Of course I meant 'support' not 'assist', but anyway - imagine this; in my first game as Germany everything is going well. I've only hit one snag so far, and that is that France used overwhelming force and took Saarbrücken while I was invading Poland. I'm no spring chicken though, so I was watching the situation carefully. I was almost hoping they'd go deeper - because I knew exactly what I'd do. It was really just an annoyance, that this one Rhineland province was being occupied, and I just had to take it for a little while, and yeah - the western front was still intact (again I'm not really a n00b). But, they never moved - just sat there in Saarbrücken... and piled in about 35-40 divisions, including their armor... very juicy...
Of course there is only one French province that borders Saarbrücken... Strasbourg -- so you know what I'm thinking about... Anyway I've got the line stabilized, the panzer divisions are redeployed to the Ruhr area. My plan was to:
A) Bring all of my armor formations (fantastically organized, best leaders, brigades, etc.) including a nice, elite couple of Infantry armies (24, all with brigades that would help them against a counter attack - which would follow the panzers) down to 'Cologne', and as soon as the armor was there, DoW Luxembourg and attack. Of course there would be plenty of strong units remaining behind - just in case. But it's no problem... the whole German army is on scene now.
B) Not just attack Luxembourg, but 'blitz' right into that (vital link) French province - Strasbourg, and cut that large formation up in Saarbrücken off as quickly as possible.
C) Support attack from all sides. Overwhelming air attack. Then fill in Luxembourg and this other province with tough units, so the French can't counter-attack & escape, no matter what.
Btw, vital to this plan -naturally- was that this tip of the Maginot Line (Strasbourg) NOT be heavily defended. I used my airpower to keep an eye on troop movements in the area, and waited for a moment when intel reported only one (1) French unit was there, and no one was moving around much... then I blitzed... like lightening (sounds redundant). Everything was going perfectly... save the fact that as soon as the 12 armored divisions started attacking this LIGHTLY defended tip of the Maginot Line, they also had to fight the 'stack of doom' up in Saarbrücken, not to mention all surrounding troops in Metz, Mulhouse, etc. But hey... all the heavy infantry w/ artillery is not far behind, so no sweat. Plus I'm attacking from Freiburg & Stuttgart w/ a substantial force.
I put everything I had into the battle, and interdicted with everything I had, air-wise. I came within "98%" of achieving my victory (which would have been decisive - the front would have collapsed), but due to the fact that the French were 'supporting defense' with everything THEY had... right off the bat - it bought them just enough time to actually be able to reinforce the province (Strasbourg) with a handful off units... and I suddenly found myself attacking the Maginot Line defended by slightly more divisions than I could reasonably expect to win against... and next thing I know the bulk of my attacking force is running low on ORG, and I have no choice but to withdraw & reorganize. I couldn't believe it - I came so close.
So what's the key here? The AI had all those units on 'reserve'? That's good to know... I didn't realize it worked that way, based on how things went for me on the Hungarian front (partitioned CZE, then I took military control) during the Polish campaign. Every time Poland did a coordinated attack on Hungary, they couldn't respond in time. Fortunately it didn't really matter, because I was blitzing like a scalded dog from the west.
But anyway, knowing that the 'reserve' feature would give them this ability... yeah, that would have been helpful. I thought for SURE I had 'em this time. I lost a HUGE opportunity... all because like six (6) stinkin' units were able to reinforce... ALL because of the small delay caused by this 'reinforce' feature you guys are talking about... I guess.
