Having collected most of what I want/need for the North Africa Mid War setting of Flames of War, I turned my attention to something new. The first port of call was to pick up the Eastern Front compilation book to see what guns and armour a different theatre of operations had on offer. After humming and hawing for a while, rather than just branching and immediately go for more German options, I decided to start a whole new army with the Soviets.
To this end, I looked into the various starter sets available, and came to the conclusion that this one in conjunction with the T-34 Tank Company would provide a solid core of infantry, armour, and towed guns to base a force around. So, off to Wayland Games to place an order!
Contents
The first thing you’ll notice when opening the box is that there’s a truly ungodly amount of infantry here! But that’s no bad thing, and neither is the proliferation of fire support. It should be noted that although this is a Mid War box, at this scale it’s perfectly acceptable to be using these units in a Late War army, so the infantry in the box will be more than capable of pulling double duty for those periods. You won’t have the correct unit cards, but I think that’s something most of us can live with.
In addition to the miniatures, also included are the standard mini rulebook as well as 8 unit cards to assist speed of play on the tabletop, but no decals (although since there are only two vehicles in the set, this really isn’t an issue, and I’m sure that by the time you’ve finished rounding out this set, you’ll have plenty left over from other boxes).
- Hero Rifle Battalion: the core of the formation, comprises a command unit of two teams, two Hero Rifle Companies each consisting of a Komissar team, 10 MG/rifle teams, and two Maksim HMG teams, with an attached Sniper platoon of two teams.
- 4 x 45mm guns: these can be built in a number of configurations. There are long and short versions of the Soviet gun, as well as 3.7cm, 3.7cm Stielgranate, and Nebelwerfer builds for the Germans (the 45mm was essentially a licensed-produced upscale of the German 3.7cm)- a versatile sprue indeed! So if you can scare up some German artillery crew and don’t need these for the Soviets, you have options.
- 4 x 122mm howitzers: can also be built as the truly beastly 152mm howitzer (although this isn’t available for Mid War, it’s worth bearing in mind if you don’t need the artillery for Mid and are planning on expanding into Late).
- 2 x Katyusha rocket launcher trucks: sold as seen, no further options.
All of this gives you a formation with five integral units, which should be pretty durable if they keep their heads down, plus two support units in the 122mm guns and Katyushas. Depending on how you build the 45mm guns, this will give you a total of 41-43 points for Mid War (and a monstrous 30 infantry teams!). Although you’ll likely want to expand on this with some armour, it’s a respectable start.
Summary
For anyone wanting to collect a Mid War Flames of War Soviet army, the Hero Rifle Battalion is an essential purchase- even for those that want to go armour-heavy, some infantry support will be necessary, and this box provides that in spades. The artillery support is also impressive, although the Katyushas might need some bolstering to get the most use out of them.