This makes so much sense now! Got it!
Edit: I tried attacking earlier than historical so that I would catch the Soviet Union before they became too strong. Hard to see if that was a good idea or not (outside of attacking during winter).
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Germany -> Soviet Union + Combat log
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This makes so much sense now! Got it!
Edit: I tried attacking earlier than historical so that I would catch the Soviet Union before they became too strong. Hard to see if that was a good idea or not (outside of attacking during winter).
To clarify better the strategy:
240 inf, in 2 field marshals(5 armies each. 5*24=120), a 'north' field marshal', and a 'south field marshal'.... the slovenia tip is the divider, the north Field Marshal border will be from slovenia height to baltics, and South from Slovenia to black sea.
The 48 light panzers will be in a 3rd field marshal, 2 generals, also a north and south divided the borders in same way.
Just prepare and press autoplay, no micro needed, the pockets will form naturally in more slow terrain areas, specially in center(mountains and marsh there).... higher speed of Light tanks will overrun many of their divisions.
upgrade some railways in path to romania/poland 6 months before atack to grant good supply.
my best time beating SU in that way was in 6 months, but casualties are higher(600K to 1 million man).
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Thank you! Sounds like a great strategy, though quite costly. Pretty much what I was running into, except I attacked during the winter and with far fewer troops. I'll give both approaches a try! Thanks!
I just switched over to the Soviet side for the first time, and I noticed they were building tons of infantry in a 9 - 3 configuration with nine infantry and three artillery.
My troops are 9 - 2. If I'm going against the Soviet Union prior in 1940, would I be better off adding an artillery to my 9 - 2's? They are currently 24 width, which seems to do well in terms of supply usage, and adding one artillery company would also exhaust my current reserves. I'm just about to attack France. Thanks.
Edit: Just did a side by side comparison of the stats on my 9-2's to the Soviet 9-3's, and my infantry stats are better in every category (attack, defense, breakthrough, etc.). Looks like my five support companies to their two overcomes the advantage of their three artillery at least for now. They are building mils like crazy.
My troops are 9 - 2. If I'm going against the Soviet Union prior in 1940, would I be better off adding an artillery to my 9 - 2's? They are currently 24 width, which seems to do well in terms of supply usage, and adding one artillery company would also exhaust my current reserves. I'm just about to attack France. Thanks.
Edit: Just did a side by side comparison of the stats on my 9-2's to the Soviet 9-3's, and my infantry stats are better in every category (attack, defense, breakthrough, etc.). Looks like my five support companies to their two overcomes the advantage of their three artillery at least for now. They are building mils like crazy.
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I'll agree with a lot of advice you were given except you don't need support AA for the most part in this especially when you're playing SP. Maybe when you're China but even when I play as France and hold the line I don't have support AA.
Build more fighters and use CAS to push around the Soviets (and everyone else). What I think IS critical for everyone is support AT, that's what keeps the tanks away from your infantry when they defend. You need to build a massive airforce as the Germans especially since even if you play historical and don't sea lion, you're going to be dealing with the UK and later US bombing the hell out of you if not.
As far as Naval goes, I rarely try to outbuild the UK as Germany. The naval game requires far too much time to try to match the largest navy in the game, it's easier to just prepare a sea lion, open the channel long enough to invade, then when you take them out take their massive navy. SO much easier than the literal years of trying to build up enough ships to take on the UK. The problem you have is the longer you wait the stronger their coastal defenses get. You may consider asking for military access from mussolini, guard all his ports, then invite him into the Axis, that'll give the Brits someone to beat up on. I don't even like feeding them my subs until I'm ready to sea lion.
As for the Soviets and the 9-3 I wouldn't care, look at their "Red Army" national spirit they're fighting with one foot in a bucket for awhile. I don't even think you need to go 9-2 unless you're using Superior Firepower doctrine but if you're the Germans just use Mobile Warfare. You can keep your motorized but make sure they're somewhere that is getting supplies otherwise they're useless.
Those older guides about always being 7-2 superior firepower are over you can be a 9-1 in most cases and be fine nowdays I find.
But for almost everyone...support AT.
Build more fighters and use CAS to push around the Soviets (and everyone else). What I think IS critical for everyone is support AT, that's what keeps the tanks away from your infantry when they defend. You need to build a massive airforce as the Germans especially since even if you play historical and don't sea lion, you're going to be dealing with the UK and later US bombing the hell out of you if not.
As far as Naval goes, I rarely try to outbuild the UK as Germany. The naval game requires far too much time to try to match the largest navy in the game, it's easier to just prepare a sea lion, open the channel long enough to invade, then when you take them out take their massive navy. SO much easier than the literal years of trying to build up enough ships to take on the UK. The problem you have is the longer you wait the stronger their coastal defenses get. You may consider asking for military access from mussolini, guard all his ports, then invite him into the Axis, that'll give the Brits someone to beat up on. I don't even like feeding them my subs until I'm ready to sea lion.
As for the Soviets and the 9-3 I wouldn't care, look at their "Red Army" national spirit they're fighting with one foot in a bucket for awhile. I don't even think you need to go 9-2 unless you're using Superior Firepower doctrine but if you're the Germans just use Mobile Warfare. You can keep your motorized but make sure they're somewhere that is getting supplies otherwise they're useless.
Those older guides about always being 7-2 superior firepower are over you can be a 9-1 in most cases and be fine nowdays I find.
But for almost everyone...support AT.
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Thank you. Great read. I loved how you invited Italy, then used them to blunt attacks against German France.
Great advice on the air power, too. I'm really seeing that just dealing with England's large air force. Haven't been in a game long enough for the US to have a shot at me.
They can't afford it. as long you convoy raid, they wont will receive enough USA support to pump the divisions.
If you blitz properly even their manpower will run out early;.
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Thank you. I did see that most of the divisions they had in the field were only 9-1's. It's still 1939 and they have 13 divisions queued in parallel. I also noticed that they only had 10 factories on the artillery.
9-3 would be closer to the "minimise casualties" ratio for infantry divisions. That is, you get fewer casualties in successful defensive battles with that ratio. If you have too much artillery then low hit points elevates casualties, if you have to little artillery then low soft attack results in elevated casualties. Optimum in 20 width was always 7-2 but 9-3 will be pretty closer for the larger width.
However, this probably shouldn't be something you care too much about. What you are really looking for as Germany is offensive capability which means trying to spend as much IC as possible on tanks and aircraft.
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The OP got a lot of good advice. It was a good read. One thing that used to surprise me was how much infantry kit I used up as Germany through combat and attrition and through those invisible garrison divisions that kept getting added as more land was conquered. Since tanks and planes are the predominate offensive forces, I try to only attack with them, which greatly reduces my infantry kit losses.
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I've played plenty of games where I only attack with tanks but it has significant disadvantages because it slows everything down. As the Soviets, I've played several games on maximum difficulty across the board (ie max upgrade on other countries plus max difficulty) with the objective of world conquest for minimum casualties playing historical up to Barbarossa. That is a "only attack with tanks" game with world conquest for around 350K casualties being reasonably easy to achieve but it takes a lot longer. If I ignore casualties then (on max difficulty) I can reliably trigger Axis surrender in less than a year from the start of Barbarossa (9-10 months) without really trying with very little micro. Trying to absolutely minimise casualties takes rather longer.
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I totally agree with you and for the very reason you mention. Time.
Since the OP got surprised by his infantry kit inventory going negative so quickly, I wanted to bring up another reason why it may have gone down so quickly and a way to help reduce the deficit, now that it exists. With you comment, we now know more about the cost of the option and how effective it might be. Thanks.
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