# My 28mm Soviet platoon(s)



## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

Heyhey, these are my 28mm WW2 Soviet dudes. The usual drill - a platoon plus a bunch of support to choose from.  They are mainly planned for use with the excellent Chain of Command rules by Too Far Lardies.

Lotsa infantry (Review: http://www.battlebrushstudios.com/2014/01/review-warlord-games-red-army-infantry.html):









At this point in time I can field them as a late war rifle platoon of 3 squads of 10 guys, each squad with a Sergeant and a DP light machine gun team. The big thing about red army drill then was that it wasn't quite as refined as most other nations' at the time, so infantry squads don't have the fire team/rifle team seperation within the squad and 'fire and maneuver' or that 'Find, Fix, Flank, Finish' thing mainly can only be pulled off in conjungction with other squads rather than between two teams within the same squad. Which of course makes them less flexible. Another thing about the Soviet Rifle Platoon is that they get nothing else. Only one officer in charge of things, three squads, that's it. Whilst Germans get Anti-tank teams right with their platoons, and of course the death machine that is the MG42, the British get the wonderful asset of the 2" mortar and a tun of smoke rounds and a Platoon Sergeant who makes ordering the guys around so much easier and US platoons get Anti-Tank teams, platoon sergeants and a .50 cal platoon HMG, the poor soviet comrades get their 30 guys, an officer and that's it.


...or SMG/tank riders platoon:









Again, an officer and three squads, each being seven guys including the Sergeant and a DP light machine gun team in each squad. All of the soldiers get SMGs which makes them quite a different and tricky formation to play.

The inevitable Maxim gun:









...for the required amount of Dakka. "Just" an MMG and the fact that the gun is mounted on a wheeled construction, the weight of the thing makes it about just as complicated to move as a tripod-mounted machine gun. Still, it's pretty much a must in any soviet collection and of course having an MMG on overwatch on enemy jump-off points is always a plus. 

A T-34/85 which you may have seen before (Review: http://www.battlebrushstudios.com/2014/09/review-t-3485.html):


















...and the grumpy officer overseeing things:









Not sure if I'll get to field that one too often. In Chain of Command I prefer to field the smaller stuff. So I'd rather have an MG carrier along with an anti-tank gun. 

Chain of Command doesn't use a points system. But really, it does. You get your infantry platoon according to TO&Es of the time, which I find great. No fussing about with power-gamey stuff and (other than in certain other WW2 platoon level games) you play actual historical formations and the game does champion using actual tactics of the day. However, each platoon does come with a Platoon Rating. German late war platoons (late war stuff for US, Germans, Brits and Soviets are in the rulebook, the rest is available online for free) are very flexible tactical formations who also pack quite a punch. So their platoon rating 0 (other formations like Elite Fallschirmjäger have a rating of a whopping 12!). Regular Soviet rifle platoons get a rating of -3 (-7 if they are 'Green'). 

Support choices (ranging from mine fields and snipers over additional infantry squads and personnel carriers up to all those big tanks) are "tiered" in up to eleven levels of support choices. Support levels you get also are dependent on the mission you play. Skirmishes between infantry platoons who meet during patrolling into no man's land get equal amounts of support from company (something like 1d3 levels of additional support), missions in which one side has to defend a point the attacker usually gets more support than the defender and so on. 

So let's say a Soviet rifle platoon (platoon rating: -3) and a German rifle platoon (platoon rating: 0) meet in no man's land and decide to throw the other guys out. Supports are diced for and come out with 2 levels of support. So the Germans may choose either 1 support choice of level 2 (stuff like a Panzerschreck team, an additional officer, a pre-game artillery barrage, etc.) or two support choices of level 1 (a Kübelwagen, a medical orderly, a single compound charge, pioneer teams for mine clearing, etc.). The Soviets may choose a total of 5 levels of support (platoon rating difference of 3 plus the rolled-for 2 levels of support). Support level 5 includes some light to medium tanks already or a squad of elite scouts. Of course support choices are not disclosed until they are placed on the table.


Speaking of which, here are the scouts:









...and these guys I just added:




















Yup, these Warlord figures are rather colourful in terms of poses and equipment. One sniper, one guy with hand grenades, one with a wire cutter, one with radio equipment, another guy with a map, one guy running "hush"ing at the viewer and brandishing a knife and one guy giving a hand sign and holding binoculars. On their own they would be a bit too over the top but they go pretty well with the more down to earth poses of the Black Tree Design figures. So they make for a nice addition, especially as they can be used for so many things besides what they're made for. These can act as depictions of a sniper, engineers, forward observers and so on. Pretty good. I need to make some sort of army shot some time. 

