S-Tank

Almost at the end of Broken Shields, only one mission left. It's been one hell of a slog.

Into Lithuania by SeinfeldRules. A neat little scenario.

Almost at the end of Broken Shields, only one mission left. It's been one hell of a slog.

Into Lithuania by SeinfeldRules. A neat little scenario.

Into Lithuania by SeinfeldRules. A neat little scenario.

Dusky evening as the wehrmacht battles against Konev's massive 1st Ukrainian Front tank troops...

like this ISU II heavy Soviet tank...

or this ISU 152

Can the German Rearguard units hold on whilst the bulk of the Battalion escape to prepared defence positions, before being surrounded and destroyed???

New scenario for Battle for Berlin, coming soon.

Almost at the end of Broken Shields, only one mission left. It's been one hell of a slog.

Almost at the end of Broken Shields, only one mission left. It's been one hell of a slog.

Almost at the end of Broken Shields, only one mission left. It's been one hell of a slog.

The Anhalter Bahnhof, now with Trains....Battle for Berlin V2, Coming Soon.

Almost at the end of Broken Shields, only one mission left. It's been one hell of a slog.

Almost at the end of Broken Shields, only one mission left. It's been one hell of a slog.

Almost at the end of Broken Shields, only one mission left. It's been one hell of a slog.

Almost at the end of Broken Shields, only one mission left. It's been one hell of a slog.

Almost at the end of Broken Shields, only one mission left. It's been one hell of a slog.

I'll be starting part 3 of this mission in a few minutes:
 
 

What you start with are the reconnaissance elements. Their job isn't to attack main battle tanks, but to set the conditions for the later attack.
That means the two companies of tanks are your leading element, supported by your artillery.
In terms of that artillery, you have a battery of 120mm mortars and six batteries of rocket artillery.
I'm going to say that again for some emphasis. You have 36 BM-21 Grad self propelled 122mm multiple rocket launchers. 

So the real answer of "how do I fight M60s with BMPs" is that you don't. If you were forced to, the BMP-1 can penetrate M60s frontally with both the ATGM, and the HEAT round from the 73mm cannon. Neither is a great option, which means if you're forced to then something has gone wrong, but you do have the tools to do it, if you can create situations of local superiority.

One of the ways you can do that is by using some of the 1440 barrels of 122mm rocket artillery that you're given.

Some screens from my ongoing playthrough of Broken Shields.
 

Here is a quick and dirty AAR for a scenario I've been working on for Combat Mission Cold War. It should be noted that this is a test run through of this scenario. It features two Soviet tank battalions in the attack against a US cavalry troop, with me playing as the Soviets. The goal for the Soviets is to force a breakthrough. High losses are expected but acceptable if a breakthrough is achieved.

The goal of the initial fires and maneuver plan is to compartmentalize the battlefield by isolating the far left and far rear enemy positions with smoke, while pummeling suspected strongpoints with massed artillery fire before reducing them with massed direct fire

The results are rough.



The enemy strongpoints along their main line of resistance are reduced, but it costs the entirety of 1st battalions tanks to do so

2nd battalion (having arrived as reinforcements) is tasked with carrying on the attack to affect a breakthrough

To support their efforts, the artillery fires are pushed deeper into the map to suppress known/suspected enemy strongpoints. The town will be bypassed unless an AT threat remains, in which case 1st battalion's infantry will assault and clear the town.
And the result of the effort:

2nd battalion is able to reduce the remaining strongpoints and force a breakthrough, taking relatively few losses in the process.
Of the 40 tanks lost in the attack, 30 are from 1st battalion in their effort to smash through the MLR.
Brief Analysis:
Could this have gone better for the Soviets? 

I think there are two answers to that question.
1) The entire scenario is a forced breach against a solid defense, so heavy losses are inevitable. A big part of the Soviet dilemma is choosing where to take the inescapable beating, or put nicer, spend the combat power. In this case I chose to spend 1st battalion breaking the enemy main line of resistance. The result was 1st battalion getting destroyed, but it was not in vain. 1st battalion reduced enough of the strongpoints that 2nd battalion was able to blow through and achieve a breakthrough with minimal losses.
2) The fires plan could also have placed the smoke in a way that would have isolated all but one strongpoint (as opposed to leaving two open). By blinding all but one, it would have made the initial direct fire engagement with my tanks less one sided, but would have created more difficulties later. I've drawn up another graphic of this modified fires plan, this one:

The downside to this is that while it shields the attacker at first, it also puts them in a tough spot that they still have to fight out of. With the far right strongpoint reduced, that still leaves the center and rear right strongpoint to deal with, and the far left strongpoint can still put fire into the kill zone (engagement area) as well, which means follow on forces are more at risk.
There are a few tweaks I'm planning to make (the addition of another battery of 152mm 2S3's as noted in the revised fires plan graphic) and I am also waiting on a friend of mine to finish a playthrough to see those results. This will hopefully be revisited and given a more detailed AAR in the future, but for now I thought this would be a fun pocket sized AAR. 

Some screens from my ongoing playthrough of Broken Shields.
 

Thanks. The modded terrain textures are part of 37mm's All In One pack for RT, no clue who made them originally I'm afraid.
I'm also using ReShade to add a few things, like ambient light, bloom etc. IIRC I made some changes to the color balance as well.

Hi all
I've created this post to make available some resources that may be of use to players.
I've attached the Five Days One Summer campaign flowchart - so you can see where you are going, if you wish. If you'd rather not see into the future then best not read it.
I've attached the Tigers at Ogledow campaign flowchart - again possible spoilers here so if you'd rather not know, don't look!
Also I've attached a SPW Training Missions Tactics and Lessons document. This document provides a deeper overview of the doctrine and tactics taught (and used) by German armored panzer grenadier units equipped with the Sdkfz 251 halftrack and its variants (referred to as a Schützenpanzerwagon or SPW) in the later part of the war, around 1944. Its main intent is to provide additional background to the series of scenarios and missions in the battle pack for Red Thunder, in particular the series of three SPW ‘Lesson’ series scenarios. My thanks to @domfluff who reviewed this and provided tactical insight, oh and it was his idea originally.
Five Days One Summer Wiking panzer grenadier mods - I've added a wee package of mods I used for the grenadiers in the Five Days One Summer. I basically assembled others excellent mods to create a look which is in the Wiking Mods GMc Mix . Main changes are grenadiers are in light battle rattle - no extraneous kit, crusher caps are M43s and senior officer has a 'Wiking' cuff band and a M43. My thanks to the talent and good will of Aris, @EZ (WSS Senior Officer and WSS camo uniforms), @Frenchy56 (Crusher and side caps to M43) @kohlenklau (No-gear mod - the campaign is mod tagged 'no gear') @Lucky_Strike (Senior officer peaked caps to M43s). I used Aris' Soviet tank mods, his Soviet faces and VM's summer Soviet uniforms.
Five Days Campaign Overview_v1.pdf SPW Training Missions Tactics and Lessons_FINAL.pdf
1831305623_FiveDaysOneSummerMods.rar
Tigers at Ogledow Campaign Overview_v1.pdf

Some screens from my ongoing playthrough of Broken Shields.
 

Some screens from my ongoing playthrough of Broken Shields.
 

Some screens from my ongoing playthrough of Broken Shields.