Has anyone played any spectacular campaigns recently? Situation ones, I mean, like D-day or BotB.

I also would appreciate some advice. I cannot play these campaigns for my life...my style hates leaving weak points in my line, so I advance slowly, spread evenly and powerfully, and always stop to consolidate. It takes too much time, and allows the enemy to build up and also to stall time until the end of the allotted time.
But, when I try a little audacity, it is even worse. troops get cut off, defenders get routed battle after battle, and entire corps are annihilated in large pockets. For example: D-day. After the landing, I did a little blitzkrieg action. All my British troops held the left side, but my American and Canadian troops overstretched the right side. My airborne divisions were holding a strategic province, but were at low organization. They lost one, then two, then three consecutive provinces, leaving 13 divisions cut off. I tried to break out, was successful for a while, but was surrounded again, with 8 divs in the hole. Within half of a month, it surrendered. Another four British divisions were surrounded in Cherbourg. I tried to spirit them away by sea trans, but was too slow. Without 12 divs gone out of the few divisions I was allotted, I was forced to the coast and lost the game.

Even playing as Germany in Barbarossa, my tendency to have secure lines makes progress EXTREMELY slow. The Russians regrouped along rivers and land forts, and soon, the difficulty multiplied exponentially. I lost...I couldn't even conquer all of Czechoslovakia in the time provided in that campaign.

__________________


"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

also, how much do u guys use behind-the-lines reserves? I never have ANY, all divisions are at the line, and I have never had a significant breach...but, it can be a disadvantage on the offense due to the slow speed.

__________________


"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

LOL, Well what I do is play the bread crumb game, when you launch off into the enemy leave behind divisions as you to protect your flanks. After the major routes swing around and defeat any armies you passes. In Barb. I launch in with a double pincer move. I always have several inf divisions following as fast as they can to be security so that the mobile forces can continue to run.

As to the weak spots I like to have around 9 divisions to hold a line. Before and during the opening phases of and offensive as soon as I make my penetration and start the encirclement of say 2 or three provinces I start to shift 5-6 divisions into the Gap. I find that Garrison divs hold this initial line well, since they free up other divs to move.once the pocket is closed you move up to the enemy line and do it again. In longer games built fortifications at stable lines, like after you take Poland or stop at the Volga 3 divs in a lvl 5 fort can hold off 10-12 attacking divisions easily. Hope this helps.

__________________
Service

Agreed, use the mobile forces to punch forward from two points and swing around behind an enemy formation with the infantry and motorized infantry to fill in the gaps.

You can wipe out large amounts of enemy men with this.

__________________
For want of a nail the shoe was lost, for the want of a shoe the horse was lost, for the want of a horse the rider was lost, for the want of a rider the battle was lost, For want of a battle the kingdom was lost, and all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Robert,

thanks guys, i am putting your tactics into effect...now.

__________________


"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

I do it differently. I used to be very daring with my panzers, but when 6 divisions got destroyed by the French at Calais, I kind of changed my tactics.

Now I use my armour and infantry together, and synchronizing teh arrval of the units. I know it's not very blitzkriegy, but it saves the lives of my men.

__________________

But by doing that you lose the advantages of having the tanks in the first place. The tanks give you the ability to punch through a line and then encircle, without them it becomes virtually a slug match much like a ww1 style battle.

__________________
For want of a nail the shoe was lost, for the want of a shoe the horse was lost, for the want of a horse the rider was lost, for the want of a rider the battle was lost, For want of a battle the kingdom was lost, and all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Robert,

Joe, thanks for your input, but i really needed something more daring lol. the way you described synching and no blitzing is EXACTLY how i play. I win all my battles, because i only attempt with overwhelming superiority. My lines are heavily garrisoned, no reserves, no empty provinces. I advance slowly, treating my tanks as infantry. Someone needs to teach me to make full use of the different elements of my forces.

__________________


"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

But if you do a slow methodical advance, all you are doing is pushing the nemy forward postions on the next line, then you are pushing them onto the next and so on. Once you get to either a bottleneck in there country formed by other neutral countries, or the end of there country and there army is pushed into a few areas around there capital they will be very diffuclt to remove.

