Battle Tactics

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    • Battle Tactics

      I would like to hear what everyone's personal tactics are (against AIs) in the following scenarios: General Attack, General Defense, Tactical Missile Use, Tactical Missile Defense, Intercontinental Invasion (you attacking them),
      I happen to be a blitz player and will go over my general blitz tactics. I hope someone will go over conservative tactics because I would like to hear about them and hopefully we can improve each others tactics. If I forgot any possible sections please tell me so we can go over them.

      General Attack: When attacking an AI I generally build up a lot of reserve missiles/launchers , aircraft, and helo infantry. Then I get as close to the border with planes as I can to 'look over the fence.' When I have a good idea of what I will immediately encounter I declare war and shoot missiles at everything in sight. If they have an airfield nearby I make sure there are at least one or two missiles earmarked for it. I hate enemy air cover. I learned that while fighting Germany (they had around 40 squadrons and my airmobiles would get killed if they were in the air when the counter reached zero on the patrol). I usually run my airmobiles over and the proceed to take over anything within range. Usually there is a city somewhere in there and I quickly annex it and build an airfield to continue the run. While I'm waiting my aircraft and one or two artillery pieces defend the city. If the entire country is within airmobile range I go for the cities last (but hit them with missiles first so that nothing can come out of them anytime soon). Once the provinces are captured I condense my airmobiles into groups of three and take the cities. I don't worry about the provinces that go rogue because they are easy to reclaim later and they aren't working for the main problem (the country you're at war with). I don't worry too much about spreading myself too thin because when 90% of your forces are in front of the enemy they are going to have a hard time getting around them. While attacking I have more mobilizing anyway so if another country suddenly declares war then I send some of my main force back to delay them while the new stuff finishes mobilizing.

      General Defense: If a country attacks me I round up as many of the troops I think will be effective against whatever type of troop is attacking and place them in front of the enemy. Then I get my aircraft (If they weren't the closest things before and already did this) and cut the head off their attack by shooting missiles at anything that registers on radar. After that I generally go by the stuff I already wrote in the General Attack section because I am a firm believer in 'the best defense is a good offense.'

      Tactical Missile Use: As you can see from the above, my blitz tactics call for a large supply of warheads. I try to keep my supply of warheads around 100. CMs are my most commonly used delivery method because they are the most available and flexible. I generally stick to conventionals because they do the job and you don't get so many morale points knocked off for civilian casualties. Besides not producing them as fast as conventionals the chemical warheads are only effective against soft targets (If they do affect armored units it's very limited). Nuclear warheads on anything but CMs are just overkill in my opinion. I use ballistic missiles on large cities with lvl 2 and higher airports. Or if they have a ton of units stacked there. The only thing I can see an ICBM used for is to hit someone very far away who has a ton of stuff in one place (not likely). Three warheads are really expensive for a couple kills and, again, it's just overkill.

      Intercontinental Invasion: To attack someone across an ocean I would put at least three or four marines on the water with six airmobiles and two artillery. I would escort them with a carrier loaded with strike fighters and at least one AWAC to scout, two destroyers, two submarines, at least one boomer, and a couple frigates. After 'looking over the fence' at the enemy city (with a harbor for my airmobiles to land at) I would declare war and spam the missile button at anything in radar range. Then my marines would land and take the city with the airmobiles and artillery close behind. After the city gets annexed I would build an airport and follow the General Attack section, but slower because I am certain to take casualties and I would want more shipments of troops to come in before really getting into the fight. The key point would be the city which is why my airmobiles would be running around after getting an airport in the first place. I want to create a buffer around the city in case the enemy starts moving before I get more units into the city. If anyone crosses the line then I will know about it well in advance and be able to kill it with CMs.

      If anyone actually read this far, thanks and please leave a comment about your tactics!

