how do i know if i have encircled an enemy properly ?

[flammable888]

i know by looking at the map that if i encirlce them that means that they have no land connection with their capital.when i have encircled them when is the best time to attack them ? straight away or do i wait a while for their supplies to run out.i will be honest an admit i dont know how it fully works.
another question about this is if i encirlce them beside a neutral country does this affect it at all ? thank you to anyone who can help me with this.

 

[Rommel41]

If you encircle an enemy in their own territory, they can supply themselves (to what degree I'm not sure) off of the land for some time, if not indefinitely. And most units carry 30...or 15 days (I also forget) worth of supplies if they are at 100% supply, so they wouldn't start being less combat-effective for at least that long.

Deciding when to attack is much more of a delicate issue as you have to take into consideration, not only your and their supply situation, but time of year, weather, air capabilities, current goals and of course, condition of the troops. If you are Germany smashing through Russia, you can leave the destruction of larger pockets to the slower infantry as wearing them down with your faster units will reduce your advance and your mobile unit's effectiveness. If you are Russia doing it to the Germans, the best idea is to crush any pockets as quickly as possible, before they can break out or be relieved. If either situation is in the winter, it's usually best to reverse your approach per respective nation. And if the war drags out longer as Germany, your pockets are less plentiful and more costly while Russian pockets become easier and less endangering to their front.

 

[Rommel41]

another question about this is if i encircle them beside a neutral country does this affect it at all ? thank you to anyone who can help me with this.

To address this directly. No one can trace supply through a neutral country, even if they have "military access". They basically treat the neutral country like an black-hole. If they retreat there, they get no supplies, suffer terrible attrition and are forced to return to their (now your) territory to simply evaporate if you keep a unit there to bar a "miraculous return"!

 

[Pang Bingxun]

And most units carry 30...or 15 days (I also forget) worth of supplies if they are at 100% supply, so they wouldn't start being less combat-effective for at least that long.

It is 14 days for the landdivision and 28 for the brigade. The is the exception of armoured divisions that carry bigger supply stockpiles.
It is so that during combat supply consumption rises by a factor of three. Therefore i conclude that under most circumstances attacking early is to be prefered. One Option is to attack with armoured divisions early. They will take low losses in org and strenght. If not supported by other tropps armour alone will not do that much damage, but they will make enemies supplies stockpile decay and prevent them from regaining org. After 2 days infantry may join the attack because by then the enemy is weakened in supply stockpile. After the infantry has joined the battle armour may disjoin the battle in order to move forwards and regain org and strenght for the next offensive. Has anyone tried such kind of disjoined arms operations?

 

[Tomnoddy]

You can tell you've encircled an opponent because one of the provinces (generally a coastal one) will show a resource depot , which will show a resource such as metal or energy piling up which the industry within the pocket cannot use (because it lacks another component such as rares, or because the pocket contains more resources than industry). When you fight divisions within the pocket, you will see a "lack of supply" penalty which gets larger and larger. Your own units may get one too if estimated supply efficiency is poor but hopefully theirs builds quicker.

As regards what to do with a pocket, generally I want to eliminate it ASAP so I can get my units into position for the next attack, don't give your enemy time to build/redeploy new units. I'm never so short of manpower i'd just consider starving them out.

However, I don't want to run my units dangerously low on org either, that risks a successful relief attempt/breakout by the enemy.

Occasionally you pocket such a large number of troops, or enemy in highly defensible terrain, that you cannot beat them in a single battle.

What I do is, launch an attack at dawn, then cancel it as soon as it gets dark, and repeat. As their supplies run down, their penalty gets bigger and bigger, and as they are out of supply, your forces should regain org faster than theirs between attacks.

 

[Commander666]

In a case where - for whatever reason - you decide to attack pocket after they are low on supplies, there are a couple considerations to insure that their supply is actually reducing.

1) If pocket includes coastal province (and they can send convoys to pocket) probably best to forget about them running out of supply. It's not a true pocket, but more like a remaining beachhead. You taking all the coastal provinces first to make it a true pocket may be desirable.

2) Once a true pocket, it can still generate its own supplies based on the factories within it. If no reason to rush, but wishing an easier victory - and have STR - STRAT bomb those factories to zero.

Another thing that helps reduce enemy supply in a pocket which is being delayed for destruction is to occasionally give it a short attack from your surrounding troops. This might become important if any chance of break out and you can't risk much ORG loss on your side, but want to get them to where a break out attempt would probably fail because their battle to do so will result in zero supply reached before they succeed.

Be aware of the "no supply" icon during battle results. It comes on when supply modifier reaches -50 penalty. The icon includes an orange exclamation mark. In fact, check the modifier for low supply if doing any Interdiction mission or a "short battle to lessen enemy supplies" to insure your goal of lessening supplies is going to plan. You should mouse over all the units in the battle display as different ones will have different amounts of supply.

Basically I agree with eliminating pockets asap. But sometimes you just can't, and then getting them to very low supply helps a lot for when you decide to eliminate it.

 

[Commander666]

You can tell you've encircled an opponent because one of the provinces (generally a coastal one) will show a resource depot....

I think the fact of a resource depot visible on the coastline indicates you have definitely not encircled them... and a supply convoy - if at all possible - is running to that depot. The fact you will never see supplies in it is not surprising since all supplies brought each day are gobbled up instantly by the many divisions probably low on supply if they have been fighting.

However, a resource depot (as you detail it) on the coast of an encirclement does not mean that a convoy must be running. Whether convoy or not depends on capability to run convoy. If any ability, it definitely will run.

The confusing fact here is that a true encirclement will also show resource depot on account of resources accumulating - and that can be anywhere, including a coastal province (depends on the factories I think). So, the judgment of "is this an encirclement or not" needs to be made by studying the possibilities of enemy convoy going there, and watching the decreasing (or refreshing) levels of supply on enemy units during battle results while considering what is the area's factory ability to add to supply.

If we are discussing a Russian pocket on the Baltic coast, it probably has a convoy going to it unless you hold all of the rest of the Russian Baltic Coast and the Kattegat Straits.