Soviets
Knowing that war was inevitable, the higher command issued the orders to launch a pre-emptive strike. To reflect this, the Soviets in TANKS: The Modern Age are all about aggression. Their Red Banner Platoon card gives them +1 to their Attack if that targeting a model at close range. So you want to get in close so you can hit hard.

T-64 Tank
T-64 is one of the best Tanks the Soviet army has, coming in at 20 points you get a really solid tank with Initiative 6, Attack 5, Defence 1 and Damage Capacity 8. The T-64 also has Advanced Stabilisers, something that will be really useful when you are moving to get your platoon into Close Range to take advantage of your Red Banner Platoon rule.

T-55 Tank
The T-55 and the T-55AM2 tanks are really nice cheap tanks to fill out your ranks. The only difference between the two is their Damage Capacity and their point costs, so choosing which one you want to add to your Platoon can be as easy as checking if you have 12 or 14 points free. The T-55 at 12 points makes me want to go for a swarm list. You can get 8 T-55 tanks into one list and still have a couple points to add an upgrade or two.

For the just 2 points, the AT-10 Stabber upgrade gives the T-55AM2 a Missile Attack of 5, making it deadly against Tanks and Helicopters alike.

Hind Helicopter
The Hind is a massive model, and in TANKS: The Modern Age it’s a force to be reckoned with. At 28 points you get one of the sturdiest helicopters in the game. The Hind Helicopter has a really cool feature where they can have two ammo slots. These you load up a on Rocket pods, Extra Ammo or Missiles letting you choose the load-out that best fits your Platoon. 

Category C. Tank Crew
Category C. Tank Crew is an interesting card that lets you take tanks with inexperienced crew. Sitting at -1 points, the Category C. Tank Crew card is one of the only cards that can reduce the cost of the tank it’s assigned to, but it does it at a cost. Once assigned the tank with the Category C. Tank Crew upgrade cannot add any more Crew Cards and has -2 Initiative, but with a card like this you are going for numbers of tanks over the quality of crew. 

Sergey Osinov
Sergey Osinov is the perfect Hero card for Soviet Platoons; he gives you extra Initiative during the Movement Step. This gives you that edge you need to make sure your tank gets within Close Range of enemy tanks.  On top of that if you end up taking on damage you can give up your movement to get an extra chance to Repair lingering damage and get your tank back into the fight.

A Soviet force can be a horde of older (or lighter) tanks charging across the table top, or a smaller, more surgical force, equipped with the latest equipment and best crews. It is up to you how you want to fight World War III.