SSU Wavey Wave

There we have it. My SSU army, all 300 points of it, is finished. Once I get in my last two sniper teams I'll be 4 minis away from completion, which will take me all of a couple of hours to paint. I'm really curious to see how this army will fare on the table, as it is a pretty extreme build. Will it fall to suppression? will all of those Widowmaker rifles live to to their reputation? We'll have to see. For now, here's hoping the local Dust scene will move to Wednesday night rather than sticking to Tuesday. That will let me get out to my Friendly Not So Local Game Store for a game or two. Also, there's Demitra's army. I hope I'll be able to get him up to a full 300 points (the usual size for a game) soonish. While 200 point games are fun, I feel kind of limited as to what I can field. I really want to see what this army looks like deployed on the board.

Hopefully I'll be able to get this army up to full power and on the table soon.

SSU Wave of Waveyness

This is a really, really short one seeing as I can't get to my computer right now. I just wanted to show off my mob. This is what 300 points of SSU infantry looks like. Impressive, no? Looks like I know what I'll be painting during my two week break.

Oh, and I'll be ordering two boxes of snipers on Friday. Muahahaha!

SSU Theorycrafting Continues

Well, the army may morph yet again. After a couple of losses to Demitra today, and quite a bit of downtime at work, I have yet again thought of something. What if I didn't use that second Command Squad? What if I instead had Yakov lead one of the Defense Platoons? What would I swap for that squad?

Snipers.

Yep, with those 25 points, plus a couple left unused in the previous iteration of my army, I could stick two more sniper teams into my army. Two more! That's four more Widowmaker Rifle shots per turn, and these ignore both cover and armor. Those bad boys are perfect for offing stubborn walkers and mopping up mauled units.

In short, I'd field this:

Faction: SSU ( 298 / 300 )

---  Heroes
Nikolaï (20)

---  Defense Platoon (141)
Upgrade: Political Importance (5)
Command Section: Yakov (21, Hero)
1st Section: "Fakyeli" SSU Close Combat Squad (21)
2nd Section: "Fakyeli" SSU Close Combat Squad (21)
3rd Section: "Ohotniki" SSU Rifle Squad (20)
4th Section: "Ohotniki" SSU Rifle Squad (20)
Commissar: "The Sumarokov" (5)
Support: "Jnetzi" SSU Sniper Team (14)
Support: "Jnetzi" SSU Sniper Team (14)

---  Defense Platoon (137)
Upgrade: Improved Command (5)
Command Section: "The Medvedi" SSU Command Squad (25)
1st Section: "Frontoviki" SSU Battle Squad (20)
2nd Section: "Frontoviki" SSU Battle Squad (20)
3rd Section: "Ohotniki" SSU Rifle Squad (20)
4th Section: "Ohotniki" SSU Rifle Squad (20)
Commissar: "The Derzhavin" (5)
Commissar: "The Trediakovsky" (8)
Support: "Jnetzi" SSU Sniper Team (14)

That's a lot of firepower, and it's pretty potent an 30" out.

Demitra asked today what the point of all those Widowmaker Rifles was. Simple- fire superiority. With that many bullets flying at that long a range, it will be tough to advance on my line and not come away unscathed. You'll have to make choices against this force. Which units do you fire on? The obvious answer would be the squads that crank out the most dice, and you'd probably be right in a close-in scenario. As anybody whose fought against the "Fakyeli Deathstar" (two Fakyeli squads, the "Sumarokov" commissar, and Yakov) you simply cannot let that squad close on you. It will simply end any enemy squad it gets within 6" of.

But then there's the "Fontoviki Bullet Wall" as I like to call it. Five Machineguns will tear things apart at 16", and you can't react to it. The squad is vulnerable to suppression though, so you just have to force them to keep their heads down.

While you're trying to deal with these two mobs though, I'm dumping Widowmaker fire into your most valuable units. That walker? don't get too attached to it- I can likely destroy it in a single turn. Those Infantry 3 (heck, Infantry 4!)? yep, I can mangle them too. the only thing too tough for this army remains Vehicle 5+ units. Those must either be ignored or simply set on fire. There are ways for this army to deal with that kind of threat, but for the most part (since I can"t really hurt them) I'm just going to have to write off whatever they turn their attention toward. It sucks, but oh well, the Motherland will remember it's brave soldiers forever.

That, and there's plenty more where they came from.

In summation, this army remains being about throwing as many warm bodies at you as possible. My hope is that you'll run out of bullets before I run out of dudes. Oh, and lots of really big rifles. Them too.

The Human Wave

My Allied list got me thinking- what if I were to take the SSU "human wave" concept to its natural extreme. What if I were to completely remove the KV47 walkers from the picture? I'd end up with almost 60 soldiers on the table is what would happen. That's a lot of angry Russian goodness.

