Wargame Red Dragon Notable Scandinavian units: how and why

Logistics

Nothing really special here, just 2 notable units.

Stabsdeling, the Danish infantry CV, which has and MG3 and has access to Lynx transport. Sure, MG3 won't really matter, since you CV is gonna be bombed or shelled into oblivion as soon as enemy sees it, but 1 game out of 1000, the better MG will make a difference between losing and holding a sector. The Lynx, on the other hand is always a good transport heli with small size, 6HP and 300 km/h speed.

The second and the last, is FFC Centurion, Danish tank CV. For 130 points, which is IFV/APC CV price range, it 10HP and some really good armor for the price, but also terrible speed, and 2 top armor still won't make much difference when someone decides to cluster you.

Infantry

Lots of really solid options here.

First of all, Swedish Pansarskytte'90 is a solid choice for line infantry. Sure, they have battle rifles, which is suboptimal, but most Scandinavian infantry does, with some exceptions. The AT4 is a pretty scary launcher for the price, with 20 ROF and 19 AP power, these guys can easily break enemy tanks in the forest, if they got 15 or less armor, and, most importantly, oneshot anything that has 5 or less armor, which is every IFV in game except for Warrior 90/Warrior MILAN and Merkava IIA. And they have access to good transports, XA-180, which is a very fast 10 point 1-armor wheeled APC and Strf 9040, 25 point IFV with 5 frontal armor and a big scary autocannon.

Next, there is 2 great options for shock infantry.

The Livgarden, which are solid and spammable with their 5-point 2 frontal armor M/113G.

And the Fallskjermjeger '90. These guys have XA-186NO as a transport, which is 10 points, wheeled, fast and has 2 frontal armor (no oneshots from RPG-7 and such) and the Exyx ATGM which makes them very versatile against both infantry and armor in forests, towns and around them.

The Special Forces. Finally, some assault rifles. Again, 2 options.

The first one is FSK. No fancy transports outside the XA-186NO I mentioned earlier and UH-1s. As the Special Forces go, they are very good in dealing with cheaper infantry... Wait, what's this? An Eryx ATGM? These guys can also take out heaviest armor all right if it's not very far too! Another versatile tool in Scandinavian infantry tab.

Then, there are Kustjagare '90. The difference is that they are 15-man squad, they get Sea Knight (HKP 4C) as a transport, which is arguably better than UH-12, a bit worse MG and AT12T launcher instead of Eryx. This is an interesting sidegrade, I should say. Being 15-man squad, they are 1.5 times more survivable than FSK, and AT12T has better ROF than Eryx (20 rounds/min, which means 3 sec reload vs 5 sec reload), and, natually, fire and forget insted of being guided, like Eryx. But less range (700 vs 1050) and accuracy (45 to 60), same AP, 12 rounds instead of 8. In my opinion, FSK better in urban area, where Eryx range gives them advantage against enemy attacks, while Kustjagare '90 are better in forests, where range and accuracy of launcher won't matter, while DPM will be almost twice higher against armored targets and behind the enemy lines, since they have potential to pick off 12 high value targets, such as AA, CVs or artillery, against 8. Being 15 man squad means they are better in forest grinds, against infantry, too. Yes, they have a bit lower anti-infantry DPM, but the difference is less significant than extra survivability.

For ATGM, you get RBS 56. These are your suicide squad, since their range is only 2275, which equals most tanks range, so they will be able to kill you when you shoot them. Unless you are shooting from the town block and remain unseen. But you make up for that with 26 AP (you can kill a superheavy in just 4 hits) and being a 5-man squad, meaning that you survive a Soviet 4HE tank shell without a cover.

You get some different MANPADS, but the only usable one, in my opinion, is the Danish 20-point LLRkt M/93 with Stinger C. Awesome accuracy, 5HE power, not really good range. Put these guys in forest and helicopters will be falling down. Along with some reckless planes.

There is also RBS 90, with 2800 range and 5-man, but I don't like using them, because of their missile being guided and poor 4HE power.

Support

Lots of interesting units here.

Let's start with mortars.

