Soviet mission 4 "Heroic Deeds"

[Drawde79]

Any tips for this mission? (It's the winter mission where you are defending a railway station, with infantry and AT guns, and no reinforcements).

I used the default unit selection, buying a Staff Squad with the extra 65 points (would have taken another HMG but there were no free slots) and more or less the default unit placement, other than moving my AT guns and AT rifles around to give them better fields of fire and more cover. I put 2 45mms behind the first trenches, and 1 45mm along with the Maxim MG behind the rear trenches, positioned to give them a good field of fire.

I managed to deal with the Pz.IIs and first wave of infantry without taking too many casualties, only losing 1 AT gun crew who I replaced using regular infantry. (I was surprised to not get my AT guns wiped out early on as usually happens, I think this was due to the layout of the terrain and trees which prevented all the enemy tanks from spotting my guns at the same time.) By this time, however, my MGs (Maxim and squad LMG) and ATRs were starting to run low on ammo and my AT guns were running low on AP shells, and I wasn't able to withstand the heavier tanks and accompanying infantry which attacked in the second wave. With only HE shells, and facing Pz.IVs with 75mm guns, my AT guns didn't last long, and with low ammo and no MG support my infantry weren't able to hold out against the enemy troops.

Any alternative tactics? I thought of replacing a couple of the 45mm AT guns with a ZIS-2 57mm, but since the 45mm is effective against most of the early German tanks anyway, it seemed to me like the extra firepower would be offset by the lower rate of fire and less ammo. Positioning my troops and guns around the rear trench and the railway station buildings (which would seem to be a better defensive position than the exposed forward trenches) is another possibility, but would the infantry be too vulnerable to enemy fire when not entrenched? (as they can't take cover in the buildings)

[K9crump]

Sorry man, I took the lose and move on on this one. It was just too hard for me. The no reinforcements on that one really sucks... Could have used abit more, and probably could have won.

Mike

[Rapier]

I did the first 5 russian missions on hardest setting yesterday.

On this mission I did purchase the ZIS-2. Even though it is not that much different in caliber it has a much greater hitting power. It can knockout any german tank at long range. The 45mm are only useful at less than 500m.

I seem to remember getting some reinforcements late in the scenario but was only 2 BT-7 tanks.

Hiding the AT guns in low bush is very important, I believe.

My infantry took heavy casualties but I won with the AT guns using HE against the enemy infantry.

On the issue of using AT guns firing HE against infantry.... The game seems to handle it strangely. Often the gun will kill the target but the shell will explode 50m behind him. I would have thought an AT gun using HE against infantry would deliberately aim to attack ground when attacking infantry.

[SlapHappy]

Rapier

I'm pretty much sure based on my experiences with the game that artillery targets individual soldiers and not the ground.

I think this could be fixed in the game, but it would require new targeting logic for the enemy AI.

[Renaud]

You can target the ground with area fire...but yes, if you target an individual grunt, the round will put a hole through him and explode when it impacts the ground eventually.

Amazingly, I won the 2nd time around even though I was planning on just taking a loss and moving on (accidently left ignore campaign loss unchecked the first time). I think it was because I didn't think I could win, so tried some novel tactics.

My tactics: 1) trade 2 45mm for single zis-2, place it way in the back toward building and have them wheel it even farther back and hid in brush next to fence, in this position it can hit tanks very far out, but can't be seen from within 2-3 hundred meters; 2) place single 45mm far back in brush in defile to right so it can only be seen by tanks that blunder past first line of trenches; 3) cherry pick best marksmen and LMG's and put them in rear trench; 4) put maxim in the fenced fuel tank area so it gets keyhole fire across the middle; 5) place 2nd HMG far back as possible in bushes; 6) abandon the left front trench (too exposed); 7) make sure AT grenade guys are distributed across front trench positions; 8) create a reserve squad of 6-8 guys (who have gunnery skill) and hide behind buildings near zis2, for use in later last stand, remanning guns, or counterattack; 9) send a guy to grab the ppsh smg laying on the ground between the front 2 trench systems; 10) send a guy running out 100 meters to grab the mg34 from the dead german (you might not make it back tho); 11) put AT rifles halfway back, and far to the flanks; 12) initially HIDE, CRAWL and HOLD FIRE on EVERYONE when the game starts.

I left the first wave of tanks overrun my trenches, then have at grenade guys nail them. Open fire on the following infantry. Open fire with zis 2 at all far tanks with heavier armor (pzIIf, pz35/38, MkIV), you can nail them at 400+ meters easy. Do not waste ammo on the lighter ones, or tanks which can be hit in flank by AT rifle of 45mm, or killed with AT grenades. Don't open up with HMG's on the initial wave unless they spot you first, which they might so watch out. Your first line of guys will be killed by the 2nd wave. The 3rd wave will kill everyone in rear trench and overrun the trench. By then your mg's will be empty or dead, but you should have wiped out dozens of grunts by then. Both AT guns should be up and fully manned and your reserve squad uncommitted. At the very end my reserve squad was mostly KIA and the zis-2 crew had to attack as infantry, but I won.

A couple of guys won the order of the red star (or something like that). The zis killed 6-8 tanks, infantry 3, 45mm 2.