Three Dust Armies by September!

A couple of weeks ago I suggested to my friend Anders that we should get some kind of deadline to motivate ourselves when it comes to painting Dust Warfare. My idea was to do something akin to The Tale of Four Gamers from the olden days of White Dward (ten-ish years ago I'd wager).

Basically, we'd commit to an army and a date and then we'd make sure that that army was painted so we could play with it on that date. It's important not to get over enthusiastic when doing things like this so we decided to start out small with only 150 points worth of models. That usually amounts to three or four squads of infantry and one or two walkers. Manageable for painting but enough to make for a fun game.

The aim of this endeavor is of course to get models painted, so our two forces would reflect which models we wanted to paint rather than what we thought would do the best job at killing the enemy.

With this in mind I wanted to make a force centered around my Red Guard and a Nikita walker, as I've never really used artillery before. The Russian gun tractor was also too cool not to include and after some kajiggering I ended up with the following:

Dust Warfare - Force Builder
Faction: SSU ( 150 / 150 )

---  Red Platoon (150)
Command Section: "Red Command" Red Guards Command Squad (25)
1st Section: "Red Thunder" Red Guards Antitank Squad (20)
2nd Section: "Red Thunder" Red Guards Antitank Squad (20)
3rd Section: KV47-E Aero "Nikita" (45)
Support: BR 47-100 "Red Fury" (20)
Support: BR 47-100 "Red Fury" (20)

Again, this is mostly what I wanted to get painted, but I still think it's a decent force that should be able to hold up well against any vehicle heavy opposition. Lots of infantry or even just some heavy infantry might prove trickier, but hopefully the artillery fire from the Nikita will prove versatile enough. Also, the Red Guard squads can be quite nasty against infantry as well if they get close enough.

Anders knew he wanted to include his Horton fighter and a walker so built his force around this. What he ended up with was this:

Dust Warfare - Force Builder
Faction: Axis ( 150 / 150 )

---  Sturmgrenadiere Platoon (150)
Command Section: Manfred (15, Hero)
1st Section: Heavy Flak Grenadiers (26)
2nd Section: Battle Grenadiers (17)
3rd Section: Recon Grenadiers (17)
Support: Horten HO-347.III "Fledermaus III" (45)
Support: MPW II-A "Luther" (30)

Except for using Manfred as the command section these are mostly staple units that I often face when playing against Anders, so good choices for painting. I think I inadvertently created an army that will perform well against this force, except maybe for the Heavy Flak Grenadiers.

What about the third Duster? Well, me and Anders were talking about our little project in our small chat room for painting when our other friend Gille piped up and wanted to join in on the fun! He didn't have any Dust models at the time but had been intrigued when hearing about our battles. After some discussion he ordered a complete 150 point army of Allies and he'll join the project, although I think we might extend his deadline by two weeks or so since he had to order his stuff.

Gille wanted to have as many walkers as possible as well as lots of heavy infantry. He couldn't make it fit with all heavy infantry but I still think the army he ended up with is a good compromise:

Dust Warfare - Force Builder
Faction: Allies ( 150 / 150 )

---  Elite Platoon (150)
Command Section: "Corps Officers" Heavy Ranger Command Squad (30)
1st Section: "Grim Reapers" Heavy Ranger Attack Squad (30)
3rd Section: "The Gunners" Combat Ranger Squad (17)
    + Replace one M1+UGL with M9 Bazooka (3)
4th Section: "Death Dealers" Ranger Weapon Squad (20)
Support: MCW M2-B "Hot Dog" (30)
Support: LAW M1-A "Wildfire" (20)

This is more of a mixed bag and very much simply what looked cool (the best way to choose an army!!). Still, I don't think it will be a bad force on the tabletop either; there's plenty of anti-air and anti-infantry, which is always good in smaller games like this. Long range anti-tank firepower is where it comes in a little short, but up close there are quite a few bazookas and rocket punches to go around. Not to mention the Napalm thrower on the Hot Dog.

Most of all I think both me and Anders will find it difficult to handle that jumping heavy infantry that can simply mow down our poor men! Again, I'll put my trust in the Nikita while I think for Anders it will be a matter of promptly destroying the Wildfire so his plane can have some space to work with.

There you go! Three players and three armies. We've set the deadline to the Saturday on September 14th for me and Anders and the Saturday on the 28th for Gille. On these days we'll meet up and play a game or two with our chosen platoons and if anyone of us has failed to paint something to an acceptable standard, that person will have to buy dinner that day. I'm looking forward to a free meal! :)

I'll post updates as I paint new stuff, and I will try and update when Anders or Gille paint stuff as well. It kind of comest down to if they remember to take pictures or not, but I'll be sure to nag them about it!

Expect an update soon...