Russian Training Scenario 200

[Cuirassier]

This scenario baffles me. I can pass it, but only by relying heavily on my T-34's. My infantry, usually are siting at the back of the map, pinned and broken, with only some advancing up to actually met the enemy, usually in a piecemeal fashion. Supposedly, when using proper infantry tactics, platoons, even if they are green, can advance thorugh MG fire. Well, this I can't accomplish. My entire company can be halted by the two MG-42's. Obviously, casualties are minimal, but I can't even advance my main effort to the depression. As soon as my platoons leave the rough area, they sideways sneak back, even if at ok morale states. Nothing gets them to push forward. Perhaps I need a commissar...

Any help or feedback of this scenario would be greatly appreciated.

[civdiv]

I was a but baffled also. I've moved on to Sie Kommen, but eventually I'll get back to 200. I really hate it when designers put concealed AT guns in easy range of the set-up area. The first time I played I promptly lost 2 tanks on like turn 3, w/o having moved them. The second time I got the tank on the left into the depression, but not far enough, and the gun got him. In both tries the gun then concentrated on my 82mm mortar, who hadn't moved or fired or anything.

[ January 27, 2006, 03:30 PM: Message edited by: civdiv ]

[Loeffe]

I played this just once, but I think I'm going to have to replay it. I also have a hard time figuring out exactly what I'm meant to learn from this.

I haven't read the entire main thread about these scenarious (to avoid getting any spoilers), but I'm sure there must be some more thorough discussion about this scenario in there.

I can gather from my own go at this scenario, that is is very important to time your arty's fire plan, to arrive at the correct time, to pin the MGs and troops in the woods when you advance.

I made two fire plans:

- 120 mm mortars fire at the rocky area by the first flag. (2 minut plan)

- The big guns fire at the wooded area by the second flag in 7th minute of the game

The first worked a charm. I also planted mortar smoke in front of the rocky area, to allow my troops to advance directly on it. The arty came down and completely pinned the Germans in there. My inf got close enough to spot them and then a T34 on my right gave them some additional HE. I captured the flag with only 3 casualties.

The next one arrived much too earliy (turn 7), and was over when I had maeuvered my men to the edge of the rocky, to prepare for attack on the woods. When the attack commenced I was constantly pinned by MG's from the wooded area, without getting visual ID's.

Meanwhile the German ATG took out both my slowly HUNTing T34's on my left flank, with only one shot at each. My T34 on the right (the one that shelled the rocky area earlier) was forced forward to support the inf. The tank commander was shot by a sniper and shortly after it hit a minefield by the small house.

After this, the fight came to a halt on both sides. I tried to break the troops in the woods with long range MG fire and short range rifle fire, but to no avail. There was an aout cease-fire in round 16. (Draw 47% - 53%)

I guess I'll try it again, with these modifications to my plan:

- Delay the arty on the woods to about turn 12-13

- Take more care of my tanks on both sides.

[JasonC]

Major lessons intended in 200 -

Dealing with PAK. This is the number one job of the on map mortars, which previously in the series were able to concentrate on HMGs instead. Now they have their real mission, and they had better accomplish it.

You should expect to lose a tank to the PAK. Hidden PAK usually kill something when they reveal themselves. The fight is vastly easier if 2 of your tanks survive the armor duel phase than if only 1 does, and if none do you will find it very difficult to impossible. That is meant to drive home the importance of winning the armor war, or at least doing passably in it. It is the top of the escalation chain.

Next it is meant to show the importance of supporting heavier HE firepower in any opposed infantry advance, particularly any one with areas of open ground. This includes getting decent value out of the 122mm guns, which are appropriate only for map fire plans. It also means getting the most out of the 120mm mortar spotter, which can be used reactively on IDed targets, and if used right on two of them in succession (whereas map fire has to guess an enemy location, and only hits one). And it includes using T-34 HE firepower, on point targets like enemy MGs and also "area fire" early, as a 76mm "barrage".

The more your HE does for you, the less infantry firepower you face.

