Call to Arms – Gates of Hell: Ostfront: Your Guide to Soviet Infantry in Conquest (and MP)

Welcome to this guide, it is designed as an introduction to the myriad of Soviet Infantry units which will be available to you upon starting a new Conquest campaign. Some of these units are also available in Multiplayer, as such this guide will also be applicable for some MP squads; I will attempt to address both.

This guide will be formatted by the ‘Tiers’ of each Infantry Unit, those are displayed as a number in brackets before the name of each unit.
For the sake of clarity, these are as follows:
Tier 1+ – Expendable units, cheap in CP and cost, of low weapon skill, HP and equipment.
Tier 2+ – Line units, of a middling cost but of average weapon skills and with more equipment (bandages, grenades etc.)
Tier 3+ – Elite units, defined by having a better weapon skill, more HP and even more equipment, though not often more than Tier 2 units.
Tier 4+ – SOF units, with the greatest starting weapon skills, the most HP, a ton of ammo, bandoliers of grenades, ect. I think you get the point.

To clarify, some units have a + by the number whereas others have a base number without the +, to my understanding this represents an improved unit, but not to the extent that it would be the next tier up.

As stated above, these are cheap units, both in resources and manpower cap. They can hold a position but with few exceptions are unsuited for offence due to their reduced HP, poor weapon skill and, most importantly, the limited number of bandages and ammo each soldier carries.

Border Guards Squad
Cost: 52
CP:6
No of Men: 6
HP: 150-200
Bandages: 8
Weapons: 2x SVT-38, 2x Mosin Nagant, 2x Mosin Carbine, 4x AP grenades
Notable Features: 2x Semi-auto rifles in trained hands, Very limited ammunition.
One of the initial starting units for your Conquest Campaign, they are an interesting choice as they are equipped with 2x SVT-38 rifles, with both their users being of skill level 3 with them, wheras the rest are armed with Mosin Carbines at just skill level 2.

This unit is honestly not very good despite the two semi-auto rifles; each of the 4 Mosin-armed border militia is armed with just 45 rounds of ammunition, one grenade (only on those with a Mosin Nagant) and one bandage (two on those with a Mosin carbine), wheras the SVT-armed ones have 65 rounds, one grenade and two bandages. This means unless you have an ammo crate directly behind them, they will run out of ammo in short order, assuming they don’t run out of bandages first (they will if under any serious fire).

I would not advise using these, better to go with the…

Conscript Rifle Squad
Cost: 68
CP:9
No of Men: 9
HP: 150
Weapons: 1x PPSH 41, 8x Mosin Nagant, 3x AP grenades, 1x Smoke grenade
Bandages: 26
Notable Features: None really.
Another one of the initial starting units for your Conquest Campaign, these would be a reasonable choice if you cannot afford the research points to buy a better unit. All 9 conscripts are 150 hp and skill level 2 with their weapon of choice.

Each Mosin-armed conscript comes with 55 rounds of ammunition, while the squad leader’s PPSH has 4 magazines of 71 rounds each, this is honestly a decent amount and will last you a while since you don’t have any semi-auto rifles eating through your supply. In terms of their equipment, they have a good number of bandages, 26 to be exact with 2-3 per man. This is comparable to many Tier 2+ squads and will allow a decent level of survivability despite their reduced HP, provided you remember to hit the ‘heal’ button every once in a while.

These would be my choice if you had to use one of the two starting units.

Penal Battalion Squad
Cost: 93
CP:12
No of Men: 11
HP: 150-200
Weapons: 1x PPD-40, 2x PPSH 41, 8x Mosin Nagant, 14x AP grenades, 3 AT grenades, 3x Smoke grenade
Bandages: 26
Notable Features: Your first available ‘assault’ squad.
First on the ‘NKVD tree’, this unit is still relatively inexpensive but offers a lot of bodies, though I would question whether it isn’t worth paying an extra research point for a Tier 2+ unit with better accuracy at a cost only a little above this squad. (Note that the Rifle Squad (No LMG) costs 103 resources, gets 11 men, all at skill level 3 with their weapons.)

As for their composition, the Sgt of this squad comes as a Tier 2+ soldier with the improved weapon skill while the rest remain Tier 1. He is armed with a PPD with 4 magazines of 71 rounds each and all 3 of your smoke grenades, so best to keep him alive if you want those. You’ve got 2 PPSH-armed convicts with 4 magazines of 71 rounds, a grenade and 3 bandages each. Your convict riflemen have 55-60 rounds for their Mosin rifles and are equipped with 1-2 AP grenades each, with some bearing a molotov as an AT grenade, each also has 2-3 bandages. In total this squad has 26 bandages, much like a Tier 2+ squad.

More varety is always nice, but this squad isn’t that useful unless you really want to roleplay ‘Enemy at the Gates’ and charge the maximum number of men at the enemy lines. In all seriousness, it’s a decent cheap rifle squad and the SMGs can be dethatched to do well in urban combat, after all with a PPSH’s rate of fire the users having a skill level of just 2 doesn’t matter much.

NKVD Rifle Squad
Cost: 128
CP:15
No of Men: 12
HP: 200
Weapons: 11x Mosin Nagant, 1x DP-27, 14x AP grenades, 1 AT grenades, 3x Smoke grenade
Bandages: 42
Notable Features: Among the first squads available with an LMG
If you’re doing an NKVD-themed campaign this is your first and last Tier 2+ squad of choice, as though there are some branching options from this squad, these are more specialised (recon, AT rifle and sapper squads). But, for everyone else this is the cheapest (in research points) way to obtain a Tier 2+ squad with an LMG, though those points aren’t getting you any closer to non-NKVD units, which you might want in a longer campaign.

