Fire and Fury Games' Battlefront WWII Artillery Tutorial-Russian Artillery

Battlefront WWII
Russian Artillery

Introduction to Russian Artillery

In Battlefront WWII, the Russians are severely restricted in the number and type of fire missions they may perform. Many gamers will be surprised by this, as the Russians were famous for the emphasis they placed on artillery and the large amounts of artillery they fielded. However, at the level that we are simulating in BF, the masses of Russian artillery will not appear. By the time a Battlefront scenario begins, the corps and army level artillery will have already done its work. At the tactical level, the Russians were inflexible in their artillery tactics, as they had few troops with the education and experience needed to call artillery, and relatively primitive communications equipment (they relied extensively on ground lines). With the exception of pre-planned barrages, BF artillery fire is simulating on-call fire on targets of "opportunity" and this type of fire was extremely difficult for the Russians to perform.
Russian Artillery can be classified:

Command - High level. The Russians tended to control their artillery centrally (as they did everything else). This did allow them to share assets and prepare massive strikes, but they were not flexible enough to use this at the tactical level.
Control - High level. The Russians planned their fire missions centrally as well. You will not see the larger artillery on the Battefront gaming table except as part of a pre-game fire plan. Only a few units are capable of calling-for-fire.
Communications - Poor. The Russians relied on ground lines extensively. When they are displaced from their prepared positions, their ability to call-for-fire is impaired.

The Russian Call For Fire Table

The Russian call-for-fire table has one important feature - Very few units can call-for-fire.

The Russians have NO General Support artillery.
Only forward observers, Battalion commanders and above (p.36), and scouts may act as observers for Direct Support Artillery.
Only forward observers and Battalion commanders may observe for organic support artillery. If a Russian Mortar company FS-01 is attached to a battalion, it will have two potential spotters, the forward observer and the battalion commander.
Company commanders cannot spot for organic support artillery. Russian company mortars have NO units available to them that can call for indirect fire. They must set up so that they can spot their own targets. This usually isn't a hardship as this is probably the best way to use them anyway.

Another important limitation is that only Russian Forward Observers in an observation post using preregistered fire missions may call concentration missions (p.41).
Introduction

Scenario Setup-How you start is how you operate.

The setup of the scenario will determine the exact fire missions that can be used by the Russians throughout the game. Unlike the other nations, the Russians should not be able to split off and combine off-board fire. Keep the following points in mind:

Forward Observers should be tied to a specific fire support element. They should not be able to command artillery from other organizations. If the FO is lost, only Battalion Commanders and scouts can command the asset, and it would not be unreasonable to have the ability to contact the asset lost altogether. Scenario rules could also tie scouts to specific assets.
The scenario must note whether preregistered fire is available, who can use it, and where it can be used.
On defense or when attacking from static positions, the Russians would have preregistered their fire. You can either have them specify a number of preregistered points for each asset or set their FOs up in observation posts and assume that anything within their Line-of-sight is preregistered (this is easier). The level of preregistration should depend on the scenario context. Defenders on the first day of Kursk should have lots of preregistration, but if the Russians are defending a newly captured position, they may only have a few points registered.
Remember that the Russians can only do preregistered fire from observation posts. If an FO displaces from his OP or becomes a casualty, you should no longer receive the preregistered bonus or use concentrations from his asset.
Batteries in Russian artillery battalions (FS-04, FS-05, FS-06) should not split off to fire independent missions. The battalion must fire battalion level missions only. Combined with the restrictions on preregistered concentrations, this restriction will cause many fire missions to be shelling missions. The Russians will often encounter the restriction on p.39 that says that battalion shelling missions are limited to a single battery.
Independent Fire Support Batteries (FS-01, FS-02, FS-03) cannot combine to thicken other fire support missions.

The above rules show how limited the Russian artillery is in a fluid situation. You can understand why they often used their artillery pieces as direct fire weapons instead of off-board support (FS-03, FS-04, FS-05). The scenario designer may give a choice to the Russian player on how to deploy these assets, but this choice cannot be changed during the course of the game.
Introduction

Fire Plan

The Russians can have several turns of preplotted fire plans available when on the attack. You can even use the larger guns (152mm guns +1 vs V/+2 vs T,G, sV) that are not listed on the chart on P.37. Unlike the British, a Russian Fire Plan should be relatively uncreative. Static barrages or concentrations should be the rule. The Russian player should plot any such fire before seeing the German deployment.

You can also give the Russians some on-call concentrations from off-board artillery which could also include the larger guns. Target them against a specific geographic point or terrain feature. Once designated, they cannot be adjusted. To use them, a Russian commander, FO or scout must have a clear LOS to the target position and make a successful call for direct support.

Scouting and set-piece battles

Charles Sharp had an interesting way of simulating the pre-planned barrages that were sometimes available at the start of a Russian attack on German defensive positions. He allowed the Germans to have full-strength organizations to start the game along with lots of dummy counters. The Germans would start with each unit represented by a counter (either dummy or real). The Russians would then receive a certain number of "scouts" that represent the intensive reconnaissance that often preceded Russian offensives. Each scouting attempt is resolved separately by revealing German setup counters one-at-a-time until a real German unit is found (i.e. each scout can reveal a single German real unit). At the end of this process, all revealed German units are eliminated to (no die roll required) reflect the massive artillery concentrations that would precede a Russian attack. You can modify this process to restrict scouting attempts to certain parts of the board, or allow each scout to reveal only a certain number of counters, but the basic idea is that known German positions would be annihilated by massive artillery strikes when the Russians started their attack.
Introduction

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