Then the actual infantry advance remains necessary. This is a company level version in steppe of advance in the open drills already touched on. There is actually more cover in this one, and the initial ranges are much farther. Both favor the infantry advance. It still needs to be directed at sensible locations. Third major lesson then is to treat full companies of infantry as the minimum attack elements, and to direct them toward decent cover within small arms range of the place they intend to take next.

There are two possible targets for the infantry advance - the rough in the center, and the trees and house area on the right. The latter will only hold about a platoon. You can decide to take both of only the former - only the latter will not work because one platoon will not generate a sufficient threat. But if you get sizable bodies of infantry into those areas, the Germans are already in deep trouble (assuming your HE is also doing its job).

Because you can already melt units from there, if you have a full company along (or even 2 platoons in good order). The overwatch pins the most recent shooters to reduce incoming until the infantry can rally out of pinned. They will almost always reach the cover in a poor morale state. That's OK, the issue is can they rally once in that cover? If they do, multiple platoons at medium range plus all the overwatch HE, will outshoot the defenders immediately in front of them.

After the Germans have been mostly dealt with by fire from those covered areas, assaults into the center woods become possible. The firefight and with it the overall battle should be largely decided by then. You should still learn valuable lessons about closing to increase infantry firepower as the "finishing off" blow. Which will typically uncover a hold out shooter or two, and is not without its own dangers.

Overall, if everyone does their jobs, the limited German defenders simply do not have the firepower to stop all of you. If the FOs cut platoons in half and the tanks that live take out several units apiece, the remaining infantry odds are too much for the Germans to handle. Rally power, shrugging off annoying but not lethal long range fire early, and absorbing modest enemy firepower once in cover, gives a full company its effectiev battle "mass". It takes an intact defense to stop that mass. And HE can dismantle enough, to render the defense "non-intact".

Reversed and looked at from the defenders point of view, to break a full company takes serious infantry firepower. If the good order defending infantry is driven as low as a platoon, they will not hold. It is very difficult for the defending infantry to survive so much HE delivered in so many ways, with that many shooters intact and ready. HE stresses the defense, defenders have to show themselves or the attacking infantry closes easily, as they show themselves they are broken in turn by attacking firepower. And in the end the overall weight of the attack is more than limited defender numbers and morale can withstand.

The whole point is to train you in using *every* part of the force in its appointed role, correctly. If you do, then your firepower is more than sufficient to break the defense. If you only get a decent performance out of 1-2 elements of the force, flubbing other roles, the defense will retain enough integrity to break the attack.

[Loeffe]

I managed a major victory on my second go (23%-73%. Casualties: 85-25. KIA: 25-6).

Inf setup: 2 platoons to advance up the center, rocky part. One plt towards the house on the right. Tanks positions were one left by the overwatch group and 2 right, carrying men from the rightward platoon towards the house.

Arty: mortars with fireplan on the rockies at turn 3. I think I'd have kept this on call if I'd read JasonC's post above first

122mm guns with fireplan for turn 13 on the woods. This proved to be too early still. Turn 15-16 would have been better.

The ATG took out my left tank at around turn 3, but since I kept the two others advancing on the right, there were able to participate in the entire fight, which really was the deciding factor.

The first flag was secured without problems (as in my first go). Then came the same standstill, where the MG's would pin my men at every attempt at an advance, without giving away their positions. One managed to fire over +10 rounds without giving up its position. Very frustrating.

However, the tanks were a huge help and both racked up a lot of kills (26 and 30 respectively). One of them also managed to creep up over the ridge in front of the wood and take out the ATG (which didn't go down even though I fired 2 50mm mortars in its general direction for two rounds).

The arty came in on turn 13, but on hidden MG kept firing, and making the advance very difficult. This forced my tanks forward around turn 18. They poured HE into the woods and finally spotted. At this time almost all of my inf were still in the rocky area. However a few squads pushed forward and arrived at the flag in turn 24.

After playing again and reading the post above things are a bit more clear, as to how situations like this are dealt with. How important HE support is, how to rally the troops etc. However I can't dismiss that I won simply because I played Scenario 200 before, and so knew a lot about the enemy setup.

either way I'm having great fun playing these and hopefully even learning something

[JasonC]

"I won simply because I played Scenario 200 before"

In general, all the scenarios ought to be challenging to anyone with stuff still to learn, the first time through. And all should be beatable the second or third time through. That's the idea. These are meant to be small enough to play through them again and try something new.