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

    • Huh! Interesting tactics in terms of general attack. I prefer to do the opposite - grab as many cities as possible as quickly as possible, so as to prevent them from mobilizing additional units to defend with. I prefer to use airmobile infantry or marines to accomplish this goal. Airmobile I use for when the city is inland, of course, whereas I prefer marines for when the city is on the water, or near the water. My tactics really change depending on my game, however. In one game where I play as the UK, my entire strategy is based around naval warfare. As such, I have built up a naval force of about five cruisers, a couple of corvettes, and an aircraft carrier. I've just recently researched naval fighters and naval strike fighters, and am mobilizing those. For quite a while in that game, I never even researched mechanized infantry, since I was using solely marines (due to their ability to land without a harbor). Granted, as the countries I attack become less and less exposed to the sea (as I move inland), my choice in units became more focused on land attack (multiple missile launchers, tanks, mechanized infantry, theatre defense system, etc), but i am still heavily reliant on the firepower and missiles of my cruisers, and I plan on using my aircraft carrier in my next invasion in order to provide a sea-based platform for attacking land targets and air interdiction.

      In terms of defense, I tend to buff the front line and just push. Yeah, I'm a fan of shooting missiles at whatever enemy blips show up on my radar. Usually I shoot two missiles at a time at each target (since I don't know how much HP to expect, but two cruise missiles delivers enough firepower to destroy most units or unit stacks that I run into). I prioritize artillery in terms of what to kill first. I also tend to provide Close Air Support for my troops. If I see a unit on low HP or at a disadvantage against a more powerful unit, taking out that enemy unit (or units) becomes a priority, so I don't lose my unit and then have to mobilize a new one.

      General missile stuff: I just stick to fully-researched conventional cruise missiles. I try to keep city morale as high as possible so as to not incite rebellion or international anger, and using conventional warheads allows me to deliver damage against both soft and hard targets without sacrificing morale and international popularity.

      Missile defense:
      I haven't really encountered any missile attacks yet, as far as I know/remember. Not too many air attacks either, tbh. For responding to enemy strike fighters and air superiority fighters, I prefer using air superiority fighters rather than ground-based anti-air units, since the former are more mobile and quicker by far to deploy to a specific location from wherever they currently are.

      Intercontinental invasions: My latest intercontinental invasion was my invasion of Algeria in response to their buildup of naval units (mostly taskforces of infantry troops) and ground units near my borders (this was in my game where I play as the UK. I had previously conquered Spain, and there is only a narrow strait between Spain and Algeria). I had taken over Spain using marines left over from my invasion of France, so I sent my marines into Algeria, after using my cruisers to clear the waters between Spain and Algeria. I then provided missile and artillery support from my cruisers, and used my troops to slowly take over. Strike fighters help. AWACs are amazing. They've saved so many of my units (by allowing me to send in strike fighters ahead of infantry and armored vehicles and thus end a battle before it starts).

      So anyhow, those are some of my tactics!
    • Well, with cities the reason I grab them last is because a larger number of units have to stay behind (usually about three per city) to keep them from rebelling when they could have been out helping take more land. If the going is slow (like if they have lots of units) that's when I take the cities as part of the push. If I have to get off before I can finish a big push then I gather most of the units together into the nearest city for protection. Here are a couple examples of both situations:

      Cities Last:Background: Three of Italy's homeland cities had fallen to rebellion after Germany had continuously bombed them to oblivion. I took advantage of this by destroying the insurgents with my carriers and using helo infantry jumping out of France (occupied by my ally, I am Saudi Arabia by the way) to capture them. I then proceeded to build airbases in each of them and build up my forces in them. Flash forward a bit. Italy thought it would be fun to attack my ally so I scanned his place with AWACs and declared war before shooting everything with missiles. I then used my HIs to capture everything in a huge dash. I had to get off before grabbing the cities but I wasn't worried because there was nothing they could mobilize before I got on the next day. Then I concentrated my forces and claimed the cities when I got up the next morning. Total casualties: 200 me, 5,000 Italy. War Duration: 2 days

