German vs Soviet Strategy

[Isto]

In here i will mention something from the Germany vs Russian matchup in 5 / 1944 Metting Engagement battles.

GERMANY

Especially ineffective units: Pz3 and Pz4 should be avoided if not for the historial purposes. They have too low armor and cost too much when compared to something like a Panther, Puma or Sturmpanzer.

Especially effective units: Schleppen (8 pts), Panzerschreck (9 pts), Pueppchen (13 pts), Infantry Squad (21 pts), SS Infantry (25 pts), Puma (45 pts), StuH (50 pts), Ju 88 P-2 (68 pts), Sturmpanzer 4 (78 pts)


Air Strikes: German has the best air strikes in the game, those with the large calibre guns are especially effective, especially Ju 88 P-2 as it is cheap and has two effective guns to maximaze the potential to take down tanks. German Air Strikes should heavily focuse against Soviet armor, especially on JS-2.


German Infantry: The basic composition of Infantry squad with StG, LMG 42, Granade and Panzerfaust is an effective all round setup. If you want to be dirty, take the mechanized groups without APC's and load them as you like (as they have superior LMG's and Panzerschrecks with the same cost as regular squads). There is little need for specialized squads other than Panzerschrecks in the German unit composition, as the basic composition works well against anything.

11 pts Kraftradmelder squads are good scouting units for advances and should be taken to scout before any advances (probably 2-4 sections) and German Motorcycle troops are also superior when compared to Soviet Motorcycle troops, and are also superior when compared to any Cavalry so if feeling like it, one company of Mototrcycle troops could serve as an advancing force where there are no roads to be had and the advance must be immediate. Reinforcing a motorcycle company with Kradschutzen MG section is also adviceable.

Snipers are always good in open positions, especially when the idea is to focus on killing infantry. A couple of them in a carefully chosen positions is always good for all armies.

I would avoid using Flamethrower infantry and focus on more numerous number of basic troops, and keep the Flamethrowers as an armoured weapon as they have a longer range and may be shot behind the infantry advance.

If feeling especially dirty, a BegleitGren Zug is quite effective company when using the BegleitGren Trp / MG42 LMG setup to have 13 Size 0 units with +3exp/morale for around 150 pts. I would advice against taking more than one of these companies, as it could get a bit silly. These are especially valuable when focusing against Soviet Infantry.


German Armour: The main composition should be build around Stuh and Sturmpanzers, as they can be used as an cost effective way to transport, and support infantry. Especially Sturmpanzers are really effective, as they have the potential to penetrate all Soviet Armor, have more HEAT rounds than StuH and are more effective when used as a fire support unit to supress, or outright destroy enemy infantry units.

Panthers should be kept as a limited units for any areas where there are lots of visibility and kept in the back, where their armor glances most of the hits. Panthers are too costly to be used as a full front line tanks and Stumpanzers work too well in that role already.

Like said, all advanceds should be first scouted with motorcycle scouts, and covered by Puma Armoured Car. They are also very useful and have a multi purpose role as they can be easily moved between different locations and being able to reinforce the sudden advances in other areas of the map as well. Let's say an army has 4 to 6 Puma platoons in different locations, they may be all (or most of them) gathered and moved to one location with relative ease. Having 10+ Puma's to suddenly reinforce a position can make the difference.

Schleppen (8 pts) is a nice and cheap unit to be taken with spare points, for let's say about 10 Schleppens (80 pts) that are reinforcing different locations and acting as a fire support / infantry hunting units. There should always be at least couple of them as they cost next to nothing.


German Artillery: German artillery should focus heavily on 8cm Mortars as they tend to work well against infantry. Try to find spots where infantry resides within Clear hexes. Further artillery pieces that are powerful are 15cm Sig and 28cm Rockets. 10.5cm Field Guns or Wespe Mobile Artillery should be taken as an counter battery role.



German Tactics: As German has a wide variety of Panzerschrecks and Panzerfausts in their disposal, i suggest to heavily focus on destroying russian infantry in the positions where there are lots of covers (cities, forest and such) and using lots of German infantry in those areas, making use of the Soviet panzers almost impossible and letting even the cheapest panzers (like Schleppe = 8 pts) to destroy Soviet infantry as they can only destroy armored targets with an assault.

The main unit composition should contain regular infantry, SS infantry and Stuh / Sturmpanzer 4.

All the advances should be covered by Puma Armourd Cars so that they move as far as they can in turn 1 (preferably by a road) and stay stationary in turn 2 (preferably having angles to target sides) and thus covering the advances in turn 2.

Avoid using Halftracks and other rather costly APC:s and use Armoured Trucks instead. The ideal composition for transporting troops would be to have one platoon to be transported with faster Armoured Truck or Panthers, one platoon + HQ being transported with slower Assault Guns such as StuH or Sturmpanzer and one platoon going by foot.

In this way one platoon can advance for alpha positions and the second platoon may reinforce it, or take positions in other side of the platoon. The last platoon with foot may reinforce either of these postions or act as a reserve.

Preferably this works best with a road and the initial positions are taken within first 2-3 turns of the battle.

It is also preferable to have one foot company as an supporting element for each mechanized company as in ww2 the transports are not as fast or cost effective as in most of the MBT setups.


Artillery Tactics: As there are only one priority target in ww2, it must be chosen wisely and preferably for a target for high calibre Rocket Launchers. 8cm Mortars should be spread across the battlefield and Ammo Carriers should be positioned so, that they may first reload the Field Guns (Or Rocket Launchers) and travel to reload 8cm Mortars within 1 turn when they are empty, and travel back when they are reloaded.

I usually make 2 to 3 artillery bases, which are usually guarded with FLAK units that also act as a fighting force against possible paratroops. I also position the artillery so, that the field guns have good field of visions over possible drop locations.

This is more easily done with Soviet, because they have cheaper FLAK and Armoured Car units in their disposal.

If General Support is available, one unit of 15cm General support (-50%) artillery that is used in together with several high calibre Rocket Launchers are enough with the target priority hex to create one No Go zone in the field (if necessary). The inaccuracy of the General Support artilery should really not matter in this case, as it only barrages the same area for the whole game.


Potential Problems: The first problem is the JS-2, which has a really good front armor, and is not easily penetrated by anything else than the most effective guns.

This is the reason why couple of Nashorns may serve well in an open areas. This is also the reason why German should focus on destroying the enemy infantry as Soviet needs their infantry to protect their tanks agains Panzerschrecks / Fausts they themselves are lacking.

This is also a reason, why Sturmpanzer 4 is probably the best armoured unit in mid / close range as they are one of the few units that can penetrate (or at least cause a damage) Js-2 due to their Warhead Size in the short / medium range.

Other potential problems might be numerous infantry units and Numerous anti-air assets.

I would advice against focusing heavily on Paradrops against Soviets, because they have lots of cheap and mobile units to guard their flanks and because German needs their infantry especially on the front line. If Paradrops are to be used, i would advice on a small (and preferably size 0) troop on a single location.