Battle Tactics

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    • DevinMacGregor wrote:

      I name each of my operations.

      I don't exactly name my offensives, but I do like to name battles of extreme importance.

      Right now I am dominating my world. I am Saudi Arabia and I have Turkey, Russia, Italy, Germany, Poland, and lots of minor countries. In the Polish War I had Germany and Russia and the status of number one player. However, Poland had the status of number three in military power while I was at 15th. They decided they liked the odds and declared war (while I was offline). When I got back they were eating pieces of Germany. So I quickly got my HIs on the Russian side rounded up and jumped across Ukraine to attack their holdings in Lithuania and Belarus. Meanwhile in Ion the western front I was holding off the attacking forces with missiles from my bombers. I felt like I was playing whack-a-mole because they just kept coming and coming! I had about 70 missiles on the first day. By the time I logged off I was down to about 20-30. The Polish casualties were over 60,000 that first day. And it continued into the night. That was when I employed the artillery tactic from a few comments ago that saved my units from getting overrun. By morning they had taken about 10-20,000 more casualties. I decided to call that first day The Battle Of Running Fire, because of that massive bloodbath and how it played out. To put it in perspective the Poles lost more men in that one day than the Russians did during my entire war (of several weeks) with them. My war with the Poles was my favorite because of the casualty rates. 5,000 me - 108,000 Poles. 21 to 1. Never before or since have I dealt such massive casualties with such relative loss of life on my side.

      On the other hand, my favorite battle for least casualties overall was with Ukraine. I had just connected my eastern and western empires by taking Belarus. I decided to expand my connection by taking Ukraine. So I jumped my men into the country and took it within 45 minutes. I met with ZERO resistance. By the time everything was taken both sides had taken no casualties. 0 me - 0 Ukraine. I couldn't even call it a battle. So I decided to call it The Annexation Of Ukraine.

    • I've discovered a new tactic! I call it 'Whoops! Didn't see you there!' (WDSYT)

      Have you ever wanted to take over a smaller country, but a bigger country right next to it has armored units sitting in the middle of a province or two and you want them gone without starting a war with said neutral country? Well then, this tactic is for you!

      How it works: You have them lit with radar (preferably AWACS) and know where they are right? Now put out the lights (land the plane). The province looks like it is empty now. Nothing is there (that you can see). Declare war or make an unprovoked attack (as the news would say) on said smaller country with missiles. Shoot the missiles at the provinces where you know where the neutral troops are. The missile will kill the troops or damage them and make them move. Since they weren't the intended target it was an accident and war will not happen or be declared even if the news makes it look that way.

      Personal application:
      I discovered this by accident. I was at war with Turkey and there were some Greek ships on the same spot as the Turks. I shot two missiles thinking that one wouldn't be enough. But it was. The Greeks were the only units left and I was panicking because I knew that when the missile hit it's new target (sea) it would hit the Greeks. BOOM! The missile hit and killed the Greeks. I waited for that sickening moment when Greece would turn red. And waited. And waited. It never happened because it wasn't on purpose! By the way that is method #2 of WDSYT and as far as I can tell it will only work at sea or if the two countries have right of way with each other instead of war.
      The original method was tested (again not on purpose) When I was at war with Belarus (and so was friendly AI UK). The UK had started attacking some Belarian(?) troops and I had my men on the way to help. I launched a missile as well for good measure. My HIs got there first and killed the enemies. Then the missile arrived (new target: province) and killed the UK troops. Again I waited for the sickening moment when the second largest nation in the world (thanks to the inactive human commander) would turn red. Again, this did not happen. And thus WDSYT came to be!

      The post was edited 1 time, last by tinydragon303 ().

    • I've recently come up with a new strategy that I'm rather a fan of. On the map where I play as the UK, I tend to favor the navy. Until recently, my tactics revolved around strike fighters and/or bombers supporting ground troops (mechanized infantry, tanks, and combat recon vehicles. I use CRVs more than tanks). On this map, I tend to use marines and amphibious assault vehicles often instead of mechanized infantry and CRVs, due to their ability to disembark and embark without harbors. I've found this quite useful for a nation that is surrounded on all sides by water. However, recently I have started to favor Multiple Missile Launchers and Cruisers instead of strike fighters, due to their ability to bombard the enemy even while I am logged off. So for a couple of weeks, I had noticed how many troops Italy (an AI nation on my borders) had been amassing. I sent in some special forces to scout the terrain. Something went weird, and they somehow caused a war declaration (this was after the update where spec ops could be inserted into foreign territory without sparking a war). So I placed three or four multiple missile launchers on Italy's border along with a defensive line of what few troops I had left over from the last invasion, as a last-stand to hold Italy back from pushing into my territory before I could mobilize troops, and I moved a few cruisers to Italy's coast, where they swiftly dealt with what few ships Italy had in its navy, before attacking the coastline and firing on any and all radar blips that my AWACs was picking up. I have to say, it worked incredibly well. The cruisers and artillery mercilessly fired on anything in their range. The line of defense I had set up held. I lost a few units, and suffered 15,000 casualties. Italy has lost 130,000 so far. Granted, the war is not over yet, but I am closing in on Italy's capital right now (tanks are moving there as I write this), and the country has at present no troops showing up on radar. It worked quite well! I am still a fan of the strike fighter and infantry/CRV strategy, but I have come to fully appreciate the awesome firepower that artillery units have available to them!

