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Farflamex

Second Lieutenant
66 Badges
May 11, 2011
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Is there any definitive 'best' way to defend the coastline after the fall of France? I've tried all sorts of setups, from garrisons or militia in every province, to stronger divisions in the ports or the whole coast, with or without fortresses. Obviously the stronger the garrisons, the more wasted supply and it seems the most the can ever hope to do is just delay any landing. I'm thinking perhaps it's best to have a strong infantry/artillery division in each port and nothing in the other provinces, and then a few fast armour corps inland ready to push the invasion back into the sea (kinda what the Germans had planned for D-Day, but didn't they have the entire coastline heavily defended?).

Am I right in thinking an undefended port is easier/faster to defend?
 
Depending on how the rest of my plans are going and who has joined what faction (Spain?) I never try to cover all the ports, too much manpower wasted for invasions that may or may not come and who knows how frequent? I usually cover some, have units and air ready to scoop them up when they do.
 
Is there any definitive 'best' way to defend the coastline after the fall of France? I've tried all sorts of setups, from garrisons or militia in every province, to stronger divisions in the ports or the whole coast, with or without fortresses. Obviously the stronger the garrisons, the more wasted supply and it seems the most the can ever hope to do is just delay any landing. I'm thinking perhaps it's best to have a strong infantry/artillery division in each port and nothing in the other provinces, and then a few fast armour corps inland ready to push the invasion back into the sea (kinda what the Germans had planned for D-Day, but didn't they have the entire coastline heavily defended?).

Am I right in thinking an undefended port is easier/faster to defend?

In some versions the AI only attacks ports. In Dies Irae this is not the case. I have found two brigades of garrison are best for most provincces, intersersed with infantry (for ports) and a small fast reaction cors of motorized and panzer to rush where the landing is.
If you search this subject matter, you will see the advantages of garrision over infantry in that they take less manpower, less supplies, and less officers. This is key.
Finally, you may want to add coastal forts to level 10 ports, as well as forts so that if there is a landing on a nonport, you will have time before the landing takes the port.
 
Thats all correct, and when im playing smaller nations or on an island ill do all that and even sometimes add AA or even land forts (often amphib attackers get on land on your side negating the coastal fort). But when your Germany if you have to do that with every port from the Netherlands down to Spain you wont have any units to cover anything else! Its a real defensive mind set, all depends on how you play, Anyway you can do all that and it may not matter, ive seen the US land in German Ports. Again i think alot of what you do depends on whats going on around you.
 
In my previous game I tried 3 garrison brigades in every province along the entire coast. Although they are quite cheap, I found that they didn't hold off the invasion anyway (although I guess nothing will?) and I put a fair amount of research into making them a bit more effective. Since nothing can actually stop the invasion from landing (can it?) then I'm not sure it's even worth defending the coast. Maybe a very strong force inland would be better with just a few garrisons to delay any attacks on the important coastal cities?
 
Thats all correct, and when im playing smaller nations or on an island ill do all that and even sometimes add AA or even land forts (often amphib attackers get on land on your side negating the coastal fort). But when your Germany if you have to do that with every port from the Netherlands down to Spain you wont have any units to cover anything else! Its a real defensive mind set, all depends on how you play, Anyway you can do all that and it may not matter, ive seen the US land in German Ports. Again i think alot of what you do depends on whats going on around you.

I've found in every game (I always play Germany), the British start invading quite soon after the fall of France, and usually in very large numbers. In my last game they landed in Holland with a very large force about a month after the fighting had stopped. I did manage to fend them off (and capture most of them) by sending my panzers up to meet them, but I'm not sure the garrisons really played an important role. Might have done the same job without them, so long as the panzers get there quickly enough (mind you, Amsterdam probably would have fallen, but I'd retake it).
 
I had a couple of garrison divisions in Dunkerque repulse a landing by 165,000 troops, very shortly after the FoF. I was able to reinforce them before it was over, but only one of the two ever had to reteat.

I'm not very experienced with the game, but from what I've seen so far (3.05) the AI is *extremely* aggressive if it spots an open port in France (or Norway) while you're invading and for a while after, but then it leaves you alone for a while. I have to use strategic movement into blind areas in order to get garrisons in the western ports before it lands a huge army.

I don't know whether the AI lets up because it loses intelligence about what's on the continent, or because it tends to lose a lot of expensive ships if you have bombers ready, or some other reason.
 