Here's the idea:

Faction: SSU ( 295 / 300 )

---  Heroes
Nikolaï (20)
Yakov (21)

---  Defense Platoon (137)
Upgrade: Improved Command (5)
Command Section: "The Medvedi" SSU Command Squad (25)
1st Section: "Frontoviki" SSU Battle Squad (20)
2nd Section: "Frontoviki" SSU Battle Squad (20)
3rd Section: "Ohotniki" SSU Rifle Squad (20)
4th Section: "Ohotniki" SSU Rifle Squad (20)
Commissar: "The Sumarokov" (5)
Commissar: "The Trediakovsky" (8)
Support: "Jnetzi" SSU Sniper Team (14)

---  Defense Platoon (117)
Upgrade: Improved Command (5)
Command Section: "The Medvedi" SSU Command Squad (25)
1st Section: "Fakyeli" SSU Close Combat Squad (21)
2nd Section: "Fakyeli" SSU Close Combat Squad (21)
3rd Section: "Ohotniki" SSU Rifle Squad (20)
4th Section: "Ohotniki" SSU Rifle Squad (20)
Commissar: "The Derzhavin" (5)

It's my current SSU army with a couple of tweaks. First of all, no armor. Again, this is to deny my opponent's anti-tank assets. Anything that rolls a lot of dice against vehicles has a tendency (not always, but frequently) to roll a lot less dice against Infantry 2 targets. I'll still need to look out for Spray weapons, but with two more Rifle Squads the enemy will have to dump a lot more fire into my anti-tank assets to silence them. I still have my five machinegun squad, and it still cranks out 15 dice at 16". It was withering against Axis Zombies, and for units that rely on mob tactics like that it can be a game changer.

The Rifle Mob will still contain Nikolai, allowing them to hit on blanks when they sustained fire. That means hitting on blanks with re-rolls. And Armor Penetrating. Nasty. The other two Rifle Squads, as well as the Snipers will dig in and use their 30" range to discourage enemy units from advancing.

Finally, there's the two Close Combat squads. with their commissar and Yakov the mob can crank out an insane number of dice. Of course, Yakov could always join the Battle Squads, and that would mean that the mass of dice would also deny cover, which means a very dead squad. I suppose it will depend on my opponent's army and the scenario.

What does this army fear? Vehicle 7. I simply cannot stop walkers that big. The loss of my walker mounted Sulfur Throwers will really show then. That's a minor factor though. Short of an air-dropped Fireball, I should be able to shrug off the enemy's firepower.

That's it for this brainstorming session. Maybe this list will supersede my Allied list. That really depends on my financial situation, but the odds are pretty good.

Bringin' The Allied Pain

It's hard to find a good picture of Rhino, so you get this one.

After reading this article, I came to a decision- walkers are bad. Not bad in a "this model is awful and useless" sense, just bad in a "this model has no place in this army" sense. Keeping that in mind, I have revised my Allied army. I intend to start in on this army soon, as soon as I paint up my second SSU Rifle Squad and the SSU heroes that came in the mail for me a few days ago. Here's what I now plan on running:

Faction: Allies ( 293 / 300 )

---  Heroes
Ozz 117 (23)

---  Elite Platoon (150)
Upgrade: Extra Hero (5)
Command Section: Rhino (22, Hero)
1st Section: "The Hammers" Heavy Ranger Assault Squad (28)
2nd Section: "Grim Reapers" Heavy Ranger Attack Squad (30)
3rd Section: "Grim Reapers" Heavy Ranger Attack Squad (30)
4th Section: "Tank Busters" Heavy Ranger Tank Hunter Squad (35)

---  Action Jackson - British Paratroops (120)
Command Section: Action Jackson (24, Hero)
1st Section: "Red Devils" British Paratroops (32)
2nd Section: "Red Devils" British Paratroops (32)
3rd Section: "Red Devils" British Paratroops (32)

It's all Infantry 3, with no Infantry 2 or Vehicles. This army can stand up to a withering amount of fire, and it denies my opponent of all of his anti-infantry and anti-tank assets. In other words, this army has to be anticipated or else it will rob you of all of your specialized units.

Especially jarring is the no vehicles part. All those .88s will be useless. Even better, the Phasers that the Red Devils are packing will tear enemy vehicles to shreds. Up to 11 shots (22 if every unit is able to Sustained Fire) will just plain annihilate armor and Infantry alike. No armor roll=dead targets.

Obviously Action Jackson will join the Red Devils as both ablative wounds and as extra Phaser death. Equally obviously Rhino leads the Hammers in order to make them a whirlwind of death up close. Perhaps less obviously, one of the Grim Reaper squads will be commanded by Ozz 117. The hail of machinegun fire as well as the Flamethrower that Ozz sports are going to shred infantry 2 units, and can even give aircraft and Infantry 3 a scare, as they will have no cover to hide behind. I'll just have to make sure I suppress their target before I jump in, as that will prevent them from reacting to my sudden 12" jump (giving me an 18" firey machinegun death range). I've even considered sending Ozz over to a Red Devil squad, causing the unit to deny both cover and armor. Nasty.

Of course this army calls for a good sized purchase, and that will be a way out, but on paper this army just plain looks terrifying.