Baller division designs

[Flipity]

I don't really agree with some of the suggestions above that put armour and infantry in the same division. That's basically doing what the French did in 1940, and we know how that ended up. One of the main advantages of armour is speed, especially if you're using light/medium/modern. By mixing infantry and light/medium/modern armour, you nullify that advantage right off the bat. If you absolutely want more breakthrough on your line infantry divisions, then it really only makes sense to use heavy armour, cause it isn't fast and it has higher breakthrough/hardness. The downside is of course that that's expensive, but since you're playing as the USSR, that isn't really a concern.

I reckon you should have infantry divisions to hold the line or make general front advances and armoured divisions to do concentrated breakthroughs and encirclements. So back to your original question, I suggest you have 7INF/2ART for infantry divisions (or the 40 width equivalent) and 4 medium armour/3 mech/2 medium SPART for armour divisions. And of course, add the appropriate support companies e.g. engineers/recon/hospital/logistics etc. And if you're so inclined (and have the infantry equipment to spare), you can swap out regular infantry for specialized infantry.

Armour on its own has very little organization, so it needs some form of infantry to balance that out. Either using mechanized or motorized infantry in your division will increase organization massively, plus the speed of those infantry units keep up with the armour. Without that organization, all armour units just can't stay in combat.

Heavy Armour with normal infantry is also a good match since heavy tanks are so slow anyway, increasing the units breakthrough.

 

[Celdur]

Something that's more than 6 years old, why ask?

Don't be coy just tell me

Because you went till 47's with over 1600 factories, i presume you must not be playing at 15 frames.

 

[cyklic]

Armour on its own has very little organization, so it needs some form of infantry to balance that out. Either using mechanized or motorized infantry in your division will increase organization massively, plus the speed of those infantry units keep up with the armour. Without that organization, all armour units just can't stay in combat.

Heavy Armour with normal infantry is also a good match since heavy tanks are so slow anyway, increasing the units breakthrough.

That was literally what I said...
4 medium/3 MECH/2 SPART

and

If you absolutely want more breakthrough on your line infantry divisions, then it really only makes sense to use heavy armour, cause it isn't fast...

 

[Misaka_Complex]

Because you went till 47's with over 1600 factories, i presume you must not be playing at 15 frames.

Its simply because I turn everything to low and I disable the 3D models for soldiers tanks etc. I play on a 6 year old laptop that I use mainly for work.

 

[Jamey]

I don't really agree with some of the suggestions above that put armour and infantry in the same division. That's basically doing what the French did in 1940, and we know how that ended up. One of the main advantages of armour is speed, especially if you're using light/medium/modern. By mixing infantry and light/medium/modern armour, you nullify that advantage right off the bat. If you absolutely want more breakthrough on your line infantry divisions, then it really only makes sense to use heavy armour, cause it isn't fast and it has higher breakthrough/hardness. The downside is of course that that's expensive, but since you're playing as the USSR, that isn't really a concern.

I reckon you should have infantry divisions to hold the line or make general front advances and armoured divisions to do concentrated breakthroughs and encirclements. So back to your original question, I suggest you have 7INF/2ART for infantry divisions (or the 40 width equivalent) and 4 medium armour/3 mech/2 medium SPART for armour divisions. And of course, add the appropriate support companies e.g. engineers/recon/hospital/logistics etc. And if you're so inclined (and have the infantry equipment to spare), you can swap out regular infantry for specialized infantry.

If you want the best division (rather than the most cost effective), heavy TD will add a lot of piercing and armor to infantry. You could even go SH if resources are truly no concern.

Similarly, you can add some flavor of SPART upgraded for damage to really stack on soft attack.

I wouldn't normally do either, but I have added HTD to French Infantry to hold the line indefinitely versus the AI. The research bonus for Heavy Tank combined with its manpower shortage make that an interesting option (though the lack of starting MIC make getting enough made for the start of the war interesting as well).

 

[Captured Joe]

I wouldn't normally do either, but I have added HTD to French Infantry to hold the line indefinitely versus the AI. The research bonus for Heavy Tank combined with its manpower shortage make that an interesting option (though the lack of starting MIC make getting enough made for the start of the war interesting as well).

How many per division?

If only France could afford a doctrine advisor for some Army Exp before the war starts it'd be feasible to just break up the Char de Combat brigades and add those tanks to the infantry, but the lack of political power is just too damn crippling to get anything done.

 

[Jamey]

How many per division?

