Although famously used as paratroops in the invasions of Belgium and Crete, for much of the war Germany used its paratroops as an elite earth-bound infantry after the airborne operations proved so costly in terms of loss of high quality soldiers. So such men were deployed as ordinary infantry in the battle for Russia from 1941, although for a game their potential remains considerable.

This is a set of game pieces for the Zvezda 'Art of Tactic' game system. It consists of four figures as pictured. Zvezda have been smart enough to offer this product in two forms. One is as separate figures, each with their own base, as shown above, while the second is as the intended game piece, with all the men attached to one base as seen here. This is fine as a game piece, but naturally such a group would not stand like this on any real battlefield. Some of the figures have several parts, but everything fits together beautifully without need for glue, and the poses are very good, although without much action to them. Equally the clothing and equipment has been accurately realised, and the sculpting is as good as always. No four-figure set is going to set the world alight, and there are now plenty of full sets depicting these men, but these are very appealing figures and while they serve their purpose within the game they are also useful for the wider modelling world.