several ssu cards are up on dustgame.com.

Wow, that's a hard-hitting command squad! The special MG is the same as the the Boss, but the normal rifles do extra damage against A2, though they have a serious range deffciency that makes up for it. But that Power Tool! Wow! That packs a punch. However, in my experience it's a rare occasion that the command squad will find itself adjacent to an enemy walker.

The ho-hum squad. A very effective recon squad, but like the Recon Boys, completely devoid of anti-walker weaponry. Using heavy troops against the SSU sounds like a must. 12/1 against A2, 5/1 against A3.

Russian BBQ! Molotov is better than Demo Charges, in that they can be used against infantry, but they have Assault instead of Fast, which is not quite as good.

Ah, Chinese products. Cheap and crappy. A nice, inexpensive unit to throw at your enemy just to distract him.

Ah! Our first chopper! Move 2 is a bit suprising, was expecting Move 3. As expected, the guns don't have a lot of range, but can be quite effective against infantry.

So far, the accusations of overpoweredness in the SSU seem to fall flat. I thought the squads would have Fast and such, but it seems they really need the Commissar's Assault to really be as fast as the fluff indicated. Overall they seem to pack a harder punch, but have a pronounced range defficiency.

Loophole Master said:

I've only seen one person make these accusations (on the BGG boards), and that person's predictions on just about everything Dust Tactics/Warfare related have been quite consistently incorrect.

i hope that chinese volenteers being bundled with the chopper prevents mass spaming of them.

I do like these cards, not overpowering and you have to employ different tactics due to their range 2 & 4 mix. I don't thnk there is much difference in sending A2 or A3 against them, either way, on average, you will be left with 1 man standing.

I know we'd seen these before, but just to round it off, and so that we have all cards in one place:

Babushka! Compare it to the Hot Dog, which operates in a similar way and costs exactly the same, and you see how crappy the Hot Dog has quickly become. This has Assault, which is essential for a flamer. It has an extra Health. And the Howitzer is much better than the Hot Dog's combined MGs. I don't think this means this unit is overpowered, more like the Hot Dog is way overpriced and in sore need of some movement bonus.

On her own, Koshka is a pretty pitiful fighter. She's quite similar to Joe, but with a weaker grenade weapon, with shorter range, and worse C attacks. Now, instead of Black Ops, she has Fighting Spirit, which allows a spotter-like attack, as long as she moves. That's a powerful combination with Babushka, but I wonder if the (Pilot) thing means this Skill can only be used with her walker. If that's the case, she'd be a terrible option to attach to a squad. Otherwise she'd go great with the Fakyeli.

it was confirmed somewhere that fighting spirit is for use in the walker only.

Dakkon426 said:

Dunno. Zverograd rulebook says: "A hero with this ability shares it with any squad he joins." So the question is whether the (Pilot) added at the end of Koshka's Fighting Spirit line mean that in her case it only applies to her walker.

its in the zervograd rule book under pilot skills, they can be used iether in or out of the vehical.

Ok, so Koshka can use her Fighting Spirit either with Babushka or with a squad she joins. That's much better. Definitely quite useful to put her with the Fakyeli if the mission is not suitable for Babushka. Attacking an A2 infantry squad with hero, without C weapons, it would average 16 hits!

One thing that should be noted, though, is that there's very little chance of bringing down a chopper in a single attack, if they all have 6 Health (which I find quite likely). The best AA weapon in the game is the Sturmkonig's, and with 9/1 he only averages 5 wounds at the most, with sustained fire. Most other AA weapons have no chance of scoring 6 hits in a single attack (with the probable exception of the Rattler). Lara with the Flaks have actually the best possibility of downing a chopper in one go. If the chopper hasn't moved, they can roll a whopping 24/1, or a respectable 15/1 if it has moved. The allies will certainly have a hard time with the choppers, with the Grim Reapers' 9/1 being their best current bet (which again is unlikely to kill in one attack).

