Russian Training Scenario 400 Bn infantry force attack

[Der Alte Fritz]

Oh dear!

Suffered a minor defeat on this one only gaining 41% Did not capture the flag and killed 1 tank, 1 gun and 1 mortar and 393 points of casualties in exchange for 3 mortars and 472 points casualties. In essence, i found two avenues of attack, on the right along the trees following the road. The one company managed to destroy the platoon in front of it but failed to make any impression on the platoon on the flank in the woods. They did knock out the gun and silenced 1 MG in the trench but the range was too great and they never got sight of the infantry further back in the woods.

The other avenue of advance was by 2 companies on the left to the end of the barbed wire, skirted round the end of it and went into the woods on the left. From here they were able to destroy the platoon and some of the mortars in the woods and houses around the flag but could not advance into the wood by the road because of fire from the pillbox and a tank.

Rolled one 76mm gun forward to cover the centre of the village and the other on the right to cover the road. The former killed a Pz IIIJ at 360m with his second to last AP round - probably the worst shot in the whole army!

Artillery fire mission was timed perfectly with two loads on the village around the flag and two on the woods with the pillbox. But all bar the 120mm mortars ended up in a field out of harms way which did not help at all.

Not at all sure how to win this one but suspect you have to capture the pillbox woods.

cheers

[JasonC]

You can kill the MG log bunker with ATRs, it just takes several hundred shots from the front aspect. But it is much easier to kill it with one of the guns.

The tanks, again the guns are key. But if they kill one of them for you that is par for the course. Incidentally, when a towed ATG kills a Panzer III he hardly qualifies as the worst shot around. I know, you mean why didn't he kill it faster. But any gunner killing a tank is doing well, no matter how long it takes him. If the tank doesn't kill him, he's ahead.

On the woods position on the right, you can take it from the village - center area, or you can rush it under smoke cover. Still need strong overwatch though. You are unlikely to beat them from across the clearing. Your support weapons can do that part, but getting full locations isn't trivial.

And squad infantry cannot fire 150-200m at infantry in trenches or woods foxholes, and expect the defense to die before ammo gives out. Especially with a lot of the fire wasted maintaining pins etc. You can afford a mad minute or two to suppress its fire while moving on the center or crossing with smoke, but you can't expect to just shoot them down from so far away.

You rolled up from the left, which works fine, if a little slow. You were stopped by one tank and the bunker. ATRs or a gun should have helped with the bunker. If you can't manage that, then smoke it with the few smoke rounds from the 82mm mortars, during surges.

Similar story with the tank, except it takes more. If you've killed infantry around it but can't put a gun on it, you can call down a minute of 120mm smoke and then rush 2 platoons or so of infantry into cover all around it, while the smoke is still up.

Some units will be seen and broken, but you've got lots more. Once you have it backing up to get away from people, somebody will get the inside 30m close assault etc. The pioneers with their DCs are the most deadly and somewhat faster to throw. Don't rush on top of it or try to "mass" - its MGs suppress in an area around anything it fires at. Instead make a sea of covered locations each with a squad in it, all around the thing. You can also try ATRs inside 100m, from flanks.

You can win this one outright by best use of the guns, pretty much alone. There are locations that sight right down the entry road, which a gun can reach before they arrive. The other sent to the right can KO the bunker and prep fire the tree line position.

As for the artillery, only the 120s are really meant to be used in a "called fire" mode. They have the right kind of delay for that. The 122mms are meant to be used as "map fire". They are conscripts, thus long delay and also more likely to be inaccurate. But used for in the map fire way, they are as good as any other FO.

That means you have to call the barrage on turn 1, and then delay it using the Q key, to time when you want it to land. You can use target wide to get coverage and fire 2 of them beside each other, to get an early big pattern e.g on the village center, before your own men get close. Or you can use individual shoots, e.g. one at the flag building. Or both, at different times. Non-wide orders are kind of narrow for 35 whole rounds of 122mm. (You can't "split" a map fire barrage).

You can win straight up the middle if all arms do their part. The 122s can cut the defenders in half along the main route. Advance a screen of infantry to develop positions and find shooters. Then put the MMGs and mortars to work, some on the right and some in the center. A single 82mm or pair of 50mm hit each shooter for one minute. Then 1-2 MMGs take over to maintain the pin.

Advance infantry in waves, meaning only using enough to fill out the reachable cover, without overcrowding. Keeping the rest back and unsuppressed. Each wave can be driven to ground by a fresh set of shooters, but some will make cover and get you more spots. Follow on waves keep the cover behind them filled and shoot back, along with the support weapons. You melt your way through the defenders. Rally the debris from broken waves behind the next, using company HQs etc.

The obstacle belt in the middle has gaps. Initially those are well covered by fire, and the first men trying won't like it very much. But stubbornness will work, in an entirely Russian fashion. Line the near side of the obstacles with good order infantry before each set tries it. And shoot down every defending shooter who pops up to keep the gaps plugged. The ranges are not long, and fire by half a company will break men in cover in a minute flat. Once the near defenders are all broken, some will make it through. Spread into the village cover, go stationary there to fire back. Then cross the obstacle with the others, once you have a fire group ahead of it.

Sounds like you got poor performance from your artillery because you did not know how to use it in the Russian, map fire manner, and mediocre performance from the on map guns (didn't kill the bunker with them e.g.). Improve your Russian arty skills and you should find it easier the second time through. Plus, when you've got lots of infantry left against a tank, think smoke and pioneers.

[ May 08, 2006, 06:48 AM: Message edited by: JasonC ]

[Der Alte Fritz]

A re-examination of events shows that you are right. Artillery mission was called in on move 2 and had a delay of 16 minutes automatically. Left the 120s as on call fire and targeted them against the pillbox. Lesson learnt, I will restart the game if I make the same mistake again. I will run a test scenario with artillery to see how it behaves.

Used the waves technique for the long advances on the left and typically got 3 sections across with one broken to be gathered up by the Company commander behind. But advance was just too slow to get to the flag before the end.

Had an infantry attack planned against the tank with a section hidden in every small clump of bushes around the open central area of the village with all the pioneers and tank hunters deployed. But the gun got him first. The other tank never came near the village and just sat at the back. In my tests the 76mm gun got good results at 700m so a correctly sighted gun could kill the tanks as they enter down the road. I reckon my gun did well to hit the tank because he was firing through scattered trees. (I had the trees turned off) My main concern was to get them forward without being fired upon. I got it wrong once and had to put a platoon in the way to get the gun out of the line of fire.

Again it is reading the landscape to get those LOS, covered advance routes and probable enemy locations. And being Russians we need a plan.

So I will give it another go. I must have played each scenario at least half a dozen times so they are certainly well thought out. I have collected all the advice from the forums into one document as I think my brother is going to start working his way through the series. The training document is currently 37 pages long. So many thanks for all your help.