New Recruits check in here! Vets debate the fine points! Tactics discussion, FAQ and "how-to" help.
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We have unlimited ammo off so I am in the habit of using 2 out of the 4 guns at time. I am experimenting with the "lesser" calibers...
Russians do suffer an additional penalty when firing after moving R_Ally. They do have a higher chance of performing "rugged defense" when they are fighting as the defender in a delay or assault. From all that, one "could" argue they are better on defense. Reading through this thread should provide you with some very nice tips regardless of wether your on off or def.
It is always better to attack, for any nation. On the defence, you are a sitting duck, and any competent gamer will smoke and suppress your entrenched forces to the point where the won´t be able to resist a concentrated attack. SPWaW is WWII, and the concept is mobile warfare, breakthrough and counterattack.
On the defence, have a force of tanks ready to engage enemies that have broken through your lines, or are about to do so. Hide your counterattack force carefully, allow your opponent some limited success, draw him into your defences, and then, when he has overextended himself, nail him with onboard artillery, especially medium mortars and FHs, and then rush in with BT-7s and T-34s. Make sure that your opponent is unaware of these forces gathering for the counterattack, and try to cause maximum damage in the turn you lift the veil and strike.
A static defence line is the road to perdition.
A spotted ATG or MG will be smoked at once, then suppressed, then taken out. Bunkers and Forts are going to suffer the same fate, and canßt be redeployed. No enemy commander will give you the opportunity to repeatedly fire from the same position. Either he withdraws, pops smoke in front of his own troops or see above. If you lack tanks, defend in depth, creating multiple layers of ATGs, MGs and dug-in troops, hopefully causing enough damage by opfire and assaults so that the enemy runs out of steam before he penetrates your last line of defence. Use engineers to lay mines, they have a significiant psychological effect and will slow your opponent down even further.
As russia, I have fought the germans many times…they are impossible to beat in a shooting match late war because of their accuracy…early war their tanks are light on and relatively easy to beat…particularly if a KV or two is thrown into the fray. I don't know how my experience will run against the US, which has tanks which are qualitatively more like the russian for most of the period.
I find that early war, the russians are too inaccurate to both shooting from a distance, whether or not I've moved…late war the russians have better accuracy, but an unsuppressed german unit will usually knock out my big gun before I return the favour…and 85mm guns just don't have the punch too knock out german heavies and jagdpanthers…and the guns that do have too little ammo to change the game.
I rely on a swarm tactic…lots of cheap recon tanks/armoured cars that the enemy will waste their op-fire on…then I rush my T-34's/assault infantry up to 1 hex distance…if you have enough units, you will eventually knock out an enemy vehicle, whether by assault, shooting, or immobilisation.
This requires a high proportion of light tanks/recon units…there are plenty of cheap ones early in the game…the T-17 is a particularly good sacrificial lamb…by sacrificial lamb I mean, something to run around in front of the enemy (preferably in tress or other defensive terrain), and get the enemy to waste op-fire on…the trick is never to use just one, but have several you move in turns…the first time a vehicle fires it has no accuracy bonus and will likely miss a vehicle in trees, move another vehicle up, and the enemy fires again with no bonus…the first vehicle can then move/shoot and return fire will be at no bonus, since it is again first shot…I always shoot at this point to raise a point of suppression on the enemy, which reduces accuracy still further…by this stage, an enemy unit is ready to be rushed...if there are two units supporting each other, the same applies, but the enemy will get two shots at your vehicle each time they move, so you can count on losing at least one of your recon vehicles…when the enemy vehicle stops returning op-fire, keep shooting…your accuracy value will increase and each time you hit, even with a mg, the enemies suppression increases…when you feel safe, swarm forward with your gun tanks BT's or T-34's and you will massacre your foe.
You need to use smoke to place curtains so that supporting vehicles/3" guns aren't able to take pot-shots at your assaulting tanks…essentially use OB artillery to mask the tops of hills in smoke, or put up curtains from on board tubes. The other thing is to use your artillery to create suppression…lots of small tubes with little delay helps you to bring your artillery to bear quickly on your next victim.
For the swarm to work, you need the map to be broken up by smoke or defensive terrain, which hides you as you advance on the enemy and gives your units defensive bonuses when you expose them to waste enemy op-fire.
I managed to eliminate a companies of Panthers and Tigers this way, losing a handful of recon tanks and a few T-34's…the difficulty is that you have to concentrate you entire force to create the force of numbers to overwhelm your enemy…concentrating your forces make them vulnerable to enemy artillery.
So the trick is combined arms…artillery to suppress, armor to swarm (even a 45mm gun can disable a heavy tank) and infantry to assault (an immobilisation is the next best thing to a destroyed tank).
There's a lot of very helpful advice here ... I'm currently getting my butt handed to me as Russian in a late war battle ... I have been playing the same tactics I use as German and it's just not working! I need to practise my play as Soviet and I'll use some of these tips and hints ...
I agree that the US is hard to beat due to the 0.1 delay it has on so much artillery...every unit has to shoot and scoot or get suppressed and destroyed...the best you can hope for is a draw.