In my last game they landed in Holland with a very large force about a month after the fighting had stopped. I did manage to fend them off (and capture most of them) by sending my panzers up to meet them, but I'm not sure the garrisons really played an important role. Might have done the same job without them, so long as the panzers get there quickly enough (mind you, Amsterdam probably would have fallen, but I'd retake it).
Which brings up the (perhaps risky) notion that it might be better to let them land so you can destroy them, rather than merely repulsing the landing and let them go back home to reorganize.
 
Which brings up the (perhaps risky) notion that it might be better to let them land so you can destroy them, rather than merely repulsing the landing and let them go back home to reorganize.

Yeah and that sounds far too gamey. But in my experience, the British tend to land a huge force, often in a very badly chosen location such as Den Helder where they're easily contained, then lose the whole army without doing too much damage. Then they leave me alone, probably because they're far too weak to attempt another landing. But they'll always try a landing somewhere and to completely repel the landings requires a very long line of troops all the way down the coast. They get through a single garrison division easily enough and putting 2 divisions in each province would be madly expensive on supplies.

I think the middle-option is probably wisest. Put some garrisons in very important locations but leave the rest open and have some strong corps inland.
 
I build some 20 garrisons to cover key provinces and keep 3 infantry corps and 1 mot/td corps around for benelux/france vs AI. Works well enough.
 
Don't build any garrisons or militia, it is a total waste.

Instead, just keep 2 panzer korps in paris and as soon as there is an AI landing, strategic deploy all of your panzers near the area where the breakout is occurring.

Next, Cut off the invasion force at the port so they are no longer being supplied and can't retreat onto a ship. Let them spread out in land, wipe them out as they come.

Rinse and repeat
 
The point is notto stop an invasion with garrisons, but to stall the landing long enough for infantry, motorized, and panzer units to arrive. I have had no trouble achieving this with two to three garrison brigades. Helps to have coastal forts also.
 
After the fall of France i usually have 1 good army of about 130,000 men holding ports (in the West; France, Belgium, Nederlands). Its not much but it will do for 1940-1942. My composition is two infantry brigades around ports and 2 Gar+AA in ports. Only 4 interceptors can easily handle whatever the Brits wil throw at you. I keep 1 fligerkorps in Brest and 1 Near belgium. With this force in France it gives me the BEST possible use of units for other theatres (for me). I dont want to use all my GAR divisions in France because you will need them for Barbarossa. After 1942 if Russia is still kicking ill send some new units to France and another 4xINT fliegerkorps to deal with American bombers. Usually ill have 1 division of Armor just in case brits/americans try something funny.

The reason i use the two infantry brigades is because they can react and move faster then Garrison units. GAR cannot react to an invasion in mutiple provinces and they will be surrounded and defeated.
 
Here is how I deal with occupying the Atlantic Wall.

Right after conquering France, I also leave one complete army (3 inf Corps, a mot corps and a Panzer corps) to defend the coast line. I try to actively lure the british into a landing (leave ports open) and crush them like many others before me have explained. Not only will it cost them huge amounts of manpower (both in direct losses and having to rebuild the divisions), but every division they use to get to you is a division not being able to help in the East/Africa. And thus making it easier for your allies (Japan/Siam/Italy) to keep on the pressure and nibble away their resources.

At the same time, once my OOB for Barbarossa nears completion (usually 5 armies of before mentioned setup), I queue up about 30/40 GAR/GAR/ARM divisions in a few series, to slowly and steadily replace the occupation army and also with an eye on occupying the UK later on (building speed will be nice since my Panzer practicals are skyhigh anyway). Manpower won't be an issue if you occupied the Balkans/Eastern Europe as well as western Europe. And later on are making progress in the SU.

Over time, invasions and landings will be a thing from the past, since the UK, and later on the US will be occupied elsewhere in the world once you beat down the Soviets.
 
After the fall of France i usually have 1 good army of about 130,000 men holding ports (in the West; France, Belgium, Nederlands). Its not much but it will do for 1940-1942. My composition is two infantry brigades around ports and 2 Gar+AA in ports. Only 4 interceptors can easily handle whatever the Brits wil throw at you. I keep 1 fligerkorps in Brest and 1 Near belgium. With this force in France it gives me the BEST possible use of units for other theatres (for me). I dont want to use all my GAR divisions in France because you will need them for Barbarossa. After 1942 if Russia is still kicking ill send some new units to France and another 4xINT fliegerkorps to deal with American bombers. Usually ill have 1 division of Armor just in case brits/americans try something funny.

The reason i use the two infantry brigades is because they can react and move faster then Garrison units. GAR cannot react to an invasion in mutiple provinces and they will be surrounded and defeated.

The problem with this approach is that Germany does not have manpower to spare. ....