Getting the Soviet campaign off the ground

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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War II] >> Steel Panthers World At War & Mega Campaigns >> Getting the Soviet campaign off the ground

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Getting the Soviet campaign off the ground - 12/20/2000 11:21:00 PM

Ivancito

Posts: 11
Joined: 12/11/2000
From: Santiago, Chile
Status: offline

I'm having a big problem trying to get the Soviet WWII campaign properly started. It seems the designers made it specifically to humble those (like me) who fairly breezed through it in SP1. The problem I have is that the Soviet units' ratings are so low (base 35) that they deal almost no damage to the Finns. An example: I had a Finnish ski squad run into an ambush of 3 Sov rifle squads supported by a T28 and an armoured car. An exchange of fire took place, with the end result of a Soviet squad completely wiped out (they decided to defend fanatically

) and the Finnish squad having 1 casualty (the guy was probably rolling on the floor laughing at the inefficiency of Soviet fire). The interesting thing is that the Soviets usually have a higher to-hit percentage displayed but still don't manage to hit anything, while the Finns fire at 3-4% after running up to the ambush and take down 2-3 Soviets with every shot. The only units that did any significant damage were the off-board arty batteries, which quickly broke down as I was using them lavishly to silence the Finnish 81 mm mortars. To add insult to injury, on turn 3 I was bombed by 8 planes, that destroyed a couple of tanks, 2 guns, wiped out a few infantry units and supressed the living @$#% out of everything else. I'm playing a delay scenario. I actually cheated and restarted until I got one, because in SP1 I noticed they're usually the easiest and the Sovs at this time need all the help they can get. I have all the settings on Default, with the command thingy disabled (I still haven't figured it out). The Finnish attack was on a broad front which left no space for niceties (I tried to run an armoured car platoon around the flank to try and silence those @$#% mortars, but ran into infantry in the woods and had to retreat whatever was left). My core consists of 6 motorized infantry platoons, 2 heavy tank companies (KV-1 and T28) and a few armoured car companies. The rests is AT and AAA. Most of the units are "elite", even though I didn't see any difference between them and the average ones. Anyway, I'm open to suggestions. Are there any units that would be more efficient, like the Cossacks? Any strategic tips on the "preferred" battle type/location/weather? Maybe start the campaign at a later date, when the Soviets had some more battle-worthy units? Any tactical tips? I would like to keep the default settings and not ot tamper with the unit's experience level if possible. Just for kicks, I upped the Soviet's level to 120 and tried it that way... Revenge is sweet, but it gets boring

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- 12/21/2000 12:28:00 AM

Warhorse

Posts: 5712
Joined: 5/12/2000
From: Birdsboro, PA, USA
Status: offline

Ivancito, I would definitely do without the trucks!! They eat up points, and have no fighting value, also not much good unless you are on huge maps, which you won't see unless you hack it like I do!! Also get some engineers when you can. Mortars are good too, as they suppress the $#*! out of units, opening them up fore direct fire from infantry then. Some recon units are good too, moved slowly enough, you can see while not being seen!! Hope this helps! ------------------ Mike Amos Meine Ehre Heisst Treue

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Mike Amos

Meine Ehre hei�t Treue
www.cslegion.com

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- 12/21/2000 1:59:00 AM

Musashi

Posts: 11
Joined: 11/22/2000
From: Carson CA
Status: offline

First, Sounds like your playing one of the long campaign options. You could boost troop quality by using the save editor included with the game (find the game editors via Start/Programs). This is a lagitimate choise if you really don't want to be sadled with "historical" troop qualities. Try disabiling the historical caracteristics button in preferences, and rasing the troop quality there. Finaly, if you haven't, play the "Heros" canned campaign included with the game. It's a lot of fun and challenging in many of the ways you discribe. Get a feel for how to handle the Soviets. The Russians are in fact quite capable of holding there own even early on. You just need to learn to handle them. Keep your tanks tightly bunched, put your infantry in cover, Keep your crews and infantry formations alive so they can gain experience. Trust your armor especially KV-1s! Try using KV-2's, I believe they participated in the winter war. They are very good against moving infantry (one shot gets kills in Seven hexes!). Keep rallying, keep plugging and eventually your the last one standing! Musashi

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- 12/21/2000 10:10:00 PM

lnp4668

Posts: 517
Joined: 11/10/2000
From: Arlington, TX, USA
Status: offline

I also have a hard time against the Finn in the Soviet long campaign. I found that flame tanks are particularly effective against the ski troops. Also mines (a lot of mines) will blunt the finnish charge and often lets you know where the nearly invisible finns coming.

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"My friends, remember this, that there are no bad herbs, and no bad men; there are only bad cultivators." Les Miserables

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- 12/21/2000 10:35:00 PM

Paul Vebber

Posts: 11430
Joined: 3/29/2000
From: Portsmouth RI
Status: offline

The "problem" with hit percentages is a tricky one... Hit percentages are usually based on a variety of aspects of the situation, but low experience troops , less of the men in the unit actually fire (the situation is now fixed that only primary inf weps in slot one fire multiple times). So if you have 7 out of 10 men firing at 4% you will get more casualties than if 2 men are firing at 10%

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All Forums >> [Current Games From Matrix.] >> [World War II] >> Steel Panthers World At War & Mega Campaigns >> Getting the Soviet campaign off the ground

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