WW2 Artillery vs. Armor

[Volcano Man]

Eh... look I am sorry about that but if the single SMG battlion is in a tank brigade which is comprised mostly of armor then you need to rely on your armor that is your anti armor force. The SMG unit is for assaulting with the armor only. I don't see why everyone expects every unit in the OOB to have an anti tank killing ability. You will notice that the motorized infantry in Motorized Infantry Brigades are not SMG battalions and thus have at least a slight anti-armor ability which makes sense because these units did not have lots of tanks with them, doesn't it??

Your asking me how do you stop a German attack but it all depends on the situation. If you are holding the line with an overstretched division then it won't be possible. It is certainly not *impossible* to stop a German attack. It all comes down to quantity versus quality. The Germans definately have a qualitative advantage but if you, as the Russian, are not relying on your quantitative advantage then you may as well throw in the towel.

One alarming thing about your post is that you said that your artillery won't help you against tanks except if your opponent makes the mistake of overstacking. So, are you playing with Alternative Indirect Fire Resolution rules on? What about the other Alternative Resolution rules? If this is the case then you are NOT playing the scenario but the optional rules that I intended so it may very well be that the Germans may definately end up with a clear advantage here. The point here is that I cannot guarantee anything if you are using those rules since:

-if you are using ALT assault rules then armor is probably much more effective on assaults than the McNamara db indends them to be

-if you are using ALT indirect fire rules then your artillery is only able to fire once which removes some of their disruption capability

That said, the first thing you must realize is that your soviet infantry usually, man for man, has a much better assault rating so you have an advantage in the defense and assault. Even when you suffer great casualties you have an advantage because usually you can afford it and the Germans cannot. Most of the time the Germans run out of steam from fatigue accumulation after repeated assaults and continous advances.

The German's advantage is in direct fire and the large casualties they can cause from it. Those elite German units will run out of steam some time if they continue to assault or you bombard them with massed artillery.

Heck, I can't give anyone the magic answer. What I have seen is that with the McNamara based db the game becomes more of a tactical affair in which some people can weild the same exact sword as someone else and get seemingly unstoppable results if they are doing it right. Then, another person can have the same sword and smash or blunt it because they don't know what they are doing with it.

Case in point, I am playinga Kursk 43 game (South Battle). My opponent (he is the Russian player) stated that his previous opponent (using the McNamara based db) was rather easily defeated and gave up because he succeded in getting his armored formations totally destroyed and his drive ended quickly. Now, I can't speak for exactly how effective my German drive is but my opponent has said that it is much better than his previous opponent's. My point is that the McNamara based db seems to allow this freedom where as before most game would generally end up in the same situation each time unless something drastic was done.