Think of it as the second wave of a classic Russian "echeloned" attack...

[Cuirassier]

Hi.

OK, I passed scenario 200. Actually, this is the first time I finished the game. As I lack patience, the first time I tried it, I exited out on turn 10, because my infantry advance was going at only a snails pace. This time however, though things were going the same, I decided to suck it up and play the game to the finish.

To try and learn the most from this scenario, I left the setup, and thus the objectives, for my various units almost identical as the default setup. My plan was to send the company main body straight up the middle through the depression and to the rough where they could hopefully one the large, flagged wooded area with infantry fire. As with the default setup, I utilized a half-platoon on my left and right flanks. I expected my left half-platoon to just draw fire from as they advanced to the nearby greaters and rough. Other than, I expected little. I had more ambition for my right half-platoon, as LOS blocks worked int their favor. Also, I assigned a T-34 with them, considerably boosting firepower. There mission was to take the small the rough immediately ahead of them, and then the woods and house ahead of that. From there they could integrate their firepower with the company main body against the large woods.

What I did change was this. On the left, I displaced an ATR and Platoon HQ from their respective craters and put the 50mm mortars there. From my last experience, I learned they were too much in the rear to shell the PAK, so I neccessitated to move them up to take some burden of the 82mm. I moved my 120mm mortar spotter to the left rear rough as well, for he had a wide LOS from there, and could thus deliver accurate reactive fire to basically any possible german position on the map.

I moved the 1st (HQ) and 2nd T-34's immediately behind the depression with a hope to fast move them to protect them against the PAK.

Thus, to recap, my plan was to move the company main body up to the cover (and flag) in the center, and effectively melt shooters in the woods from there. My flank half-platoons, which I expected little of, were to draw fire and grab limited terrain objectives immediately infront. My T-34's were to conduct an early T-34 barrage, with 1 or 2 minute barrages on each wood tile. After being reduced to about 35 HE rounds, I would have them stop and do direct fire only. One T-34 was also assigned to silence MG's once the mortars had eliminated PAK. My Maxim MG's were assigned to halt any attempt by the enemy to reposition his troops. My 122mm FO targeted the main woods with pre-bombardment set for 15 minutes, in anticipation of my painfully slow Infantry advance. That was my force tasking.

My left and right half-platoons advanced first, hopefully to draw any fire on turn one, allowing my main body somewhat of a head-start on their advance. Essentially, things went according to plan. My first company main body platoon made the depression, though the second platoon, lead by the company HQ, was reluctant to leave cover when the MG's fired at them, and they had many cover sneak incidents along with some panics. Essentially they were probably advancing about 10m a minute, at best. They achieved this dismal rate, as though they would advance 50m on one turn, the next turn they would cover sneak and retreat back. I remained patient however, and despite the slow progress, let them sit and rally, and repeatedly retreat,though casaulties were minimal.

My T-34's baraged the map, and PAK was spotted on turn 3. Thankfully, two T-34's were out of LOS, so it only bagged the number two vehicle, though, to my dismay, this was the one with the most HE-I think it had 73 of such shells. Oh well, war is hell. I retaliated with area fire (as the PAK disappears when he takes cover) from the two 50mm's, for four or five minutes of continuous fire, and with three minutes of 82mm fire. Perhaps overkill, but the PAK had to die. Oh yeah, and on turn one, my right flank T-34 blew the hell out that peasent shack. Not sure if German's were in it, but it made me happy.

The advance continued oh so slowly. Because of this, I decided to advance the left half-platoon into the open, to draw some fire. Accidently, one squad left command radius, and eventually became routed. Fortunately, they only took 3 casualties, drew signifcant fire as their exposure rate increased rapidly, and even rallied by the endgame. This helped my main body, which advanced slightly faster.

