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.