Bolt Action The Red Army

I too am digging in with Bolt Action, a Infantry minitures game, I am not a tanker.  I along with a few friends at our local game shop have been looking at this game for awhile, we even had a copy of the new rules set.  I initially bought the Bolt Action Warlord Games German Infantry set, and found that assembling these figures in any form of realilistic poses was difficult withour heating and molding the arms and legs to 'fit' the weapons and gear. Being 28mm figures yes were easy to paint and the 'plastic' moldings were excellant, but assembly and the price were negatives in my book.

Exploring further I found The Plastic Soldier Company who I bought my new 15mm Flames of War Russian Red Army at 1/3rd the price of Battlefront minitures
also had 28mm Soviet Army Infantry in Summer Uniform as well as a Heavy Weapons set, I purchased one of each.  Being plastic moldings in some well thought out poses with little assembly required these figures were far easier to base, used FoW small bases for indivinduals standing or kneeling, and medium bases for prone figures.
The detail of the figures was excellant, down to the actual bolts of the M91/30 formed in the rifles.  The faces were far more detailed than the 'frankenstein, look of the metal Warlord molds, and the equipment and personal gear was well thought out.  Now comes the price, $27 for 57 plastic figures from TPSC, as compared to $44 for 27 metal figures from Warlord.  Pretty easy financial decesion there.  TPSC is bringing out 28mm German, American, and British figures asap for the release of Bolt Action.

The other reason I chose the Red Army was the 'challenge'.  Being a 'conscript' army, with very few surviving 'trained' troopers in the mix, the challenge is how to balance numbers and the lack of 'skill' and morale to accomplish the mission.  There will be 'elites' here and there such as snipers or battle hardened leaders, but the average soldier will be a totally dependant on orders, lack of initiative troop.

Now my 'Squad':
1 Sergeant
1 DP-27 Light machine gun with 2 crew
10 Rifleman M91/30 rifles (or 10 SMG PPsH smg's)
1 50mm Light Mortar

Support
1 Maxim Medium Machinegun with 3 crew
1 PTRD Antitank rifle with 2 crew
2 82mm Medium Mortars with 3 crew each.

Company Command
1 Captian of Lieutanant
1 Political Officer- Kommisar
1 Medic (female)

Now Bolt Action is also a point build game so the above can fluctuate with point need.  I can field a complete Infantry Company (2 boxes of Infantry)with three manuever Platoons and a Heavy support Platoon (one box Heavy weapons) if needed.
Also inbound is one T-34/85 and one BA-64 Armored Car.  Plus a 'sniper team' of two.  This is NOT a tank game, armor support is limited.  There are several options of towed anti-tank guns, infantry support guns, mortars, machineguns and more on the way.

I am in a stall mode as there is a lot of outside activity going on, once weather changes will expand and start construction of scenery and buildings.  All in all play tested and fun, love the game system rather than the standard Ugi-Igo , and the options are infanite.