By 'blitzkrieging' using Tanks, mechanized, motorised or even calvary divisions to punch through a section of the line you can then do a 90degree turn and head back towards your lines and cut those divisions off, then instead of them being puched back they are removed, and instead of the enmy simply having to reinfore these divisions they will have to wait months for a new one to be formed.

__________________
For want of a nail the shoe was lost, for the want of a shoe the horse was lost, for the want of a horse the rider was lost, for the want of a rider the battle was lost, For want of a battle the kingdom was lost, and all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Robert,

For some daring offensives you might want to try making "army" units.

for example Make your assault forces like this: 1HQ,2ARM,3MOT all in one unit so that the good combination will lead to High speeds and low ORG losses. Alongside them you can have groups of one or two infantry to fill up the wholes so that your Blitz forces dont get encircled.

__________________
-Dustin

Give a man a fire and he is warm for a day, set him on fire and he is warm for the rest of his life.

My army set up usually differs depending on the situation and terrain.

Standard would be Amroured Army - Commander with 9 - 12 Division capability and skill of no less then 4. He will have at least 4 ArmH, 4 Mechanized/Motorized infantry.

Infantry - 9 Infantry Divisions with mixed Brigades, AA, AT, SP, H-Arm as well as all the others.

Semi-motorized, usually following close behind the Mechanized army, would be L-Arm divisions, with Calvary. left over mechanized and motorized infantry, with the HQ in this army.

I HQ will 'monitor' all adjacent Providences, so by having the HQ in the follow up units it still affects the forward units.

Then army infantry units will swell through the hole plugging the advance and protecting the flanks. Works virtually every time.

But of course everyone is different, and you have to do what works for you.

__________________
For want of a nail the shoe was lost, for the want of a shoe the horse was lost, for the want of a horse the rider was lost, for the want of a rider the battle was lost, For want of a battle the kingdom was lost, and all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Robert,

Exactly: see, what happens is, i only attack a province when doing so will allow the province i am leaving behind to be shielded by my lines, essentially, i attack bulges and salients, and only such situations. However, when I get to a point where the enemy's lines have more provinces than mine, i have to split up my armies, which is hell for me. Also, the enemies' divisions seem to become invincible...i win a battle to fight only the same men again and again.

Also, my tactics call for ALL my troops to frontline, partisans are having a party in the backyard.

Recently, am playing a USA grand campaign. I tooled this one for my "training purposes" I allied with germany, switched to them and declared war on all of American Continent. So I had a chance to hit my neighbors. Canada fell quickly (all victory points are near my border). However, in Mexico, the mountains and desert caused a slow, slow advance. I had grouped troops like suggested on this thread. The motorized infantry and armor quickly advanced down the coastal plains, but could not advance anymore in fear of being cut off. Even the mountain divisions traveled slowly. Then, the combined forces of Latin America bottlenecked my troops at the southern end of Mexico, where it becomes only one province. I have tried twice to attack, both failed. Not a lack of skill and command. (Patton commands the tanks, Hodges the motorized.) I have an HQ division as well. What i am planning to do is land my four marine divisions at the Yucatan, and quickly rush in reinforcements, where i can attack the latins on two sides (is there a flanking effect in HoI?).

__________________


"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

doing so would require a large number of divisions concentrated in one area, right? so how do u hold the rest of your lines?

eastern front example. 20 divisions in each frontline province average on russian side, and 13 on German. Any less than 20, and i would lose a province. i have no reserves. if i attempt an offensive like above, a counter offensive somewhere else could shatter my lines...what do i do?

I use overwhelming force. Have a neighboring province support attack, then attack. so 40-13. However, the chances of actual breakthrough are miniscule with this method. I cant seem to manage my forces as well as you guys. or maybe i cant manage my industry enough to produce enough men and good enough tchnology and strategy

__________________


"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

Its quite simple, an average of 6-8 Divisions in each providence equipped mainly with infantry with full Brigades vary types. If the enemy does attack, I allow that unit to retreat, then when the enemy forces there way forward, I give them the ground they insist on having, and when they have pushed far enough I crush the opening gap and cut of the units, works all the time, because theu commit most of there forces in the opening battles.

