If you add up all the Soviet artillery units in both FITE and SE, you get a total of 543 consisting of artillery, mortar, rocket, and antitank brigades; rocket and AA regiments; siege, RR, and other miscellaneous regiments and brigades, and even one battalion. That number, however, only barely matches reality. On 1 January 1945 ("end of the game" in Scorched Earth ) the Soviet Army had 49,166 guns and mortars in non-divisional units, including 154 separate artillery and mortar brigades, 958 separate artillery regiments (all types) and 168 separate artillery battalions (mostly AA and super-heavy guns). All this was in addition to 105 artillery divisions of various types!

Where did all this artillery come from?

Stalingrad, as in so many other ways, was also a turning point for the Soviet artillery. From a decentralized, defensive support arm it emerged from the 1942-43 Winter offensives as a concentrated offensive arm. Starting in September 1942, 62nd Army in Stalingrad had organized an "Arlillery Group" of 8 artillery regiments (4 stripped from rifle divisions) and 4 rocket regiments to counter-fire against German artillery and repel infantry attacks.

Just too late for the actual Stalingrad counteroffensive, the first artillery divisions were organized in November-December 1942. Each division had 7-8 artillery regiments; the 1 st Artillery Division, for instance, had 3 AT regiments (each 16 76mm and 12 45mm), 3 howitzer regiments (each. 24 122mm or 152mm) and 2 cannon regiments (each 24 122mm or 152mm), for a total of 168 guns plus 36 45mm AT.

In December 1942 the Soviet Army actually started forming artillery brigades, and so SE counters finally come into line with wartime reality. The counters correspond as follows:

2-6 Art X = Light or Howitzer Brigades, each 72 76mm guns or 72 122mm howitzers
3-2-6 Art X = Cannon Brigades, each 72 122mm or 152mm cannon
3-6 Art X = Heavy Howitzer or Super-Heavy Howitzer Brigades, each 48 152mm or 203mm howitzers
2-1-8 Mor X = 72 120mm mortars in 3 regiments of 24 each
2-8 Mor X = 48 160mm mortars in 3 regiments of 16 each (replaced 120mm increasingly throughout 1943-44)

The artillery divisions at this time had one brigade each of light, howitzer, cannon and mortar. In the Spring and late Winter of 1943 several artillery divisions were further built up into "breakthrough" divisions, literally designed to blow holes in enemy lines. These had, in addition to the 4 brigades of the regular artillery divisions, a brigade each of heavy and super-heavy howitzers, and later in the war added a brigade of rocket artillery as well.

There was one unique artillery division organized. In April 1943, when the first 3 artillery divisions (1st, 8th, 19th) were redesignated Guards units for their part in the Winter offensives, a fourth Guards artillery division was formed, consisting of 4 cannon brigades. This "Cannon Division" was used for mass counter-battery fire against German artillery in front of Smolensk and from there on into Poland. When the 8th Artillery Division was re-raised in June 1943 it was also formed as a Cannon Division.

The "Katyushas", the multiple rocket launchers, formed an increasing part of Soviet artillery from 1941 on. SE and FITE offer 25 rocket brigades and 84 rocket regiments, but even that isn't enough: by July 1942 there were already 54 regiments of BM-8 or BM-13 (82mm and 132mm rockets, respectively), plus another 54 separate battalions. At the end of 1943, there was a peak of 115 regiments of rocket launchers.

The (4-1-8) rocket brigades represent anew weapon. Starting in mid-1942, battalions of M-20 (later, in early 1943, M-30) 200mm rockets were organized. These had shorter ranges than the earlier launchers, but much heavier blast effect. Brigades of these units were not actually formed until November 1942, by which time there were 105 separate battalions. The first 10 heavy rocket brigades were formed in November, and a month later the first 4 heavy rocket divisions (14-4-6) were formed, each with 4 regiments of BM-13s and 2 brigades of M-30s. Each of these divisions could lay down 230 tons of HE at one salvo.

In January 1943 the first Guards rocket artillery division was organized, and eventually all 7 divisions converted to this organization: 4 brigades of M-30s, with a single salvo of 318 tons of HE. At the end of 1943, the Soviet Army, in addition to 7 rocket artillery divisions (15-3-8) had another 13 separate brigades of M30s, 96 separate regiments of BM-13s, and 19 BM-8 regiments.

Finally, starting in mid-1943, the Artillery Corps HO were formed. Eventually there were 10 of these at the end of the war, each controlling 203 artillery pieces or 2 artillery divisions and a rocket/mortar division. They are not represented in Scorched Earth because diligent research showed not one instance where they made any difference at the scale of the game. They allowed slightly better control of artillery assets by Front (Army Group) commands, but as many of the late war offensives (1943-44) succeeded without them as with them. In 1945 they might become important, as the Soviet infantry and tanks by then were rolling forward behind a virtual carpet of artillery fire.

Interestingly, by late 1943 the Soviet artillery had, for all practical purposes, reached the form it would keep for he rest of the war. The only changes at took place thereafter were "more o the same" - more brigades headquarters to control the separate regiments and a continuous upgrading of equipment. By late 1944 many antitank brigades with 76mm and 57mm AT were replaced with light brigades of all 76mm guns, and then upgraded to howitzer or heavy howitzer brigades with 122mm or 152mm pieces. Each army headquarters, starting in January 1945 (9th Guards Army was organized on this organization as a model unit, in fact) received a permanently assigned mortar, cannon, rocket, and howitzer brigade each.

The artillery trickled downward as well. Starting in June 1944 selected Guards rifle divisions were each assigned, in addition to their divisional artillery regiment with 36 122mm howitzers, a rocket launcher battalion with 12 132mm launchers and a SU (self-propelled artillery) regiment with 21 76mm guns on light tank chassis. By the end of the war this organization was referred to officially as the divisional artillery brigade and regular rifle divisions were receiving the extra units as well.

Earlier in the war such artillery support was already a de facto part of some divisions. Both Guards and regular rifle divisions slated for assault roles would receive SU regiments, tank regiments, and antitank regiments as support, and sometimes the added units would stay with the divisions throughout several campaigns, much as the "separate" tank and tank-destroyer battalions in the US Army became part of their divisions. The earliest example of this was with the 9th Rifle Division, which, as a special "nationalist" unit ("Cossack Infantry", or "Plastuny") had 85mm guns in its AT unit, a self-propelled artillery unit permanently attached, and a table or organization strength of almost 14,000 men in late 1943.

[For more information on incorporating this unit into SE see the note in the SE errata in TEN #5. Ed.]

Which goes to show that a legitimate House Rule (okay I'll admit - it's one of My House Rules!) for a would be to allow, after I Sep 43, for rifle divisions to be replaced using a maximum of 1 artillery or armor RIP in the place of 1 of the infantry RPs required, representing the late-war Soviet practice of making up for dwindling manpower with firepower.