A Noobs Review of Russian Campaign First Mission (Spoilers)

[Simcoe]

Had a lot of fun with this one. After reading some of the comments on the forum I was ready for the gauntlet but I don't think it was too bad. 

First priority was preparing the way for the advance guard. I think people get hung up a bit too much on preplanned artillery with the Soviets. Even with longer call in times they can still destroy a tank with a few minutes of artillery fire. I started off with a preplanned bombardment on the tentative contact then adjusted it to the remaining AFV's overlooking the valley. When my troops rolled in there was only one tank remaining and it was taken out within the first minute. 

Knowing that I faced an enemy light on infantry I decided to rush Mansbach and quickly move to Soislieden. This proved the correct play as I caught the three M113's off guard and barely skipped a beat. At Soislieden, I discovered the bane of all proletariat. Even when opened up the T-62 spots worse than Stevie Wonder! I do not pretend to do iron man runs so sue me but I had to run it back so many times to take out the remaining tanks outside Soislieden. Eventually, with the help of infantry I was able to clear it out right around the time my main force arrived.

Based on some youtube videos I watched, I think people get hung up around this time. I saw people charging their T72's out in the open only to get picked off by unseen tanks and TOW's. Instead, I took my BTR's on the country roads shown above to observe the hill. I was able to spot all AFV's in hiding and called artillery on each target except one which was taken out by an AT-4. By the way, the AT-4 has to be one of the Soviet's most powerful weapons. It's hard to spot (at least with the AI), it spots like no other and reloads extremely fast. 

After the last AFV was destroyed I moved up my main force and took Ulfhausen. My only losses were a few BTR's that were trapped on the country road while the AI used their X-Ray vision to call in artillery on them through the trees... Seriously, how does that happen?

Overall this was a really fun mission and I think it does a good job of teaching you that without proper reconnaissance small numbers of NATO tanks can massacre large Soviet armored units. But if properly managed these combined arms units can be unstoppable.