    • @abradyson1 I tried using artillery against AI, and it always seems to just annihilate the populations of cities. Do you only bring artillery to bear when you're not fighting in a city, or do you not care about building and population damage because that's just a 'natural' consequence of war?
      Also, why don't you like using strike fighters when you're offline?
      "The enemy cannot push a button, if you disable his hand."
      Sergeant Zim, Terran Federation

    • New Tactic! Subject: Nukes

      I have decided that the best place to use a nuclear warhead is the ocean. You can kill about three ships with one shot and you don't have to worry about the horrid civilian casualties messing with your morale!

      Example: I just took over Greenland. Fairly simple operation, but later as I was moving some destroyers around I ran into an unknown Greenland contact. I thought it was just a corvette that I had seen before the invasion but could never find afterwards. So I launched a CM at it... and it got shot down! I knew that corvettes don't have AA capabilities like that so I moved my destroyers in closer... and they ran into a fleet of 17 ships with 5 frigates, the rest being corvettes. Knowing that an artillery battle with them was hopeless I moved out of artillery range but kept them in radar range. I then remembered that I still had one missile left and armed it with a nuclear warhead (the only reason I decided to shoot another missile at them was because their AA was down for about an hour (thank you RasczakRough for that tactic)). It took out three ships and since that wasn't the whole fleet (obviously) I moved one of my carrier fleets from the mediteranian into position loaded with three strike fighters (as much as I would like a loadout of all SF, other types are necessary). By this time the AA cape was back so I launched another CM at it. After AA was down again I launched my SFs and delivered two nukes and a conventional (by accident, it was supposed to be all nukes but I was clicking to fast and I use conventionals more than I do nukes) and took out another chunk of the fleet. Two more nukes from the supporting ships and that was the end of the fleet (finally).

      On land the best place for a nuke would be a province. Less civilian deaths and you don't have to worry about contamination. However, since most of the buildups where nukes would be wanted happen most in the cities I would only use them in situations where I wouldn't actually be able to invade for a while and I want to inhibit production and such so nothing new happens in the city until I can get to it. The only time where I could imagine myself using that tactic would be if they attacked me first since I prefer to blitz and take everything within a few days and contamination would be a problem to HIs since no NBC protection.

    • New Tactic! Subject: Carriers

      Some if not all of this may be a no-brainer to most of you but here goes...

      If you have need to engage your carrier fleet in an artillery battle then get your planes off the deck! Even if they are pretty much useless in the conflict get em up! Have them fly behind your fleet or even disengage the carrier from the main fleet and have it hang behind while your other ships go to duke it out.

      I made the mistake of not doing this in the same conflict with the Greenland fleet. It looked like my ship artillery would out range theirs so I moved my fleet to what I thought was the limit of their artillery. But they fired back and since I hadn't gotten them up (wrongly assuming I wouldn't need to) my planes lost half their HP.

    • For ACs that seems to be one flaw/limitation, ie that the other ships do not run a picket to protect the carrier as in they put themselves between the carrier and harms way. I noticed that in my last game it puts the AC at the end and the destroyers, frigates before it then the aircraft after the AC and end of line tends to take damage first. I had a brave stack of corvettes attack one of my Carrier fleets and they wiped out all but 2 strike craft. Carrier was slightly damaged but the 2 destroyers and 2 frigates had no damage. I am thinking this time when I do build them is to have all craft on patrol when I go to bed but this might be problematic if I am moving them across the globe. A Carrier is a capital ship and would have an array of other ships around it to protect anything getting close to it. The same if we had battleships. They would be the center.

      No biggie other than the loss of all those strike craft. Destroyers took care of the corvettes with cruise missiles.

      Other than that you should avoid getting your carrier fleet too close to land. You should run a destroyer/frigate task force and put that between them and the land or a Cruiser task force as the capital ship with destroyers and frigates.
      Ain't Nothing But A Thing!

