Bitwa o Babilon – comment agrandir votre armée Blutkreuz ?

Article By: Balint Wojciech Lengyel

New 2 player starter set for Dust 1947 is a great opportunity to start a journey with new system. I’m sure that for some it will be a long and very exciting adventure. It’s quite obvious that after few battles the question “what next” will arise. So let’s see how we can expand the Blutkreuz forces from Battle for Babylon.

Let’s have a short rundown of what an be found inside the new box. Axis forces are: Sigrid Von Thaler and her trusty Snow Lynx walker, mindless zombies squad and a team of ape pioneers. This force is very powerful when facing enemy armor. Snow Lynx with her skilled pilot should be able to handle any enemy walker, well maybe apart from heavier armor 6 and 7 units. These beasts would require 3 successful hits – and here the pesky undead shine most. Slow, not very effective against infantry – they can easily finish or demolish any vehicle. Also the gorillas can help with some damage on enemy units thanks to their jackhammers – but their main role is eliminating enemy infantry with their flammfausts. So what’s next?

First choices are quite obvious for this army in my opion. I would start with a classic BK starter set, and then the HQ box. Next some single picks would follow, which thanks to very wide offer of BK armies can be decided based on your own taste. At the beginning I would avoid the BK army box. Why ?Let’s start with this issue.

Blutkreuz is a faction focused on it’s anti vehicle potential, firsts tastes of that can be felt in the Babylon set. Army box brings more of that medicine to the patient- one of the best tank hunters in the game – Wotan, and three infantry units that mostly focus on the same task. In the end if enemy would choose to focus on infantry models our units would be underwhelming. Hence I would recommend BK army box as the final, not the first purchase.

Starter set units are much better at balancing our forces. Cheap Heinrich can engage both infantry and air targets alike, while keeping away for the enemy (which is not always so obvious for BK units). Infantry squad – zombie grenadies are not the cheapest you can find, but their ranged weaponry, panzerfausts and improved cover safe offer a very versatile frontline unit. Even in the more open maps.

Final unit is Frank von Stein, fast, great at charge, deadly against enemy infantry. He might not be able to take the whole squad at once, but one that got shot by our other units – will be no match for our killing machine. Mr. Stein is also quite important – as with the rest of the starter set he introduces a very interesting platoon that allows you to suppress enemy units (we are playing scary zombies after all). Any close combat attacks makes the victims (and allied units that seen the massacre) increase their suppression level. This new ability allows us to greatly reduce the enemy combatants effectiveness.

Continuons vers un autre choix de renfort, la boite de commandement. So let’s continue to next step of expansion – Headquarters box. The first and most important thing is the command unit. The ability to reload your used flammfausts or reactivate a squad that’s in the middle of enemy formation is sometimes crutial part of victory. Imagine Sigrid and her walker sustaining fire twice a round- sounds good doesn’t it? Next part are the heroes: Wolfgang is a great addition to our mindless zombies, Totenmaister will boost their effectiveness and bring resurrection options. That makes you want to buy more and more of these undead hordes… Continuons vers un autre choix de renfort, la boite de commandement.

Marcus creates similar army building opportunities. But apart from his undead competition he himself is quite capable fighter. A dedicated apes platoon and overall feel of this part of Blutkreuz will surely create a lot of Ape focused fighting forces. Assault gorillas are all similar in that matter – fast, hard to kill, effective at charge. Compared to these previous heroes Grenadier X seems less interesting – but in hands of more experienced players he will help that crucial squad of undead get the job done thanks to additional points of health.

As you can see the HQ box offers a lot of individual heroes and support in form of command squad. But to fight in the war you need cannon fodder – more units! What should we start with when building a dedicated Blutkreuz force?

Infantry squads! Basics are quite simple – additional gorillas will work wonders with Marcus, while more zombies will fully integrate the undead heroes into our ranks. It’s worth noticing that the more brainless zombies there are on the field, the better Totenmeister resurrection abilities become. For more ranged focused units I recommend more zombie grenadiers or laser grenadiers (the latter even in multiple numbers). With these in mind we should now be able to create a universal force, that can engage both vehicle and infantry focused armies, with some additional AA coverage.

Of course instead of creating a multicultural forcewe can focus on more profiled army. Based on gorillas, zombies or laser forces. All depends on your fluff preferences and imagination. Each of these variants has it’s advantages and drawbacks. I think at the beginning it’s better to play out the full spectrum of the faction before committing to certain elements of it. Of course you can always experiment by mixing in some other factions (zombies + fallschirmjager anyone? 😀 )and main axis bloc units. I especially recommend using the sturmgrenadier mortar team. Using smoke shells for cover is not an option – it’s a necessity, especially with zombies – I will focus on them in another article.

What would be my least favorite units in the faction? Forget about heavy laser grenadiers, right now they are quite useless on the battlefield. I also cannot fit the suicide zombie squads into any force. The 3 man support laser weapons is the best of three. Has some range options and can ceal real damage – but I wouldn’t call it a first necessity unit. Unless it’s part of a bigger bundle.

At the end the big guns that were a bit missing in the article. Wotan is a very good and powerful walker. It doubles a bit in tasks with our Snow Lynx but maybe you love walkers and will want to have 2 tank hunters on the field? You can also try the Flammluther variant, which fits better into the close combat feel of the Blutkreuz forces.

Well that’s all folks! At least for now. Remember: Blutkreuz is the most climatic army in the world of Dust. With most insane and imaginative units. You have many options at the table. Do I go for universal army, fully exploiting the richness of this army?Or maybe I focus in one direction that feels or looks the best for me? Anyway I guarantee you will have tons of fun on the battlefield with your Blutkreuz force!