Help with Russian tactics, arty etc. in CMA

[Erwin]

1) Am having a problem playing the Russians in scenarios where one needs to deploy significant arty support - particularly in an urban assault.

One can't use heavy arty like western forces in CMSF as they usually have an 8-11+min delay and are not quite as accurate.

I tried preplotting 3x152mm arty (medium/long/general) along a route I wanted to advance along and then saved and ceased fire to see the result: One dead and a half dozen wounded. I looked at the end screen map and the enemy was there but just not affected.

I had expected to have severely depleted enemy forces. Makes the Russian arty rather useless? What am I missing? What are the best techniques?

2) The other issue I noticed playing the Russians (exclusively so far) is that the Muj seem to have radar or psychic skills to easily spot my Russians in ambush positions whether it's day or night.

Many of the CMA scenarios are ambush-type. When my Russians are lying in wait even at night, usually the first I know there is enemy about is when grenades land amongst my Russians killing them.

How is it that I can't see the Muj moving about but they can spot my guys in hiding?

When I am the one moving I find it virtually impossible to surprise the Muj, and my ambushers end up being the ambushed.

Is there a bias in the game or design in favor of the Muj or against the Russians - kinda like it was for the US forces in the original CMSF???

Anyhow, any hints on how to play the Russkies (or Muj for that matter) much appreciated.

[ZPB II]

1) I haven't found any significant issues with their arty. Yes, it's slow to react, so use the heavy hitters as prebombardment or just plan around that fact that it will take time to arrive....I have had the opposite observations regarding heavy artillery and have found them extremely effective. I have read several people observe that artillery against buildings is bugged, but I personally haven't seen anything major that would make me think so. Corrupt installs or something maybe? If a 152mm hits a building full of Ghosts, the building is destroyed and the people inside die.

Try using preplotted arty with a delay to time it better.

2) I think this one is easy. Let me guess, you use HIDE command for your troops? This means that they hide in such a sense that their observation capabilities drop to null. I play RT exclusively and never bother with hiding, I just pause and order my men to not fire the moment some Ghosts are spotted.

Either use the HIDE command in conjunction with a Covered Arc, so they will continue to spot but not fire...or was it just a covered arc with no hide...Can't remember since I almost never use covered arcs, just the Face command...

I am almost 100% certain that your men are hiding at the bottom of their foxholes and the Ghosts stumble upon them...I have never witnessed ambush behaviour that you describe.

[ZPB II]

Some more thoughts about artillery, the bigger the caliber, the bigger you think...Focus on major terrain features, larger grid squares...Try to think in, say, 15min chunks of time that is the maximum delay you can set for the barrage. As soon as it looks like you can't reach your 15min deadline, cancel and replot.

You don't need anywhere near the direct hit to have an effect, 152mm has such a gross kill zone and it suppresses targets quite far away. (If you have seen around 155mm caliber artillery land in real life you will understand exactly why. The are earthmovers. )

Remember, with artillery timing is everything. In a balanced scenario you rarely have the amount of indirect fire to truly be able to win a battle by just artillery casualties alone. Therefore, you rely on timing your artillery in such a fashion that while it is landing you either set up a nice firing line in LOS of the suppressed area or form up and get ready to storm the front as soon as the shelling ceases.

Ofcourse, with heavy artillery flinging their fragments 500 meters away occasionally, it is hard to utilize effectively in this role.

Again, most of the time if I'm given heavy artillery I use it in the prebombardment and it pretty much always does inflict casualties. Maybe I need to do some testing, but I am pretty certain that those 152mm shells really are killing people in cover.

[c3k]

ZPBII makes a lot of good points. I'll toss in a minor addition or two. In the urban settings, use General target type. That will allow better effects inside the buildings. If you have any 82mm, overlaying that on top of the 152mm strike at the saime time, but fuzed for Personnel, will clear out balconies and rooftops.

The most important point is, as ZBPII said, "timing is everything." You need to develop a sense of how far your units can advance and preplot artillery strikes with that in mind.

I find that using Soviet squads like US squads tend to leave a lot of dead Soviets. I've found that the best approach is to treat each Soviet squad like a fireteam; the platoon is manuevered and used as if it were a squad. I set my objectives, firing and moving with that in mind and I've done much better since I adopted that outlook.