My right flank was going superb. The T-34 blasted the near woods, which my half-platoon captured shortly after, mopping up the limited resistance from a shaken Recon Team. Meanwhile, I moved out my HQ T-34 from the depression (hoping the PAK died), fast moving it to the MG sound contacts, to silence the 42's. After two turns, the MG-42's were silence. One was eliminated, and the other was captured with one survivor. I also got lucky in finding a 8cm mortar, and the HE made short work of its crew.

My infantry made the rough in the center by turn 19, which was rather late I think. That is why I am concerned with my infantry advance drill skills still. Anyway, I arrived there with the main body, and they began to shoot up German infantry who were already shaken from two T-34's 120mm mortar fire, and the prep 122mm fire that arrived on trun 15 and lasted to trun 19 I think. My 122mm fire arrived perhaps a little to early, but his is training, so oh well.

I didn't advance anymore, but instead just shot up badguys, with rallied men, in cover, and with heavy support fire. Finally I am beginnig to see the light of these patient, atritionist attacks.

The final score was 75% to 25% in my favor. That classifies as a major victory, which I think is ok, but my tactics still need improving. I took 7 casualties, 6 from one MG, and 1 from Recon squad which was cut in half and routed by the endgame. I incurred 79 casualties on the enemy. Though battered, they still owned the flag int he woods, thanks to one squad that was only pinned. I owned a flag in the rough. Like a true attrionist however, the casualties inccured on the enemy, not the ground held, won be the game. My T-34's scored the bulk of my caualties, with infantry coming second. My artillery accounted for only eight altogether, wich is quite dismal, though I feel I picked the right targets-well, at least for my Prep.

Anyway, this was my experience on 200, and I enjoyed it greatly, despite the minor annoyances associated with advancing over open ground.

[Cuirassier]

Wow, I sure had a lot of spelling and grammatical errors in my above post. I was too tired when I wrote that.

Anyway, I was what kind of results others have had. I found that I didn't have enough time to take the last flag. I only had enough time to shoot it out with some defenders from the rough in the center of the map. Did anyone have better luck, and take the final flag? I have been wondering if my men have been advancing too slowly (reaching rough by turn 19) or if it is normal not to have enough time to assault the final objective.

Today, I played 201 twice, which is the Infantry only variant of this training scenario. The first time through, I won with a tactical victory, 67% to 33%, again not taking the last flag. It seems I am too patient with my infantry advance. I tried it a second time as well. That time, I won 75% to 25%, being a major victory. Again, I never took the final flag. I only did better that time because I incurred more casualties on the enemy, while taking fewer myself.

I was wondering how other people faired. My largest concern is not being able to take the last flag, as I always run out of time. Do others have better success? Must I handle the infantry more aggressivley? The only suppression of my troops is usually the MG-42's on the far left of the map, and, as there isn't really a way to suppress them, i don't think my use of HE is the issue slowing my infantry down. Perhaps I just need to work on infantry drills somemore?

Some small AAR's or just basic thoughts on any of the 200 series (I haven't done Mech yet) would be greatly appeciated.

[JasonC]

I get infantry into the rough by turn 6. Admittedly, the first squad in was panicked, tired, and out of command, but it got there. By turn 10 I had most of a platoon there, some tired but mostly rallied. It still takes time to expand through the rough tiles. If you have most of it by turn 15 or all of it by turn 20 you are doing fine.

One key here is not to just let the rearward sneaks "run". Instead void them and replace them with hiding. Occasionally one squad will break and run back to the rough on the right rear - can't be helped. Just get him back again as soon as he rallies. You have to push anybody still in yellow morale and tiring pretty hard. Pinned or tired should hide. Units out of command and so unable to use "advance" should use "sneak", but keep pushing, if their morale state allows.

Here was my overall morale and fatigue state on turn 10 - 3 men hit so far, 29 men in red morale, 84 men in yellow, 71 tired, and 38 tiring. That is about as hard as you can safely push them. But it sufficed to get a rallied platoon basically into the rough by turn 10.

It also sounds, though, like you are saving your artillery until way too late. You want it to cut down the amount of incoming you receive - from anything but the HMGs - during the most difficult part of the approach. Fire it off from turns 5 to 15, for the most part. You can save the 120s for the actual assault on the middle woods, but the 122s should be fired while your infantry is still trying to get into the rough. They won't have to firefight the woods opposite during entry, if the artillery smashes the woods area on their way in.