The squad is comprised of the MG operator, his loader and everyone else. The MG operator carries 7 dinner plates of 47 rounds each for a total of 294 rounds and the loader carries another 9 for him, for an additional 423 rounds, making for a total of 717 rounds of ammunition for the DP-27. The riflemen carry around 70 rounds each for their Mosin rifles, between 3-4 bandages each and a motley assortment of grenades, of which only one is AT (it is carried by the squad leader and is a proper one this time). The loader and MG operator carry a smoke grenade each, with the remaining being with the squad leader.

All in all, I would put this down as an excellent defensive squad, with no SMGs it can concentrate firepower at long range, and the DP-27’s low rate of fire means you should rarely run out of ammunition provided the loader stays alive and parked next to the operator.

NKVD Sapper Squad
Cost: 89
CP:11
No of Men: 9
HP: 200
Weapons: 9x Mosin Nagant, 12x AP grenades, 10 AT grenades, 4x Smoke grenade
Bandages: 32
Notable Features: Features an Engineer and 7x satchel charges.
A dead end from the NKVD Rifle Squad, this Tier 2+ squad brings significant numbers of AT grenades, a decent number of AP grenades, a lot of satchel charges and an Engineer, who can dig trenches and put up fortifications like tank traps. The issue with this squad is that for the same research point, you could by the ordinary Field Engineer unit and get both AT and AP miners free of charge, as well as being one point off an engineering truck. I would not say that this is not a viable squad, but it is not as useful as one may think.

This squad’s sappers and the Engineer all come with a Mosin and between 60-65 rounds each, as well as 3 medical kits on all but the squad leader who gets 4. Each man carries 1-2 AP grenades, 1-2 AT grenades and some carry one of 7 satchel charges (which can be tossed at anything up to a King Tiger and have a fair shot of taking it down). The squad leader carries 2x smoke grenades and the rest are distributed among the sappers.

On the whole, this is not a bad squad, but AT grenades are generally somewhat situational, same goes for the satchel charges. If you’re doing an all-NKVD campaign then this would be your only source of Field Engineers and fortifications.

NKVD AT Rifle Squad
Cost: 152
CP:11
No of Men: 7
HP: 200
Weapons: 4x Mosin Nagant, 3x PTRD-41, 3x Nagant revolvers, 5x AP grenades, 7 AT grenades, 7x Smoke grenade
Bandages: 25
Notable Features: Lots of AT rifles!
Another dead end from the NKVD Rifle Squad, this squad brings 3 single-shot AT rifles to the battlefield, though nothing special it is nonetheless useful, and if dealing purely with light armour, is about the same cost as an early light AT gun. When it comes to AT rifles, the recommended strategy is to keep them spread out, this would be splitting off one AT rifle assist with one AT rifleman and spreading them out. Do this and anything lighter than a tank will be destroyed in short order.

Each AT rifle assist as well as the squad leader has 65 rounds for their Mosin, they also carry between 3-4 magazines for the AT rifle (despite each rifle being single-shot) of 5 rounds each for a total of 15-20 rounds extra per AT rifle. As for the AT riflemen themselves they carry 35 rounds for their rile, which gives each AT rifle about 50 rounds when paired with a loader. Each AT rifleman also has a sidearm, a Nagant revolver and 4-5 reloads of 7 round each for self-defence or on the off chance they run out of ammo (wasting it all on infantry). 2-4 Bandages are carried by each man and each also caries AT and smoke grenades, whereas the AP grenades are with the assistant and the squad leader.

All in all, this is a worthwhile squad for defence, but on the offense and lacking the advantage of ambush positions at close range, the AT rifles at times to struggle to penetrate from the front.

NKVD Recon Squad
Cost: 89
CP:11
No of Men: 11
HP: 200
Weapons: 2x PPSH-41, 9x Mosin Nagant, 14x AP grenades, 1 AT grenades, 9x Smoke grenade
Bandages: 39
Notable Features: Improved vision range
Yet another dead end from the NKVD Rifle Squad, this is a recon squad, the only one which you’ll have access to if you’re doing an NKVD campaign. Fortunately, the job of a recon squad isn’t really to fight, rather it is advised to set them on ‘return fire’ and split them into groups of two, using them to scout ahead and find items of concern such as AT guns and armoured vehicles, to ensure you are not ambushed on the offence. On the defence, the same applies, but they should be deployed in bushes/tall grass ahead of your lines (as well as some in your lines) to ensure your support weapons can use the most of their range.

The squad leader and his buddy are armed with a PPSH-41 with 7x 35-round magazines each, with both having 3 bandages and a smoke grenade. The squad leader has an extra smoke grenade while his buddy carries a molotov as an AT grenade, the only one in this squad. The rest of the scouts are armed with Mosins, with 70 rounds per man and 3 bandages each. The remaining smoke grenades as well as at least one AP grenade each are distributed among them.

This is a no-frills recon squad, in contrast the Recon Squad one research point down from the Rifle Squad (no LMG) carries an LMG at increased cost to the squad. However, to my preference, it is better to keep a squad which is purely for scouting cheap; if all goes well they should not be shooting at all!