How do you blitzkreig in the Low Countries?

[peenerz]

New player here, I have no problem taking Poland out within a month or two, but when it comes to the Western front...

For some reason my troops always get stuck in the low countries when I try to go around the Magniot line. I'm usually able to take the Netherlands but when I reach Belgium I probably move up one or two provinces per month, and it can take up to a year before I can reach Paris.

Italy (if I decide to call them in) on the other hand has no problem pushing through all the way to Normandy when I'm halfway through Belgium and making France capitulate to them, not me.

I have my army divided into infantry divisions, 40 width and armored/motorized spearheads, also 40 width. All of them have artillery as suggested by many. I also have air superiority. What am I doing wrong?

 

[debozewolf]

I haven't tried this myself yet in 1.5, but a suggestion I would make is this:
Focus your armoured forces on the south border of Holland. If you have enough tank divisions you can consider giving the armoured attack a width of two provinces. This way they cover each others flank.
Hold some forces in reserve behind this spearhead.
Attack with regular infantry the enemy provinces just above and under where you place the armoured assault. This way you pin enemy divisions down and avoid flank attacks by these divisions.
Start your armoured assault and try to race to the (Belgian) coast as quickly as possible.
Let your reserves (preferably troop fast enough to follow the tanks, but not necessary) follow your spearhead to block flank attack on the spearhead.
Then head south as fast as possible. But remember to support your spearhead troops with enough infantry units.
This way you will make the frontline wider so the enemy has to spread it's divisions, which means less divisions per province and easier to punch through.
And than, try to blitz and encircle.
Good luck and let me know if it worked.

 

[Wasted Shampoo]

Also, i would call Italy in only when you have reached the French soil as happened in real life.

 

[Demosthenest]

Are you using battleplans or manually attacking?

 

[Aule_the_creator]

There's a common misconception that the Germans went through the flat low countries with their tanks. The French and English had expected this and stationed units on the Flemish border. The AI does not, afaik, put troops on the flemish border, but If you try and do this you have to go over the largest rivers in Europe, and so give the Allies enough time to send forces to reinforce the low countries. Your fight will be so much more difficult. The Germans went through the Ardennes (Southern Belgium and Luxemburg). If you do this, you have to go through two provinces, before a more or less empty France lies open to you, and they have to scramble to prep a defense that isn't the maginot. I mean, it means you are unlikely to get a proper dunkirk situation, but it'll do in a pinch. Just don't get your light tanks and mot cut off

I read an old AAR step by step strat guide for noobs on how to play Germany in HoI2 when I learned to play it for MP games, but I find a lot of the strategies work very well for HoI4 too.

 

[Redswingarcus]

I had the same problem. Maybe i did made to les equipment that they outnumber me in soldiers in active dutie. I did take Singapore area, Netherland west Indies, Fighting in australie and in Rangoon area as german. May be i capertured to les IC region.

So if i would attack Belgium they only hurt my units and they take only half the damage on there units division and replace them before i can attack and attack agian to weaken them.

Any body nows there setup deviosion. I use lots of infantary to inflict damage to there lots of inf units but it is not enough. There thanks are stronger then my panzers IV gan penetrate so i must make PanzerIV tankkiller to kill there weak tanks?

I used max battleplan preparation, but it out class attack power max 300 t there dev softack power 900

 

[Aule_the_creator]

Again, are you guys trying to enter Belgium over the Rhine?

 

[MadDjinn]

Plow tanks/mobile inf right through Luxembourg, straight to Paris. Also south through Lorraine so as to cut off supply to Alsace. Funnel inf in to hold the lines. 2 armies of inf with 1-2 armies of mixed tank/mobile inf should do it. Less really, but the inf is more for being able to press to Spain and Brittany.

Going into Belgium and The Netherlands is still needed, but just use mostly inf for that with a few tanks. Rivers rivers everywhere. Those don't let you attack, nor move, very quickly,

Else yeah, if you just try to go over, Italy will get everything in France. Even AI Germany has troubles with this fairly often now (on Vet difficulty).

 

[Redswingarcus]

no i am on the border antwerpen and Gent because i own already Netherlands. Maybe thats my problem , it is not a blitzkrieg anymore and they are dugged in by the border Netherlands. I did get oil, i have now problem to get the oil to less dockyards to ship and do my assualts in asia.

Germany to less dockyard to build a fast navy to escort all there ships, so my convoys are sitting ducks too

 

[Meglok]

Make sure your planning bonus is good and your CAS is stacked in BeNeLux. Take Lux and Holland first before a DoW on Belgium. Then follow Manstein's plan.

Let the ai move up into Belgium, then smash through Sedan and over the Meuse using Force Attack with your armor. Cut off everything up north while you race for Paris. France will collapse and then it is just a matter of grabbing the ports before the ai can escape.

 

[justin6477]

When you launched the attack, how did you do it? Did you launch as one large wave or as several distinct battle plans?

 

[Redswingarcus]

Make sure your planning bonus is good and your CAS is stacked in BeNeLux. Take Lux and Holland first before a DoW on Belgium. Then follow Manstein's plan.