If only France could afford a doctrine advisor for some Mil Exp before the war starts it'd be feasible to just break up the Char de Combat brigades and add those tanks to the infantry, but the lack of political power is just too damn crippling to get anything done.

For heavy TDs, I did one per infantry division.

The 5 mil XP required is quite available for any nation. Just exercise your troops. France can have a decent 20 width Infantry quite easily by 1939 (whether you add TDs to it or not).

 

[Captured Joe]

Thanks!

I usually hesistate training my divisions since France is already short on infantry equipment from the start, even after disbanding all useless 30% strenght colonial/fortress equipmentsponges.

 

[Stolen Rutters]

Thanks!

I usually hesistate training my divisions since France is already short on infantry equipment from the start, even after disbanding all useless 30% strength colonial/fortress equipmentsponges.

Disbanding the colonials, I hadn't thought of that.

What I have done is wait a little until infantry equipment fills those divisions to about a third strength in the bar, exercising every french unit adds 0.1 or more combat experience per day. 100 days is 10 exp, enough to add engineers. 13 months will let me get engineers, anti air and anti tank support plus two towed ART switched in the starting infantry template. The heavy tank destroyer would take 250 more days tho, since it's not an infantry unit and I need to fix my armor division up too (I noticed converting both chars de combat and my motorized units to armor template mostly fills up seven or eight 6MOT/4LARM+ENG/RECON brigades, production easily finishes them off anyway.)

 

[bERt0r]

What you do as france is disband your whole army except one mountaineer and train it.
You expand that mountain template to 40 width, then you make a 40 width inf template.
Training a 40 width mountaineer gives 0.2 xp per day.

 

[Captured Joe]

(I noticed converting both chars de combat and my motorized units to armor template mostly fills up seven or eight 6MOT/4LARM+ENG/RECON brigades, production easily finishes them off anyway.)

Yep, turn them into Division Legere Mecanique, it's better than just tanks on their own.

I tried the heavy tank destroyer thing, it worked very well. Thanks again.

 

[Stolen Rutters]

What you do as France is disband your whole army except one mountaineer and train it.
You expand that mountain template to 40 width, then you make a 40 width inf template.
Training a 40 width mountaineer gives 0.2 xp per day.

*SR's brain processing new info* Ooh, that's an awesome idea. You have close to three years before any war kicks off, so what's the army sitting there for? If you can seriously build it up from scratch that fast... I am so trying this trick!

Yep, turn them into Division Legere Mecanique, it's better than just tanks on their own.

I tried the heavy tank destroyer thing, it worked very well. Thanks again.

Cool, I balked at the tank destroyer because of the research and experience it takes away from my other needs. The trick above means I no longer have to worry.

SR
p.s. Actually, it's not really a trick per sé. It's really just a reminder I've been letting too many of my starting units exist without being modified until just before the war start. The starting units absolutely have to be rebuilt from scratch, so lean on the mechanics of the game to do it efficiently and completely. If I connected the dots right, I disband all unnecessary units first (for France, that means all but one MTN). Second, train for experience so I can get optimal templates before war starts. Finally, once the good templates are done, train fighting units up in time for the war.

 

[Captured Joe]

The starting units absolutely have to be rebuilt from scratch, so lean on the mechanics of the game to do it efficiently and completely. If I connected the dots right, I disband all unnecessary units first (for France, that means all but one MTN). Second, train for experience so I can get optimal templates before war starts. Finally, once the good templates are done, train fighting units up in time for the war.

I wouldn't go as far as disbanding all infantry divisions, I prefer to have some army in place to react to unexpected events (even though the focus trees removed most if not all element of surprise) and I find the basic French infantry a good enough foundation to build an army on. Also it's bad for immersion to just delete the whole army. Usually I disband just the 30%-strenght divisions and swap the templates of the BCC and mot divisions with the DLM one.

 

[KiwiNoob]

7-8 Mountaneers (always mountaineers over infantry)
3-4 Line artillary
1 x Heavy TD (ideally with armor upgrades)

Just make tons of those

 

[Stolen Rutters]

I wouldn't go as far as disbanding all infantry divisions, I prefer to have some army in place to react to unexpected events (even though the focus trees removed most if not all element of surprise).

Good point. I switched from Italy (super easy mode) to France a week ago and I find France a harder game to work out.

either I have to turtle at a long fort line, or I had some success challenging Germany on the Rhineland at the beginning of the game. That way I can rush unopposed to the Rhine and fortify there when the war eventually starts. Easier to extend my defense from Essen west to Rotterdam when they try to roll my flank.

With one MTN they might decide to fight... so I would need to let them fortify the border.