      Cities First: Less than a couple of days after that, Germany declared war on me. since my forces were already in the area I just concentrated them and went upward. However there were a lot more troops in Germany. Not to mention that they had a massive air force of more than 40 squadrons. I had to use about 3 missiles on ever city so that I could kill the airports and ground the aircraft. However that took a bit longer and since most of my missiles were preoccupied my ground troops didn't have quite as much air assist as needed and I wasn't able to completely destroy the airfields anyway so for the first day the Germans owned the skies with their air superiority fighters. My bombers couldn't get close enough to help or patrol. So my HIs had to duke it out with the ground troops by themselves. Whenever I ran into a city I would capture it. And when I had to get off for the night I would move all my infantry there and they would have to stick it out until morning. The next morning I moved my bombers up to ally occupied Amsterdam and snuck around the German air force that way launch CMs at the airfields and finish them off. Then I bombed the grounded aircraft to death to make sure that they would never get up again. My HIs were then able to continue the rapid territory runs largely unhindered now that I owned the skies. The next day was just a mop up. Total casualties: 9,000 me, 35,000 Germany. War Duration 3 days

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

    • You know, I used to think that airborne infantry and special forces sucked. Still have little use for special forces due to the preponderance of armored vehicles in this game, but I do really like airborne infantry. They're quite useful for a) quick shock tactics, and b) invasions across a small body of water, or when there is something blocking your path towards the enemy land. I used airborne infantry to great success when capturing Kenya (on a game where I play as the DR Congo). And also when conquering the Caribbean States. But that doesn't count. I sent in two strike fighters to take out their one infantry battalion, and then I sent in 4 airborne infantry units to capture the city and hold it until it annexed and stopped smoldering. I just did this a few hours ago. The strike fighter took 5 minutes to arrive (I was playing as Argentina. I already own all of South America from the bottom of the continent up to Panama, and I decided to take the nearby islands before moving any further on land. For that purpose, I used airborne infantry), and the airborne took 45 minutes. It was the quickest invasion I've ever done. I mean, granted, the Caribbean States only has one city, but still. Airborne are really useful for rapid deployment from an airbase to a destination. I like them.
    • I have a strategy, a slightly more conservative one to bring up.

      I usually hold back the missiles, and use them for larger concentrations of troops, and try not to use them too much on cities. I have confidence in my strategy, and if I missile everything to destruction, it would take a long time to rebuild everything. I usually keep 20-40 conventional missiles and 5 chemical in stock, but I rarely use chemical weapons, preferring conventional ones, or rather (if I don't have to) no missiles.

      My attack strategy is to use strike aircraft when I start to clear out border areas, and then send several divisions of special forces (3-4 special forces and 1-2 airmobile), with some artillery (airlifted towed artillery) to take the border cities quickly. When I get to heavier resistance, I send 5-10 missiles and lots of mechanized infantry with recon and main battle tanks to support my special forces divisions. Then I secure the remainder of the cities, waiting about 2 days for any insurgents to defeat and then seizing the remaining provinces. This takes longer, but preserves more buildings in cities and ensures no rouge states remain for a full day.

      For defense I use missiles and send my aircraft, and at every second looking for counterattack opportunities. If I can't, I just look to maximize enemy casualties, until the enemy retreats. I throw all my missiles at any enemy if I sense I can't win.

      I've never done intercontinental invasion, so I can't comment on that.
    • First of all, this is really fascinating. I'm definitely bookmarking this thread!

      Offense against AI:
      I'm also a member of the "cities first" school, because that's where the economic resources are.
      I don't ever bother with airborne- I don't think the time saved when deploying them is worth the risk they're exposed to (they have like 5 HP when they're in helicopters)- if an AI enemy has any air defense at all, they're going to be decimated or worse. I assume if you're playing against an intelligent player, the results will be even more catastrophic. I think marines are so much better, because they have a city bonus (which is really nice when the enemy puts a stack of tanks in its capital city!) and don't require a port. Also, naval ships have more HP and are easier to move sheperd around in convoys than helicopters over enemy territory are.
      I tend to totally disregard artillery, and set up divisions of 2-3 infantry or marines and 2-3 CRV/amphibious combat vehicles (so there's 5 total) and basically use them to capture the territory surrounding a city, followed by the city itself. To reduce losses to enemy forces, similar to what @tinydragon303 does with cruise missiles, I send in stacks of strike fighters and heavy bombers before the troops make contact. I try to work up to a reserve of around 40 cruise missiles, and use them against heavily defended targets.

      Defense against AI:
      I've had war declared on me by AI, but never been invaded by one, so I don't really have much to share on that front.