Let the ai move up into Belgium, then smash through Sedan and over the Meuse using Force Attack with your armor. Cut off everything up north while you race for Paris. France will collapse and then it is just a matter of grabbing the ports before the ai can escape.

Then the other problem of fighting in Asia and have oil secured i did not had enough IC for air sup. or a lot of cas planes. So the CAS planes will be shoot down very easy or loose all my planes, fighters are outdated slow too easy shot down

 

[MadDjinn]

Distinct battle plans are best. One giant mess won't get you far.

 

[SeekTruthFromFx]

@Meglok's advice is sound: CAS is devastating. In my only German game at Normal difficulty, I found a combination of the Manstein and Schlieffen plans worked well. I had two Panzer armies in a single province on the Luxembourg border. Army A (just light arm, mot, and SPART for speed) takes out Luxembourg and then heads straight for Brussels. Use a spearhead order, and once Lux has fallen just right-click for Brussels, followed by Antwerp. I only needed to have a handful of infantry divisions pinning down the vast majority of the Belgian army on the border: those divisions will take terrible damage, but by the time they retreat, Belgium's position is untenable. Meanwhile the Panzers drive unhindered down the Channel coast for Calais and Rouen. The second army (light arm, mot, and as much med arm as I can muster, which is often not much at this point) heads into Luxembourg once the battle is over, then it's right-click for Rheims and Paris as quickly as possible, before scything round at the weakest point on the French line and heading for the Swiss border. You either encircle the entire French army in the Maginot, or get enough cities for capitulation. An infantry army follows behind to maintain supplies. I'm sure a human player would make mincemeat of the enormous salient, but at Normal difficulty the AI coped as well as the historical French high command.

 

[billcorr]

And the A.I. is tougher now.

A screen-snip of Belgian units demonstrates that some of those A.I. units have greater than 1,000 defense. This is from a recent multiplayer game. The screen-ship shows how difficult it can be nowadays for Germany to assert its dominance over its neighbors.

 

[Secret Master]

So the CAS planes will be shoot down very easy or loose all my planes, fighters are outdated slow too easy shot down

That sounds like the culprit here. If you can't gain and hold air superiority over Benelux, you will have a hard time regardless. And without air superiority, your TACs and CAS can't do enough damage.

Hell, with decent air power, I can just blindly send infantry right through the rivers and forts in Belgium, defenders be damned.

 

[PanzerMan7]

Right, we need a couple things. 1: Medium tanks. 2. Air superiority. 3. A couple hundred CAS. Focus your air on the Low Countries and focus your armor on Luxembourg. We're going to use close to the historical Ardennes route. Go into Luxembourg then mow through Belgium. Once you cross that river, then break into France. Cut the Northern French provinces off from Belgium then murder the pocket with infantry.

 

[Redswingarcus]

Right, we need a couple things. 1: Medium tanks. 2. Air superiority. 3. A couple hundred CAS. Focus your air on the Low Countries and focus your armor on Luxembourg. We're going to use close to the historical Ardennes route. Go into Luxembourg then mow through Belgium. Once you cross that river, then break into France. Cut the Northern French provinces off from Belgium then murder the pocket with infantry.

So i am a stupid general. But may be bombay and Rangoon and Austrilia is asking my attention before i can enough focus on Luxemburg and Beglium. It wil be takes decades to build airplanes, i gues. I have panzer 4 i will tried Luxemburg.

I tought Gent , flant lands were use to be for tankrushes for line of sight but it is no SD44 , tanks fight beter in bushes? ;-)?

 

[Secret Master]

I tought Gent , flant lands were use to be for tankrushes for line of sight but it is no SD44 , tanks fight beter in bushes? ;-)?

It's not that tanks fight better in the woods.

It's that the river lines are worse for armored assaults than forests. And without sufficient air cover, you will fight at a severe disadvantage.

Also, Belgium has some fortifications in key locations, making it a nuisance to attack through key areas.

Regarding building planes: If you set up production right, you should have a few hundred Stukas ready for a historical start to WWII. That should be plenty. But you really need some fighters to control the skies. If you don't put multiple production lines on fighters, you won't have the ability to defeat the RAF over Benelux or France. That will kill your ability to fight on the ground.

 

[Meglok]

Right, we need a couple things. 1: Medium tanks. 2. Air superiority. 3. A couple hundred CAS. Focus your air on the Low Countries and focus your armor on Luxembourg. We're going to use close to the historical Ardennes route. Go into Luxembourg then mow through Belgium. Once you cross that river, then break into France. Cut the Northern French provinces off from Belgium then murder the pocket with infantry.

You really dont even need medium tanks in 1939 vs the ai West. As @Secret Master said, as long as you have air superiority you are gold. I actually prefer light armor for France, the speed is better. And rushing to Paris is the objective of the campaign. The key is grabbing control of the air and for that everything flys, even the old HE-51s.

MP is a completely different subject of course, but the OP was talking vs the ai.