Strongest Unit in all of PzC?!

[von Nev]

I think I found the strongest unit possible in all of PzC.

I am starting the K44 scenario "The Pocket - We will come out." as the Russians. To my surprise, far to the northwestern side of the pocket, hidden amongst the pathetic units of the 159th and 54th Fort Areas is a "whopper" Russian rocket unit. This baby is not to be triffled with. It inflicted in two barrages some 80 casualties. It is the 33rd Guards Mortar Brigade (Rocket).

This unit is 58! vehicles of the feared 300mm MRL platform called the M-30. It fires a strength of "12" on hard targets but "30"!! on soft targets.

Wow.

Two questions.

- Is this unit really this strong? Perhaps something overlooked? Perhaps an oversight?

- Second question - Has anyone found a stronger unit? In all the PzC games? Not sure even a Tiger battalion has this kind of firepower. I do not have N44 so don't know either about a King Tiger battalion.

Marty

[Ricky B]

Stalingrad has similar Katyusha rocket artillery units with a 96 unit strength! They are "only" 10 HA, 24 SA, which helps slightly. They are causing a major problem on the north side of the pocket, and some heavy losses down on the south side. I have Germans in bunkers losing 5 men to Soviet artillery fire in my German turn, which I figure must be coming from one of these monster sized units.

Rick

[Glenn Saunders]

[Ricky B]

True Glenn, they could be a lot worse, but they do cause problems. The Soviets have gotten good at finding hidden locations so that they can setup with their 3 hex range and fire without being spotted. I found one south of Stalingrad that had moved up and was firing on the reserve bunker line due to the losses it causes, used air recon to spot it and then moved up an infantry unit to spot and call down artillery. This worked fairly well but the infantry lost 50 men in one turn doing that.

As you say the low quality seems to result in them disrupting and staying that way, but even the disrupted ones are taking out a couple of men per shot into bunkers. It is really the 8 units of them, I think, maybe 9, that arrive on the north side of the pocket on the 24th that are causing me problems, chewing up a large swath of bunkers - there are a few of them out of any possible line of sight that are the problem for me now, can't fire on them and they are firing full strength, taking out 5 men per shot normally.

So I would say not a line breaker individually but having so many of them make the northern line tough to hold for the long term.

Rick

[Tide1]

Just a thought : In a D. Glantz book Clash of Titans he mentions that the Germans massed 900 neblewerfers to stop an offensive in Poland. It worked. The Russians went on the defence on that part of the front.

[jonnymacbrown]

I don't know how you can beat the King Tigers in B44 alt oob that shoot with a hard attack value of 90 at a 2 hex range with a defense value of 30! von ege

[Sgt Fury]

I think I've got you all beat: How about the 96 vehicle Pather V units in K43? Hard attack: 25/2, Soft Attack: 16/1 ?

Fury

[von Nev]

I think Fury has a good candidate. That Panther brigade in the stock K43 campaign is a killing machine. It is "A" rated with a high replacement rate.

In K43 the panzer grenadier battalions are also very strong. II battalion of the 6th Panzer Grenadier Regiment from the 7th Panzer Division is 6/1 HA and 12/1 SA. The fact the unit was 630 soldiers and "A" rated makes it that much more dangerous. I was inflicting 40 - 50 casualties a turn with those.

In B44, the 501st Schwere Panzer battalion is 30 vehicles with 32 HA and 14/1 SA.

Does anyone that has N44 (I don't) like to post what a King Tiger Battalion strength is? There is one in N44 if I remember.

I still like the 58 vehicle 300 mm MRLs although. They have a longer range and just the image of 58 vehicles firing a 300mm rocket barrage is frightening.

Marty