Night fighting? I've only played one scenario and it seemed that two things affect night vision. Moving units are spotted much more easily than stationary. I "think" units which have fired their weapons have a reduced spotting range. Flashblindness?

Good luck!

Ken

[Erwin]

Thanks for the comments but the scenario I tried was urban, and immediately after a 3-4min bombardment with 3x150mm arty I cease fired to see the effect, and it was virtually nil, no suppression, just a few wounded and one KIA. (Maybe I spread out the barrage too long a linear line.) But, I see other threads here that say that arty has been downgraded in effectiveness in the latest patch(es).

Do you find Area fire better, or is the Russian arty inaccurate enuff to get that effect thru Point fire? (And yes, I use "General.") I wonder if using "Armor" vs buildings would be more effective?

In the several night and day ambush scenarios I have played, it seems much easier for the Muj to surprise the Russians who are lying in wait. But, I will try and not HIDE my inf at night and see if that is more effective.

I just don't understand how hiding units at night can be surprised by a moving unit.

Note that in a DAY ambush scenario in which my guys were hiding with small arcs, the Muj spotted them over a hundred meters away and started firing at my guys. This required me to prematurely unhide and return fire as I would have taken casualties otherwise, but my ambush was ruined.

[ZPB II]

If the targets are large buildings and you have several batteries at your disposal, I usually use point target.

I am very confident that at night you will find non-hidden units with cover arcs extremely effective.

That is how I completed the campaign.

Note that in real life it is very hard to hide a 100 men, each hiding and observing an area, unless each is wearing ghillie camo, which in turn reduces their combat effectiveness drastically. (Try wearing one while performing combat manouvres. )

[Stagler]

I use the organic mortars and vasileks for reactive fire support of my infantry because it comes in fastest. Anything else I use for destroying buildings, pounding anything that looks like an OP, or area fires where i definately know there is going to be mujihadeen. Always get your FO team into a good position to call fires, soviet platoon leaders are useless at it so use your FOs when you can.

As for infantry tactics, it depends whether or not you are accompanied by IFVs.

[stikkypixie]

Thanks for the comments but the scenario I tried was urban, and immediately after a 3-4min bombardment with 3x150mm arty I cease fired to see the effect, and it was virtually nil, no suppression, just a few wounded and one KIA. (Maybe I spread out the barrage too long a linear line.) But, I see other threads here that say that arty has been downgraded in effectiveness in the latest patch(es).

Do you find Area fire better, or is the Russian arty inaccurate enuff to get that effect thru Point fire? (And yes, I use "General.") I wonder if using "Armor" vs buildings would be more effective?

In the several night and day ambush scenarios I have played, it seems much easier for the Muj to surprise the Russians who are lying in wait. But, I will try and not HIDE my inf at night and see if that is more effective.

I just don't understand how hiding units at night can be surprised by a moving unit.

Note that in a DAY ambush scenario in which my guys were hiding with small arcs, the Muj spotted them over a hundred meters away and started firing at my guys. This required me to prematurely unhide and return fire as I would have taken casualties otherwise, but my ambush was ruined.

Did you do a headcount? Because sometimes, enemy troops rout and you won't notice it unless you count how many guys started out and how many are left.

[ZPB II]

That is an excellent point, stikkypixie. One that I totally forgot.

[c3k]

HIDE basically keeps your spotting abilities very low. That's not a good idea. My visual is of a child who "hides" by placing their hands over their eyes. The game effect is similar . Instead, as ZBPII posted, set cover arcs; your men will assiduously scan that terrain and they will be ready to fire upon anyone entering it.

[Erwin]

Ok thanks. I am addicted to covering arcs in all situations. But, to me, "hiding" means lying down and keeping quiet so the enemy doesn't detect you. But, I guess it's another example of the intuitive/common sense tactic of hiding when conducting an ambush not functioning in the game as (my) common sense would predict.

Now the add-on question is that when in a daylight ambush I used HIDE (but my guys were able to see the enemy approaching...) However, the enemy was surprisingly able to detect my hiding guys at 100+ meters and commenced shooting at them. Again, this doesn't seem "realistic" but is this just another feature of the game that has to be taken into account?

I recall that it took an awful long 10+ minutes for any enemy to appear, so maybe, in the first minute, one is supposed to immediately move away from the default ambush area to positions that are more like 200-300 meters away and then hide to await the enemy. Is that what you guys do??

Thanks for all the helpful replies btw. I like to get to really understand a game.