Unarmed Men and Close Combat

[Mark Prichard]

Soviet Shtrafbat squads allow a Squad to have up to 7 unarmed men. According to the Armies of the Soviet Union unarmed men neither shoot or attack in close quarters. In the errata on page 16, it says that unarmed models have no ranged attack but may fight in close quarters combat. So which one applies in close combat?

[Paul Nettle]

Errata, if up to date, trumps rules in the books.  Errate is supposed to update rules.

[Stuart Harrison]

@ Paul – it’s not an errata entry.  It’s an FAQ response to an ambiguous question which doesn’t consider different instances of models which may be unarmed.

“Do unarmed models count as having pistols?
No, they do not. They can fight in close quarters, but have no
ranged weapons.”

For models with the ‘x, y, or z, as depicted on the model’ terminology on their weapons line, they DO count as having a pistol.  Different supplements have dealt with ‘unarmed’ in different ways, generally by making them nothing but ablative wounds (Shtrafbat).  The only ones I can think of that match the response given are crew of team weapons, and Japanese Bamboo Spear squads (and they’re not even unarmed, just no ranged weapons).

Before answering the question, the responder should have clarified WHICH unarmed models were being queried.

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