Here they are with four of their pals from the former addition:









All in all I got a full platoon and a bunch more guys from Black Tree Design plus a sprue of Warlord's plastics. Of the latter I ended up with two more bodies so I turned them into an anti tank rifle team:











WIP shot of the latest addition - armoured assault engineers:








http://sigur.tabletopgeeks.com/wp-c...llery/world-war-2-28mm/panzerpionierewip1.jpg

I only really got them because I had turned in a largeish commission project that day, was close to my FLGS and thought I'd get me a treat. They are Warlord figures so they are big, chunky and their faces are ugly as sin.  Well, maybe it's not that bad. Well, some of the faces are. No idea why they do them the way they do. The chunkiness of the guys could be explained by the fact tat they look bigger due to those cuirasses and because you'd have to be a big guy to wear these PLUS explosives and whatnot in the first place. But they are a nice little addition and now I've got the options of all the engineer teams covered, as well as a flamethrower team and possibly just one or two "characterful" additions to a squad of SMG-armed soldiers. As I walked out of the store I already had the idea of a Polish-born Sergeant who joined the ranks of the red army. He's a big guy and made wearing this silly body armour his trademark, hence the nickname Pancerni (after the old armoured horsemen).  Something like that.

Right, and that's that.  Next on my list are maybe an M5 Half-track, some sort of anti tank gun because I'm a bit scared due to the lack of anti-tank capabilities of my platoon(s) at the moment. On top of that I ordered a soviet truck (because you gotta have one) and a T-34/76.


Hope you like the models so far! C&C welcome.


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

Well, okay. The Armoured Engineers aren't done yet.  But my Soviets got their first Baptism of Fire in some games of Operation Squad (fun little game).

Then for Christmas I got myself a silly amount of 28mm WW2 vehicles (and some more 20mm Cold War vehicles) which sat in a box for a few months, half-primed. Last night I finally got to tackle at least the Soviet vehicles and gave them the first bits of painting. 

The Half-track (hard to recognize as such as with the lack of wheels or tracks at the moment  ) is an M5/M9 Half-Track converted from the Warlord Games M3 half-track kit. In the upper right you can see a T-34/85 I also converted a little to make it prettier. I also added stowage to all of the vehicles. The Truck's from Company A, the T-34/76 from Die Waffenkammer.











...and here we got the whole group finished:

Zis-5 Truck









M9 Half-Track









T-34/76 ('Lana')









There will be many more pictures of these once I get the reviews for these kits done.

....aaand another T-34/85 ('Dasha'):




































Here's a comparison shot to the T-34/85 (same kit too) I did last summer (called 'sqirrel'):









Hope you like them.


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## Khorne's Fist (Jul 18, 2008)

Great to see more BA stuff on here. Keep up the great work, Sig.


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

Thanks very much! Of course in my case it certainly won't be used with the BA rules set but the magnificent Chain of Command.  Or others. But many thanks for the comment.


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## Tawa (Jan 10, 2010)

Nice work mate! :good:


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## Old Man78 (Nov 3, 2011)

Filthy commies! Again great work, love the "grumpy" officer and the t34/85


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

@Tawa: Thanks!
@Oldman78: Cheers. That officer is a really fun little sculpt (and comes in a set with three other fun models: A soldier sitting, playing an accordion, another one heating something in a frying pan, a third one standing guard with PPSh shouldered and a huge cigar in his other hand. It's Black Tree Design's Soviet Character Pack 2 I think. Only lacks a guy with four wristwatches on each arm.  ). As I wrote earlier, I kind of stumbled into this. You see, Black Tree do these nasty sales in which you get 25%-35% off a whole range. I actually tried to steer clear of the Eastern Front altogether due to inherent ickiness. But oh well. I just had to get the models, didn't I. 

Amongst my WW2 collections, this probably is my favourite (along with my 15mm British Western Desert Force. Those I possibly like more because they performed so formidably well so far.) . I mentioned it in the other thread already, somehow Germans have lost their appeal for me. Maybe it's an age thing. That being said I'm currently working on some more 28mm Germans and there are plans for going back to the desert and this time it's going to be the other side - 6mm Afrika Korps. I would have preferred the Brits, but my regular opponent already got his models. So it's Germans for me. Or Italians. The thing is though that there's a guy in our area who kind of is 'Desert Italians' guy. 

