Longtime Dakkanaut
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The following is mostly aimed at Mid War, Eastern Front, as I play that more than Late War.
Running Strelkovy, Red Army, so Fearless-Conscript rated.
1st outing was a cheap and cheerful army, rifle/mg platoons in pairs, various support options, all PSC models, this didn't work.
2nd outing worked a lot better:
1st company, three platoons, six attached anti tank rifles, two flame throwers, five attached pioneer teams from the HQ, an attached 45mm gun and a worried look on the opponents face, its some 40 odd teams.
2nd company, two platoons, six attached anti tank rifles, one HMG, four attached pioneer teams, two flame throwers, an attached 45mm gun and a look of desperation on the opponents face.
Then a single platoon Sthraf company so the list 'always attacks', and a scout platoon so you can often infiltrate one of the blobs, normally the 1st one.
Support is six more 45mm guns, 6 heavy mortars, an IL-2 and a pair of ZiS-2...
ZiS-2 were a waste of points, far too fragile, the IL-2 is very nice, expensive but nice, but is being dropped.
Trick is to be highly aggressive, this list won against a pair of panzer lists, and won convincingly (6-1 & 5-2), only issue being it advanced so quickly the IL-2 had a vald target for about two turns - so dropping it, would be nicer in a defensive list, ZiS-2 are nice but got wiped out too fast, conscripts are so easy to kill.
Ok, the down sides..
Lost to a pair of infantry companies, both times down to my own incompetence, main problem is one of traffic management - tried to advance in a line formation, three/four teams deep - looked a good idea but meant the supporting guns never really had a clear field of fire, v a grenadier list we managed to get into assault, but so little was left it didn't work.
Thinking with the IL-2 gone taking some ZiS-3 artillery, 8 guns, and rolling them up between the two formations, now in columns so the guns can fire, don't care if only hitting on a 6 and then only at close range - if the enemy stays gone to ground you have him in the assault, if they fire you can pick off the enemy HMG.
Should work.
You have to be highly aggressive, conscripts cannot hang about and are pants at digging in, so pile them forwards, double them on the first turn even to get the enemy firing to expose their guns, you can take a turn of it at range (probably), few armies put out the shots to get past the 3+ save.
Keep the infantry cheap, rifle teams only, they will forever be in the way of each other so will seldom actually fire more than a few shots, and against infantry they will normally be firing at the dug in anyway so rifles are paints - win in the assault phase - with a lot of bodies to get past the 5+ roll to actually hit.. flame throwers help, pioneers help keep tanks honest, the anti tank rifle teams useful to keep tanks at bay, and to fire in support before the assault, but are mostly there as more bodies (indeed when facing troops they often are removed first as they can't assault anyway).
Its a lot of fun to use, people seem to expect infantry to dig in, and especially mid war 'always attacks' seems rare, so armoured forces are seriously on the back foot when forced to defend against this lot.
Start of the list though is like playing orks, infantry before toys, revised list with be 2 formations, each of three platoons, four flame throwers (more is overkill, just two in each formation is plenty, spread them out), max out on HQ pioneers - everything is focussed on getting the infantry into the assault, scouts to infiltrate for the initial movement, happy to give the enemy first turn to be a lot closer, Sthraf for always attacks, send them on the flank, they have to be countered which distracts from stopping the main assaults, a few cheap guns for picking off enemy HMG or enemy guns, anything RoF 3+ needs to die then pile forwards.
the heavy mortar is nice, conscript artillery though seldom seems to actually hit, so thinking the ZiS-3 may be a better bet for direct fire. Could swap for a third infantry blob if you want something for the rear.
Only real issue is the lack of mobility, but you have the numbers to double if needed and the infiltration move in missions like fighting withdrawal, enemy armour is probably only a concern if its a horde or light tanks or horde of armoured cars, actual tanks simply don't have the volume of fire to stop this much infantry before it assaults them. Seriously helps to have a German list to avoid red on red fights as well.
Poor units?
BM-13 has the life expectancy of a snowball in hell if you let the enemy fire at them, can avoid that by a rapid infantry advance to distract them, they are ok but in a more passive list a waste.
IL-2, again highly useful, but you will quickly be in the wave off area so won't be used as much
Decent anti tank guns ironically, the troops don't need them, they are small and thus fragile and expensive
Any unit thats small really - becomes an easy kill for the enemy at range so even if you roll them its a 4-3 at best
Artillery generally if you expect it to actually hit, conscripts with artillery... well they are cheap and occasionally do something, but its more a paper threat, even the nice heavy mortars range in well but then don't actually hit enough.
Artillery observers, an expensive way to help artillery range in so it has more chance to then fail to hit anything...
The few times I've run infantry late war were a while back but its similar, have the numbers and be aggressive, in both era your force drops like flies and if you give the enemy two or three turns firing what you have left isn't enough when it gets close you need to advance hard and fast, don't get distracted by casualties, use the shock effect so many bodies has to your advantage.
Suggestions if you do try a big infantry list:
- pack them by platoon, makes deployment quicker
- practice deploying them, to get faster at it
- practice moving them, make a 6" measurement stick so its faster to use, this doesn't need to be a slow army at all
- keep moving everything, part of the way the army works is to give the enemy too many things to think about
- aim for nine platoons if you can but don't worry too much about it, if most platoons are large by the time the enemy is firing at your smaller support platoons you've lost anyway or they have lost and are trying to scrape points, this army should be able to win with minimal platoons lost, though both the infantry blobs will be crippled by the end of the game
As for building the force, sold core of infantry - say two companies with two platoons, to add the third later to each, then flame throwers, pioneers and anti tank rifles to get the assault infantry to size, support beyond that depends on what you will face I guess, but there is little the Germans have that cannot be managed by takng more infantry.
This started as a second army, simply so my 'favoured' panzers didn't have to go blue on blue, all Zvezda and PSC... who don't make the support units, I;ve had more success and a lot more fun running this utterly insane, huge always attacks, infiltrating "OMG how many???" army than any other.
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