    • To mimic a picket what I would do is spread your stack into a line. Carrier in the middle, Frigates front and back, destroyers at the very front and very back. When moving somewhere just right click around the column and send them where you want them to go. When the first ship reaches where you want them then cancel orders for the rest of them. If they run into anything, you have everything staggering fire at them and the enemy can only shoot at the lead ship. Just don't forget to get your planes off the deck if you intend to bring your carrier into the artillery duel like I mentioned a few posts ago so they don't get hurt that way.

      But this would probably be too much bother to actually carry out, just looks good on paper.

    • I was referring to the Carrier stack itself which I have 2 destroyers and 2 frigates within. In game the AC seems to get attacked before the other two when in reality those other ships would be surrounding it creating a shield. I as well then ran another stack of 3 destroyers and 2 frigates and had planned on another but fuel balancing killed that concept last game. I as well wanted to run a stack of attack subs forward and aft. I would not want to break up the Carrier group like you mentioned plus I would never bring it to bear in such a case on purpose. That is what the destroyer groups is for to move in and duel. For the Carrier group I typically am launching a lot of cruise missiles from those two destroyers.
      Ain't Nothing But A Thing!

    • Yeah, I know. That's was why I made my final comment about it being too much of a bother. Thinking about it the way (if I'm understanding it correctly) seems much more practical, Having the central carrier group then having a destroyer/sub stack scouting ahead for potential enemies. Also I'm the same way with CMs from the destroyers and in addition I like the carrier to have a strike fighter load-out for even more missile fun! But don't forget to put a naval AWACS in the air group so they can see better.

    • tinydragon303 wrote:

      Yeah, I know. That's was why I made my final comment about it being too much of a bother. Thinking about it the way (if I'm understanding it correctly) seems much more practical, Having the central carrier group then having a destroyer/sub stack scouting ahead for potential enemies. Also I'm the same way with CMs from the destroyers and in addition I like the carrier to have a strike fighter load-out for even more missile fun! But don't forget to put a naval AWACS in the air group so they can see better.
      Carrier and Battleship groups are huge. I believe like an Army Division. Captain in the Navy is a full bird Colonel in the Army. Battleships have been retired but for the Gulf War they were CM platforms. To get to either capital ship would be quite an undertaking or an incompetent opponent. Each would have an array of Frigates, Destroyers, and Subs running pickets on all sides. Pretty much extending the eyes of the Carrier out further. I ran 6 Strike on my last game. I never got to up them to maybe 10. I had two Carrier groups, the Zarathustra and the Avesta. I ran the strike in wings of 3. I used UAVs a lot last game. I had three of them maxed flying all over the place. Airforce I had two strike wings of 4 each. I had 4 bomber wings. 2 stealth and 2 white swans. I stopped using them conventionally. They became patrolling CM platforms as the UAVs acted as the hunters. Deadly cloud cities circling the skies like vultures. I used 129 CMs again France plus 7 destroyers total and 12 Naval strike and 8 AF strike all being the killers.

      I haven't started a navy yet. I researched corvette and was thinking of making a few stacks of them and put them out past the Falklands on paths from Africa so in case SoAfrica decides to get bold and go viking on me. It may give me some early warning. I researched attack subs and will ballistic subs. I did not get any of the latter last game. If I get a carrier this game it might just be one and I run helos off it. I wanted to make Cruiser groups but never got around it last time, the Cruiser the de facto capital ship. Would be a mega CM platform. I have captured 7 fuel cities and have 1 left to acquire on this continent. Manpower and money is keeping me from expanding unlike last game. Not a complaint just an observation. So economy of scale is tighter. I don't think the US player has his economy under control. He is losing a lot of troops to a computer run Canada. Last game at finish I was up to 300 units. I am below that but at the half way to win mark right now.
      Ain't Nothing But A Thing!

    • Germanico wrote:

      We can give carriers less combat width and thus make other units soak the damage first. Aircraft I am honestly not sure ... will def check it out. Great thread btw!

      //G
      Thanks. It was just odd. I sent the Avesta back to the Med. The Destroyer group was between her and land but an over stacked corvette group the Avesta ran into around Sicily. This was during the night when I was asleep. I woke up to see that Carrier group locked in battle with 5 strike destroyed and 1 left heavily damaged. The Avesta had some damage but the 2 destroyers and 2 frigates were untouched. Well now awake and in command, CMs rained from the sky with lethal tendencies plus strike and helo sorties. She was pretty much knocked out for the final operation of the game, Operation Mona Lisa.

      OperationMonaLisa.jpg
      Ain't Nothing But A Thing!