I'm really surprised they haven't announced an Artillery Walker with the SSU now fielding a Command Squad and an Observer Squad.

As for the Widowmaker being able to damage walkers, I find it a little silly to think that their guns are any more effective than the Axis & Allies sniper rifles, or anywhere near as powerful as Angela's 20mm cannon. But then again, the USSR did gain some noteriety for using the PTRS/PTRD anti-tank rifles in sniper roles. Though these guns obviously take their inspiration from the post-war SVD.

Speaking of sniper rifles, the rifle squad scares the crap out of me. O.O

Also, I wouldn't hold my breath for the KV-152 guys. A heavy walker, perhaps, but something different. The KV-152 falls into the same category as Otto: despite any shiny new guns, it's still, ultimately, someone else's walker. For FFG to release such a walker into general sale, it would break down a lot of the visual differences between the factions. I just don't see them doing that, ever. For Dust Models, however, who deal in unofficial models that are rarer to find, something as realistic as a captured, repurposed walker makes sense.

Can't wait to see the new axis walkers too. And yes, my money is on the Wotan (Loewe on the schematics) PzKpfl III too.

Leutnant_Manfred said:

There is a new bot chassis in one of the pics related to the DW Zverograd update that could be an SSU HS unit. Think its posed with some Allied troops but it looks very AT43 Red Blok'ish. Could be?

As for the Wotan schemeatics they keep teasing by plastering the **** thing everywhere. Inside the cover of both modelling books, almost every 2nd page of the original core rules "leaflets" ... there's even a d/lable wallpaper. I bought numerous Ryu's almost expecting an IP sprue with the lazors (a'la Otto and KV arms) but all the distinctive bits have been cast seperately in resin. Saying that though the weapons themselves have been molded in two distinct halves, as per the normal sprue bits, so you could almost think they've been re-cast from a plastic original. DM have even gone to the trouble of including "rubber" power cabling thats posable/flexible. A lot of effort for a Jap-Bot.

The Pz bits are all there, but again, who knows?

Thanks also to Cl.B. of Dust Models for the exceptional service btw, much appreciated.

Loophole Master said:

I'm not as sure of that and lean towards the contrary: It's my understanding that whatever is released by Dust Studio as "Deluxe Finished Models" will not be released as official units by FFG, and that they are exclusive to Dust Studio only. They include game cards with them nowadays but each card lacks AP-cost to mark that they are not official FFG tourney sanctioned units.

Hence, Fury of Ivan is likely to not come.

Dunno, the KV-47 had been a Dust Studio "Deluxe Finished Model" for a long time, and now it's the mainstay of the Dust Tactics russian forces...

Loophole Master said:

True, but it also has slight differences: Weapons + Paintjob (faction) has been changed. The Fury of Ivan as sold by DS is already Soviet and I have a hard time imagining that they'd change it's weapons.

The KV-47 has always been russian, and they've had models with the same weapon configurations as the Nadya and Natasha .

Loophole Master said:

Kind of True.

The KV-47 models were only avalable in the 1/35 scale and not the 1/48 except the Otto which came with all the parts to make a russian KV-47, but was marketed as an axis model. I do not believe that the captured walkers will become dust-tactics offical models.

Why doesn't anyone capture a mickey?

Loophole Master said:

Yes, you're right: What I am referring to though is what can be seen in the category called "DUST-48 DELUXE FINISHED MODELS" at the Dust Studio-site. There you will find the OTTO, which has different weapons and paint-job compared to the normal Soviet walkers since it is a captured and re-fitted model.

When contacting Dust Studio they have hinted that whatever is that category won't be officially released by FFG. Then again, now that you have posted linkes to Nadya / Natasha, I also see that the Fury of Ivan can be found in the the same category as them and that it will maybe indeed find it's way into an official release.

That's all I'm saying. Anything in the Dust Studios line (whether 35 or 48) can potentially still become an official Dust Tactics model.

Even Koshka had been a 1/6 doll for a long while.

Dust warfare will probably drive them to produce new incentory for every army. Maybe even increase squad sizes.

i can't wait to see the SSU heavy and light walkers. I wish they had released heliocopters for the allies and axis before making varients to the medium walkers. If it was so important to have those turrent varients they could have made a turrent pack. I like the pose of the walkers, but was a little disappointed that it's nothing truely new.

Hopefully they release bianca and the axis hero with the hyena from the dust models site along with mech like the gunthar.

marcemtp said:

Although the foundation is the same for the new Allies medium walkers they have a) a new pose and b) new armament. That is about as much new something can become without producing a totally new base. Put in perspective with 90% of all games where you find military vehicles at all Dust Models offer pretty varied models overall (compare for example this real life tanks with each other - when is a tank something "truly new"?). That said, I was leaning towards your feeling for a time when "static" Mickey after Mickey kept popping out without any more dynamic medium walkers. That has however been rectified now with the strider pose, something I think adds very much to the Allies aesthetics and dynamics even if many complain about the hardships of logistics such models will entail.

And yeah, agree it would be nice with even more heroes. Then again, some of the news ones are strangely very similar and not overly exciting in terms of stats & abilities, hence I'd rather see fewer heroes around but bigger differences between some of them.

I hope we will not see more inf 3 and god forbid inf 4 units! It just seems the more inf 3 i get my hands on the less usefull in2 becomes:D

Lska said:

Inf 2 has never lost their use and there are many instances I've seen where they hold their own against inf 3. I still have staple inf 2 units that I use in my more competitive lists.