But yes, I commit large amounts of units into these areas, this also forces the enemy to move units into this area, weakening there other sections of the lines allowing for the 6-8 divisions to push on through and gain a little ground.

That is a problem especially if they attack from the sea. I always use militia units or Garrision units to hold the beach fronts in case of these reasons with around 3 infantry division in reserve to them in every 3-5 Providences.

War on this scale is difficult you need to be able to judge where the attack will come from. You cant have all front lines manned to the max all the time, you simply do not have the manpower to do so. Your technology advances should match your strategy. There is no need to research bomber doctrines and newer designs if you are only going to use close support aircraft.

You need to focus you men on the weaker spots of the enemy lines.

Did you know you don't have to take every providence and the capital to annex a nation? All you have to do is capture all the key Providences, once you do that the rest of the nation will fall and be annexed. So focus on taking out them.

__________________
For want of a nail the shoe was lost, for the want of a shoe the horse was lost, for the want of a horse the rider was lost, for the want of a rider the battle was lost, For want of a battle the kingdom was lost, and all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Robert,

i have this overpowering fear of getting cut off...you know what? i would have made a good World War I general. but mechanized troops? uh oh

__________________


"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

How did you end up going with your tactics, have you found something that is working for you other then the ww1 style?

__________________
For want of a nail the shoe was lost, for the want of a shoe the horse was lost, for the want of a horse the rider was lost, for the want of a rider the battle was lost, For want of a battle the kingdom was lost, and all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Robert,

Your enemies are invincible because you allow their lines to form up and then they start to get a dug in bonus.

Ill give you an example of one of my Blitzkriegs: Upon declaration of war against Poland I launch an invasion of Holland to get their IC. I mass my infantry returning from Poland into Aachen and I put my mobile armys in the adjacent Dutch-Belgian provinces. 3 provinces each containing A mobile army and a smaller Panzer army

Mobile Army: 6 Panzer, 5 MOT
Panzer Army: 3 Panzer

When may rolls along I declare war on Belgium and I set my forces as follow: The Army bordering the channel will swoop along in a pattern all along the Atlantic coast and some inner provinces as necessary. The Middle province will drive straight to Paris and Help encircle Maginot. South province will Move around Maginot to encircle it ( Which is necessary to make Vichy event). The Panzer Armies will capture all the provinces that the mobile armies miss. The Infantry in Aachen will swarm around Maginot and move towards Paris.

A tip: So that you dont have to wait 2 days to recover for the next attack, you can simply hols Ctrl and right click a path of provinces to attack through.


I will soon make a German AAR to help show these tactics.

__________________
-Dustin

Give a man a fire and he is warm for a day, set him on fire and he is warm for the rest of his life.

well, although i'm not much of a military leader, i do manage my nation well. i tend to have large, effective armies, supported by smaller but purpose-driven airforces.

i tend to be sort of like Monty. I never attack unless sure of victory. Using supporting attacks from adjacent provinces, victory is usually easily assured.

However, using these tactics, doesnt allow for flexibility. If, I try a penetrating offensive, gaps in the line could form, allowing for ineffective, but altogether annoying parties of three or four enemy troops slipping through the gap. They are easily destroyed, but take weeks and often rage around in my undefended rear.

__________________


"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

I have spent a lot of time playing around with tactics. However, I have switched back to grand campaigns, where I can control the forces i have available.

Somethings i liked:

1. Inchon style landings. Requires command of the sea, and forces that reasonably out-perform the enemy, either in numbers or in skill.
I usually take marines, run up a coast, and drop three different units of them, usually at least four divisions each, forming a large bridgehead. I try to choose provinces with lots of neighbors. Then, while the enemy has to reduce his lines to defend the new front, I move garrison divisions to help defend the beachhead. Then, on the actual front, my forces now possess the superiority in both number and skill. A slow but unstoppable advance results until the beachhead is relieved, at which point I repeat the process.

