How do you kill lvl 10 forts?

[Demosthenest]

Assuming that the allies can have lvl 10 forts surrounding all France, 100ish Raj divisions and competent UK and France (meaning they'll try to have enough piercing, watch their ports, watch paratroopers, try to have air superiority), how do you deal with it?
I try to grind the forts down in 1939 using the following:
MARM divisions consisting of 3x motorized, 4x medium tanks (usually 1941-43 by 1939), 2 SPG
Infantry consisting of 7 infantry, 2 artillery and 1 1941 heavy TD
800 CAS + air superiority + around 300 tactical bombers

But if they can put 50 divisions into the province you're grinding... It's usually not even worth trying and it becomes better to just build the siegfried line and go after Russia before it's too big.

 

[podcat]

super heavy tanks + engineers + paradrops to open more fronts? you will wear down forts if you attack long enough also

 

[Demosthenest]

I do, podcat, but even if I reduce the fort lvl to 0 they can still reinforce that one province with 50 raj divisions + some British ones with TD making it impossible to go through regardlessa and giving them time to build forts behind it.

 

[raidertr]

attacking from multiple fronts also should help, no? and shore bombardment if on beach?

still best way is to starve them if you can..

 

[Demosthenest]

attacking from multiple fronts also should help, no?

With the current fort building speed they can have forts on Belgium, Spanish border, Italian, Swiss.

 

[raidertr]

yea you can build and repair them very fast with specific faction traits etc

however I didn't encounter too many forts on my gameplays

 

[Otto of england]

How to break Maginot line in a few easy steps:
(step one is either or, you don't have time to do both)

1a. Get heavy armour, heavy armour provides the most bang/frontage and gives you a lot of hardness and armour value. You will have armour advantage unless the French + Brits deploy variant TD's or heavies themselves. If France is going hardcore on forts, France shouldn't have enough construction speed to build both forts and enough military factories to have large quantities of tanks.

1b. Use superior fire doctrine air land battle path + battlefield support doctrine and build for air supremacy, thousands of fighters and cas. At this point the French should have -80% defence + breakthrough and -80% movement speed so once you take the fort-line they are screwed. Additionally the bombing damage you will do will more then make up for equipment losses you will suffer.

2. Use 40 width divisions, with a lot of artillery and importantly engineers.

3. Have paratroopers, their temp plate should maximize breakthrough so they have some staying power.

4. Have marines, nothing fancy just a decent template.

5. Attack that one province in Alsace with 5 German border provinces, 2 are a cross a river so attack those with your marines. The remaining three should have your normal divisions attack them, or your heavy armour if you went with 1a. Finally land paratroopers on the provinces. I don't have time to do the math at the moment but the 6 fronts should reduce the fort bonus significantly and if you combine it with option 1a or 1b you should be able to brute force your way through.

Edit: Apparently people disagree with this, though they don't say why. I hypothesis people are down voting this guide because they still lose 500k+ soldiers in taking the for line. Though it should be noted I claim nothing for losses suffered, merely that this should allow you to break through the Maginot line, albeit 4 months and 500k bodies later.

 

[ep1c_fail]

Can't you just strategically bomb them?

 

[Comrade110]

super heavy tanks + engineers + paradrops to open more fronts? you will wear down forts if you attack long enough also

Do you consider balanced sacrificing so much production cost to break fort, compared to how dirt cheap is to build them ?

Did the developers check the costs/time needed to build Maginot Line ?

 

[Demosthenest]

Do you consider balanced sacrificing so much production cost to break fort, compared to how dirt cheap is to build them ?

This. It's ridiculous. Could easily be fixed by having forts cost more exponentially. A lvl 1 fort could be built in 1 month but a lvl 5 one in 6 months.

 

[SensitiveDannyBoi]

This. It's ridiculous. Could easily be fixed by having forts cost more exponentially. A lvl 1 fort could be built in 1 month but a lvl 5 one in 6 months.

this

 

[paulatreides0]

With the current fort building speed they can have forts on Belgium, Spanish border, Italian, Swiss.

You can still get like a three-way attack from the Franco-Belgian border. Grand Battleplan also helps, if I remember correctly.

That said, IIRC, there is a bug with the fortress buster trait that needs to be addressed. If it delivered the proper bonus it would make those forts a far more manageable problem.

Do you consider balanced sacrificing so much production cost to break fort, compared to how dirt cheap is to build them ?

Did the developers every check the costs/time needed to build Maginot Line ?

