Soviet artillery div/brigades

[Pawlock]

Something I have been pondering since I have started to aquire some of these units is:

Is it better to do 2 seperate attacks with the arty being the first attack or doing 1 big combined attack with arty already included?

What are the advantages or disadvantages of either way?

[ComradeP]

It depends on the target, as contrary to what you might think, overkill is possible. Generally, you should use on-map artillery units to support attacks where the disruption they cause lowers the defender's CV to the extent that the attacking for has a good chance to remove the the defending force from its position.

Removing a couple of extra CV points from the defender's total by using one additional on-map artillery unit might not be worth it if that extra on-map artillery unit, when used in support of another attack, could be the difference between the attack being held or the defender retreating.

It takes some time to get a "feel" for how much artillery to apply to a certain battle, but managing your on-map artillery assets efficienctly is one thing a Soviet player will need to learn. Thousands of guns participating in a single battle looks nice in the combat report, but it isn't necessarily good from a strategic perspective.

[Flaviusx]

Piffle. Pile on the guns! Nothing exceeds like excess.

If you're not retreating the defender on the first attack, you're doing it wrong, and holding back artillery is a false economy. Blasting a hole on the front line is what they are for. Leaving them in reserve for follow on attacks is mostly a waste of time, unless you are chewing through multiple fort lines and actually can muster the forces and movement points to hit a second fort line in strength. Usually that won't be possible.

Once the German runs out of forts, your mobile units can mop up and the arty cannot keep up with them anyways. The key here is to get into the operational depths where no fort lines exists and get your tanks in the clear.

Use the artillery to crack the enemy fortifications. And concentrate the artillery on your main axis of advance. Don't spread it out too much. Make sure all of it gets used each turn.

[Pawlock]

Good comments from both, but both have missed original point insomuch as is there a difference in solo pre use or all in one attack?
 
One thing does come to mind if using lots of arty, how do you assign them? atm I generally aim for 2-3 divs attached to front, maybe the odd div attached directly to shock armies. Would it be a good idea perhaps to leave a reserve attached to Stavka for when you really need lots of arty?

[ComradeP]

If you're not retreating the defender on the first attack, you're doing it wrong, and holding back artillery is a false economy. Blasting a hole on the front line is what they are for.

That depends on whether holding back artillery for the first attack will allow for a successful second or even third attack, which widens the breach further. Removing the defenders from a single hex, or two hexes isn't going to do you much good as you're still advancing into and out of ZOC.

Good comments from both, but both have missed original point insomuch as is there a difference in solo pre use or all in one attack?

I thought you meant whether it was better to use all the artillery in one attack or to spread it out, but if you meant whether you should make artillery only attacks: no, those are not worth it, only use them in combination with an attack by a combat unit. It doesn't have to be a big combat unit, you can get good results with brigades against weak units, but divisions or preferably corps work best for obvious reasons.

As to where to assign them: now that units belonging to a different HQ won't give CV penalties to all units involved in a battle, I guess you could keep artillery units attached to STAVKA as it doesn't matter if the artillery unit CV is dropped, as guns have no CV weight factor to begin with. However, some people are reporting that they get notably less supplies/ammo/fuel when units are attached to STAVKA, so you might want to check what especially the ammunition looks like when the on-map artillery units are attached to STAVKA.

[Flaviusx]

ORIGINAL: Pawlock

Good comments from both, but both have missed original point insomuch as is there a difference in solo pre use or all in one attack?

One thing does come to mind if using lots of arty, how do you assign them? atm I generally aim for 2-3 divs attached to front, maybe the odd div attached directly to shock armies. Would it be a good idea perhaps to leave a reserve attached to Stavka for when you really need lots of arty?

Solo pre use is a waste of ammunition. Always combine them with other units to take advantage of disruption caused during combat.

I concentrate most artillery assets at the front level for flexibility. However, I do like to make a few very strong armies with artillery divisions directly attached -- shock or guards armies. In the 43 scenario I've had as many as 3 divisions attached to 11. Guards army, and it is quite a bunker buster.

[56ajax]

Solo is hopeless...when i look at my lossess, like hundreds of men and guns, and the enemys, nil, all I can imagine is that the Russians turned the guns on themselves; as solo they dont do artillery barages, they attack....hopeless..

[Jakerson]

Cracking forts is what those artillery divisions are there for. If there is chance that some nasty German reserves activates in battle to be safe it is best use massive number of artillery.

When heavily fortified line is broken and it is time to exploit Soviet dont need those extra artillery divs that much anymore Soviet Combat corps can handle that pretty well on their own.

What ever sector German forts needs to be crack open that is where you need to move all artillery divs it is their only purpose.