      Missile ROE:
      I employ tactical missiles when I'm opening or fighting a wide front, and there's too many enemy stacks at known locations to send all my ground attack aircraft after them before my land units make contact. Also, if I see an enemy naval contact has engaged a unit of mine and I don't know what it is, I'll throw a missile at it. Generally I try not to attack cities with missiles because I don't like the idea of destroying infrastructure or reducing population, since thats what's going to win me the game.

      Intercontinental invasion:
      I've never actually done this before. Currently, I'm playing as DR Congo, and I've conquered almost all of Africa, and the vast majority of southern Europe, central Europe, the UK, and Ireland. Now I'm going to try to invade Australia by way of Sri Lanka. I'm sending 3 Carrier Battle Groups (1x aircraft carrier, 2x frigate, 2x SSN) to escort 4-5 amphibious divisions. On the carriers, I'm putting a mix of naval strike fighters, naval air superiority fighters, ASW helicopters, and UAVs that I'm using for reconnaissance (and are really incredible at that). I think I'm going to need Sri Lanka as a staging base for my long-range bombers, and because I don't know if my short-range strike aircraft can ferry from Madagascar to Perth without refueling. If there's interest, I can write an After Action Report about how this goes.

      I don't use SF for anything.
      "The enemy cannot push a button, if you disable his hand."
      Sergeant Zim, Terran Federation
    • I love this thread! this has been a great read and just so yall know I have in fact read all of your posts ;)
      Offensive against AI: I love the blitz for the first few day of a world when small nations are soft and I can grab a few cities so yeah for the first 10 days I'm a blitzer. After that however I'm a huge fan of the missile, very useful and with my maxed bombers I like to favor, then I just flatten the area with CMs and send multi misstle launchers to remove any soft troops in the way and send in tanks and Airmobile and I tend to go Cities first and a like the other here hit those early with Heavies and Strike fighters to take down the moral/airbases. I will state here that tho the community doesn't like them I love the Uavs, they are super great for spying and they have pretty good attack and range once upgraded, but I still use a lot of AWACs.
      Defense against AI? sorry nothin to offer here.
      Tactical use of CMs? I have absolutely no idea how to use them super well . I just bomb em.
      ICBM Invasion: I actually have done this when I was the USA and decided that after getting all of North America it was time for Columbia to say adios and I began by placing stealth drones over each of their cities and I decided I would ICBM their capital and the city they based their military out of, (my ally was Brazil and we co attacked tho all he did was fire the 2ed nuke and help clean up rogues as planed) so we set a special launch time and then fired, when the ashes cleared so to speak it was great tactically kept that we obliterated out nations moral. then after taking out the capital and city I CMed a few more cities and began a huge ground war campaign, (I did miss a important place to hit when I choose to ignore one of the airbases they had their helos at paid for that) end of war aftermath: 13k dead American soldiers. 64k Columbians. 5 Days, went better than planed, but I learned a few things.
      As always just my 2 cents

      Use Helicopters, Special forces or Stealth. Use your head to play - not the missile button. - Germanico

      These terrorists aren't trying to kill us because we offended them. They attack us because they want to impose their view of the world on as many people as they can, and America is standing in their way. - Marco Rubio
    • General Attack:
      I take a pretty general and conventional approach to attack. I stage 2 radars at the province closest to where I want to invade. I will then send out some strike craft and helicopters to see if I can ID the units. I will then proceed to mobilise my troops, mainly consisting of MBTs and infantry (motorised or mechanised) supported by Avenger AA and TDS moving in behind and also some airborne.

      When the attack commences, I launch one CM to each radar contact and 2-3 CMs to city radar contacts before sending ground troops to capture the nearest province and the airborne to the nearest city, where they will hold off until the main force arrives. My helicopters and strike fighters patrol over the area to prevent any sneak attacks. Move the radars up. Then rinse and repeat.

      I never seem to use bombers. My war as Argentina against Columbia resulted in a casualty rate of Argentina:3956 compared to Columbia:60000. The casualties on my side are mainly the airborne getting mauled by a spec ops unit. Never use spec ops either.

      General Defence:
      For defence, I stage radars and AA pretty much everywhere to deny air forces and I mainly use my CM fleet or squadrons to bomb them to submission. Since I have radars everywhere, I know their exact move and location. So it's easy to mobilise troops to where it is needed.

