Like Oliver Twist, most of us never seem to get enough of a good thing. Should you become the Russian commander in Black Wednesday, you will never seem to have enough Prep (Artillery Barrage that is). For those unfortunate souls who do not own a copy of Black Wednesday, let me just say that the Prep consists of battalion strength artillery concentrations that the Russian player pre-plots before the Spanish setup.

The Prep consists of:

• three Katyusha batteries, each one firing four times with a strength of 6 in a five hex radius
• three battalions of 152mm
• six battalions of 122mm.

The 152mm and 122mm attack strengths are twice that of normal fires, but Prep Fire results in Bad Shoot 50% of the time (50% strength).

How the Soviets handle the Prep Fire will decide the fate of the Second Lake Ladoga Offensive. The Prep can be handled in a number of ways, and each player will evolve a strategy that best suits his or her playing style.

Targeting Options

The Soviets can move the various concentrations around to confuse the Spanish as to where the breakthrough will be attempted. Each division gets an equal amount of concentrations, at least for the first seven turns: the approach march and wire breaching phase. Next, selective rear-area targets, such as El Bastion, The Mill, and Potrolovo, receive some well-deserved attention.

In the 43rd Inf and 72nd Inf Div sectors, fire can concentrate on eliminating the trench defenders in short order as the attackers come upon them quite quickly. In the 63rd Guards sector, the concentrations can be walked across targeted trench sectors as the Red Tide comes on across The Bog and The Woods.

Meanwhile, rockets rain down upon Krasni Bor, spreading fear and confusion among the rear-area defenders: basic gunner types, AT gunners, Infantry Gun crews, and battalion support weapon crews. There are so many lucrative targets there that even scattering the impact points usually results in some rockets finding worthwhile targets. Even though the rockets' firepower is small (6), the many die rolls are likely to cause several casualties. Do not be too fancy here: invoke the Law of Averages and let it fly. If you are a high roller, it will be a Black Wednesday indeed.

Overall it should work as follows: trench defenders die in large numbers, and in several cases they are destroyed by the time the lead assault elements get to the wire. The only interference should be limited to long-range support weapons fire and the always-present Spanish artillery concentrations. A number of variations of this basic theme are possible: give a division more concentrations, vary the pattern of artillery concentrations and their timing with respect to the infantry assault, etc.

Rolling Thunder

However, a more radical alternative works well: Drumfire Barrage. This tactic calls for the concentration of all artillery (less the Katyushas) on one small trench sector in a mad 20-minute turn: nine artillery concentrations hit nine consecutive hexes. Depending on the geometry of the trench hexes, it is possible to obtain triple Attack Zone overlap in many cases.

With such an overlap, survival becomes problematic at best and depends heavily on the Bad Shoot/Good Shoot distribution pattern. Wait! It gets better yet. Repeat the entire process next turn on the same sector.

If you anticipate the Spanish Player to stack infantry platoons in order to ensure the presence of some troops in forward trenches when the barrage lifts, go at it a third turn, this time loosening up the pattern somewhat. This frees up a few concentrations that can now soften up nearby second-line positions (e.g., El Bastion or Krasni Bor).

Moving the barrage back one hex to the support trench, or the first houses of Krasni Bor, should allow Soviet troops to move right up to the wire. The Attack Zone covers both trench hexes while adjacent hexes (50% firepower) cover the wire itself. The Attack Zones (Good Shoot) will screen assault troops from the rear area support weapons (remember that you cannot fire through such attack zones).

Caution: Do not attempt to walk into Drumfire Barrage attack zones extending into the wire. This pretty well guarantees that the opposition is gone. Sure, this leads to some waste: some trench hexes may already have been "liberated" by the time the second or third wave comes down. Do you care as your assault troops are facing nothing but empty real estate? You should not.

For the Drumfire Barrage to work best, you must land it immediately prior to the assault troops reaching their assault jump-off positions. There cannot be any dead time between the last round falling and the first wire breaching attempt. Move support weapons into position to prevent any reserve from rushing ahead of the assault troops to re-occupy the forward trenches. Suppress them in the open and call in the Div Arty to finish them off. Attempt to lay some Good Shoot concentrations on the other side of the trench and watch the Spanish infantry die in the attempt to rush through.

Anticipating the Spaniards

Faced with such a deluge of raw firepower, the Spanish player may well conclude that defending the forward trenches is not feasible and attempt to withdraw forward troops. If the Soviets launch diversions or probing assaults in a number of directions, the Spanish player should be unable to determine the main axis of attack.

If the Spanish Player evacuates the target sectorÑthereby saving his troopsÑthe Soviet Player has obtained the original objective: clear the target sector of all defenders! Evacuated Spanish troops will live to fight on later, but they are not present at the breakthrough sector. Nothing prevents players from combining the pick-and-choose (selective) approach with the Drumfire Barrage. If you develop a good mix-and-match strategy, you may keep the Spanish Player unsure as to what your real breakthrough intentions are until it is too late to react effectively.

Remember that the first turn is the only turn that a fairly high density of targets is present in forward trenches. For that reason, I always use a Drumfire Barrage to obtain a good kill ratio on the first turn, even if I switch to selective barrages later on.

Another twist would be to drop nine battalion barrages in downtown Krasni Bor: the effect could be devastating to your opponent's artillery support capability for the rest of the game. This is a gamble, as the concentrations could be wasted on empty real estate. This represents yet another hard decision for the Soviets to handle. For the same reasons, I sometimes drop some concentrations on villages just to make sure that the Spaniard does not feel too secure in rear areas and does not get in the (nasty) habit of digging in on-map artillery in these protected locations.

Give it a try. If anyone out there has any opinions regarding these theories, please express them in these pages. We can all use a little discussion of our favorite tactics. To Mr. Friedrichs, the designer: Can I have more Prep, please?