Today's issue of Weekly Famitsu came with a spread on the upcoming strategy JRPG Senjou no Valkyria 4: Eastern Front, that will be released in the west as Valkyria Chronicles 4.

While the game is mostly about infantry combat, tanks remain the most powerful weapon for ground warfare. Even Claude's Squad E fields its own tanks, and today we get to meet their crew members and more.

Miles Aabek is voiced in Japanese by Hiroshi Okamoto (Andy Bogart in The King of Fighters XIV) is the pilot of Claude's tank, the Hafen. They have been together since the times of the academy, and Miles trusts the protagonist as the tank commander and as the highest ranking officer of the squad. His hobby is taking pictures.

Dan Bentley is voiced by Hisao Egawa (Falco Lombardi in the Star Fox series, Cao Ren in the Dynasty Warriors series). He loves cars and has been a member of the Federal Army for a while. After moving from unit to unit, he was assigned to Squad E. He is in charge of the tank pilots and cars and mechanics of the unit. He is a man of few words, but he can be a good friend.

Ronald Albee is voiced by Atsuki Tani (he is Master Chief in the Japanese dub of the Halo series) is a tank commander belonging to Minerva's Squad F. Back in the times of the military academy, he was impressed by her chivalrous spirit, and he believes that she will climb to the top of the ranks of the Federal Army.

Like in previous games of the series, tanks use three types of ammo, armor-piercing shells, grenades, and machine guns. Each is effective against different targets. They can also crush defenses simply by ramming them, and they can harmlessly destroy anti-personnel mines.

Armor-piercing shells have a linear trajectory and are designed to penetrate other tanks. Grenades are designed to attack infantry and are shot in a parabolic trajectory. They also explode affecting a large area. Machine guns are effective against nearby infantry positioned in the blind spot of the grenade launcher, and can also intercept during the enemy turn.

Since tanks are very resilient and cannot be easily damaged by infantry besides lancers, they can be used to shield your troops from incoming fire. However, you should be careful not to expose the back of a tank to the enemy, because the ragnite radiator is a tank's weak spot.

Another common element with previous Valkyria titles is the R&D facility, that can be used to develop new equipment for your soldiers and new parts for your armored vehicles. There are plenty of parts to choose from, but there are limits to what you can equip.

When you create new equipment for your soldiers, you update the equipment of all those who can wear it, increasing the power of the unit as a whole.

Decorating your tank with different stickers has small effects on its performance, and you can change the camo color freely depending on the situation. Parts are fit in a block-based grid like in the original game, and more powerful parts require more blocks.

In the new game you can also use half-track armored personnel carriers. They can transport several soldiers quickly and protect them from intercepting fire. However, if they're destroyed, their occupants are temporarily withdrawn from combat. It's also important to remember that their armor is thinner than that of a tank, so they can be damaged by machine gun fire.

You can check out all the screenshots below, keeping in mind that they're from magazine scans, so their quality is not perfect.

If you want to see more, you can check out the first gameplay, a recent trailer showcasing a wide range of gameplay features, some the previous batch of screenshots and information, the first trailer, more screenshots, more artwork and info, and the first gallery of images.

Valkyria Chronicles 4 will launch in both North America and Europe for PS4, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One in 2018. It will release in Japan for PS4 on March 21st, 2018 and for Nintendo Switch later in the summer.