German Infantry Experiment (2.03c)

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This is an experiment which was inspired by the threat German Infantry Build Strategy

The idea is to build two different German infantry armies and let AI go through 3 campaigns (Poland, France and Barbarossa). One army will be pure infantry 4-5 brigade divisions and another mixed infantry and artillery (2+2 or 2+3) army.

I will build both armies at the same time therefore the armies will face almost the same opposition.

There was lots of theoretical writing. Let’s see the theory in practice

 

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Poland Campaign

Infantry Army

This is pure infantry army: 300 infantry brigades (1000 MP).

There is one army group consisting of 76 divisions. There are 27 HQs.

Targets are Krakow, Lodz, Warszawa and Grodno.

 

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Mixed Infantry Army

This is mixed infantry army: 214 infantry and 214 artillery brigades (1000 MP).

There are two army group consisting of 107 divisions. There are 38 HQs.

Targets are Krakow, Lodz, Warszawa and Grodno.

 

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The First Week

Infantry Army

Mixed Infantry Army

It is obvious that the Mixed Infantry Army started better. It crushed the first line of defences faster, cut off Danzig and took Poznan.

 

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The Second Week

Infantry Army

Mixed Infantry Army

The Mixed Infantry Army already crossed Vistula and besieged Lodz and Krakow. The Infantry Army took Danzig and Grodno, but still fighting in North West Poland.

 

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The Third Week

Infantry Army

Mixed Infantry Army

The Mixed Infantry Army continues fighting at Lodz, Krakow and Warszawa. The Infantry Army surprisingly pushed forward. It took Lodz and Krakow and the only remaining unoccupied objective is Warszawa. Unfortunately it lost the first Battle of Warszawa and has to regroup.

 

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The Fourth Week

Infantry Army

Mixed Infantry Army

The Mixed Infantry Army took Lodz, Krakow and Warszawa and won the campaign on 26 September 1939.

The Infantry Army, unfortunately is struggling to take the last objective – Warszawa.

 

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The Fifth Week

Infantry Army

On 3 October 1939, the Infantry Army won the Poland campaign – almost one week later than the Mixed Infantry Army.

 

[jju_57]

So is this a 4xINF vs. 2xINF, 2xART test then?

What are the MP and officer counts each week and for the start?

 

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At start- mixed MP = 297 OFF % = 53 End MP = 263 OFF% = 62

Inf MP = 319 Off% = 55 End MP = 130 Off% = 67

I went blind trying to read it. The standard set up, interestingly, fought the battle for roughly the same amount of time as IRL '39.

 

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This is cool! To be honest, it does not surprise me that mixed army performed better. Nonetheless, thank you very much!

I noticed a very significant MP difference after the victories. Is that purely because infantry army has been suffering huge MP loss?

 

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Data at the start of the campaign:

Infantry Army
319 MP – 9 MP (reinforcement) = 310 MP
Officers 55%

Mixed Infantry Army
297 MP – 25 MP (reinforcement) = 272 MP
Officers 53%

The differences are due to higher number of HQs in the Mixed Infantry Army.


Data at the end of the campaign:

Infantry Army
130 MP + 192 MP (artillery in production) – 38 MP (reinforcement) – 25 MP (gain) = 259 MP
Officers 67%

Mixed Infantry Army
263 MP – 9 MP (reinforcement) – 20 MP (gain) = 234 MP
Officers 62%


The Infantry Army lost 51 MP (1.6 MP/d). The Mixed Army lost 38 MP (1.5 MP/d).
The officer difference is due to the difference of the length of campaigns and recruitment of new officers.

"Reinforcement" means MP needed in order to fully reinforce all units. "Gain" means MP recruited during the campaign.

 

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So is this a 4xINF vs. 2xINF, 2xART test then?

What are the MP and officer counts each week and for the start?

I am planning to do 5xINF vs. 2xINF+3xART Barbarossa campaign.

I did not take weekly data and have no interim saves, but I will count France campaign.

At start- mixed MP = 297 OFF % = 53 End MP = 263 OFF% = 62

Inf MP = 319 Off% = 55 End MP = 130 Off% = 67

I went blind trying to read it. The standard set up, interestingly, fought the battle for roughly the same amount of time as IRL '39.

I will try to do better resolution next time

This is cool! To be honest, it does not surprise me that mixed army performed better. Nonetheless, thank you very much!

I noticed a very significant MP difference after the victories. Is that purely because infantry army has been suffering huge MP loss?

My pleasure

During the first campaign I commenced production of extra artillery in preparation of the Barbarossa I am using only one file for all three campaigns. Just before a campaign I reorganise two armies, make two save files and run two test. I do this in order to have the same opposition.

 

[Cybvep]

IMO Mixed Army will fare better. It's more flexible (more divs), it has more firepower and it's more MP-efficient. The only problem I see is that you waste too much MP early on and it's always good to have a MP-reserve for France and especially the Soviets. You should leave some MP for both armies, build airforce, infrastructure etc.

BTW you confused the two armies under "Data at the end of the campaign".

 

[loki100]

this is interesting - given that lothos' lua force the AI to build in a 2+2 (as opposed to the more historic triangular inf division), it looks like the AI default build is also the most optimal. If so, its good to see that HOI has now captured the killing power of artillery and the general flexibility that comes from specialist brigades.

I fear for your 2+3 model in the USSR but it may work, the problem will be if the combat brigades suffer very high attrition?

 

[Cybvep]

3+1 vs 2+2 test would be nice, too

 

[misterbean]

very convincing test.

 

[pnt]

this is interesting - given that lothos' lua force the AI to build in a 2+2 (as opposed to the more historic triangular inf division), it looks like the AI default build is also the most optimal. If so, its good to see that HOI has now captured the killing power of artillery and the general flexibility that comes from specialist brigades.

No, this is unfortunately not true. You only get a significant enhancement to your strength if you focus on artillery. The random brigade attachments that the AI does are a disaster. On the average, a 3 Inf Army is a better choice then. Thus, unfortunately, you had two things happening that both unbalanced the game. First, the unit stats made Art greatly OP allowing the human player to make very powerful divisions. And then the new lua forced the AI to build huge amounts of junk. Taken together the impact is very significant.

 

[CptEasy]

Interesting. Will Follow.

 

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France Campaign

Infantry Army

The pure infantry army: 396 infantry brigades (1319 MP).

There are two army groups consisting of 100 divisions. There are 37 HQs.

Mixed Infantry Army

The mixed infantry army: 282 infantry and 282 artillery brigades (1319 MP).

There are three army groups consisting of 141 divisions. There are 49 HQs.