Word’s come down the line – command needs YOU to take a platoon forward and scout out the ground ahead. We’re expecting the enemy to be doing the same, so you’ll need to be prepared to fight. What are you waiting for? Go and get your troops ready!
If you’re thinking about getting into Bolt Action for the first time, welcome! If this is your first foray into historical wargaming, double welcome! It’s a great community, a really fun game, and the models are quick and simple to build and paint. It can all be a bit daunting at first, though, particularly if you’ve not spent a lifetime obsessing over historical battles! Working out where, and indeed how, to start a force can be one of the hardest parts of the whole process. We’ve already got an article out talking about the overall philosophy of building your first platoon, but some of you asked for an even more black-and-white guide. Naturally, we’re happy to oblige.
We’re going to be turning the Soviet Army Infantry Platoon box into your very first Bolt Action Rifle Platoon – the core of any force. We’ll go through exactly which models to build, which parts to use, and what each unit will do on the tabletop. First, let’s talk Rifle Platoons, so we understand what we’re trying to achieve.
The Rifle Platoon is the foundational formation of every single Bolt Action army. It’s mandatory, and taking one allows you to take all the other ‘specialist’ platoons. It’s also usually where the vast majority of your infantry can be found. Each Army Book contains a huge variety of different infantry squads, each with their own range of weapon and equipment options. We’ve chosen a Soviet force because it’s one with a couple of really ‘obvious’ squads that will make a perfect (and non-confusing!) core. Alongside the infantry squads, you’ll also need an Officer to lead the platoon, as well as some light support weaponry – small mortars, sniper teams, and anti-tank rifles being the most common. Again, there’s plenty of choice, so for this article we’re going to go nice and simple. If you build what we’ve built, you’ll have a nice rounded Rifle Platoon in no time at all!
Let’s kick off. Inside your box you’ll find six infantry sprues, six mini sprues (one for each ‘main sprue’), and an information leaflet. Don’t throw that away, it’s dead handy!
The first thing we’ll do is take two infantry sprues, two mini sprues, and build our first squad! Soviet infantry squads can have up to twelve men, making them slightly larger than many other nations’. Quantity has a quality all of its own, after all! We’ll be building up a Rifle Squad, one of the most basic units in Armies of the Soviet Union. Cheap, plentiful, and simple, this is exactly what it says on the tin – a dozen blokes with rifles. Because everyone in the squad has the same kit, assembly is really simple. We’re going to use all of the bodies on both sprues, and give them all rifles. Eleven of the bodies will get heads wearing helmets, while one will get a sidecap – he’ll serve as the NCO! There are lots of other little gubbins and greebles like satchels and rolled-up greatcoats on the sprue, but we won’t worry about those here.
Now we’ve built our first big squad, we’re going to take a little break and build a couple of single-model units. This is a good way to avoid fatigue when building loads of blokes with rifles! We’ll start with our Platoon Commander – he’s the one in charge of the whole show, so we want to make sure he’s recognisable. We’ve equipped him with a pistol and given him a sidecap head, so he’ll look every inch the heroic Soviet junior officer.
We’re also going to give him a rather more sinister compatriot. Soviet Rifle Platoons have access to a unique unit: the Commissar! These political officers are iconically Soviet, and can even ‘help’ nearby units pass Order Checks – by shooting one of their men if they fail! Naturally, we had to have one of these chaps in the force. He’ll have a megaphone to shout encouragement to the troops, and a rather fancy hat. He also has the option to take a Guard Dog, which obviously we’ll be taking. There’s a dog on each mini sprue for exactly this reason, and who doesn’t love a four-legged friend?
With that little palette cleanser, we’ll move on to our second big squad. This will be an LMG squad, which, as the name suggests, brings some light machine guns to the party! As with the Rifle Squad, this will be a twelve-man unit, and nine of these chaps will be exactly the same affair – rifle-armed men with helmets. We’ll build these just like the previous squad, but vary around the arm and body combinations so they don’t look identical. We’ll build the NCO like the previous squad too, but instead of a rifle, he’ll have an SMG. The last two models are what gives the squad its name, as they’ll be carrying the LMGs.
Now we’ve got our commander and two squads, we’ve got a usable Rifle Platoon, but we’ve got extra bodies on the sprues, so we’re not stopping there! We’ll take the sprue we used to build the Platoon Commander and Commissar, and turn it into two support teams to bolster our firepower. The first one we’ll build is the Anti-tank Rifle team, to give us a chance against enemy armour. This requires two models, one gunner and one assistant.
The very last models we’ll make are a sneaky sniper team! Soviet forces famously made use of female snipers, and we’ve made sure to include some female heads on the sprue for just this purpose. These will be combined with the remaining bodies, the sniper rifle, and a pair of binoculars for the spotter.
Just like that, we’ve turned a single box into a fully-fledged Rifle Platoon. From here, we can go in any direction we want, adding armour, fire support, artillery, or specialist troops like engineers – but the Rifle Platoon is the foundation. We’ve also got more slots available in the Rifle Platoon itself that we can fill, with space for two more infantry squads, a light mortar team, medic, Forward Observer, and transports for everyone. However, what we’ve got right now is a great core for any force. It comes out to 380 points on the tabletop, and with the average game being played at between 1,000 and 1,250 points there’s plenty of space for additions!
We’ll be doing a few more bits to this platoon in future articles, including a quick and simple painting guide, and some potential additions, but for now if you follow our lead and build as we’ve done, you’ll have a rock-solid foundation for a Soviet force in no time at all!
Ready to start a Soviet force of your own?