The AI frequently sends infantry into the open during all this, trying to get to the rough flag. Arty scoots others into the open. Your HMGs and any squads temporarily stationary should cut those up easily. Between these reckless AI "counterattacks" and what the artillery does, the remaining opposition in the woods by around turn 15 or 20 should not be too tough.

As for the HMGs, by then they will be running out of ammo, even if you haven't gotten anyone close enough for a spot. You can try to get the left side half platoon - with ATRs attached, if you like - close enough to the trench area on the left to get an ID, working up through the craterfield on the left. They will draw off fire even if they fail. ATRs help because they have binocs, along with the HQ. A firing MG in a trench will sometimes be spotted as far as 250m.

If you do get a spot, your 76mm and mortars can suppress an MG, with a Maxim then taking over to maintain the pin. Even silencing one before it runs out of ammo will make a difference in the center. One other thing you can do about them is fire a smoke mission from both 76mm and the 82mm once, to give the guys in the center a couple minutes of reduced fire. Use that only when they are faltering (overstacked from crawlers, too many in red, or a broken HQ e.g.).

Mostly, though, you just rally through the HMG fire. It will hit a half dozen men and keep lots of units pinned for 15 minutes. In the second half of the battle, though, they won't really be a factor. Not enough ammo to go the distance, firing continually from turn 2. With jams and smoke, one of them might stretch to turn 20, rarely. At 400m, 2 MGs just do not have the sustained firepower to break a whole company, and you will rally out of their fire effects. (Particularly units in rough - they are essentially invulnerable at that range).

If your artillery has properly worked over the middle woods and you've bagged the overly aggressive types, the MGs are "low", and you took the right side house-n-woods position with your right flank platoon, then you've set everything up for the final 10 minutes.

120s go on the woods, any remaining 76mm and mortar ammo can help against spotted shooters remaining. Some infantry stays in the rough to overwatch with infantry fire. A platoon plus goes around the right end of the wire and makes for the scattered trees, right behind the first blast of 120s. Walk the 120s left as they enter.

You will frequently pick up a remaining shooter or three, which can break part of the attackers in the open steppe shy of the woods. There are a few bits of brush and shellholes to hide them in, but not much. Overwatch shoots down these as they appear. Push hard with the rest on "advance" to get into the trees. (Shying left can cut LOS by using the hill, to any shooters to the right rear of the woods position). Once you have SMGs in there, you can cross additional infantry relatively easily, as the front guys will draw most of the fire and provide full spots on all shooters.

If they contest the second flag, no biggie, you will still win, as you saw.

[Cuirassier]

Thanks for the excellent advice. It is interesting how fast you are able to get your main body into the rough. I will try the scenario again today if I have time, and push my men harder. Obviously, that is why I am not reaching the rough and far flag in time. For example, you said that many of your men were tired and you had some in red morale states. Also, you moved out men in yellow morale states. While I was playing, none of my main body was ever in red morale states, and most of their fatigue was Ready or Tiring. The worst I had was pinned. Thus, i am thinking I have to push my men harder, though still using the advance drill, and use my prep HE much earlier. In my game, I did in fact get spots on the MG's by the end by bounding the left half-platoon, as you said is possible. I never tried moving an ATR with them though. This I will try.

With the company advance drill, I have one question. Often, the point platoon of the main body recieves fire, and most of the squads become pinned. What should I do witht he two platoons behind them? Though in good morale states, I have been leaving my rear platoons still and hiding when this happens, as I can't advance them ahead, or else they will bunch up with the point, who won't budge. Should I continue to do this, even though it is extremely time consuming? Or should I maneuver around them, constantly switching and relieving point platoons?

Anyway, I geatly appreciate the indepth advice and will try to put it to use next time I play.

[JasonC]

When the column gets blocked in front, I typically swing out the next platoon on the right side, making for the nearest rough tile along a diagonal route.

Another trick to avoid crowding is to give sneak orders to some units you would otherwise leave stationary, to move them 10-20m, to avoid others getting too close.