Thing is, that production is producing stuff that will always be of some use. You are still building MIC with your CIC and using that MIC to build stuff that can be of some use here or there. Besides, it's also building stuff at the point in the war where sheer numbers is not the most crucial thing (that's later when you have to face the Soviets and the West) so you're not losing out on much, when the only thing that really needs to be done is to breech France and gobble it up..

Forts, on the other hand, are a static investment that take a rather long time to build in sufficient numbers to safely guard a nation. And unlike the MIC you'd be build with your CIC while building stuff like tanks - that CIC doesn't yield further returns on production.

I think it makes perfect sense that if a country invests so heavily on defense that it absolutely gimps itself of any and all chance it has of going on the offensive for the next several years, that it should be a really tough nut to crack. Especially for a country as comparatively IC starved (for a major) as France. And those countries are also really, really brittle - because as soon as you have one breach it's game over because you simply can't stop the flood. Especially for France.

 

[Drasp]

There is No beating a line of lvl 10 forts with competent defenders. Not with a single division template.
But for the op 1 Province on the original maginot borders 5 provincies attack that single Province and pray to all the available Gods that they fell asleep ehith such an easy defence. Also try adfing fort rules we are currently trying out lvl 5 forts for France and 4 for the rest.

 

[LordAkkrand]

You can still get like a three-way attack from the Franco-Belgian border. Grand Battleplan also helps, if I remember correctly.

I think it makes perfect sense that if a country invests so heavily on defense that it absolutely gimps itself of any and all chance it has of going on the offensive for the next several years, that it should be a really tough nut to crack. Especially for a country as comparatively IC starved (for a major) as France. And those countries are also really, really brittle - because as soon as you have one breach it's game over because you simply can't stop the flood. Especially for France.

I think the OP is talking about a multiplayer game. It doesn't matter that the French player has gimped their offensive power. It completely stops a German player, as long as there are a ton of Raj divisions holding the line, and the UK is providing air superiority. All the French player has to do is keep putting down forts, and repairing the existing ones. The UK will rule the skies and the Raj will hold the line.

There aren't many places where you can attack from 5 directions, and nothing stopping the French player from building a fort behind those locations.

EDIT: I can't remember the exact post, but it's been demonstrated that the planning bonuses do not make any real difference until the fort penalty has been removed. And so far, the only way to remove that penalty is from attacking from multiple directions. The bonuses and penalties are applied in 2 stages, it seems, with forts at stage 1, before planning, leader, country, experience bonuses. So, even with massive bonuses there, you're only getting 1% of that bonus.

 

[Fulmen]

This. It's ridiculous. Could easily be fixed by having forts cost more exponentially. A lvl 1 fort could be built in 1 month but a lvl 5 one in 6 months.

This would be both historical and balanced. Building huge fortifications IRL like the Maginot-line was a very long and costly process.

 

[Nicolas-]

Strategic bombers... I destroyed the maginot line with just 500 strategic bombers

 

[Nicolas-]

Do you consider balanced sacrificing so much production cost to break fort, compared to how dirt cheap is to build them ?

Did the developers every check the costs/time needed to build Maginot Line ?

Dude, before you complain about level 10 fort, go in singleplayer and try destroying them using strategic bombers. You'll see how useless they are once you discover how to destroy them. If a France player wants to take the risk and waste his industry on level 10 forts, all what germany needs to do is get some fighters for air superiority and strategic bombers.

 

[richie05]

IN MP, you simply cannot take down level 10 forts if the allies are cycling out troops,
ive him a plains province with 20 1941 medium tanks in 39 with 1000cas support from 3 angles and it didnt budge.

Play mp = ban lvl 10 forts is the only way to go.

 

[Mug Bubule]

We had the same problem during a game. Massive British air supremacy (it seem to be a problem in every game I played, multiplayer or not), Commonwealth manpower holding the line. We were able to take advantage of Nationalist Spain declaring war and a Blitzkrieg through Switzerland to overwhelm Allies defensive positions.
If we weren't able to attack France through Switzerland, Allies forces were send in panic to fill the gap both in switzerland and Nationalist spain. Few local attacks were unsuccessfull, but we were able to overrun one devensive position in belgium. Once the little hole was open in Allies line, it was a complete disaster for them as German Panzerdivision and motorized were able to pocket large Allies formation.

You may want to try to attack on multiple position so the Raj manpower can't be send everywhere.

Once a fort is lost, it's like they lost the war. And a mistake come quickly.

 

[podcat]

This. It's ridiculous. Could easily be fixed by having forts cost more exponentially. A lvl 1 fort could be built in 1 month but a lvl 5 one in 6 months.

its basically to on my todo list for future patch yea. high level forts are too easy and low levels are a bit useless and expensive