Yesterday I happily skipped to my local post office (ie supermarket) and picked up the first squads for my budding Sino-Soviet Union force. The Frontoviki, the Medvedi and the Fakyeli! Since I haven't seen much written about the new SSU miniatures I decided to do a review of them over at Fire Broadside .

Overall I really like them as they have a bit more character than the allies and axis (well, the Medvedi at least). The Mil Mi-45 helicopter with its Chinese Volunteers and the Zverograd box with Koshka and grandma are on their way here and I'll do a review of them before the end of the week.

I hope you enjoy it!

I am just waiting for them to release the campaign book so that I actually have stats and points for them for warfare instead of just tactics cards… that and for the rest of the line to be released. It is nice to see that they are getting a good reception though.

I too am waiting for the next book to be released so I can see just how the walkers with pilots and the copters fit into the platoon lists. I have already started to paint my SSU squads.

Ooh! The book! How I would love to get my hands on that. A guy on Dakkadakka said that his had just been shipped so maybe it's not as far off as it seems (still 'In development' on FFG's upcoming page). While you can glean some info from the tactics cards, they definitely don't tell the whole story. I'm especially curious what the range will be of the SSU basic submachine guns. 12" seems likely.

Quick hint for bendy figures of any kind: heat a small container of water to NEAR boiling and another of cool water nearby, then with a pair of tongs dip your models into hot hot water, wait a second, and pull it out. most of the bend will have come out of the thin pieces, you can hold anything straight that hasn't as you put it for a second into the cool water and it will immediately harden in that pose. This will straight guns, antenna etc, and you just have to store them like normal models. If they're bent when you pack them, though, they'll be bent when you take them out.

On a happy side note, you can use this technique to alter poses slightly as well, such as the sad 'Tripping Heavies' in each of the Schwer squads. I heated them up, held them upright into the cool water, and now they look like they're still running . . . but upright. Did the same thing with a few of my zombies and it worked a treat.

Hope that helps a bit, to folks new to this quality of model. It takes less than a minute . . . although you then have to wait for them to dry. You might, in fact, use a hair dryer for the same effect and no worries about water.

Oh, and the water method has no ill effects on the primer, either. Or at least hasn't with my models.

Good luck!

~Craig

I just hope ffg don't drop the ball on this one. Most players have bought a starter set already, so newer players will want a different faction - but wait, theres no rules for them at the moment….. I have a buddy in exactly the situation - he's excited by the soviet releases, but sees no point in purchasing without an army book. If the army book does not turn up for 4 months plus I worry that newer players, interested in starting an army will go off the boil….

Couldn't agree more. There's plenty of positivity about this game at the moment, but this needs to be maintained. Even with all the GW hate out there, there's no denying a lot of wargaming time and energy will be focused on the imminent release of 6th Edition 40k. For Dust to continue garnering attention - which I really hope it will - Warfare rules for the SSU need to come out soon (ideally before 6th Ed).

I'd suggest staying away from GW hate. You can attract more flies with honey than with vinegar.

Also if it is going to be a while on the book we could make some fan rules for the SSU. It's not hard to convert the cards as they already set the pattern with how they changed the Axis and Allies forces. I'd probably just let them use their dust tactics cards and take my lumps as their opponent until their book comes out.

Back on topic, excellent review Poe. Quick question about your complaint on the Molotov bottle issue…

Have you removed the primer from the bottle to see if it is clear underneath? I thought that is what the D6G guys said would need to be done, but I could be remembering wrong, so please don't hate me if you do and it isn't clear. Either way, I'm going with the Premium, so it's not a big deal to me. However, I'd like to know for other players in my area for whom it would make a difference.

Both OG Games and Maelstrom Games say June 23rd for the Zverograd book's UK release, so hopefully it's not far off.

Although I've chosen Axis, I do like the look of the SSU as well. It looks like fun to play.

Regarding our review of the models on the D6G . . . we were told you could scrape off the primer from the molotov bottles and they'd be clear . . . unfortunately, our local SSU player, Jeremy, got them, tried that . . . and they're not clear underneath. So we got bad info from FFG on that one, sorry for the confusion.

And as for playing with the Tactics cards until the rulebook comes out, that's exactly what we've been doing, and it's worked fine. It's not ideal, of course, and it sucks that the rules aren't out yadda yadda yadda, I'm with you on all of that. But for just fun games and a general idea of how they play . . . it's possible to get at least an inkling of an idea.

~Craig

I don't think we have too long to wait before the rules come out for them, I think the Russian Walkers are AMAZING though as far as models go.

Thanks for the kind words everyone! There will be another review up by the end of the month. Please keep reading (and following, and commenting! Haha!).

Just like Craig said, no clear bottles. It's actually molded to the arm so no difference in plastic. Not really a big deal though.

What really makes me upsed (well, a little anyway) is that FFG bungled the relase of the Warfare version of Zverograd. They have this great product recently released and there is a new faction coming for it, but then the book is two months late! Really?! It could have been handled a lot better. I guess the silver lining is that FFG no doubt have learned from their little blunder and in the future Tactics and Warfare releases will be simultaneous. Or that' s my hope anyway.

Off topic: Craig, really like the show, even though we often have different opinions ( Mouse Guard! ). I hope you'll continue doing another hundred at least. Oh, and I miss Raef.

why dont they release the pdf of it?

It definitely sucks having a pile of SSU and no way to use them currently…

Thanks, Poe! We'll try!

And believe it or not, we miss Raef too!

It's been neat working all of these different people . . . but coordinating all o these schedules is often ridiculously annoying.

I also completely agree that FFG REALLY missed a HUGE trick with the SSU launch for Warfare. Unlike many who post here, I won't assume knowledge none of us have, and I'll assume there was either an accident or a mistake or a conscious decision based upon stuff we can't know . . . and in any of those possibilities, I'm sure they're scrambling to try to fix this. But yeah, this seems like a board game move by a company trying to leverage into the war game space . . . and no doubt it does suck completely.