Flames Of War – Bagration: Soviet Infantry Releases
September 18, 2020 by avernos
Battlefront Miniatures has just released four box sets to help the defenders of Mother Russia against the Grey Wolf. To coincide with the release of the Late War Soviet book Flames of War players can now run out the Soviet hordes with three new Company box sets and a platoon-sized box for more tailored list building.
Rifle Company // Flames of War
The Strelkovy (riflemen) form the bulk of the RKKA, the Red Army. Their role is to break through enemy defences for the mechanised troops to exploit and to follow them to hold their gains. The set contains four hard plastic rifle platoon sprues and two of each of the Flamethrower Team and PTRD spun plastic sprues for your command and specialist support weapons.
Engineer-Sapper Company // Flames of War
Engineer-Sappers are the elite arm of the Red Army’s engineer corps. These well-trained engineering assault troops are called on to overcome the most difficult enemy defences. Assault groups are formed based upon the nature of the enemy defences faced by the advancing Soviet army. All of the miniatures are still shown as being in metal, I know Battlefront have started to move to injected spun plastic for some metal components, but I'm not sure what material they will be at time of writing.
SMG Company // Flames of War
The sub-machine gun is already a deadly close assault weapon. Putting it into the hands of Soviet heroes creates some of the most deadly assault troops in the world. These miniatures, twelve sprues in all, are a range of the new Battlefront spun plastics. This allows you to make Penal Companies or Scout platoons in place of the SMG Company which is always good to add to the meat grinder.
Storm Group // Flames of War
The actions of the Storm Group are short, fast and daring. The commander prepares his Storm Group for the mission at hand, tailoring his unit to suit what is needed to defeat the enemy and take the objective. Seven spun plastic sprues make up this Storm Group force, including two maxim machine guns and four mortars to support the PPSH wielding assault force.
The boxes all contain the relevant cards to run the companies in all the various combinations that the lists allow. Obviously these are a fantastic jumping-off point for people wanting to get into the Late War period with the Soviets for the first time, but they also offer good expansions if current Soviet players don't already have enough infantry already 😉 I'm pretty sure I heard Soviet players groan there so my work is done.
Another great offering from Battlefront as the focus shifts from the fields of France to the Eastern Front. I look forward to Lloyd starting them once he gives up on the British. If you fancy picking up a gun and defending Mother Russia you can get them at
Store.Ontabletop.Com
Mother Russia
Mother Russia rain down down down
"Obviously these are a fantastic jumping-off point for people wanting to get into the Late War period with the Soviets for the first time, but they also offer good expansions if current Soviet players"
“I look forward to Lloyd starting them once he gives up on the British.” – lol nice Gerry.
Well I will be showing my Brits on the XLBS! 🙂
awwwh
Going all “rivet counter” here… The usual “wargamer thing” is to arm all your Guard infantry units with SMGs to max out the dice on your assaults. But actually nearly all the Guard units were actually armed with rifles. The SMG was used by the storm companies (who were usually fresh troops to the front) as it required less training to use (and alas the life expectancy in these storm companies wasn’t great). The Soviet army equipped their troops with rifles in preference, but the SMG were cheaper and easier to use so were issued in great abundance compared to… Read more »
I always field infantry, I start with an OOB and build my force as close as I can rules permitting, then I sit back and get roflstomped by a swarm of angry tonks!
Thanks for the information on the Soviets, I never ran Soviets or really played eastern front so haven’t looked into them. The detail about the SMG wielders mostly being green is fascinating.
Well it’s pretty true that all “assaults” used ideally trained units that hadn’t seen much combat before (veterans would baulk at the order as we have seen in other conflicts). Look at the divisions assigned for the D-Day initial landings on day one and you’ll see this to be evident (whereas wargamers would probably bung them in with a min-maxed army list). SMGs were easier to train troops to use (spray and pray basically), and this coupled with the soviet high commands willingness to accept massive casualties meant that the storm groups were usually green troops rather than veterans and/or… Read more »
Nice.
I’ve just ordered a Bagration book from OTT. Great to get on with a new army for Flames of War after getting a US Sherman Company and a German Panzer IV Company rienforced with Tigers, and I’m close to completing a German Infantry company with lots of mortars and anti tank.