Slitherine

Historically, battles for large cities are full of examples of high casualties and massive collateral damage, and the specter of a tank’s easy destruction in the close confines of urban terrain weighs heavily on commanders and military planners. However, in a historical context, the vulnerability of armor in cities is proven to be overestimated and outweighed by the ability of the tank to bring its heavy firepower to the urban fight...

The 2003 Iraq War and the subsequent occupation have shown that rather than being a mobile coffin, heavy armor still provides an overwhelming and lethal capability to any force. Its firepower, mobility, and shock combine to defeat an enemy, even those armed with modern antitank weapons. There are drawbacks though. The tank's heavy weight and large size often restrict its speed and areas of use. Blind spots and frequently restricted turret traverse and elevation hinder the tanks' substantial firepower. Historical examples and recent experience show, however, that when employing armor in combination with infantry, supporting artillery, and air power, the tank is a dominant player in urban warfare. http://www.cgsc.edu/carl/download/csipu ... _tanks.pdf

the_iron_duke wrote:I've also touched up a couple of the bocage hexes for my northern France scenarios.

McGuba wrote:You might also want to add crew to the towed artillery, AT and AA, though.

Anfield wrote:Really like the 6 infantry idea, how much did you shrink them down? Might have to try that.

iceFlame wrote:Looks sharp. The new tiles make it easy on the eyes.

Anfield wrote:Thats alot of infantry! Personally id say a cross between both sizes of infantry would look best.

the_iron_duke wrote:A scene from my infantry graphic-testing image. Starting to look like a Bruegel painting!

iceFlame wrote: Wow, I bet that's gonna look really cool with the new muzzle flash animations! Lots of fire there... I can almost picture it now.

the_iron_duke wrote:(The Soviets don't have any heavy artillery units in the game - I don't know if anyone's modded any?)

ThvN wrote:There is a 203mm gun in this unit pack

Also, anyone know much about Soviet transports? While the British and Germans have a few different transport units, the Soviets have only the Soviet Truck, M3 halftrack (not currently being used in my scenarios) and horse transport.

Soviet artillery tractors added:[/b]

The Red Amy preferred to use fully tracked tractors to tow their medium and heavy artillery and AA guns. A number of different types were in production in 1941, but after the German attack their production was largely stopped as production was shifted to tanks. With a little help from the Hungarian Blitzkrieg Mod I tried to make some of them:

Stalinets S-65
Conventional agricultural tractor which found its way to the Red Army as a heavy artillery tractor in increasing numbers due to the heavy losses of artillery tractors and the lack of production. More than 37.000 were produced between 1937-41, of which about 10.000 (estimate) were used by the army. It could tow even the heaviest guns, but with a max speed of 7 km/h only. Thus it has tracked movement = 3, but its quiet cheap, 24 prestige points.

High Speed Tractor Stalinets S-2
High-speed tractor in its name only, the S-2 was used to tow the 85mm AA guns and 122-203mm guns and howitzers, while doing so the tractor slowed down to 15-20km/h. Still, it is faster than the S-65, so tracked movement = 4. 1275 were produced between 1939-41, on 1 Sept 1941 the Red Army had 892.

Heavy Tractor Voroshilovets
The most powerful (350hp) tractor of the war was used to tow the heaviest 152-305mm guns at relatively high speed. This 15 ton monster is comperable only to the German 18 ton SdKfz 9 halftrack. 1123 were produced between 1939-41. Expensive, tracked movement = 5 (36-42 km/h max speed)

Yaroslavl Ya-12
The switch to tank production after the German attack caused serious demand for modern artillery tractors, thus the Ya-12 entered production in 1943, and by the end of that year 285 were produced. It remained in production until the end of the war and finally 1666 were produced. Ya-12 was used to tow the 85mm AA gun, 100mm AT gun, and 122-152mm guns and howitzers. Good speed, tracked movement = 5 (38 km/h), affordable price, but only available later in the war.

ZIS-42
The only serial-produced Soviet half-track of the war, the ZIS-42 entered production in summer 1942. Approximately 6.000 were produced. Based on the ZIS-5 chassis, the ZIS-42 had more powerful engine and three additional fuel tanks. However, it had a quite low speed for a halftrack, only 36 km/h (halftrack movement = 5), thus it has low price. It can tow 45-57mm AT guns, 76mm divisional guns, and it can also transport infantry.

Horse Transport
The Red Army heavily relied on horse transports as well throughout the war, especially in the first half. Horse transports can tow most light guns and it is the only land transport of the obsolete WWI-era spoked wheel guns (wheeled movement = 4).

Other changes:

Canvas added to Bebro's excellent ZIS-5 truck and the vanilla Soviet truck (US land-lease GMC) to match the style of the new tractors.

Sources:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=74221
http://www.o5m6.de/RussianTractors.html

ThvN wrote:Well, horse transport is on the list to be added for Soviet Corps!