Another Army List- This Time SSU

That's right, I'm posting my SSU army list for Dust. It's mostly a conglomeration of almost every SSU miniature on the market, and it's up for re-tweaking, but this is pretty close to the final version.

From what I can figure, the SSU's main advantage is their commissars. The ability to tack them onto any squad in your force, as well as their ability to add new and exciting weapons to squads makes them the x-factor your opponent will have to think around. Their units all act a little odd compared to Axis and Allied units (our squads are quite specialized) but that allows every unit to focus on one aspect of the fight rather than spreading their fire around the field. Plus the commissars' ability to paste two identical squads together into one makes them a scary prospect. I plan on fielding an 11 man squad armed with five machineguns. That should put a dent into Infantry 2 units!

The SSU however does suffer from a single major drawback- they can't effectively engage enemy armor. Maybe that will change once the super heavy tanks arrive (December-ish) but for now we have to fall back on our Widowmaker rifles, which are much less accurate than our Axis and Allied equivalents, but we just plain get more sniper rifles than they do. The fact that they're either in the hands of a pair of snipers or hidden in a squad (the rifles have Penetrator, which is nice) ups their effectiveness, but they can only engage up to Vehicle 4 units, which puts us at a serious disadvantage against the new Axis Vehicle 5 & 6 walkers. Let's not mention the Axis & Allied Vehicle 7 machines.

Our other method is praying that our KV47 walkers and Close Combat Squads can take out the enemy walkers before they can paste us. Sulfur Throwers are great at this (setting enemy vehicles on fire will be a ton of fun). Provided they can:
A) Be brought into range (our best Sulfur Thrower has a 14" range), as they may very well be destroyed on their way into combat.
B) Hit. One die needing a 5+ to hit just isn't a very good chance, and then there's armor negating damage...

Here's what I plan on running:

DEFENSE PLATOON
Command Section: SSU Command Squad (25 AP)
-Special Support 1: "The Trediakovsky" Commissar (8 AP)
-Special Support 2: "The Karamzin" Commissar (8 AP)
Section 1: SSU Battle Squad (20 AP)
Section 2: SSU Battle Squad (20 AP)
Section 3: SSU Rifle Squad (20 AP)
Section 4: ---------------------------------
-Support 1: SSU Sniper Team (14 AP)
-Support 2: MIL-MI 45 Airborne Transport (40 AP)

DEFENSE PLATOON (Political Importance- 5AP)
-Special Support 1: "The Sumarokov" Commissar (5 AP)
-Special Support 2: "The Derzhavin" Commissar (5 AP)
Command Section: Koshka (18 AP)
-Grand'Ma: (35 AP)
Section 1: SSU Close Combat Squad (21 AP)
Section 2: SSU Close Combat Squad (21 AP)
Section 3: --------------------------------
Section 4: --------------------------------
-Support 1: KV47-A Walker (30 AP)

I'm really only running Koshka and Grand'Ma in the army as a way to shoehorn in another KV47 variant. Since I can assign the platoon "Political Importance" so I can run the commissars I want in order to keep the Close Combat Squads in the fight (they get an action even if they have a reaction marker on them and are suppressed).

The Battle Squads will be joined together in order to form that 11-man, 5 machinegun squad (their commissar has a machinegun too) and the rocket launcher armed commissar will either join the Rifle Squad or the Sniper Team. Either unit has its own advantages and disadvantages, so he may float around until I come to a decision as to where he'll be the most effective.

Of course, I ultimately want to remove the rocket launcher commissar as well as the Airborne Transport in favor of a MIL MI-47 Attack Helicopter (D variant- I like the idea of dropping all those bombs it has). The transport chopper just doesn't really fit into what I'd been planning for the army, so the aggressive, anti-armor stance the helicopter brings to the table is most welcome. I've already come up with some fun ways to use the way the bomb rules work. This is a while out, however, as the mini for the unit is still being manufactured, let alone packaged, shipped to America, and distributed to retailers.

This is all still a pipe dream, however, as I don't even have my second Battle Squad and Close Combat Squad yet.

I do have some units fully painted now, so I'll be posting them soonish. Stay tuned!