The Red Army during WWII is primarily an infantry force. This is well depicted in FitE/SE; the bulk of your forces are faceless 3-6 and 4-6 Rifle divisions, the only break in the monotony being the Guards, and the mobile forces.

Soviet mountain troops trudge through the snow on their way to the front.

It is easy to become cavalier about the hordes of brown cardboard going into the dead pile, and indeed, for much of the game, it is an unavoidable attitude. This faceless and nameless mass is all you have to work with.

What Soviet player has not looked longingly at the wealth of specialist troops with which the Axis player is provided? Airborne, Brandenburgers, Jagers, Tigers, etc. And all those colours! Who can deny a sense of envy when comparing one army to the other?

But there are specialists in the Red Army. Too often, however, they are not treated as such; their special abilities are wasted, their strength and numbers frittered away at the wrong time and in the wrong place. I speak of the Mountain Rifle divisions of the Red Army.

Even forgetting their special abilities, two limitations concerning these troops set them apart as a special case: their numbers, or lack thereof, and their fragility.

Let's look at the limitations first, before we address the abilities. First off, fragility. One need look no further than Rule 34E1 for this. From the start of play to the Jun II 44 turn, Mountain divisions of any strength are considered fragile and replaced with 3-6 Rifle divisions when eliminated. So each division lost prior to Jul I 44 is gone for good, replaced with a faceless 3-6 Rifle division. Obviously, the Mountain Rifles are a brittle force.

Even after the Jun II 44 turn there is still a limitation upon replacing/rebuilding these units; no more than three RE's of mountain units may be replaced/rebuilt per month (i.e., every two turns). And the Jul I 44 turn is a long way in the future.

This limitation upon replacing Mountain units wouldn't be so bad if a decent number of these units were received. Alas, such is not the case. The Soviet player has only a few of these units to start with, no prospect of getting many more as reinforcements and an inability to replace those he loses.

Here is the breakdown of initial Mountain units: there are five 3-4-7 and two 3-7 divisions allocated to the border MD's facing Greater Germany and Rumania, one 3-4-7 division with the Strategic Reserves, one 4-7 division in reserve in Central Asia and five 4-7 and two 3-4-7 divisions in the Transcaucasus MD. Out of over a hundred divisions of all types, sixteen Mountain divisions. To this number we can add one (unsupported) 2-3-7 Mountain Rifle brigade and four 3-2-8 Mountain Cavalry divisions (two in reserve), all in various Interior MD's. Not much.

But the reinforcement picture is no brighter. One 3-7 and one 3-4-7, along with three 3-2-8 Mtn Cavalry divisions (two released from reserve) during 1941. A 4-7 released from reserve and one 4-7 as a reinforcement during 1942. No new units in 1943, although one Mountain division of any strength does convert to a 4-5-7 Guards Mountain division. During 1944, two 6-7 Mountain corps are received through conversions, as is one 4-7 division. And that's it, for the entire period covered by FitE/SE. Seventeen divisions available at the beginning of the game and a further ten received/released/converted over a three and a half year period. A brittle force indeed. And of these twenty-seven divisions, only three have cadres! And none but the Guards may be replaced/rebuilt until Jul I 44.

As stated above, these are indeed special units. First of all, Mountain Rifle divisions are marginally faster than normal Rifle divisions, even in plain terrain, due to their movement allowance of seven, versus the standard six movement points. In addition, in good weather, Mountain units pay one less movement point per hex for rough, wooded-rough and mountain hexes, compared to standard Rifle units. In snow weather, they pay one less movement point per hex for wooded-rough and mountain hexes, again as compared to normal Rifle units. This means that Mountain units treat rough as clear and can move through three, instead of two, mountain or wooded-rough hexes per clear weather turn.

Perhaps more important than movement ability is the combat ability possessed by Mountain units: they attack at full value into mountain hexes and across mountain hexsides. This makes even a lowly 3-7 Mountain division the equivalent of the best Guards Rifle division while attacking in the mountains. For a three hex frontage attack, for example, six 5-6 Guards Rifle divisions (full mountain stacking) generate fifteen attack factors; six 3-7 or 3-4-7 Mountain divisions generate eighteen attack factors.

Considering that artillery, which the Soviet player relies upon to generate much of his offensive power, is also halved in the mountains, the value of the Mountain divisions on the offensive can not be overstated.

Indeed, a 4-7 Mountain division is almost the equal of a 9-6 Artillery division, if attacking a mountain hex (4 AF vs 4.5 for the Artillery division). When the stacking limitations are taken into account as well, the importance of each Mountain division is obvious. (Remember that the number of units allowed to attack a hex is governed by the terrain of the defender's hex, NOT the hexes occupied by the attacker. So the mountain stacking restriction applies when attacking a mountain hex or across a mountain hexside, regardless of the terrain the attacking units occupy.)

Hopefully, I have convinced the reader that these few, for the most part irreplaceable, units are indeed special units. And how are these units all too often used'? As Infantry! Squandered in forlorn attacks, Iong before the Axis are anywhere near a Soviet mountain range. For, with all their special abilities and limitations, often the only thing a Soviet commander knows about these units is that they are winterized! Urrahh! Attack!! And then toss them into the "permanently eliminated box", to never see the light of day again.

All too often, the only thing a Soviet commander sees when looking at these units is the white on golden-brown colour scheme, and NOT the little mountain peak under the crossed rifles. I am reminded of a situation that I witnessed.

During a friendly game of FitE/SE (as opposed to a competitive one ... ) the southern Soviet commander was unable to play for a week. Another player happened to be around to take over the front temporarily.

And what did this new commander notice immediately? "Gee, look, a bunch of Mountain divisions sitting here in the Transcaucasus MD. doing nothing, and it's January 1942!" So four irreplaceable 3-4-7 Mountain divisions entrain, provide a couple of stacks with 1/5th winterization effects and are promptly eliminated by the Axis riposte.

C'est la vie, you say? Fortunes of war? Pu-lease. Can you say "Mistake"?

Consider:

The Soviets get somewhere in the neighborhood of 395 RE's of winterized units up until Mar I 42, from initial forces and reinforcements. Of that total, Mountain units represent a likely maximum usable total of 34 RE's. Barely over 8.5%, and that's if every Mountain division possible is committed to the front. My point'?

Among Guards, NKVD, Winter-Capable, Naval Rifle, Marines and Ski brigades, what's eight to fourteen Mountain divisions? Especially when they possess unique abilities important long after the first winter? They are a drop in the bucket, as far as the winter counter-offensive goes, but they are all you have, as far as mountain ability goes.

The moral of the story is this -- don't waste them as if they were nothing more than some extra winterized units, conserve them so that they can fulfill their function. Mountain units should be in the mountains. whether that's the Caucasus or the Carpathians. They have no business being chewed up in clear terrain in front of Moscow or being ground to pulp by Finns in light woods. The only place that they can have a real impact is in the mountains and the only time that they can have an impact is when they are attacking. So preserve them until you are mounting an offensive in mountainous terrain.

And if you can't mount a convincing first winter attack without them, might I suggest Canasta as an alternative to wargaming...