Building an army - what would you do? Just curious

[korvessa]

 I just purchased a box of Soviet infantry for my Winter War project. Now I have a problem, and was kind of wondering how others would solve it.
Basically, I want to build three squads of about 13 each.
For most of the Winter War a Soviet squad consisted of a LMG team and riflemen. They did not have SMG
The box does not contain enough rifles to outfit all 40 figures, they expect  youto use SMG or automatic rifles.
So I have a decision to make when I run out of rifles.
1) Use the SMG and just count them as riflemen when I play. They could be useful if I play them as later war occasionally.
2) dig into the bits box and use some extra German or American rifles I have. Not an exact match, but a rifle is a rifle.

[easyeight]

Howdy,
I think it matters based on what figures you bought. For example, if you bought figures in the Soviet Winter War uniform, then those are really only useful for the Winter War or maybe Barbarossa. The best source for these is Copplestone Castings Bolsheviks (they have the tall cap with the big red star). Then only rifles.

If they are Winter uniform Soviets like from Warlord/Bolt Action, then you can use them as is and have some SMG troops for later war scenarios.

[atomicfloozy]

I don't have a lot of sources on the Russo-Finnish War, but the PPD34 submachine gun was used in large numbers & would have been issued to NCOs & assistant LMG gunners. There was a directive to remove all SMGs from service at the beginning of 1939, but Stalin quickly reversed the order. At the beginning of the Winter War the lack of automatic weapons also caused the Soviets to reintroduce the WWI Fedorov Avtomat semi-automatic rifle from existing stockpiles.

My Soviet rifle squads are based on a late 1941/early 1942 organization of 12 men or women. The 12 man organization had 2 LMGs, up to 4 SMGs & a sniper with the remainder of the squad armed with rifles (5 to 8).

What would I do? Maybe for the first 3 to 4 months of the war I would count the SMG armed figures as rifles, but after that I would arm the NCO & the assistant LMG gunner with the SMGs.

[korvessa]

My understanding is that the Finns taught them the value of SMG
One source I found today has a 1939 squad as LMG crew and 11 rifles.
It's a Warlord box and I wil be mostly playing Winter War, but perhaps an occasional raid during winter time of the continuation war.

[apdrogers]

I'd just count the smgs as rifles and if you'd ever want to include smgs, you don't have to buy more.