WWII Campaign - Russians - Help

[Windo von Paene]

First, I have never played any SP before, so I'm just learning how things work. I have a lot of newbie questions...

What is a good force mix to start with in the WWII campaign as the russians? I originally thought, "Russia, 1941, better get lots of ATGs and Inf guns to prepare for the onslaught", then found my first mission was an advance! Bummer, lots of wasted guns.

Are the campaigns always a set sequence of mission types? I started over, and once again it appears that the first mission will be an advance, and I wonder if this will always be the case.

Is it also true that if I lose a scenario, the campaign is over? That seems a bit harsh. Would think I could "retreat to fight another day".

How can I possibly survive an advance mission? It appears the Germans are not outnumbered, and in my last attempt I got cut to pieces by the dug in gerrys. What is a relatively safe and efective recon strategy? Once the Germans start firing at me, usually at ranges or 1 or 2, I'm toast.

What vehicles can move large AT/Inf guns? Can trucks do the job? they seem to get wasted pretty quick, any better candidates?

Thanks for any help, this may give me a chance...

[Voriax]

Originally posted by Windo von Paene:
First, I have never played any SP before, so I'm just learning how things work. I have a lot of newbie questions...

That's okay I could've used a forum like this to ask questions when SP1 came out...

What is a good force mix to start with in the WWII campaign as the russians? I originally thought, "Russia, 1941, better get lots of ATGs and Inf guns to prepare for the onslaught", then found my first mission was an advance! Bummer, lots of wasted guns.

force mixes are a matter of taste, but say you get tanks, infantry and arty units in about equal proportions. Buy platoon sized units so you have less command & control problems. You need engineer units too, might want to buy as much as half of your infantry as engineers. they are great in defense and you need them busting bunkers in advance.
As arty units buy AT-guns, perhaps some self propelled AA as they are good mowing down infantry. Some mortars too, if you have plenty of points consider buying off-map arty ,I normally buy it as auxiliary.

Are the campaigns always a set sequence of mission types? I started over, and once again it appears that the first mission will be an advance, and I wonder if this will always be the case.

They should vary, I'm not certain though how it is in SPWAW. Of course the pre-made campaigns are always the same.

Is it also true that if I lose a scenario, the campaign is over? That seems a bit harsh. Would think I could "retreat to fight another day".

In generic campaign you should be able to lose missions. In pre-made campaigns it depends of the campaign, usually the campaign ends. Also losing the A0 units ends the campaign (as you, the commander, die). Not sure if this is the case in generic campaigns.

How can I possibly survive an advance mission? It appears the Germans are not outnumbered, and in my last attempt I got cut to pieces by the dug in gerrys. What is a relatively safe and efective recon strategy? Once the Germans start firing at me, usually at ranges or 1 or 2, I'm toast.

You might want set the preferences so that the 'limited intel' is off and 'hidden forts' also off, makes it easier. Fire smoke in front of the suspected enemy positions, usually in ridges, around the flags. Also the computer tends to put troops close to his 'deployment flag' line, so when you do your deploy check where yours is relative to the map to determine the enemy's line.

Use cheap recon units to advance first and find enemy positions then use arty bombardment. Preferred targets to dispatch first are AT-guns, machine guns and tanks.

Ideally you should advance so that when a recon units spots an enemy you have some guns (tanks) waiting stationary so they can immediately start suppressing the enemy.

Play a number of scenarios first to experiment and familiarize with the system, thats what i'm currently doing as so many things are so different from the previous SP games.

What vehicles can move large AT/Inf guns? Can trucks do the job? they seem to get wasted pretty quick, any better candidates?

With russians you are pretty much stuck with trucks or horse driven carts. The Komsomolets tractor should be able to tow smaller AT guns, at least that was it's original purpose. Btw, I've always considered infantry guns bit of a waste. Of course they need to be there for historical purposes.

Thanks for any help, this may give me a chance...

Hopefully this helps a bit.
Oh and keep in mind that Russian equipment has generally much lower accuracy and fire control than German units. There is always the 'horde' tactic Say your infantry has spotted a bunch of tanks. then you move your tanks in such positions that they need to advance only 1 hex to see the enemy tanks. Then you start harassing the tanks with your infantry, trying to soak their opportunity fire away. Then move one tank in sight, if it survives fire one shot, move another tank, fire a shot etc. If you manage to kill/hit most of the enemy let your tanks stay there, if you miss a lot you may want to retreat unless the enemy has much inferior equipment like PzII's against T-34's.

Gee what a long post

Voriax

[Windo von Paene]

Thanks for the ideas and answers.

Re the engineers: As Russians, and infantry, which is preferrable, Quality or quantity? I'm a quality guy myself, but I suffered so many losses, I'm beginning to think quantity may be a better way to go, (with some engineers thrown in as well).

I'll bail on the Infantry guns per your suggestion, though I do LOVE mortars...

Glad to hear I can fail a mission in the generic campaign

I do believe that lack of smoke was my undoing the first time around...

Not sure I understand your comments about command control issues and what size formations to get. I've got the "Command Control" turned off, so I'm not sure if that applies.

Again, thanks for the help.

[Voriax]

Originally posted by Windo von Paene:
Thanks for the ideas and answers.

Re the engineers: As Russians, and infantry, which is preferrable, Quality or quantity? I'm a quality guy myself, but I suffered so many losses, I'm beginning to think quantity may be a better way to go, (with some engineers thrown in as well).

Well my opinion is that you absolutely need the engineering units. you can of course buy few of them in your core and rest as auxiliaries. With engineers you lose some of the longer range firepower as they have only rifles or smg's besides the explosives. That can be compensated with MMG's or HMG's though.

Not sure I understand your comments about command control issues and what size formations to get. I've got the "Command Control" turned off, so I'm not sure if that applies.

Well not that much, and it seems that the units are smaller size here, max 5 tanks in one formation. In SP1 there was a 10 tank company and even without any C&C things if the leader got killed rest of the tanks tended to get sudden yearnings for returning to home..it was preferable to buy smaller formations so the loss of the leader didn't have that large impact.

Voriax

[StuNZ]

Originally posted by Windo von Paene:
First, I have never played any SP before, so I'm just learning how things work. I have a lot of newbie questions...

How can I possibly survive an advance mission? It appears the Germans are not outnumbered, and in my last attempt I got cut to pieces by the dug in gerrys. What is a relatively safe and efective recon strategy? Once the Germans start firing at me, usually at ranges or 1 or 2, I'm toast.

What sort of recon units are you using? I've only played as the Germans so far, so I don't really know what sort of units the Russians present you with, but if they have small (2-4 man) recon teams as an option pick up a couple of formations of those guys. I've found with the german 2 man recon teams I'm able to scout out the enemy line with little to no risk to the recon teams provided they move carefully (no full movement right next to the enemy! ). With the length of the typical game, you can usually use 4-5 turns easily scouting out the enemy line before really starting the attack.

As for your advance vs German delay - check that the AI points advantage in the preference menu is off - this maybe the cause of your not outnumbering him?

Don't forget you can buy lots of cheap infantry/tanks to start with in your campaign and then upgrade them over the course of the campaign - the AI's purchase points for each battle is based on the total cost of your force at the start of each battle (forgive me if you already know and I'm stating the obvious here ).