2. Similar-style airdrops. I have fallen in love with the airborne. Usually, I drop twelve divisions in provinces, four in each province, only one step away from the main frontline. Then, I advance, relieving the troops, and moving on.

3. "French Resistance" air drops. Again, using twelve divisions, I drop far behind the front line, as close to the sea as possible. While four divisions maintain a beachhead, the other eight rampage around, eliminating garrison divisions, damaging installations, and so on. Once the cavalry arrives, I spirit my troops away by sea. But they will return.

4. Thunder runs. On favorable terrain, tanks move fast... Usually nine armored divisions, preferably under excellent leadership, can wreak extensive havok. For example. Take Patton and nine tank divisions, and thunder run around Luxembourg. The forces in Luxembourg are trapped province wise, but, in reality, no troops stand in between them and freedom. This way, encirclement can be established without the extra forces. Of course, attrition and supply-deficit will not affect the defenders, since they will only be "encircled" for a couple of days. Even so, overwhelming forces will easily defeat the remaining troops. Sometimes, after completing the thunder run, the armor can destroy the divisions itself. So, the destruction of divisions is the object here. This tactic will not work in inhospitable terrain such as jungles or mountains.

5. Just have OVERWHELMING numbers. As Poland, in a 1936 campaign, I allied with Germany, demanded territory from Soviets, and slowly built up a huge infantry army. When Soviets declared war on Germany in 1941, My infantry divisions held the line. Instead, I took control of German troops,completed the conquest of Britain, then grouped all 90 of them in a single section of the front. Then, I did a massive Market Garden. All ninety of them went from Stryj to surround the lower half of Russia, going all the way to Stalingrad, and coming back to block of the Crimean peninsula. At each province, I would leave five or six divisions to hold the province and keep supply moving. Then, with this huge pocket, I slowly reduced it with my old WWI slugfights. The Polish troops once again held the front line, and German troops massed for another such run. Only drawback? My oil was completely drained by this massive influx of armor and mechanized units in my territory.

__________________


"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

Interesting tactics, but have you found any that really work for you?

__________________
For want of a nail the shoe was lost, for the want of a shoe the horse was lost, for the want of a horse the rider was lost, for the want of a rider the battle was lost, For want of a battle the kingdom was lost, and all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Robert,

besides mini-tactics like those above, not really.

my tactics work fine, they just get boring. I just finished another round, as the U.S. I was planning to get all nukes and just win with a couple well-placed ones, but, i didnt even need it. I had militarily taken the Germans and the Soviets by 1944, partly because Europe was really screwed up, thanks to the Czechs.

Point is, my tactics are fine.

__________________


"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

I have new tactics now. Very organized.

A Lieutenant General commands a Corps, comprised of three divisions of the same type.
I Corps, II Corps, etc. Motorized and Mechanized and Armored Corps are all grouped together.
An Army, commanded by a General, oversees four or five Corps, with at least one Armored Corps.
An Army Group, commanded by a Field Marshal, commands two or three armies, and also has seven infantry divisions attached to it as reserves and defense.
Specialist Groups, such as Marine or Airborne troops, are attached to Armies, not Army Groups.

This organization allows for maximum flexibility at the lines. Sending in different Corps at different times is very effective, just as having reserves is very important. This way, defenses can be very fluid and breakthroughs can be quickly exploited. Pockets quickly develop, and enemies are easily overrun.

I was Germany in a 1936 campaign. Von Manstein, commanding Heeresgruppe A, took France in a week and a half with my new tactics. My advance was so fast that entire pockets of five divisions were left as far back as Belgium. Yet, I had not suffered a single defeat, due to committing reserves in the right places. They were assisted by the paradrop of six Fallschirmjager divisions, attached to both the Sixth (von Kleist) and the Ninth (Heinrici) Armies.

Simultaneously, von Rundstedt and Guderian, with a total of five armies under their commands, surrounded 33 divisions total, in Kiev and Minsk, while keeping the line static in other places. Another six divisions were destroyed in Brest-Litovsk, and another eight in Grodno.

I seem to have found a working method.

__________________


"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."