Dust Battlefield Unit Assessment: SSU Chinese Volunteers, Infantry Transport Helicopter, and Air Ambulance

This article will cover three units that don’t have much in common in Dust Battlefield.  However, the Chinese Volunteers (aka Tiger Claws) and Infantry Transport Helicopter (Assaulter) come in the same box (which is a bit of a shame considering how Horde-ish  the Chinese Volunteers can be).  I also throw in the Air Ambulance as the troop transport chopper is fairly easy to modify into it.

In this article I will review the stats of these three units, some tactical ideas that they can be for, and give my opinions of how they stack up compared to the rest of the units in Dust Battlefield.

Dust Battlefield Unit Assessment: SSU Hero Red Yana

When I first started playing Dust with Dust Warfare, Red Yana was like the sister to Koshka.  She was a walker pilot that didn’t have the Grand’Ma Only restriction, and she was armed with a better weapon.  The big differences between Red Yana was she couldn’t lead a Platoon and cost a few more points.

Now in Dust Battlefield, Red Yana still doesn’t lead platoons (Babylon not withstanding), but she don’t drive vehicles anymore either.  She has become a sort of Soviet super Sergeant leading her squad to victory with acts of daring beyond most infantry.  Maybe she took a correspondence course.

This article will review the SSU Hero Red Yana going over her abilities, some tactics you can use with her, and my over all (super biased) opinion on her as unit compared to the rest of Dust Battlefield.

Dust Battlefield Battle Summary: 150 Points SSU vs. Axis

This won’t be nearly as detailed as my other battle reports.  It will be more a summary of the game.  Today I played another new-ish player to our gaming group who fielded an Axis Force while I went with a SSU one.

Dust Battlefield Unit Assessment: SSU Super Heavy Tank “Lavrentiy Beria” and “Karl Marx”

Since the early days of the war, the Soviets have been known for their outstanding tank designs.  Following the same linage of the T-34 and more directly IS-2, the IS-48 is a monument to Soviet utilitarian engineering and design.  These tanks are still a match against the more advanced super heavy walkers of the Allies and Axis.

In this article I will review the stats and skills, roles and tactics, the platoon, and my thoughts and opinions on the Lavrentiy Beria as well as the Karl Marx.

Dust Battlefield Unit Assessment: SSU Self Propelled Weapon Platform “Red Rain” and “Red Fury”

These units are supposed to epitomize the idea, “Quantity has a quality of its own.”  The first unit I will talk about is the mortar platform “Red Rain” and make comparisons to the other less than 10 point SSU artillery options avaible.  I will also cover the other tractor unit, the Red Fury, which I seem to often take in my army lists when playing SSU.  I will review each units stats as they are concerned in Dust Battlefield.  I will also give my opinions on these units.

Dust Battlefield 100pt Demo Game Battle Report

I had the game to play a demo game with a new player today in Dust Battlefield.  He spoke with me last weekend about getting into Dust.  We managed it this weekend.  I provided both army lists with this input that he liked the gorillas.  Normally, I wouldn’t conduct a demo game at 100 points.  I prefer about 55 to 75 points usually built around the faction starter as it is the more common way to get into Dust these days.  However, because this new player stated they wanted Gorillas, I wanted to make sure to have a full Gorilla Platoon to give him all the options for them.  I also designed the list to be fairly straight froward in terms of special abilities and skills picking units that didn’t really have any.

Dust Battlefield Unit Assessment: SSU Hero Nikolai

Nikolai Starinov has the rare distinction of being both an officer in the 9th Guards Heavy Tank Division as well as Commissar.  These dual positions of military and political power sometimes give Nikolai more authority than a general.  This article with cover the stats of Nikolai, some ideas for his use, and my thoughts and opinion on this Sino-Soviet Union hero.

Dust Battlefield Unit Assessment: SSU Red Thunder

The Sino-Soviet Union’s Red Guard Anti-Tank Squad also known as the Red Thunder are almost identical to the Soldier 2 (S2) anti-tank squads of the other blocs. This article with review the weapons and stats of this squad as well as my opinion on the unit itself and heroes that can join them.

Dust Battlefield 150pt SSU Army List: No More Heroes

This is an army list I think I want to try out for a while with a few refinements here and there.  I call it, “No More Heroes” because it has no heroes in the list and since I have an Air Ambulance I expect it to be shot down.  Else, I will be healing my large (and cheap) infantry force.  And like my medic Bolt Action who was always doing something they shouldn’t (usually running interference) to keep their medic status, I can’t see the Air Ambulance doing anything except making my infantry squads frustratingly durable to be shot down.

Dust Battlefield Unit Assessment: SSU Attack Helicopters “Blaster”, “Burner”, “Burster” and “Striker”

In this article I will be looking at all of the SSU Attack Helicopters. I will be looking at the four options which are different weapon loadouts or combinations of these weapons.  Overall aircraft in Dust Battlefield are extremely fast with higher Move and March Moves of ground based forces hobbled somewhat with their shorter range weapon systems.  They tend to hover around 20 points in cost.  This article will cover specifically SSU helicopters, but I also want to take some time on my opinions of aircraft in Dust Battlefield in general as well.