Defensive Divisions

[paperhero]

What are the cheapest defensive divisions? I have a front with Germany that I don't want to advance on. I am playing as Greece with the goal of eventually to help take out Russia as quickly as possible. Currently I am at war with the Axis, and not at war with Russia. Since I want to take out Russia as quickly as possible I want to limit my attacks on Germany. The boarder I am talking about is: the 5 provinces between the Black Sea and Hungary, some are boarding Russia others Germany, (hoping Hungary will not join Axis). Was planning to build the fortification on these squares as high as possible so it will tie up the fewest resources, so I can attack Russia through Turkey.

I was thinking all infantry with no support, not sure about best width.
To stop Hungary from joining Axis I thought about creating a faction with them in it (I don't have any DLC), but this might mess up my plan to get the USA to attack Russia. Currently I believe all I have to do is join the Allies, declare war on Russia, and then ask them to join me.

 

[SRhistory]

Not sure anymore about the meta… everyone got a different one. But in SP 10w inf with maybe engineers as support will hold most (but not all) and are good enough against the AI. Ooo don’t forget to supply them. Without supply even the best div will lose.

 

[jacekgk]

As SRHistory said: 10 CW should be enough for defensive purposes. I would add engineers and AA as support companies - with that Your divisions will be still cheap, but strong enough to hołd the lines.

 

[The Colonel]

10w will only work well if you can afford to pump out enough of them to fill the combat width. They are more or less optimal if you meet that condition, but that would require 40 divisions to cover just 5 tiles. Also if this is historical then Hungary will almost certainly join the Axis.

21w 9inf + 1art divisions are good all-arounders (remember your offensive capabilities help you defend by de-orging the attacker faster and dealing more strength damage to hurt their equipment stockpiles), although for sheer defense you should be able to get away with pure infantry, especially if you can afford engineers. Probably wanna go for 20 width then.

Either way, if you have nothing to deal with German air superiority then you will need significant reserves to reinforce tiles under pressure (or to just way overstack the whole line).

 

[Cavalry]

If you don't fill combat width or don't use manual control, then width is a redundant resource and arty is good to add even with 10w. Yeah it is hard to get exactly 10w with 1 arty and infantry, but 11w is nearly the same.

On manual control defense, withdraw nearby troops to reinforce on going battle is the tactics. Don't care much about losing entrenchment in non battle provinces. Or you can use both, automatic line and some manual control divisions in important provinces. Winning a series of big defensive battles is as good as winning offensive if you can keep good kill-loss ratio.

 

[paperhero]

"10w will only work well if you can afford to pump out enough of them to fill the combat width. They are more or less optimal if you meet that condition, but that would require 40 divisions to cover just 5 tiles. Also if this is historical then Hungary will almost certainly join the Axis."

Surely you meant 40 battalions? Currently I have only 28 divisions with 14 of them 20 width Space Marines the rest of them are 20 width 7 inf 2 art (current year 16 Feb 1942). 40 battalions / 5tiles = 8 battalions per tile so I am assuming you meant either 8 inf battalions per division which would be either a 16 width 8 inf division or a 5 inf and 3 support battalions to give a 10 width division.

Most people are talking about adding engineers as support. I have a friend who had played the game a lot, and is very negative on engineers. Granted I believe engineers are the most powerful support battalions, but you also have to look at their cost. A engineer costs 3 times more than a typical support company. So in trying to do it on the cheap you, could add 3 support battalions instead of the one engineer battalion. Engineers do have there place though, I put one with each of my 40 width divisions.

"Also if this is historical then Hungary will almost certainly join the Axis."

I do believe you are right, and this poses a big problem. instead of just fortifying just 5 tiles I will need to fortify 13 just to close off this front! That's a lot of fortifying. Since this is only 16 Feb 1942 I think I have time, but that is still giving up a lot of production. There are 2 rivers there I can fortify behind and that should reduce the fortifying needed. I again could create a faction and then have them join me which would eliminate the need to fortify only 5 instead of the 13 tiles. The problem with this is getting the USA to attack Russia? Once Germany falls I don't want to be the only one attacking Russia!

Since I am not yet at war with Russia, I am thinking about going after Italy who I am already at war with, and I see this as very doable, and let Germany and Russia grind each other down.

 

[Cavalry]

Most people are talking about adding engineers as support. I have a friend who had played the game a lot, and is very negative on engineers. Granted I believe engineers are the most powerful support battalions, but you also have to look at their cost. A engineer costs 3 times more than a typical support company. So in trying to do it on the cheap you, could add 3 support battalions instead of the one engineer battalion. Engineers do have there place though, I put one with each of my 40 width divisions.

On defend Eng give + entrenchment, a sum of defense stat, +25% attack and defense stats in forest, +10% in hill. So I use some Eng+line arty combo in forest or elite defender like space marine, if I have xp to make extra template. Eng in 10w is too expensive.

The one people often forget is the support rocket arty. This is a pillar in cheap, efficiency defense. The other two is support Art, support AA.

 

[pro.gamer.69]

9/1 with support arty + eng + (aa) are far more cost-effective than 5/0 with support arty + (eng) + (aa) despite the inherent cost effectiveness of support artillery, assuming you're defending against the AI.

 

[paperhero]

10 Nov 1942 Update: Italy is now very sorry they justified on me because now I own them! Germany's attack has stalled on Russia, I can't help think my little wall had something to do with it. This is a bad thing, for it will make Russia all that much harder to take down.

 

[Simon_9732495]

Surely you meant 40 battalions? Currently I have only 28 divisions with 14 of them 20 width Space Marines the rest of them are 20 width 7 inf 2 art (current year 16 Feb 1942). 40 battalions / 5tiles = 8 battalions per tile so I am assuming you meant either 8 inf battalions per division which would be either a 16 width 8 inf division or a 5 inf and 3 support battalions to give a 10 width division.

No it's (minimum) 40 divisions, if you use 10widths (= 5/0 infantry)
You have 5 tiles and want to cover at least 80 width per tile.
So if you do 10w divisions you need 8 per tile to cover 80 width. 5 tiles times 8 divisions = 40 divisions.

And it's a minimum, because in plains you want 90 and some tiles can be attacked from multiple other tiles.
If a plain tile can be attacked from 3 other tiles you might want to have 90+45+45 = 180 width.
With 10w divisions that would be 18 divisions to cover only that one tile.

PS1:
You will get overstacking penalty with 10 widths in plains, because you can only bring 8 divisions + 4 per flank before you get that penalty.

PS2:
My knowledge is mostly pre NSB, so I might be screwing up something with the new combat widths.

PS3:
It's not really a question if you can afford it. If you cant afford 40 10widths you also cant afford 20 20widths (that would fill the same width)