Soviet players, rejoice! October will see the release of Armies of the Soviet Union: Third Edition, and alongside it comes not only the plastic Katyusha, but a whole new infantry sprue. Let’s have a look at just what you get on the frame (spoiler alert: it’s a lot!):
We’ll start off with the bodies – six of the best, in the simple but effective Soviet ‘summer’ uniforms, in a range of dynamic poses to ensure your squads look suitably warlike and interesting. Soviet kit tends towards the rugged and effective, and the fact that it was issued en masse to such a huge number of troops means these bodies are the perfect platform for an enormous array of different units.
Your troops will never win a battle if they can’t get ahead (geddit?), and fortunately the sprue is packed with head options. With a whopping 20 heads per frame, you’ve got everything you need for a properly varied force. Kicking off are of course six ‘standard’ heads in helmets, perfect for every flavour of Soviet troops, while alongside them are half a dozen in the peaked caps of the dreaded NKVD. Combining these with a simple painting solution (blue trousers!) and the new rules found in the book allow you to field entire armies of political soldiers, all in plastic! Also joining the fray are the Bolt Action staples of an officer’s cap, side-cap, bare and bandaged heads, and two more that are a little bit special. For the first time in Bolt Action, we’ve got plastic female heads, perfect for your Soviet snipers, medics, radio operators, and more!
Onto the armament (and arms!), we’ve got all the Soviet staples so common to the Bolt Action table. We know what Soviet players want, and this sprue delivers. Rifles? You betcha! No need to recreate that famous scene from Enemy at the Gates – there’s one for each man, and more, with seven Mosin-Nagants as well as an SVT-40, perfect for ensuring that even your lowliest infantry can do some shooting. Backing them up is a pair of DP-28 light machine guns for suppressing enemy infantry, as well as a scoped Mosin-Nagant for equipping Sniper teams, a PTRD-41 anti-tank rifle for dealing with light armour, and a captured Panzerfaust for late-war tank hunting.
We’ve not talked about the most iconic Soviet infantry weapon yet, but don’t worry – the submachine gun is extremely well-represented, with three PPSh, two PPS, and a captured MP 40 allowing you to give every model an SMG. This is perfect for the Soviet SMG Squad armed with – what else? – loads of SMGs! We’ve also got a nice selection of ‘ancillary’ small arms – a Nagant revolver, Tokarev pistol, and hand grenades, and for those who want to get up close and personal, a trio of melee weapons: a knife, a stout stick (which also doubles as a signal flagpole), and an entrenching tool wielded with malice aforethought.
All that weaponry needs a lot of ammunition, and the sprue is helpfully festooned with plenty of pouches, bags, and rucksacks to carry it all. Additionally, we’ve also got a pair of capes, ideal for representing Scouts or Sniper Teams, plus a couple of rolled-up blankets or greatcoats in case your troops get chilly – we’re nice like that! Rounding out the kit is a medical satchel, and a pair of arms clutching some ‘liberated’ supplies – a sack containing something nebulously valuable, and a rather angry chicken, ready for use in that evening’s dinner or possibly as a very improvised close combat weapon. Finally, there’s a dog on every sprue, designed to allow you to represent the new Guard Dogs special rule or… whatever else you might need a dog for in a Soviet force.
From conscripts to Commissars, Scouts to Siberians, this new sprue covers off a vast percentage of the many Soviet infantry squad and teams and options in the upcoming Armies of the Soviet Union: Third Edition. It’s available as a standalone Platoon box, or as the core of the new starter army – have you pre-ordered yours yet?
