And a second comand squad! That's getting more and more interesting!

Red Guards Anti-Tank Squad: Probably just like the Bot Hunters/Panzer Killers, but the more powerful/less range SSU rifle.

Red Guards Command Squad: Now this is interesting, I already found it strange when they gave the Medvedi that killer Power Tool. I'm used to keeping the A2 Command Squad tucked away, far from the fray, but it seems they really want the SSU Command Squads to lead the battle by example. Now these guys get a bazooka and some UGLs. This will be a pretty costly squad, but is it worth it?

Mao Zedong - Ah, finally the heavy tanks! This looks very interesting, cool in that "uncool" way. Weird that the SSU gets this amazing AA platform, but its enemies don't yet have any aircraft to make it necessary. Guess the axis and allied aircraft can't be far behind.

Vladimir Lenin - And the russians get a heavy artillery piece. Man, this thing looks scary. A heavy tank with such a cannon and with Damage Resilient….

In the online shop you can have a glimpse of the stat cards:

They both have Move 1 and 8 Health points. The Armour is hard to see, but they seem to be the same, and not Armor 7. Most likely Armor 6. They have 4 weapons lines, the main weapon, a top turret, a front MG and a back MG (axis heavies, eat your heart out). The artillery cannon has x/skull damage. And it seems to me like they may have Carry Capacity.

This is just awesome and costly for a new SSU player…lol

Amazing and $$$ factors are equally high…that's why I got to get the SSU in!

Wow, let's get this overtime ON!!!!!!!!!!!! :P

Loophole Master said:

Possibly.  Like you and I expect most players, your command squad is kept out of harms way but now when the enemy does come for them the Red Guards can fend for themselves and nearing the game end they can come out of hiding for a few turns and will have a lot of firepower to take on depleted units and full strength units.

Russian infantry did ride into combat on the back of tanks, don't think these two heavies will be going very far on the table top though.

Good Lord… I just wonder if the second A2 command squad could be somehow fielded with the previous one… "Get Movin'" twice a turn? Scary… A this mortar looks like it could destroy impassable terrain tiles… I`m really frightened :)

 With 8 Health and Damage Resilience, these monsters are going to be hard to take down.  I guess there are no special rules for tracked vehicles?

Wow, that lots of cool SSU stuff! With all those options, I'll have to seriously think about what exactly to get to have a cool SSU army and what could possibly be left out.

??! said:

Beats me. i'm, already up to 718pts 

Major Mishap said:

You'll need an entire room for you games! Battlefloor carpets coming sson?!!? :P

 I'm sure I can get a roll of squared lino somewhere :)  Should be playing a large multi-player at club next week.

Gothik said:

No, the rules say you can only field a single Command Squad of each Armor type.

Loophole Master said:

That might be a clue to the SSU organisation in DW though.  A Regular Co. a Guard Co. and maybe an airborne Co.??

Hopefully that is true regaurding regular, gaurd and airborne troop types.

I hope they take the axis and the allies down the same path by releasing a bazooka armed armor2 command squad also.

I like the look and idea of underground tiles, as well as the facts they are adding tracked vehicles (with the Soviet propensity to risk soldiers by riding them into battle).  Of course, if the soldiers are supposed to be inside and protected, it adds to the frustrating elements of the new announcements.

The first disappointment is not a big deal for those who have other tastes, but I liked DUST as an alternate history moderate sci-fi game.  Adding super heroes is not something I'm interested in.  A Soviet Iron Man does not impress me.  If he's Armor 4, I'm less impressed, because that leaves nowhere for the Vrill to go with what should be more advanced technology.  The heavy walkers being Armor 7 was the same disappointment.  It works, but it doesn't leave anywhere for the Vrill to show better technology.  Consider the difference between a WW2 tank and a modern tank only 70 years ahead on technology.  A King Tiger is a joke compared to an M1 Abrams.  The heavies work within the game, as will Armor 4 infantry, but the Vrill get shafted for whenever they show up.  I can play without Iron Man, and I'm glad there are people who like him for the game, but not me.

The vehicles are both a good thing, and a very bad thing.  One of the things I hated about 40K was the stupid proportions on their vehicles.  One of the things I find silly in DUST is the decision that guns must be bigger to be better, because bigger guns were frequently less effective against vehicles.  The new DUST vehicles address both issues.

The quad 85mm AA mount I have no problem with other than imagining the hell it would cause a crew to keep it loaded.  The Soviet 85mm gun was originally an AA gun, just like the German 88mm, so that's fine.  Mounting four of them together, even with auto-loading, would be an incredible ammo hog, as each round, without propellant, would be about 10kg (22 poinds).  Ammunition supply and weight was one of the reasons they used small guns in multiple mountings.  There were good reasons to go with quads on small guns, duals on slightly bigger guns, but single mounts for the biggest guns.

The 252mm mortar is the mount that really disappointed me.  40K was the first game where I saw vehicle models that were completely ridiculous, but this one is a perfect match.  The gun is huge, and looks impressive, but guns recoil, and there is nowhere for the crew to be in that turret and survive when that gun fires.  Considering a 155mm HE shell is 95 pounds (43kg), and an 8" (208mm) shell increases that to just over 200 pounds (91kg), a 252mm shell would weigh around 400 pounds (182kg) just for explosive and casing to hold it.  The 155mm & 8" weights are from actual HE shells, to give an idea of the weight increase with larger guns.  None of those weights includes propellant, and are just the explosive and the casing.  How many rounds that size would you expect that vehicle to carry when it needs room for the crew, the vehicle power plant and controlls, the turret mechanism, and propellant for those shells.  The KV2 had a 152mm gun in a turret, and it only caried ten rounds on board the vehicle.  These rounds would be far larger, with a gun that was both larger, and had more recoil.  Add to that the idea of the crew having to load those big rounds.  Big rounds normally use a hydraulic ram to load them, which is that much more space.  Even if you assume an automated loader, which the turret size gives no room for, the vehicle is fantasy instead of something that belongs in science fiction.

I like them adding vehicles, and look forward to seeing more.

I just wish the vehicles looked like actual combat vehicles intead of a silly kids toy.

 Karl-Gerät, that is all.