      Tactical Missile Use:
      I pretty much leave nukes and chemicals as a deterrent/last resort. I just use a huge amount of cruise missiles if I really hate someone. Generally 10 missiles are good enough for me to conquer a nation.

      Intercontinental Invasion:
      I use two fleets and a division of marines. It's a grinding battle and it's not effective imo. I just bomb the landing area with 3 strike craft before landing my marines. Then I position my fleets to provide artillery and AA support with the frigates and air superiority fighters. I'll then try to capture a port city and bring in more troops.

      My fleet composition: 2 destroyers and 3 frigates. For the carrier group, I replace a frigate with a carrier. The Nimitz carrier carried 3 Strike and fighters each plus an AWACS. Upgrading to the Gerald Ford class soon. Where I can hopefully use 2 carriers. One for strikes and air sups and the second with ASW, helicopters, UAVs and AWACS. With the displaced frigate joining a new fleet with one cruiser ,destroyers and two frigates.
      Celerriter et Audax (Swift and Bold)
    • abradyson1 wrote:

      Question: Do you ever use special forces? If so, how? How do you tell if the units they will be facing will be infantry (and thus defeatable by special forces) or armor (and thus likely to defeat the special forces units)
      I haven't used special forces units but I plan to implement them soon. How I would use them in situations like my German conflict where my HIs would have to move faster than my air force could scout ahead. I would send them ahead of the HIs to reveal and destroy enemy units, and if they encountered armor units then I would hit them with a CM because even though my planes couldn't easily enter the enemy patrolled airspace my missiles sure can (I would only use this tactic though if I didn't have any radars nearby). According to the stats they are highly effective against infantry so they would most likely have any units of that kind wiped or nearly wiped out by the time the HIs caught up. If they encounter armor they will just have to hold out until my CM gets there. I would send the SF in groups of two or three to completely overpower opposition.

      How to tell if they are going to be against armor or infantry: Send up an AWAC. They can usually see far into enemy turf whether or not they get too close. If there is a blip, hit with a CM. If there's nothing then you can be rest assured that there will be only infantry, if anything, in the area. If you are scanning with a ground radar they are less reliable and you will only be able to see if there is something in the province you plan to attack since EVERYTHING shows up as a blip to them.

      The post was edited 2 times, last by tinydragon303 ().

    • I used to prefer using marines to HIs. In another game that is over already I was Russia and I would use marines for everything and they worked pretty good for long distance attacks, especially the intercontinental kind. I never even researched HIs. It was only recently that I realized their potential for rapid blitz attacks and the rest is history. Now they are the most common soldiers in my military and I am using them in tandem with CMs to take on militaries several times my size. My most recent conflict is with Poland. The last statistic showed them as 3rd in the world for military power and I at 15th. They declared war on me shortly after the German conflict and I threw most of my missiles at the ridiculous amount of radar contacts I saw, anything that entered my territory, and everything that got in the way of my HIs. By the end of the first day they had taken 63,000 casualties with me at 3,000 and I haven't even gotten into a third of their territory. I had about 70 warheads at the beginning but at the end of the first day I was down to about 20. With those kind of casualties and warhead expense I am worried about what I'm going to find in the actual interior. By the way this also happens to be the situation where I take the cities first.

      General city taking rules (for me)
      Cities first: Versus mid to high levels of military resistance
      Cities last: Versus low to nonexistant military resistance

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

    • tinydragon303 wrote:

      abradyson1 wrote:

      Question: Do you ever use special forces? If so, how? How do you tell if the units they will be facing will be infantry (and thus defeatable by special forces) or armor (and thus likely to defeat the special forces units)
      I haven't used special forces units but I plan to implement them soon. How I would use them in situations like my German conflict where my HIs would have to move faster than my air force could scout ahead. I would send them ahead of the HIs to reveal and destroy enemy units, and if they encountered armor units then I would hit them with a CM because even though my planes couldn't easily enter the enemy patrolled airspace my missiles sure can (I would only use this tactic though if I didn't have any radars nearby). According to the stats they are highly effective against infantry so they would most likely have any units of that kind wiped or nearly wiped out by the time the HIs caught up. If they encounter armor they will just have to hold out until my CM gets there. I would send the SF in groups of two or three to completely overpower opposition.
      How to tell if they are going to be against armor or infantry: Send up an AWAC. They can usually see far into enemy turf whether or not they get too close. If there is a blip, hit with a CM. If there's nothing then you can be rest assured that there will be only infantry, if anything, in the area. If you are scanning with a ground radar they are less reliable and you will only be able to see if there is something in the province you plan to attack since EVERYTHING shows up as a blip to them.
      Wait hold up. Infantry don't show up on AWACs?
    • abradyson1 wrote:

      Wait hold up. Infantry don't show up on AWACs?
      Nope. Just armor. Which is sometimes unfortunate because planes move a lot quicker than ground radar and when a province shows empty to an AWACS I don't know if it's completely empty or just empty of armor. That's why I think it would be good to scout provinces that show empty to an AWACS with special forces.
    • I like ground radar better as well, but it's slowness really gets me down. If it was possible to air assault them they would be a million times more useful to me. Also if they could designate between armor and infantry with different colors or something that would be great.

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

    • I lean toward B-17s doctrine. My favorite is Airborne infantry supported by strike fighters. Strategically, the areas where I am really careful about reducing city buildings/population is when the city has a lev 2 or higher airport, I need the specific resource that the city is producing, or I am trying to gather points towards the end of the game. Also, I often need the resources because I run lean and attempt to use the market to run even leaner on supplies and get production higher. I have learned to avoid bombarding cities with corvettes because they kill far more population than enemy units for some reason. Also, bomber planes seem to reduce the city to nothing by the time you kill a couple units.

      Tactics notes- You all can probably guess what Airborne supported by Air tactics look like, so I will just add some non-comprehensive notes:
      1. Fighting in the jungle, mountains or on islands within range of Airborne troops presents a significant time and troop health advantage. Airborne quickly move over the jungle and water with no attrition. Tanks and infantry take a lot of attrition in the jungle and are slow.
      2. Fighting in Europe where whole countries are within airborne range presents a significant advantage, if you are there to jump them to the next open enemy territory.
      3. The best advantage is only attainable if you are online and watching as they land so you can resend them to the next place. If you are only on a couple times a day or need to leave, you may be better off marching ground troops (not airborne because they are slow on land).
      4. If you are in a low electronics country, start with gunships for support These work good against the abundance of infantry that the AI has. Once your electronics production is better after a week or so, just focus on Strikes, and air superiority fighters if you feel threatened by players
      5. I do worry about city defections because Airborne are not the best to defend against them and I don't want to loose the city (and time) and kill more people and buildings to replace it. Its a good thing that with airborne, you can take the city, then take several other regular territories, then jump back into the city a half hour before day change and replace air support over the city. You can also do this with regular infantry and armor by adding target and making a loop to end at the city before day change. I do try to trail my airborne with a couple infantry and tanks to secure the cities by day change, but its not always possible due to location and terrain.
      Pitfalls:
      1. They are soo slow if you have to move out of airport range. You will need a couple regular infantry to follow up and take the lead in those situations.
      2. When you send them to attack by air, you cannot click add attack (or do anything else with the unit), so to attack more than one place you have to wait for it to take the territory before sending it on.
      3. They take electronics and not supplies, which may or may not be a problem depending on what your shortages are. I recently played DR Congo and India and airborne did not fit really well with what I could produce.
      VS PVP, all bets are off, sacrifices will be made, and people are going to die
    • I saw a player use a really great tactic some time ago while I was invading them. They launched a cruise missile, which my TDS destroyed almost instantly. Then they launched a couple squadrons of strike fighters to go after the TDS, which was helpless because it can only do AA attacks once an hour. I had to scramble fighters to keep the TDS alive.
      "The enemy cannot push a button, if you disable his hand."
      Sergeant Zim, Terran Federation
    • RasczakRough wrote:

