Today I took some time to choose a scenario and start selecting my forces. My collection of minis is Russian and German forces, so these games will mostly focus on the East Front. In this video we take a look at the Russian forces and put together a regular strength Russian platoon.
From reading questions on the Yahoo group for Too Fat Lardies, it appears that the Russian squads move as a section and don’t come with any teams built in. It appears that you will need to break your squad down into teams yourself if you want teams. I don’t think this will be a problem as you are allowed to create teams as needed.
As this Russian platoon has a force rating of -3, this makes it weaker than the German platoon I put together. This would allow them to pick units from the table 5 of the support lists. However, in the end, I stay with a mortar from list 2 for support. If I need to, I can pick something from the higher list if the Russians have a hard time of things.
The simplicity of the platoon creation rules will be great for some, and a disappointment for others. The simplicity comes from the fact that the book tells you what comes in the platoon and then allows you to pick support from a list rather than worry about points. However, a points system would allow folks to play in equally matched pick up games.
We’ll see how this system plays out after we see the German platoon and get them on the table.
PUG, the Pick Up Gaming Blog 
But the lists are deigned precisely for pick up games that are balanced. Each force has a rating which allows you to balance your forces. It’s all in there already.
In that sense, it is great for a pickup game. However, I do know folks that really agonize over every point to be spent on their army which this system doesn’t have. For example, I love that in CoC, you just pick a platoon and put your troops together, compare force size and pick from the support list as needed. Some folks will prefer purchasing every aspect of their platoon and micromanaging the points cost which CoC doesn’t have.
So the lists are balanced, just not on a points system which may, I cannot be sure, be a disappointment to some. I rather like the CoC method as I don’t have to spend so much time planning my force creation and can focus more on getting to the table.