Sometimes I will push a squad or two within 25m of another if it is advancing and the stationary guys have shellhole cover. Yes it allows spread suppression if shot that instant, but the MGs have to pick their targets and don't necessarily hit them during the brief time they are within the same fire area.

Area fire effects beyond 14m from the aim point, for a unit in shellhole cover, is not that much to worry about. It will keep them from rallying, but is unlikely to touch off panic, or to make them seek cover better than the shellhole. Units just in steppe are more vulnerable, though, particularly if already pinned.

The main thing you have to worry about is 3-4 units headed for the same shellhole in a cover panic sneak, right next to another pinned unit etc. In other words, you can't afford to give him whole platoon suppression from single bursts of fire. An occasional "alerted" on a different unit than the one aimed at, is no big deal.

You can also afford to bunch a bit more once in the rough or very close to it. Because it is good protection, and because any sneaking it sets off tends to be directed at the rough. Spread the guys that get there to 14m ASAP, to speed rally. Advance to the next tile to make room, once out of pinned or tired.

You should also make maximum use of the company commander's flexibility. Don't hold up the lead platoon for a squad or two, press with rest and let the captain sweep the others forward.

[Physim]

Played this one late last night. Ended up a tactical defeat when ceasefire called due to both sides low on ammo. Losing my tanks very early didn't help, but the lessons learned in the 110,111,112 scenarios helped my infantry capture and hold the first flag and give the AI infantry a hard time in the centre and on the right flank, my left flank was creamed.

Two questions, once my mortars ran out of ammo I used the AT rifles as Heavy support to my infantry in attacking foxholes /trenches that held enemy infantry, I found them to be very effective in this task. Is this gamey or were they used for that purpose in real life?

Also when I target using a spotter for offboard artillery it can sometimes take over 20 turns for the artillery to fire, is this normal or am I doing something wrong or is this the norm?

[Cuirassier]

Two questions, once my mortars ran out of ammo I used the AT rifles as Heavy support to my infantry in attacking foxholes /trenches that held enemy infantry, I found them to be very effective in this task. Is this gamey or were they used for that purpose in real life?

Also when I target using a spotter for offboard artillery it can sometimes take over 20 turns for the artillery to fire, is this normal or am I doing something wrong or is this the norm?

For starters, don't run your mortars out of ammo (espscially the 82mm) if they haven't dealt with PAK yet. There specific task in the combined arms hiearchy is to deal with high value point targets first-in other words anti tank/infantry guns. Their next target is MG's. Mortars, especially the 50's, are a waste on infantry squads. The 50's will only pin, and maybe cause a couple casaulties. The 82mm will break squads with a couple minutes of fire, but won't kill more than a few men. Also, it has limited ammo. Their best value is thus to kill AT guns.

As for the ATR's, it probably is not gamey to use them for a suppressive role against dug in troops. They have plenty of ammo, and not much use other than scouting, as they have binocs, or HT plinking. Thus, you might as well use them for something. Also, I have read in some books that they have been used to fire at etrenched enemies. Your primary suppression weapons are artillery (prep 122mm and reactive 120mm) and, of course, the HE heavy T-34's. Make sure PAK doesn't kill all three, or else you will not have enough HE to cover the infantry advance.

As to why your artillery spotter takes 20 or more minutes to call down a barrage is because he is a 122mm spotter, calling in support for divisional guns I believe, which takes long periods of time in the Soviet system of command. Also, the spotter is a conscript, which significantly lowers his reactivity, but makes him cheap for 30 heavy shells he has. Thus, this FO is to be used for prep fire only. This is how the Soviet Union uses its heavy artillery. Aim it at the big cover and conform your advance to its use. After recieving feedback from JasonC, I have found the best time to set the 122mm barrage it for is during the period where your infantry are advancing over the open terrain, to the rough, as this is when they are most vulnerable. Thus fire it off from anywhere between minute 6 to minute 15. Keep in mind, the barrage will fall for about four minutes once it begins.