Hot Dog does have range 2 for its flamer though which is a big advantage over range 1 and can hit multiple targets. I think they are a fair match.

Yes, range 2 is a bit of a boost, but I still don't think it makes up for the lack of speed. Only in very specific missions with the the right layout will it be able to get close enough to a bunch of enemies and hit several targets at once. Mostly defense missions with hangars is where it might be useful.

All other walkers with short range weapons (Loth, Luther, Blackhawk, Fireball, Hans and I'm sure all of those KV-47s) have some movement ability like Fast, Charge, Assault or Scout. I'm sure that if the Hot Dog were released today it would have something like that.

Assault just effectively gives its flamers range 2 for 1 turn only as it can move an extra square to get in close and shoot, the HD gets this every turn so does not need Assault, it also does more damage against the heavies. Range 2 is a big deal, especially if you want to root out troops in the upper stories of buildings. Assault or Fast is essential for range 1 or CC units, not so much with Hot Dog.

If HD and Grandma were to have a dual, it would be down to initiative and a lucky die roll.

I find that Assault is better used as sort of a Scout ability. During the first rounds of the match, when the close-combat unit has no targets to shoot at, use Assault to move 4 spaces and take a good position from which to attack the incoming enemies. If you use Assault on a Move+Attack, you're not getting the full benefit of the skill (though it might make for a nasty surprise). Though, granted, as an allied player, I don't have much experience with Assault, only having got to use it recently with the addition of Action Jackson to my ranks.

PS: The KV-47 box should also be part of the first SSU wave, wonder why it hasn't been moved to the "pre order" section as well, along with their cards. Hopefully it doesn't signify a delay for it. An SSU force would be pretty incomplete without it.

I'm a bit afraid about anti armor capabilities of the SSU, molotovs do not hurt walkers as bad as demo charges and only comissar squad has bazooka..

Loophole Master said:

You can play grand'ma without Koshka and use her with a squad see rules Pilot : Name page13.

But a question with this rule, if i disembark Koshka from Grand'ma, Grand'ma can still act? I say yes, but it's one pilot vehicule.

Is there any truth that the SSU items will not be out till end of May?

mgentile7 said:

I think they will be available very soon, since the rulebook and cards have already been posted. Wouldn't surprise me to see them for sale by the end of the week.

They've already been confirmed as arriving at some east coast stores already

I'm very disappointed if this is all that is initially being released though, Just 4 Units on top of the Hero and Walker that comes with Operation Zverograd. Looks like I will be waiting when they release more units cause Axis and Allies have a huge advantage until they release some of the other Units like the Commissar squad and Heroes for the SSU. Since all of the SSU units are armour 2 means they would get slaughtered against armour 3 units in Dust Tactics. Lets hope more units are announced soon…..

The KV-47 boxes at least should be released in this first wave, that's the order in which they were announced.

looks like there not going to be in the first wave. Maybe they had manufacturing issuses.

My gut is telling me that these units are perfect for Dust Warfare and I'm guessing they are trying to promote that first with the SSU, cause right now they are worthless in Dust Tactics against the Allies and Axis

Most likely the DustWarfare book gets released with these units, and Operational Zverograd will be released a week or two later with a few more units, If you have played Warfare you can get away with smaller armies because they have so many add on's in Warfare.

I wouldn't say they're worthless. For somebody who has little more than the Revised Core Set, this is a pretty good equivalent force.

Loophole Master said:

Well if you only had the Core set then yes it would match just fine for Axis, im not aware of many people who just have that and nothing else. Even then Lara and the Heavy flak alone would wreck havoc against the SSU units and the helicopter.

The allies would be worthless cause they have zero anti aircraft in the core set besides the one Victory MG that gets to roll 1 Dice, dont think thats going to get it done

All well looks like its back to the waiting game for the other units to show up, just such a tease to see some of the SSU but not enough to matter…