coalition were circulated, we have been excited by the prospect of drilling transports. Dystopian Wars is full of a huge array of mechanical marvels that travel across the vast ocean; we have huge treaded behemoths that leave trails of devastation across the land and gigantic Skyships that fly above it, but so far there has been nothing that travels below the earth.

Classic pulp and retro science-fiction have portrayed drilling and boring vessels in so many different ways that they have carved a tunnel into the genre like nothing else, and so it was only fitting we try and do them justice here.

In actuality, the majority of the model was fairly simple to put together: drills are, after all, repeating radial patterns, and the level of detail required for the outer hull on a vessel that travels underground is more utilitarian. This is because any more extravagant features would be crushed and torn by moving rocks and earth.

It was difficult to decide the best type of drill to use for the Vorkuta Class Land Driller. Do we go with the classic conical drill, the flatter borer, or, my personal favourite, the tri-cone drill? The end result was a hybrid of all three – a conical shape and, nestled within, a separate tri-cone. You could say this is massively overcomplicated, but then that’s a good thing when it comes to Dystopian Wars. Being a transport vessel, the layout of the tri-cone is meant to break open into three separate sections, folding back to reveal the containing tank squadrons.


Propelled by its multiple tracks, the Vorkuta\'s thunderous tremors terrify those above!

To War!

The White Army’s Vorkuta Class Land Drillers were long scorned by sceptical Commanders from other nations as a preposterous notion. However, the sight of these gargantuan war engines bursting from the earth amidst their battle line silenced any such doubts.

The tactical advantage presented by these machines is evident: they are able to move across the battlefield in relative safety, to emerge behind the enemy’s formations and detonate any defensive mines in the process.
Here the embarked Squadrons of Kamchatka or Tikhvin are disgorged to strike at weak points in the foe’s defences. Meanwhile, the Vorkuta continues to protect its charges from incoming fire with a Rocket Jammer Generator, and can even pick off enemy crew with specialist riflemen.

Choice targets for the Vorkuta and its cargo include isolated Bombard Squadrons hiding behind the enemy’s rear lines, strategic objectives or defensive emplacements to be seized or removed and even the ill-armed rear arcs of Land Ships and Mobile Airfields, whose lack of manoeuvrability makes them very vulnerable to such assaults.

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