What's the best use of Soviet Tank Brigades in defense or attack?

[admiralT]

Whats the best way to use Soviet Tank brigades in the offense and in defense?

[Flaviusx]

On defense: use them as speed bumps or put them in reserve mode.

On the offense, their movement is somewhat handy during the first blizzard. Not as good as cavalry, though. Once again, if placed in reserve mode they stand a good chance of joining battle.

Mostly tank brigades are just throat clearing for tank corps. Eventually I get rid of all of them, either via conversions to corps or merges into weakened corps. They are not tremendously useful and become much less so as the war progresses and you move into corps and artillery divisions and such. Ants have little place in this kind of battlefield.

[Farfarer61]

They are also useful for oozing through holes in mud or blizzard turns as they have MPs. They will close pockets, but get routed in the next Axis turn, but then they did create a pocket for half a turn. If they do get a free field of movement, they can wreak a streak of one hex wide havoc - for a unit that is wholly expendable, unlike an SS Mot Div ( abeit far less mobile). Your real deep strikers in the early war are those MP 22 Cav Divs - the best pocket breakers you have.

[Jakerson]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

On defense: use them as speed bumps or put them in reserve mode.

On the offense, their movement is somewhat handy during the first blizzard. Not as good as cavalry, though. Once again, if placed in reserve mode they stand a good chance of joining battle.

Mostly tank brigades are just throat clearing for tank corps. Eventually I get rid of all of them, either via conversions to corps or merges into weakened corps. They are not tremendously useful and become much less so as the war progresses and you move into corps and artillery divisions and such. Ants have little place in this kind of battlefield.

I get rid of them too as as soon as I can I think they are waste of space becouse of stacking limitation compared to their power.

Alone they are just speed bumps for Germans.

[Pawlock]

As Flaviusx says, but I also find them very handy for extra recon of front lines and converting enemy hexes.