Endgame US Holding Out - Unsure if the war can be finished

[Goldenkangal]

As a preface this is my second run and I was going for a mostly historical run as a minor nation, but the axis kept throwing allies' invasions back and capitulated SU.

US has been holding out for over a decade. I've pushed from the south but the line has stagnated just above mexico city, all operations I tried in the north and west have failed, and right now i'm testing encirclement around the line in Florida. I can't rely on the ai to do anything as the only note worthy thing they have done is eat fajita flavored attrition. I've attached my backup save that I revert to after a failed invasion for anyone who wants specific information on this run.

The only thing left I could think of would be forcing a coup as a distraction for a blitzkrieg to take the eastern shores.

 

[MattZed]

The save is in 1972?!

My only ideas are to sink the US navy, build a LOT of CAS, switch to Airland battle, prepare naval invasions across the entire west coast and hope your modern tanks can push before your allies flood the supply. (nukes may help you push here)

 

[Goldenkangal]

I can be quite stubborn when I want to. I was even tempted to let the save run till 2077 as a joke before cyberpunk comes out.
the US navy basically doesn't exist, anything they have is a paper tiger at best. it is the abundant airforce the US has that has a greater concern from me. I'll try again on the west coast and throw everything I can. I should have a window ~3 months before the rest flood the supply limit.

 

[ArzhurG]

Your AI allies will only "support" you and eat up all of your supply if they have more divisions than you. I don't know if you have any spare manpower, but if you do just train and deploy a load of 2 width divisions to make up the difference.

Edit: As for Florida, try invading and holding the bottom, Miami and a few more to have space to fall back. Once the Americans respond, invade the Northern part of the peninsula, blocking off the AI. Then kill the encircled divisions. Retreat to the bottom and repeat. I don't know if you've already been doing that, but you can destroy over 50 divisions at a time. It's tedious, but seeing that you're in 1972, I doubt that that's a problem.

 

[Goldenkangal]

I currently have 77 divisions with 222k in reserve. With 1 inf battalions that would add up to 299 divisions which barely passes france. Even if I was to break my current divisions in half I wouldn't have enough. I would need a different way to hold off my allies.

Edit: As for Florida, try invading and holding the bottom, Miami and a few more to have space to fall back. Once the Americans respond, invade the Northern part of the peninsula, blocking off the AI. Then kill the encircled divisions. Retreat to the bottom and repeat. I don't know if you've already been doing that, but you can destroy over 50 divisions at a time. It's tedious, but seeing that you're in 1972, I doubt that that's a problem.

This was my current plan before posting the thread and am in the middle of executing. If I fail/can't pull it off I will roll back to try Mattzed's suggestion.

 

[ArzhurG]

Looks like you know what you're doing. I assume that you've looked into puppet manpower.

 

[Goldenkangal]

Not entirely. I have small basic regiments totaling to 14 divisions that N.Ireland and Cyprus gave me, nothing more than that.

 

[Silverhood]

I had decent luck defeating the US as Scandinavia and Bulgaria by invading Iceland, Greenland and then Canada, building infrastructure to max and then pushing into next province. More infrastructure and then push again. Once I got a good amount front line, and captured the main Canadian provinces, I landed my 8 armor divisions and began trapping small amounts of troops while slowly pushing into New England, while at the same time, extending the front line in northern Canada, Meanwhile Mexico and Germany pushed from the south. Eventually the US line thinned to the point where AI nations were making progress, and I could do larger encirclement, and it was all over shortly after.

One thing to note, is that if Mexico ends up in a civil war while in your faction, and the opposition joins an enemy faction, the supply for the territories that flipped to enemy get totally broken, and you will never be able to push proper supply through that province, regardless of how much infrastructure it has. With 2 civil wars possible, you can end up in a sitiuation whre your entire front with the USA has no supply.

 

[pheonicia]

Spam nukes, if there's already no supply, they only provide a benefit.

 

[Goldenkangal]

I had decent luck defeating the US as Scandinavia and Bulgaria by invading Iceland, Greenland and then Canada, building infrastructure to max and then pushing into next province. More infrastructure and then push again. Once I got a good amount front line, and captured the main Canadian provinces, I landed my 8 armor divisions and began trapping small amounts of troops while slowly pushing into New England, while at the same time, extending the front line in northern Canada, Meanwhile Mexico and Germany pushed from the south. Eventually the US line thinned to the point where AI nations were making progress, and I could do larger encirclement, and it was all over shortly after.

One thing to note, is that if Mexico ends up in a civil war while in your faction, and the opposition joins an enemy faction, the supply for the territories that flipped to enemy get totally broken, and you will never be able to push proper supply through that province, regardless of how much infrastructure it has. With 2 civil wars possible, you can end up in a sitiuation whre your entire front with the USA has no supply.

my first attempts were in that area. from greenland I took over St.pierre, newfoundland, and Nunavut. The first attempt was in quebec, followed by labrador, but each time a trickling horde approaches and I can't take enough in time to boost the infrastructure and make a line to hold in the area. The best attempt is currently the hold out in new brunswick from nova scotia but the ai is slowly losing it again. I am making as many lines to thin out the 1000+ divisions US has lying about in the continent but it just isn't enough by itself. If a final assault tactic fails I do think encirclement to bleed the US is the next best option.
I did cause a civil war in mexico but when it began nothing flipped. I'm not sure what happened or how the supply in the area is affected by it.

