Russian Training Scenario 300 Woods series

[Der Alte Fritz]

Help I won 310 training scenario first time! I must be delusional.

These are the lessons I learnt:

1. Use rifle units as scouts and as flanking units because of their longer range fire. They can tie up MGs on the flanks by flanking fire from other woods.

2. When you have identified the enemy position move the SMG units up through the rifle units in short advances.

3. Keep units close so that you can overwhelm one unit at a time with concentrated fire from 3 SMG units.

4. Use rifle units as flank guards and to provide security after the advance because the SMG units use up ammo very quickly.

5. Try to infiltrate units forward through the woods to gain flanking positions. My rifle squad got to the end of the wood before the Germans and was able to pour fire into them as they retreated down the narrow neck at the back of the wood.

6. Choose several avenues of advance so that you arrive at the objective from different directions. So if one advance is held up then another will come in on the flank. I gained a great flank position on the main wood by coming round wide on the left and was able to put a rifle, SMG and pioneer section behind the enemy main line. Lost a section to the flamethrower but ended up almost surrounding the enemy infantry.

Tried 311 and Got a minor victory with this one mainly because the main attack through the woods got bunched up and then caught by artillery fire! Still managed to capture two flags and the flank force on the right managed to destroy most of the units around the infantry flag with the help of the two mortars. Was too slow in bringing up the mortars as could not find a decent LOS to the enemy position from the rear. Main lesson seemed to be that ski troops can move very quickly in these conditions but that they lose their skis when they first advance. Also do not bunch up in woods under artillery fire. I lost most of the central attack in about two moves.

I felt that 311 went better with again a minor victory, capturing two flags, destroying most of the enemy but just not having enough men to capture the house. Infiltration is the main trick here as I managed to get right on top of the enemy flags without being discovered but lost a couple of units because the first unit that fires (usually the defender) kills the other. Best to send a scout in front to get shot up and then have two or three units clumped behind to avenge him. Best to have units in Indian file so that if you find a way through the enemy position, then, follow up units will not give your position away. The right hand flank unit managed to get right in the wood by the house before anyone saw them! But the recce platoon went up through open ground and got shot up by a unit beside the second road flag.

cheers

[JasonC]

310 is by far the easiest in the series. Perhaps even easier than 111, though there is more to do obviously. It is meant to show off the Russian infantry types in their natural habitat, as it were.

One key tactic is to maneuver in two lines, with the front acting as the finders and fixers and as a shield (anybody behind them can safely use "move" etc), then hit units found with men from the second line close behind them. SMGs, pioneers, and FTs all belong in the second line in those terms. Each can clobber a located enemy if advancing on them without being suppressed the minute before.

You did notice the artillery lesson of 311, which is meant as an immediate correction to a habit you can get from the sort of fighting seen in 310. Which is the tendency to bunch up super tight in woods to maximize infantry firepower. It works against spread squads, it does not work against TRPed 105s or AP minefields.

Yes it is hard to get LOS in woods for the mortars. But used right they are very strong. Any HQ creeping to the edge of LOS - even just shy of it, e.g. able to see the edge of a foxhole but not the unit in it! - can be rapidly supported by both 50mm mortars, which reposition very rapidly on skies. One minute of their combined fire will pin the unit, after which SMGs can close in and kill the cowerers without risk. This only takes time to set up, but can be key to prying apart a solid front.

The other key positive lesson of 311 (as opposed to the negative one about not bunching against a prepared defense) is the use of superior infantry mobility in forest fighting. You can screen a frontage with relatively sparse front line only, and hit elsewhere with 2 or more lines deep. And switch the point of that attack rapidly, simply by shifting the rear line forces. If you focus on killing enemy units and especially eating the front ones (the most vulnerable), you can chew through the enemy position with lopsided kill ratios.

Those tactics are important in the next one as well, which adds the limited visibility and great troop "touchiness" of night fighting. The infiltration tactics you were experimenting with (indian file insertion e.g.) become critical at night. Used correctly, the Russian infantry specialist types - SMGs, pioneers and their FTs - are at their strongest ever in night woods fighting.

[Mike Summers]

I have become a huge fan of the Russian infantry just recently. It wasn't until I realized that not all units are your standard Panzergrenadiers...meaning the units are a bit more "specialized" and they should be handled a little more carefully (for lack of a better word). Through countless scenarios, and trial and error, I have learned these same lessons. Rifle or recon units to locate and pin, SMG or pioneer units to destroy. Some tracked HE or arty just makes things easier. I really enjoy playing medium-sized (~1000 pts) QB's against the Axis...the amount and variety of stuff you can throw at him is amazing.