What you get here is AMOS and your standard 81/107 mm M113 mortars.

I won't say anything about the M113 ones, nothing unique about them, yet they are, as all mortars, are useful.

Now, AMOS. It has 5HE, 2 barrels and huge 7700m range, which allows you to spam half of the frontline with shells. What does not allow you to spam, is high price (65 points, for same amout of points you can get 2 cheaper mortars) and 42 ammo, which, having 2 barrels, are ending FAST. And Scandinavia lacks really big LOG trucks. Resupplying them could be annoying, but being spammed at is much more annoying for your enemy. And with 5HE it has high potential of actually killing something, instead of softtening it up, most notably, AA and CVs (high range also increases the probability of reaching them).

For artillery, you get Bkan 1C. It lobs a lot of shells very fast, aims very fast and eats your FOB out very fast. I'd say, take one upvetted instead of two, otherwise, your supplies are going to end fast.

Now, the most interesting part: the AA.

The first thing I'm going to say is that there is no good non-radar AA for you.

The only 2 options are EOTS I-Hawk with 3 missiles and terrible, for non-radar AA 2625m anti-helo range, and 4HE, guided missile Rover RBS-90. At least it's fast and has 2800 anti-helo range. Either way, should you see a typical Soviet kombo of Ka-50 and Ka-52 in hands of a capable player, you may as well kiss your AA and ground forces goodbye.

Now, radar ones. This is where all the fun begis.

Everyone knows Otomatic, this thing destroys everything except heavy armor. With 12AP and 60 rate of fire, it can take out most ground vehicles very fast, and with 3HE, it can take out a 10-man infantry squad in just 5 seconds, including the aiming time. Range and DPM against flying targets are also very good, it's an AA, after all. It's only real weakness is SEAD (if you want to shoot those VDV'90, you will need to fire up your radar, and this is what Ka-52 had been waiting for), lack of stabilizer and heavy armor. This makes it less vulnerable and much more dangerous than your average anti-air piece.

The Lvkv 90. It does same thing as Otomatic, just worse, and has stabilizer. Also, with 3AP it can only take out light armor. Still a very solid cannon AA.

The NASAMS is one more unique AA for Scandinavia. It's wheeled, has 6 misiles 7HE each, which are Fire and Forget, on the contrary to EVERY other SAM in the game, which compensates for less than desired anti-plane range and allows you to shoot down that one SEAD or ATGM plane, that just killed your NASAMS. While every other SAM needs to wait until impact to launch the next missile, the NASAMS shoots them one after another. If the enemy flies in range, it's guaranteed that you are going to launch at least 2 of them, and more, if he does not turn IMMEDEATELY. It has no armor and only 5HP though, so be careful with it.

Tanks

In my opinion, Scandinavia has one of the most overlooked tanks in the game, the Strv 105. For just 55 points, you get SEVENTY PERCENT accuracy and 16AP, which is very high. In terms of firepower, this is M8AGS levels, which, I think, we all know and love, but with lower DPM (only 8 rounds per minute) and 10 frontal amor. Still, I don't use this awesome tank in my decks because the others are much more interesting.

The Strv 103, the S-tank, offers you high damage output with 15 rate of fire. I'm talking about 103C and 103D, of course, while 103B has lacking 12 AP and 45% accuracy (go and compare that to Otomatic lol). This firepower allows them to win tank duel against same-priced tanks (these are also small, which reduced enemy accuracy), to clean up enemy fire support really fast, and to decimate poor infantry which found istelf in the open in range of Strv 103. The Strv 103C is also unique in the way that it is amphibious, which allows you to suprise unsuspecting enemy with river push and/or ambush. The only things they are lacking is autonomy and stabilizer. Also, they are forced to face to the side they are shooting at, which sometimes may put you into unfavourable position.

The Strv 121. This is, essentialy, the German Leopard 2A4 with the shells from Leopard 2A5. It costs 155 points, it can kill the heaviest armor, just don't make them duel enemy superheavies. And, most importantly, you have access to TWO CARDS of them, allowing you to have 6 of them in your deck, if you don't upvet them.