Spam nukes, if there's already no supply, they only provide a benefit.

The ai has been dropping a nuke every other day recently, but it has been almost exclusively the same place. while tanking the infrastructure in texas would help I wonder if it would be better to keep it as a healthy choice for opening another front in.

 

[Orbs]

Vanilla templates struggle against 40w tanks and 40w Infantry with line artillery (or SP ART if you have it or are using mechs). Since you control the seas if you can land on the provinces next to the port with your tanks (not attack the port from the seas directly) your 40w tanks can usually make mincemeat out of whatever is guarding the port next door. Try and land on either side of the port and pincer the actual port if you can. I like landing 4-6 tanks each, which then link up once the port is captured to become a 8-12 spearhead tank group.

As usual, multiple landing spots is best otherwise the US will just rush to your spot and hold you down if not push you back into the sea. Once you got ports that you feel good about (that you can not only hold but expand) send in lots of infantry to hold the lines and breakthroughs that your tanks exploit. These infantry need to be stationed somewhere nearby (Bermuda, Jamaica, Cuba, British Honduras, El Salvador, Gautama etc) because the 33 day boat trip from Europe is too long.

You want to be really fast. Fast in getting the tanks landed, fast on taking the port(s) you landed next to, fast on pushing out once the port is secure and fast on getting the infantry into that port from a nearby staging area. If you’re not fast, you’ll get bogged down. If you don’t push out quickly your supply will get choked by the infantry landing soon. If your don’t move quickly the US, who will strat redeploy to wherever you land, will form a strong defensive line that eventually you won’t be able to break. You really got to blitzkrieg.

And again multiple landings are key. you need to try for at least 4 different naval landings around 4 different ports. And I don’t mean Florida ports, I mean 1 landing around Orlando (push for Tampa, then south to Miami which is now cut-off from the mainland), one around Boston, one around Houston and maybe one in the Carolinas or Mississippi. You’ll see the US defend well against 2 or maybe even 3 of the beachheads you’ve made but the other 1-2 should be very weak. Push like crazy to link these beachheads up and again watch your supply. Once you get a stable foothold you’ll see opportunities to make encirclement pockets which really makes thins a lot easier.

I find at times like these speed 2 or 3 is best. It can be tricky to micro all these landings which require aggressive expansion and quick reactions to enemy movements / gaps. And 4 landings doesn’t fit well onto 1 screen so take something for motion sickness if you need for all that screen scrolling you’ll be doing

 

[pheonicia]

my first attempts were in that area. from greenland I took over St.pierre, newfoundland, and Nunavut. The first attempt was in quebec, followed by labrador, but each time a trickling horde approaches and I can't take enough in time to boost the infrastructure and make a line to hold in the area. The best attempt is currently the hold out in new brunswick from nova scotia but the ai is slowly losing it again. I am making as many lines to thin out the 1000+ divisions US has lying about in the continent but it just isn't enough by itself. If a final assault tactic fails I do think encirclement to bleed the US is the next best option.
I did cause a civil war in mexico but when it began nothing flipped. I'm not sure what happened or how the supply in the area is affected by it.


The ai has been dropping a nuke every other day recently, but it has been almost exclusively the same place. while tanking the infrastructure in texas would help I wonder if it would be better to keep it as a healthy choice for opening another front in.

No I mean like, start nonstop deploying them along the entire front. If you see a red bubble, drop a nuke. If you're starting a push, nuke every province. The combination of lowered strength and wrecked infra will mean you'll start overrunning divisions left and right.

 

[Goldenkangal]

And again multiple landings are key. you need to try for at least 4 different naval landings around 4 different ports. And I don’t mean Florida ports, I mean 1 landing around Orlando (push for Tampa, then south to Miami which is now cut-off from the mainland), one around Boston, one around Houston and maybe one in the Carolinas or Mississippi. You’ll see the US defend well against 2 or maybe even 3 of the beachheads you’ve made but the other 1-2 should be very weak. Push like crazy to link these beachheads up and again watch your supply. Once you get a stable foothold you’ll see opportunities to make encirclement pockets which really makes thins a lot easier.

I find at times like these speed 2 or 3 is best. It can be tricky to micro all these landings which require aggressive expansion and quick reactions to enemy movements / gaps. And 4 landings doesn’t fit well onto 1 screen so take something for motion sickness if you need for all that screen scrolling you’ll be doing

I tried multiple landings on both coasts and my army was too thin to support such a wide beachhead. Even with 10 infrastructure and dock I can't support the gas consumption or maintain morale. I have however created multiple small beachheads with the sole purpose of occupying both US and ally ai armies. I just finished expanding the florida front to engulf the southern US coast. My current plan is to landlock US to freely land troops wherever I deem useful.

No I mean like, start nonstop deploying them along the entire front. If you see a red bubble, drop a nuke. If you're starting a push, nuke every province. The combination of lowered strength and wrecked infra will mean you'll start overrunning divisions left and right.

I am in the process of expanding nuclear reactors, but the US has such a vast pool of manpower I'll be wasting each bomb that doesn't help push them out of a province. I did try and go for raw damage, managing ~500k kills, but at the current rate the US would still win by waiting out attrition to take its course.

 

[Goldenkangal]

Thanks for the help everyone. Constantly pushing on the coast stretched the army wide enough to fall like a house of cards. tactical drops made sure the front never stopped moving as well.