A mix of divisions vs a solid 20 w Inf

[Jellybean180]

Hello,

I've been playing Hoi4 for a long time now and I'm still not very good at it. I have a question that may help me out. I just lost a game as the UK. Well I didn't lose but I couldn't do anything else. I lost 2.5 million men while pushing through Italy. The Germans were fighting the Russians at the time so I started an invasion. The USA was useless btw. Not sure if that was an update or something.

I finally took Italy out of the game, again with a lose of 2.5 million men and around 2 million for the Italians I felt like I must of been fighting Germany at the same time. I formed a line on the German border and another on the Vici French border. Then the Germans showed up. I still had 1 million manpower and full org but the Germans just pushed me all the way back to the river where they stalled. Vici France was a little easier, along with the USA we took large parts of France back but still getting 200K-500K dead.

I tried to push against the Germans and started to push them back to the German border again where I stalled and then they just pushed me back again without any issue. That is where I started to fall apart. Not long after Russia fell and Japan was beating India back. So all was lost. (in my hands anyway). Germany had 7 Million men in the pool and 100s of Divisions.

So how where they able to beat me back so easily and Italy able to hold for so long with 0 manpower. The mountains helped them a lot but still.

My main template I used was 20 width division. 7 Inf and 2 Arty along with Recon, Logistics, Engineers, Arty, and Anti-tank for awhile until I removed them.
my Tank division was 20 Width with a mix of Light tanks and Mech inf. Sorry I can't remember what the numbers were. But they were rather weak.

So my question is
Should I build the main "backbone" of my Army with the 20w inf divisions and have anti-tank divisions, Tank divisions, and mountain divisions as well in an army group. Is it worth the production lines? or just pile up the 20w Inf divisions and attempt to swarm the enemy? This seems to be were I fail at the game, trying to keep a strong Army with a good mix and not getting out classed by Tanks.

It seems that the AI can get crazy strong if they're left for too long. Germany seems stronger than ever too. Not sure if that's just me.

Thank you for any advice.

 

[Harin]

You came to the right place. You will get some good advice shortly from better players than myself. In the meantime, I would suggest adding your saved game here and add a few screen shots showing your main division templates, research, production, etc... The more info you give the better the answers will be.

 

[blahmaster6k]

As the UK, you're going to want to have some 40 width medium or heavy tanks for offensive operations. Heavy tanks + amphibious mechanized is particularly good since you're going to be needing to naval invade. 13/7 is a good template there, with engineers, logistics, signals, and maintenance. Light tanks become obsolete as soon as mediums become available, they're only good for early rush builds and won't be able to do much once countries research infantry anti tank, or have support at or aa.

For infantry, 7-2 is outdated and not very good anymore. 10-0 pure infantry with engineers and support artillery is what you want to be building, or 20-0 if you can afford them. Only use infantry defensively, they have bad offensive stats but great defensive ones.

Another thing that might be contributing to your inability to push is the air war. Do you have enough fighters? Green air can be the difference between pushing the enemy or being completely stalled out and pushed back yourself. Are you low on supplies? Lacking fuel? Those are also important questions.

 

[Vin55]

As Britain you whant to push with air superioty like what really happend in WW2. So really use fighters and cas to break the German ai Spam. For a spearhead push use the tanks as stated above. You will be able to overrun the germans with 40 with tanks (medium or heavy) also Dont push with a battle plan in Italy. It is a suicide mission because of how insanley good those mountains are. (They really need an event to surrender like in real life). Atm they fight till all of mainland Italy is lost I mean cmon why?.
20 with pure support with anti air and tank and atillerey is probs the best. Also if you whant to make bigger beachheads use mobile units until you stall and concentrate all air in that sector. In Italy when you land in Sicily u can use a new naval invasion to cut of Italy above rome or in Tuscany. Naples works as well it depends where u are with your units.

 

[TalyonUngol]

20W, 40W infantry like 14-4's and 40W Medium tanks + Medium SPAG's are good army choices.

Use little 40W infantry and make sure they are pushing with your tanks. Use tanks to encircle enemies in pockets. Focus on where you think they are weakest on the front line and exploit it.

20W infantry should only attack the encircled units.

40W infantry have really good stats and are great for pushing along lines but they are very expensive in terms of manpower and equipment. For me as Germany, I have 2 40W infantry and 8 20W with only 12 units of mediums in 1950((Im building modern tanks but wont build more than 12.))

You also need alot of fighters and Cas. Overwhelm the germans with it. When you take France ,immediatly build up infrasctructure and Radar. And if you want, anti air!

It's a slow process!

 

[Reman]

99% of the time somebody asks why their troops can't push, it's because they're not building enough tanks and planes.

 

[HugsAndSnuggles]

While I'm not sure if tanks, especially light ones, are a good choice for Italy (it doesn't have a suitable terrain, after all): CAS with enough fighter cover should make a lot of difference there. So the question is: what air did you have?

 

[Spelaren]

99% of the time somebody asks why their troops can't push, it's because they're not building enough tanks and planes.

It's so boring it's always tanks, i understand planes but why can't we get to do artillery offensives?