Leopard 1A5NO2. It is cheap with 70 points, it has powerful gun with 17AP and good stabilizer for the price. These are good for probing flanks and mobile warfare, and anywhere, where they won't have to face off enemy tanks.

In conclusion, I am going to say that SCANDINAVIAN ARMORED DECK IS TOTALLY VIABLE WITH 6 VETERAN STRV 121 AND LIVGARDEN SPAM.

Recon

For a change, not much interesting units here, and none unique.

The more interesting options you can get are:

M41 DK1. Your cheap recon tank. Very good autonomy and availability, 60% accuracy, while still, allows it to flank and pick off high value targets like AA.

Jaegere '90. With SMG and Minimi, these guys can shred enemy infantry behind the lines. Lynx also allows you to easily throw them at flanks and behind the frontline.

Spejdervogn M/95. Very good optics and very high speed. Perfect for probing. 10HP and 1 armor everywhere allows it to survive some not very heavy fire.

Vehicles

Nothing special here.

Ikv 105 is something interesting, though, as it offers high mobility 16AP gun for 35 points, which also has 3 armor. Not the best option you can possibly find in vehicle tab, but usable. If you have 1 activation point left, it's a good thing to spend it on Ikv 105.

Helicopters

Really poor choice here too.

The good one is Fennce TOW-2. It's fast, it has 6HP, and you need ATGMs, since your ATGM infantry is lacking, and your tank tab lacks a superheavy.

Air

Surprisingly strong tab.

Let's see what we got here.

AJS 37 Viggen. One of the more viable cluster bombers. 4 bombs, 10AP each, can ruin the day for that blob of vehicles in the forest. If your enemy didn't pay enough attention and didnt evade them with their superheavy, it's gone, too. It also has 2 okay short-range AA missiles, if you really need to take down an unprotected helicopter.

F 35 Draken WDNS. A nice bomber. 6 bombs, 500kg each, good for forest cleaning.

F-16A MLU. 4 Fire-and-forget anti-tank missiles. 4 AMRAAAMs. Your best shot in killing enemy superheavies, and it can also intercept enemy bomber, provided it has no ASF escort.

F-16A Fighting Falcon. The bomber I use over Draken. It costs 5 points more, has worse ECM and turning radius, and less overall load. But it makes up with 2 1000kg bombs. The thing is that Draken covers a pretty large area, so the bombs don't overlap each other much. The F-16A drops them really tight, and, being 1000kg bombs, the AOE is large enough. It works really good against enemy transports. Two bombs fall with less-than-half-a-second window between two explosions. What happens is: the bomb number one explodes and kills transports in the area, the infantry gets outside and is probably somewhat damaged. Then, 0,1 sec later comes the bomb number two, killing all the infantry left.

F-16AM. Your go-to ASF. It has good stats, AMRAAMs, does not come as rookie.

JAS-39 Gripen. Your second go-to ASF. Almost identical to the F-16AM, has worse cannon and worse T.O.T. If you need 2 ASF cards, take both. If you don't, just use the MLU to help your F-16AMs.

JA 37 Viggen. Another ASF, the cheaper option with semi-active missiles. Not sure if I like it, since the REDFOR semi-active air to air missiles have extended range, and the BLUFOR do not, and you have enough AMRAAMs to keep the air clean.

Conclusion

Scandinavia might seem to be more boring to play than USA/NORAD or, say Eurocorps, due to lack of unicorn units outside of AA and no superheavies, but it brings some very strong options to the table, which are:

-infantry

-air

-artillery

-anti-air

-midrange tanks, I'd take Strv103D over any tank of 70-100 price range, except, maybe, T-80A.

So, keep to the forests and avoid open fields. On the right territory, your infantry would have terrific fire support (both your AA and tanks can kill infantry faster than other factions), and, as your infantry is really good as it is, you should have no problem with decimating your enemy up close. Maybe unless you meet a horde of Zeldas being supported with Merkavas IIa to kill your fire support.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2260231145

Notable Scandinavian units: how and why