      I saw a player use a really great tactic some time ago while I was invading them. They launched a cruise missile, which my TDS destroyed almost instantly. Then they launched a couple squadrons of strike fighters to go after the TDS, which was helpless because it can only do AA attacks once an hour. I had to scramble fighters to keep the TDS alive.
      A tactic I would try to prevent that kind of thing from happening would be to have a TDS in the city, but with multiple other TDS around the city as well. I can't say how well it would work or if all the TDS in range of the missile would be down for a while since I haven't tried it. I do something similar with artillery. I have one or two artillery in the city and I have another on the leeward side of the place I'm attacking so that if something happens to the ones in the city then the one in the back is going to keep shooting. Also helps to prevent encirclement. Recently I just finished a war with Poland (casualties 5,000 me 108,000 Poland because their military was 3rd with me at 15th) and I had just captured Warsaw and needed to get off to go to sleep and finish them off the next day. So to prevent it from getting recaptured I did the above mentioned strategy and it was a good thing I did. I had pulled all my forces from the surrounding countryside into the city for the night. While I was off they captured all the places around it except the place with the arty. They had defended each other and killed all the approaching units.
    • Awesome thread.

      First off I want to say I started playing wargames in the 70s and with Avalon Hill's Squad Leader. Being that my actual last name is German and kids were not very PC I wanted to play the Yanks but no. Squad Leader is WWII central. Awesome game. No I was told since I was the Nazi I had to play them. Fine, they have better equipment anyway and proceeded to whoop their butt. I studied warfare and the side I was playing. I see the term Blitz used a lot. I just wanted to comment on the fact the Germans never called it Blitzkrieg. Their opponents did. We then infer from the literal meaning of the word lightning war and assume this means just to act fast. Germans again no where called it this. They were limited on resources for a variety of reasons and so thus employed what we later called Combined Arms. It is concept the Brits came up with during WWI that I believe was called the 1919 Plan and was to be used in the Spring of 1919. The war ended so it was never implement. Divisions largely remained homogeneous. The Germans though did not want a protracted war. They wanted swift victories. So they implemented using combined arms tactics against Poland to try them out and then against France, low countries, Norway, North Africa, etc. So what was it? The principle was to have swift victories with the least resources used and the least loss of life as well. Loss of life includes the enemy. You make contact. You have units look for weakness and once found form a breakthrough. Fast units, which could be guys on trucks still, would pour through with the objective of overrunning HQ, Supply, Communication units, etc in the rear. It was to encircle the front line units and force their surrender. You cut off their "guns and butter" and they lose the will to fight. Again its prime purpose was least amount of resources used with the least amount of casualties to force the enemy to surrender and end the conflict swiftly.

      In this game units do not surrender. They fight to the death. You cannot encircle them and force their surrender. You have to totally annihilate them. I have taken entire countries and a week later I fight their darn navy hiding off of Crete. I just took Mali (Operation Griot) and after all provinces taken still had 5 enemy units I had to track down and kill. Hey your country is kaput, give it up! And now Angola has put a fleet of 5 corvettes off Lagos. What? You want a piece of me? I will go down there and take your oil.

      I name each of my operations. I even post them on FB with screen shots and what units are involved. I recently in Operation Hippo: Phase 1 & 2 took Nigeria and Ghana respectively. They had what I wanted. lol. I used 5 div of Airmobile and posted Vietnam era music with screen shots of them flying around. I start now with a bugle charge. I had 2 div of Spetnaz as well but they would not cross the border without starting a war. I wanted to use them like the UAVs and put them in country as observation points for airstrikes.

      Operation Fez is probably my worse losses as of date. Due to the vastness of the Sahara I lacked Air Support due to lack of reach other than bombers. Fez had two pushes. One from the Atlantic and the other from Egypt. Operation Bangles took Egypt which I had to rush to do and delay the long waited Operation Butterball. Turkey had taken Syria which is upsetting my plans. They are currently busy with Russia and Georgia. Operation Bangles was the rude awakening one cannot drive over the Suez so my Airmobile had to hop over the Red Sea and take a city with airport intact. I typically plan and build if need be a division for each city I want to take. This is their task. Airmobile hops around taking territory. Cruise missiles are typically used as ad hoc and more a of defensive posture as well as to soften up targets. Spain was taking all of Portugal so I had to divert two airmobile div to take the last province and Lisbon in Operation Snatch and Grab aka we want your fargin oil! Lisbon was leveled with my new Stealth Bomber Wings as well as gunship wings called up from Tunisia. Damn Italians were in Portugal and I launched a cruise not seeing they ... hey that flag is different. Summanabich. Italian corvettes showed up to shell Lisbon so from my Destroyer group I introduced them to the Old French Navy. It was a brief war with them. I changed my status to Peace and they realized that this was the best option for their future in this world.

