[Rules] T-34A/B/C? And T-34/57? And ZIS-30 57mm SPG?

[G. K. Zhukov]

Hi again. I come to you with a couple of questions on the workhorse of the Red Army.

1) T-34A/B/C?

In the earlier releases of the system, every T-34 depicted by the various countersheets was a "T-34A":



Usually, the T-34A designation corresponded to the T-34 M1940 with the shorter L-11 76.2mm gun. But there were not many of these, and production had already switched at the start of the war to the M1941 model, which sported a longer, more powerful F-34 gun. But somehow every early T-34 in "Eastern Front" is depicted with a T-34A. Even those with Katukov's 4th Tank Brigade, which were new M1941's from the Stalingrad Tractor Factory with the F-34 gun.

Later models with the 76.2mm gun were represented with the T-34C model, which I assume is the three-man turret, Kurk-era M1943:



It has a better armor and especially a longer range (F-34 gun) than the "T-34A".

Only recently, with the appearance of "Kursk South Flank" and "Burning Tigers" IIRRC, the intermediate "T-34B" model has appeared:



It has the early model armor mated with the later long-range gun ("5-6" instead of "5-5"). I assume this counter portrays the M1941/1942 models that were the majority of T-34's seen in combat during the first half of the Eastern Campaign (including Barbarossa or at least from the Battle for Moscow on). And, if my assumptions are correct, that would mean a lot of the "Eastern Front" and other early war modules should have these "T-34B" instead of the "T-34A".

Is that correct?

2) T-34-57 (and ZIS-30)

I love the huge amount of different vehicles the PG System has brought to us, and it is only natural that a lot of less well-known weapons are still absent from the system.

In my case, I have been reading a bit of source materials on the Typhoon offensive of October-December 1941, especially from the Soviet point of view. Amongst these sources are Schwerpunkt by Robert Forczyk and The Defence of Moscow by Jack Radey.

And I fell upon the organization of the Soviet 21st Tank Brigade, which performed a sort of one-shot kamikaze attack on the rearguard of XXXXI. Armeekorps (mot) then fighting for Kalinin. Incidentally, this action would make a great solitaire scenario for PG (with random generation of the opposing German rearguard units encountered and so on).

This tank brigade had 10 T-34/57, a special variant of the T-34 armed with a very long and slim ZIS-2 57mm gun, which reportedly had a much better armor-piercing capability than the 76.2mm F-34 tank gun usually mounted on these tanks.



The unit had also a battery of 4 ZIS-30 57mm self-propelled Tank destroyers.



You can read on the TO&E of this fascinating little unit on a threat over at the Command Decision forums in which even Jack Radey himself made a few valuable comments:

21st Tank Brigade for Kalinin - October 1941

The thing here is that the armor-piercing value on the only 57mm piece in the full PG arsenal does not seem to represent the superior armor piercing capability of the 57mm ATG (that was mounted in both the T-34/57 and the ZIS-30).



I feel the AP values for the towed unit should be "6-6" or even"6-5" (certainly not a "4-something"), and the vehicle mounted guns should be penalized with a 1-hex range decrease (i.e "6-4" or "6-5").

How would you represent these T-34/57's? And how about the ZIS-30's?

Thanks in advance.