Russian Artillery Training Scenario

[Der Alte Fritz]

Have created a little training scenario to experiment with artillery for the Soviets based on the crossing of the river Bug by the 16th Tank Corps in Feb 1944. The situation that two sections of SMG troops have crossed the river in the night while behind them engineers repair a damaged bridge. The idea of the scenario is that the Soviets on the far bank must use artillery and direct fire to stop the Germans over running the two sections before the bridge is repaired on move 35. Then the Tank Corps would cross the river and continue its advance.

What I would like to know is does this sound right and are the forces deployed by the Soviets using the right sort of weapons and in the right ratios? The Tank Corps would have much more than this but I have tried to go for around a third of the artillery and kept the tanks to a minimum relying on SUs to provide direct fire support. I can put it on TPG if people are intersted.

The Germans have troops dug in along the hills following the river and are reinforced during moves 1-15 by a company of panzer grenadiers and a company of infantry. (This was the smallest force that the AI used that could defeat the Soviets infantry without artillery support every time.) A platoon of PzIVH tanks arrive move 20. There are two flags one in the village held by section 1 and one in the woods held by section 2 of the SMG troops. On the far bank I have spotters for 1 Rocket battery M-13, 4 batteries of 122mm How(from Front Command), 4 batteries of 76mm gun, 4 batteries 82mm mortars and 1 of 120mm mortars(from the Motor Rifle Bde). There are 4 82mm mortars on the map and 4 SU-76 and 2 SU-152 from the Assault Gun Regt for direct fire support. In addition there is a platoon of T-34 and 2 45mm AT guns. The map is very obvious and shows two dug in hilltop positions, two reinforcement routes, two assembly areas 150m away from the two targets (flags). So the artillery has to fire on these targets over a period of around 20 moves to delay and break up the attack. Anyone who comes into the open can be engaged by the direct fire group.

Against the AI the German infantry get into the woods and into the edge of the village but the Soviet infatry can just stop them. Initial tests shows that if you get the fire plan right then the artillery will typically kill 46 infantry and 2 HT, the SUs 24 infantry 3HT a mortar and 2 guns, the T-34 3 PzIVH and 8 infantry and the 45mm ATG 3 HT and 5 infantry and you will keep both flags -just.

I would be grateful for your thoughts.

[Zweihorn]

It sounds very interesting. Where can I find

this scenario?

[JasonC]

Some realism suggestions, take them or leave them as you see fit.

4 modules of 82mm is far too much. Keep it to 1, and the on maps. Yes the whole corps might have more mortars, but they would also be deployed widely and they have quite limited range. Only those of the battalion the infantry is from, would be in range to support in a situation like this.

They would not mix SU types at this date. The SU-152 are also quite overpowered if used correctly. I'd drop them and just keep the battery of SU-76s (4 guns).

Tank corps rarely had 122mm support or similar larger tube artillery. Yes I know fronts had many assets in the larger calibers. But TCs worked almost exclusively with artillery assets that were readily motorized, except at the very start of major offensives - and most of the higher echelon artillery was not fully motorized, its ammo dumps were hard to move, etc.

Rockets were motorized, 76mm artillery was in the ATG formations, and mortars (both 82mm and 120mm) could be and were in the mech arm. Those are the most common forms of support you'd see for TC forces.

A better tube mix would therefore by 0-1 82mm, 3-4 76mm, 2-3 120mm, 1 132mm rocket. If using more of the high echelon stuff is the point of the whole exercise, a more realistic source for the infantry across the stream would be Guards Rifle, with support something like 0-1 82mm, 0-1 120mm, 2-4 76mm, 2 122mm, no rockets, and perhaps some 122mm guns (not howitzers) or 152mm gun-howitzers, though not many.

TC and Mech were also less likely to rely on the weak 45mm ATGs than the line infantry, particularly at so late a date. Their AT power was vehicles and motorized 76mm ATGs, for the most part. If they have a full battery of SU-76s on map, they probably would not have guns. If instead they had tanks but no SUs, they might have 2 towed 76mm (ZIS-3 with jeep prime movers e.g.).

On the German side, mixing infantry with Pz Gdrs is tactically not all that likely. If you want to use the Pz IVs then Pz Gdrs are the realistic infantry force type.

[juan_gigante]

I would make sure that there is an HQ-unit for the on-map mortars to use for spotters. And when you say "SMG section", what exactly do you mean? A squad? I would agree with most of JasonC's suggestions, especially making all the Germans of the same unit type and removing the on-map 45mm guns.

[Der Alte Fritz]

Zweihorn - I will make the changes JasonC suggested and then email it to you next weekend to see how you get on with it.

JasonC - Thanks for your knowledge. The idea of the scenario is to practice artillery firing. So I will change it to the Guard Rifle option. I had originally based the scenario on a Vizh article but it does not give any force numbers so I had to guess from the TOE. I put the AT guns on the map to test out ideas about restricting the AIs fire - I put them between two small mounds which seems very effective at reducing their angle of fire - they do not shift position to get a better one. Humans would move them but would then exercise fire restraint.

Juan-gigante - There are two platoons of engineers repairing the bridge on the Russian side of the river and one of their HQs acts as spotters. On the German side of the river I have put 2 SQUADS of SMG troops (the kind with an LMG attached). I know it sounds daft but it takes the AI that many German troops to guarantee a win every time. It is very slow at attacking and not very good at it.

cheers

[Zweihorn]

Der Alte Fritz - Thank You in advance.

My EMAIL-address is in my profile.

[Der Alte Fritz]

Hi Zweihorn

Have just emailed you the new version. It should be very quick to play because even though it is 35 moves, once you have sorted out your artillery, the only thing you have to fire is 4 mortars and 4 SU-76. So keep pressing the done button and fast forward through the moves with just a quick review at the end of the move.

cheers