Best land doctrine for Austria-Hungary

[Eaxy]

I'm currently playing with Austria-Hungary (started as Hungary; playing with all DLCs)

I annexed Austria, Czech Republic and Transylvania via Focus Tree. I just started to arm my country again. But I have a problem: I dont know, which land doctrine I should use.

Personally, I would take Superior Firepower. But in Focus Tree you get Bonuses on Mobile Warfare (with Tank Bonuses) or on Grand Battleplan (with Support Artillery and infantry weapons bonuses).

I hope you can give me some advice

 

[Darkeng]

SF is good for them (considering manpower), but GB too (especially with bonuses), so... Your choice - depends on the style and power of your industry

 

[bERt0r]

Superior firepower with Air-Land battle.

 

[Eaxy]

SF is good for them (considering manpower)

Superior firepower with Air-Land battle.

I think I will take Superior firepower. Thank you.

 

[Surimi]

I would have gone Grand Battleplan. It's pretty much useful for any playstyle or situation, and the left path in particular gives such massive planning bonuses on attack that you can often attack successfully even in fairly sub-optimal conditions.

Massing out on artillery seems to have been nerfed a bit in the cornflakes patch, which I suspect will impact superior firepower more than other doctrines. I'm sure it will still be a good choice though, it always has been.

 

[Less2]

Superior firepower with Air-Land battle.

This. Right side was nerfed slightly but Left is still supreme if you have the planes for it. Stacking Air Superiority is insane with how important defense is.

 

[Shinkuro Yukinari]

Mass Mob, since Hungary can abuse plane techs and 10 width is always nice

 

[LiberiusX]

So, I read that superior firepower got nerfed in cornflakes. Is this true?

I don’t like the mobile warfare NF tree for A-H as it just feels like i’m playing Germany.

How does Grand Battleplan save on manpower?

 

[bERt0r]

No it's not. War is won in the air more than ever and +20% air superiority from air land battle is really good. Also since artillery and tank soft attack was nerfed, the SF boni make infantry just that much stronger.

 

[Officer Crabtree]

Definately Mobile Warfare.
The 5% manpower bonus of Desperate Defence is sooo good and you can get +35 org with your infantry divisions (as you don't start out with armor). You will probably end up with a lot of factories (almost as many as the Reich) and not much manpower, so having a lot of armor will be your best shot at beating the Germans and Russians (and Allies while you're at it).

Furthermore, Grand Battleplan was nerfed to 10% from 30% and with a massive new penalty to planning if you manually control troops makes this tree mostly useless. Because of the nerfing of soft attack Superior Firepower also isn't as good as it used to be.

 

[bERt0r]

IMHO if you want manpower go for mass assault... the increased org regain and especially the reduced INF width is far better than an increase in max org.

 

[a_sophist]

IMHO if you want manpower go for mass assault... the increased org regain and especially the reduced INF width is far better than an increase in max org.

Yup, and don't forget reinforce rate. In the current state of the game there are very few countries for which Mass Mob and Operational Integrity aren't the easiest, if not best, option. Guns, engineers, and 1940 fighters are enough to survive, and then you just need enough CAS and/or tanks to meet your attacking requirements. It's an IMO unfortunate consequence of nerfing NKVD and putting the bonus in a doctrine available to all.

 

[Captured Joe]

It's an IMO unfortunate consequence of nerfing NKVD and putting the bonus in a doctrine available to all.

And how about nerfing GBP and putting the bonus in WtT's generals? The whole doctrine balance has been thrown out of the window.

 

[Zwirbaum]

And how about nerfing GBP and putting the bonus in WtT's generals? The whole doctrine balance has been thrown out of the window.

Planning boni from generals is for everyone, not only for WtT generals.

 

[a_sophist]

Planning boni from generals is for everyone, not only for WtT generals.

The doctrine is in itself worse though, because planning was nerfed to accommodate the changes to generals (I think that was the point). I took the comment to also mean that given its synergy with general and planning decay changes, GBP is now the "play like an AI" doctrine, which is inherently worse than before.

 

[basun]

I wpuld say mass mob for a number of countries seem more tempting. The manpower, reduced attrition and regen is very good.

Tried it as Italy yesterday with good results. Won a lot by regging more than the opponents so I could sustain longer prolonged battles and take some extra hits. The manpower situation for AH is quite bad, so 5% is nothing to sneeze at.

 

[bERt0r]

In my fascist austria playthrough I went SF and did all my offensives with 20 width tank/mech/SPAA templates. Less than 200k casualties after USSR and the allies surrendered (USA stayed neutral though). Mech is much cheaper now and is optimal if you play with countries that lack manpower. Use mech and hospitals and you barely take any casualties against the AI. The artillery heavy templates the AI tends to use are useless against mech divisions with high hardness.

 

[LiberiusX]

Definately Mobile Warfare.
The 5% manpower bonus of Desperate Defence is sooo good and you can get +35 org with your infantry divisions (as you don't start out with armor). You will probably end up with a lot of factories (almost as many as the Reich) and not much manpower, so having a lot of armor will be your best shot at beating the Germans and Russians (and Allies while you're at it).

Furthermore, Grand Battleplan was nerfed to 10% from 30% and with a massive new penalty to planning if you manually control troops makes this tree mostly useless. Because of the nerfing of soft attack Superior Firepower also isn't as good as it used to be.

Here's the problem with Mobile warfare for Austria-Hungary: Most of your early opportunities for growth are to the south/southeast...the Balkans...which has very rough terrain and lots of rivers. Ironically, you'll be fighting Germany and/or SOV at some point, so Mobile warfare would come in real handy there.

I think reliance on tanks is out of the question...at least for the early/mid game, particularly if you plan on expanding south.

A-H gets a general from CZE that has the "adaptable" trait, which is so useful in the Balkans. I see where everyone is coming from on Superior Firepower.

What template for 1939 would y'all recommend Superior Firepower in rough terrain?

 

[bERt0r]

10x inf + support arty, AA, eng and recon. Hospitals if you can afford them.

 

[LiberiusX]

10x inf + support arty, AA, eng and recon. Hospitals if you can afford them.

No line arty? Why?