BM-21 Hail

Fwoosh!

" Let him remember the young and simple maiden,

Let him hear the song she now sings,

Let him protect his Motherland for sure,

And their love Katyusha will protect. "

– From Katyusha, a Russian Folk Song

A decendent of the iconic Katyusha Rocket Launcher, the BM-21 Hail is a Rocket Artillery Truck used by Soviet forces.

In Team Yankee

The Stat Card

Despite the menacing profile, the Hail is surprisingly limited to anti infantry duty. Since the majority of NATO vehicles have top armor 1, it would statistically require 12 hits to kill a single APC. Other Soviet Artillery pieces feature 3+ and 2+ firepower with Anti Tank 4, making them preferable to destroy a horde of Scorpions, or M113s. However, the Salvo template means that entire platoons will be shelled, with good positioning allowing you to pin two or more platoons. Even though it could theoretically destroy an infantry platoon over several turns, your best bet is to use the Hail for smoke and suppression while your Acacias and Gvozdikas destroy enemy armor, and your infantry blast enemy troops to pieces with their ROF 3 assault rifles.

Do note that these vehicles are literally unarmored trucks with a 5+ save, meaning that APCs with machine guns have a very real chance to turn your Hails into blazing wrecks. Keep them safe in your backline!

IRL

You see Alexi...

Like a lot of soviet gear the BM-21 "Grad" or "Hail" (hail being a nickname it has) is still in use today because of it's simplicity: it's a truck with a rocket launcher on it. It's not rocket science. The Hail is a descendant of the BM-14 and the more widely known BM-13 "Katyusha" rocket platforms. The Nazi's in world war 2 get a lot of credit for their rocketry, but the Soviets were also really into rocket based artillery weapons. Katyusha were the first mass produced self propelled artillery pieces of the Soviet Union, predating the American T34 Calliope rocket launchers and even the famous Nazi Nebelwerfer by two years.

The BM-21 is much like it's ancestors and is very good at delivering quick, sharp rapid volleys of 122mm rockets very, very quickly. Wikipeida claims that one battalion of eighteen launchers is able to deliver 720 rockets in a single volley, which is enough dakka to impress even an ork.

Keep an eye out for future versions of this thing in Team Yankee, the mad Soviets made a version of this thing airdroppedable and some of it's rocket payloads IRL include things like AT mines, radio jammers and some HEAT warheads. It also has two descendants with higher caliber: BM-27 "Uragan" or "Hurricane" (220mm, 1975) and BM-30 "Smerch" or "Whirlwind" (300 mm, 1989, but it was perfectly ready for production in 85 with generals struggling to find out what the hell they are going to do with this firepower, so who knows..).