Fall Kreml: German bunkers?

[ComradeP]

An unexpectedly quick reply, thanks.

I agree that moving artillery to the active parts of the front is a wise strategy because they'd be able to hurt the important enemy units more, but for some sectors moving artillery might not be the most economical solution, as it would take the artillery a long time to get somewhere and in my opinion, being able to fire away at a few German battalions could be worth it provided you endanger the German frontline in some way.

Sure, in Fall Kreml, launching your own epic offensive as the Soviets is not likely due to reinforcements being needed where the Germans break through and units that are not near the part of the front where the Germans attack in that variant being fixed, but I can imagine that some local counterattacks could at the least destroy some battalions or make sure the Germans won't be able to capture any Soviet objectives in that sector.

It's mostly something I noticed for the South variant, as there is a substantial number of Soviet units west of Moscow that is some distance away from the initial breakthrough areas. Moving them to the nearest major road/rail line could take time, maybe too much time for it to be worth it relative to assisting the defenders in its original sector in launching spoiling attacks. In other variants, it's mostly a theoretical problem like you imply as the Soviet player would be inclined to focus his artillery assets on the German breakthroughs nearby.

When you do concentrate the artillery in an area that the Germans can't overrun easily (a forest, swamp or somewhere behind a major river), there's the catch that the German losses would also mount rapidly and you might be evaporating battalions in several turns as well. If the Soviets are in a position where they can fire a couple of artillery/rocket divisions worth of shells/rockets at a limited number of men, the Germans will soon be in trouble. That's a situation that seems even more difficult to counter than the one I mentioned in my first post.

As the game develops, concentrations of artillery might also become a bigger problem for the Soviets than for the Germans depending on whether the Germans can mass their heavy-hitting artillery whilst the Soviets can't. I haven't tried it yet, but I expect D quality units to Disrupt rather quickly when hit by those Wurfrahmen and schwere werfer units.

Good luck with the team game!