Anyway, a few days ago my hardcopy of 'I Ain't Been Shot, Mum' arrived. Very, very eager to give this one a try. And I might have to pick up Blitzkrieg Commander too as soon as it's being re-issued by Pendraken.  Last night I couldn't sleep, so I looked up company TO&Es on Bayonet Strength, started thinking which GHQ packs I need to represent that (1mini:1man of course. Not too hard to do with company level anyway)... those things you do as a wargamer..


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

Good news, everyone! I put together a light anti-tank gun and an infantry gun from the Plastic Soldier Company set and got a review mostly done too. Hope to get them painted soon!


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

Here are some 28mm WIP Soviet guns.  It's a 45mm anti-tank gun M9137 on M1942 carriage and a 76mm infantry gun M1943.


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

I got kinda bored with the houses for now and decided to try to finish stuff I'd had on my WIP list for too long so far. So I finished my Thirty Years War baggage train (enough for both armies really) and the Soviet guns for the review:



















An early 45mm anti-tank gun and a 76mm infantry gun, each with 4 Crewmen. I chose not to single-base all the crewmen and such because otherwise it would have been impossible to set them up at least semi-hunkered down behind the gun shield. I considered putting the fourth of each gun crew on a single base so I could switch them between guns (usually the crews should be more than four guys), but then I couldn't have used all the ammo boxes and spent shells and such. 

Review (along with lots more finished piccies) should be up shortly.  Hope you like them!


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

Last night's game: 



















First time I used those new houses, still a little WIP, but I think they work great. As it was my friend's first game and due to the fact how first and second floors can be a little detriment to the playability we just said that the houses were not to be entered. Still was an excellent game. Lots of terrain, snipers weren't too almighty, but still managed to do their job well by controlling relatively large areas.

The "lists" used were a regular Soviet rifle squad plus a Commissar, an LMG assistant and a Sniper. The German Grenadier squad got two G43 semi-automatic rifles, an LMG assistant, a Medic and a Sniper. The scenario played was Scenario 1: Recon. We we didn't have a building to take in the middle of the table we decided that the little horse cart has some important intelligence hidden in that blanket. The table used is 1x1.5 metres.

We rolled for who would play which side, I got the Soviets, my friend played the Germans. The German Sniper was set up very close to the mission objective (no biggie as you'd only have to hold it by the end of the 8th turn). My own sniper sat behind a tree on a little hill, overlooking the right flank. He had three buddies with him just in case the germans tried a flank attack there. The rest of my guys (3 riflemen, Sergeant and Commissar) were set up as a group on the left flank along with the LMG gunner and assistant in tow for supporting fire. 

While I rolled rather badly on initiative rolls at the beginning of the turn I was more lucky in rolls for who to react first in reaction chains. Firing was rather even. At one point the Germans abandoned their cover and three of them rushed out from behind woods on the left flank to fire at my guys who at the time were sitting in a small cultivated field (both of which I'd cut out just prior to the game). They managed to wound one rifleman and lateron my Commissar, but in turn two of the Germans were killed and one was wounded. Cover is oh so important in this game.

In the end my Soviets had taken one casualty (the MG gunner of all), the Germans took four casualties, reaching their break point and (after a bunch of unlucky morale checks) another four took off, only leaving the Corporal and the Sergeant on the board. In their own personal Götterdämmerung they stormed out of cover, firing their MP40s, but swiftly were wounded and captured.

Good game, fun was had by both sides. Including rules explanations and such, the game took about three hours.


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

Here's my review of Operation Squad (2nd edition). Squad-level WW2 skirmish rules which I believe solved the particular challenges of this genre rather well.










http://skirmishwargaming.com/operation-squad-rules-introduction-review/

Hope you enjoy the review!


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

My review of Company B's GAZ-AA truck is online now! 











http://www.battlebrushstudios.com/2015/07/review-company-b-28mm-gaz-aa-truck.html


Hope you find the review interesting and entertaining!


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## Sigur (Dec 9, 2010)

Alrighty, today another 28mm WW2 vehicle review of mine went online. This time I took a good and hard look at Die Waffenkammer's T-34/76 (with that fancy press-sheet turret. Just read the history behind how that came to pass in the review. It's mind-boggling.  )










http://www.battlebrushstudios.com/2015/08/review-die-waffenkammer-28mm-t-3476.html

I hope that you find the article interesting! Stay tuned for more Soviet vehicle reviews!


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