      TO&E for Operation Fez
      Egyptian Push:
      21st and 37th Tank Div (3 tanks + 2 Mech ea) I am thinking of 2 tanks and 3 mech now.
      13th, 27th, 28th and 36th ID (5 bn of moto inf ea)
      23rd, 43rd and 51st Airmobile Divisions (5 bn of Air Cav ea)
      17th and 20th Bomber Wings (3 squadrons ea)

      Morocco Push:
      8th and 14th Marine Div (5 ooo rah bn ea)
      12th ID and 19th and 29th Tank Div waited till the 8th captured Rabat.
      The Zarathustra provided Naval Strike support.

      Algeria had taken Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, and most of Chad. They had modern as well. So I had to act fast. They fought hard. They fought well. But the sand dunes outside of Adrar became known as Hell's Kitchen as the 14th Marines and 36th ID were swallowed by her harsh sands that became stained red. I bombed the hell out of them, eliminating their airfield and even then the ID that captured the city took 40% casualties. They just did not want to give up that fuel. The 21st Tank Div took Tripoli with minimal casualties with airfield intact. I flew in two Strike Wings (4 Strike ea) and 1 Gunship Wing (3 gunship + 2 attk). The Avesta Carrier group arrived too late to the Med to offer any real help. Carrier Group btw is 1 carrier, 2 destroyers + 2 frigates. The Zarathustra also has separate Destroyer Group of 3 Destroyers + 2 frigates who escort her. Cruise missiles I use ad hoc. They are not my initial use. Typically it is airstrikes with 2 Strike Wings and at least 2 Gunship Wings (I have 4). I am now using UAVs for recon which are maxed.

      Anyone still with me? Here is the casualty report of Operation Fez. Other units were drawn into the conflict as it progressed. It took 47 hours till all hostilities ceased.
      -------
      CON News reports casualties were:

      Neo-Persian Empire: 38,815
      Algerian Collective: 93,170

      If we had the ability to have proper air support our casualties would had been a lot less. Perhaps waiting for the second Carrier group and a 3rd Carrier group to be made with helos on it?

      Casualty breakdown by division, wing, etc.

      21st Tank Division < 1%
      37th Tank Division 71%
      19th Tank Division 36%
      29th Tank Division 29%

      1st ID (Immortals) < 1% *First of two divisions ever created.
      11th ID (Immortals < 1% *Second of two divisions ever created.
      39th ID 20%
      53rd ID 76%
      12th ID 47%
      13th ID 32%
      27th ID 27%
      28th ID 54%
      36th ID 100%

      8th Marines 31%
      14th Marines 100%

      23rd Airmobile 26%
      43rd Airmobile 52%
      51st Airmobile 68%

      41st Strike Wing 25%
      26th Strike Wing 75% *Combined with the 41st to create the 35th.

      17th Bomber Wing 4%
      20th Bomber Wing 21%

      52nd Naval Strike Wing 37%

      36th Gunship Wing 4%
      10th Gunship Wing 4%

      The price to pay for freeing the people of the Algerian Collective and spreading Asha so that their souls may cross Chinvat into Paradise as Ahura Mazda, the one true uncreated god, wills or fall in Angra Mainyu's darkness and eternal torment.
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      As far as defensive posture it depends. My global pop dropped to 3% once and was at war with 7 countries around me. 3 of which attempted to invade. All my cities have airports in them. I can pivot in all directions. I beat them all back with airstrikes then go back to diplomacy and change my status to peace. I only attack what is crossing the border. Only exception was that for Operation Husayn Madness the Saudis tried to get in on the action by crossing the new Neo Persian Empire's border and acting all belligerent. Started with them attacking my airmobile div with a severely overstacked tank div. Broken Arrow Broken Arrow. We pivoted and took Saudi.
      Ain't Nothing But A Thing!