Now, the Soviets do have reactive fire, this being the 120mm mortars (these are very formidable), 82mm mortars, and 76mm guns. In 200, your recieve the 120mm FO, which I think can call in a fire mission in five minutes when in command and in 7 minutes when out of command. A good trick I have learned from JasonC is to count down the artillery of the 120mm FO by targeting a chunk of cover from turn two (if done on turn 1 it will be counted as a prep fire mission). When the shells are about to be fired, and you find you don't have a suitable target, walk the fire mission a short distance from the orginal aimpoint. If kept close enough to the original aimpoint (green line signifies this, only two minutes are added to the fire mission, so you will always have a 120mm mortar barrage only two minutes out from when it is required.

[JasonC]

ATRs certainly fired at infantry so no it isn't gamey as a use of them. It also isn't particularly effective in my experience.

On FOs, you got 20 minutes from conscript Russian corps level support. Those are meant to be used as "map fire", meaning according to a prearranged fire plan at locations and times chosen on turn 1, not "reactively" at targets spotted later on in the course of the battle.

The rule is, fire missions called on turn 1 only of any fight except a meeting engagement, are "map fire" shoots. They are always accurate and on time. By defaul they arrive immediately, at the very start of turn 1 (1 second) - "prep fire" that is called. You can delay the mission by hitting the "Q" key - that delays that shoot in 1 minute increments. Cancel the order and start over if you go too far.

The mission cannot be changed in any way, nor cancelled, after you hit "go" for turn 1. No matter what you do or what happens to the spotter - who can leave or remain stationary, whatever you like - the mission will land as scheduled. Since you don't know where everyone is on turn 1, you have to read the terrain and guess. And make your own unit movements conform to your fire plan, instead of the other way around. Historically, lots of artillery missions were conducted this way. It was the standard way for all armies in WW I, and the Russians in particular still used it a lot in WW II. (Others did too, especially in large artillery preparations, set-piece offensives against well defended lines, etc).

So the idea is, on turn 1 you plan out where and when each module of artillery you are using this way will fire. They start firing on the designated turn, and fire off the whole module's worth of ammo at that target - about 4-5 minutes worth of shooting in typical cases. (Rockets are often 1 turn volleys, some mortars might only last 3 minutes).

In 200, you get one 122mm gun FO, conscript quality, meant to be used this way. The conscript quality is a dead giveaway, since it means "take forever" if used reactively, but only slightly lengthens the reload time for a "map shoot".

You also have a better quality 120mm mortar FO, which is a regimental level rather than corps level observer. He will fire with a delay more like 5 minutes - short enough to be used on a spotted target, "reactive fire" rather than "map fire". Though it helps to call for the mission ahead of time. (You can delay it by walking the aim point around until you have your chosen target).

In 201, you get 3 of the "map fire" 122s - a full battalion of them - but no T-34s. So you have to let the fire plan do more of the work.

You first got such an FO back in scenario 112, which is where you were supposed to start learning the Russian "map fire" way of using heavy artillery.

[Physim]

Thanks for the replies, I managed to complete 112 without the heavy artillery but will go back to it and practice using it and then retry 200.

[jtcm]

I like the setup, but this is my experience with 200--

Sov Infy moves out.

Ger ATG fires, taken out by mortars and return fire.

Sov Infy stalls under Ger HMG fire.

Ger infantry starts to run out towards the map in the rough; gunned down in the wire.

Sov Infy reaches rough, but still taking HMG fire

Sov 120 mm and 122 fall on rough (120) and woods (122).

More Ger Infy runs out and is gunned down.

The clock is running out, so I move the remaining (1 or 2) T-34s up to the woods, where they canister Ger infy.

-- is there any way of making AI Ger infy stay put ?

[SteveP]

Originally posted by jtcm:

-- is there any way of making AI Ger infy stay put ?

I found this bothersome as well, though I am sure that JasonC had his reasons for putting that flag out there without any Germans in the vicinity.

What I did was to go into the Editor and move that flag to a location where the Germans already were (there are a couple of likely choices). The other option, of course, is to use the Editor to place a couple of German units near that flag. Don't really know which is better. Matter of taste, I suppose.

[Cuirassier]

Perhaps you could just remove the flag from the rough, and only play for the one in the woods. Haven't tried it, but it might work.

[JasonC]

Or you can just hotseat and not run out into the open. Or look, for that matter.