Support Weapons
by Pz_J_Dietrich

 

 

Some of the best weapons the Russians get are the heavy 152/122/100mm Infantry and AT guns. These weapons can be the saviour to any Russian commander and mean the total destruction of any German commander. They are weapons that you both love and hate, depending on whos the receiver.

 

Beating Fixed Support Weapons:

Mortars are probably the best way to destroy enemy gun positions as you don't have to engage them head-on, but with indirect attack. Once you've seen the location of a gun position, normally by the guns smoke, try and get your mortar team as close as possible to the target zone, this will make shells more accurate and deadly as well as not wasting as many rounds. Probably best to use the 80/82mm mortars as their a lot more powerful then the 5cm versions and have a better blast radius. Also a great way to deal with these units is to sneak infantry units up close to the suspected area and then to suppress the target zone with mortar or HMG fire and then to assualt the position with infantry. If your Russians, and have engineer squads you can have an easy way out with the assault by simply sneaking up and attacking the area with your infantry flamer which has a range of 45m. A similar way is to lay down suppressing fire from either or both HMG's and mortars, and then send in a piece of armour to attack the known area. This can be very risky for your armour and should only be tried in times of desperation.

Using Fixed Support Weapons:

Support weapons are one of the most important weapons available to the Russain commander in a fair amount of games, mainly defensive work and to knockout German armour that your tanks cant do from range. One important thing that you should know is that heavy support guns arent the best for anti-tank use, not by far. Weapons like the great 57mm and 88mm have excellent armour penetrating power and a much faster reloading time. The best use for these heavy guns are for covering fire, clearing buildings and in the Russians cases, to attack heavy armour from range. These weapons should only be bought if the terrain suits there needs, open ground with great cover. 90% of players will always expect his/her Russian enemy to have these weapons and they'll keep a close eye out for smoke when the guns are fired. Expect heavy suppression fire against these support guns so a good tactic is to fire mortars or firearms at any target far away from their positions , including ground infront of you. By doing this you can distract you enemys eyes away from the area of your support gun and then attack, hopefully they'll never know what hit them. Also watch out for the rather large size of heavy guns like the 122/152mm's as they won't fit in most buildings.

Russian 57mm Anti-Tank Guns:

These have to be one of, if not, the best anti-tank gun the Russian forces get. Being excellent in the regular game the 57mm gets a better trained crew as well as being available in larger numbers in the RR version of CC3. This weapon has the firepower to engage and kill even the toughest of German armour from most rangers and angles and becomes a great threat to the German commander. The power of the 57mm is great compared to the poor performance of the heavier 76mm guns, but don't expect a clean kill with every shot from this AT gun. The 57mm is a great gun against most German tanks, but against the Tigers and Panthers the 57mm mainly does damage per shot rather than to kill them whole. In this cases the German commander can have time to let their heavy armour to be attacked while they search the map for smoke from your guns barrel, then sending in maybe mortar rounds for the kill. The 57mm is great for crippling heavy German armour so German commanders watchout. Being fairly small these weapons can be hidden in most buildings making areas killings zones for German armour. Overall an excellent little piece of hardware and should always be bought before anyother AT gun. Also watch out for the SU-57, this little halftrack hasn't much armour and has a 15 second reloading time, but it has one hell of a punch.

 

German 88mm:

The best AT gun in the game. These guns can nail even the toughest of Soviet armour from the full range of the map. These guns are great for defensive work in both early and late war games as AA versions are available from the very start of the game, and by the start of 1944 the AT gun version are out. Being priced at around 79pts. the AT gun version costs more than the AA version, the reason being that the 88mm AT can hide within buildings. If you can afford the 88mm AT gun and have the right style of map, then yes buy one and watch the enemys tanks turn to scrap metal. Always place a strong unit near this team as their too expensive to let them die easy if engaged by enemy infantry.

Mortars:

Mortars are probably one of the most useful weapons in any commanders force roster. Excellent for suppressing fire against enemy infantry units before assaults, and above all, excellent for dealing with deadly enemy gun positions that can decides whether you win or loose a game. Its always good to have at least one mortar, the best being the 80/82mm, just in case your enemy has support guns covering their positions. When using mortars against enemy positions try and get them as close as possible to their location, this will make your mortars more accurate and deadly. If you've got more than one mortar a good tactic is to use a "leap-frog manuver". This means that when one mortar has fired their 10 rounds and is reloading, let your second mortar to continue the attack on the area while your first mortar is still reloading. By doing this you can quickly kill hidden gun positions giving you more time to complete your victory. The 80/82mm mortars are the best overall, having a great range and blast radius while the 50mm mortars are very fast firing and reloading making them great for suppression work. Watch out for firing rate of the 50mm as they to tend to burn up their ammo supplys rather quickly. The 80/82mm mortars have a minimum range of 150m and the 5cm mortars have a minimum of around 100m. Overall these teams are needed on just about every map in the RR game.

One of the best weapons for stopping shrapnel from support guns shredding every major internal organ in your troops bodys are Mortars!

 

Panzerschreck/Bazooka:

These teams are great for ambushing enemy armour. Having an effective range of over 100m these two man teams can course great problems for any commander as they have enough power to kill even IS-2's and King Tiger's with a single shot, and being a very small team they can be very hard to spot and take out. These teams are great for defensive work and are good for supporting infantry if they encounter armour when on the advance. Overall these teams are cheap and powerful and should only really be bought if points are low as you don't really want to buy a two man team when you can have a full infantry platoon like that of a Russian engineer squad. Also if the terrain is very open, then you can make full use of the team and target units at their full range. A little tip: with these teams is that if you place two together, you can fire the other panzerschreck/bazooka while the other is reloading. This is a very effective way of killing enemy armour.

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