How to build a successful army?

[unmerged(141563)]

Playing as Germany - I get a message to recall my reservists - which I agree upon - what I want to know do the reserves go straight to the manpower count or can you use it to build reserve army units straight away without going to the production screen that go into your man pool?

Also I would like to know what is the best build for an army unit? Im new to all this - Most of my leaders can lead 3 divisions I know can promote them to 9 divisions but don't know if I should.

Could somebody recommend a historical/ or best for game division make up eg (as Germany) 4 Infantry (1 AA, 1AT, 1ARTILLERY, 1 LTank), 2 Panzers, etc etc under the one general.

Thanks guys cant wait for HOI3

 

[Rioeire]

dont mix panzers and infantry in the same korp

 

[Pal]

Best for game:

- have ca. 120 infantry divisions, no brigades
- have ca. 12-15 armoured divisions (with SP-Art)
- have ca. 24-30 motorized infantry divisions, with AC or SP-Art
- have ca. 5 headquarters (no brigades, maybe SP-Art)
- have ca. 16 interceptor wings
- have ca. 16 Close Air Support wings or Tactical Bomber wings or, even better, both

All of this should be ready by May 1941 so Barbarossa can start in time...

For gameplay it's advisable to use 3-division-corps commanded by a Lt.G. for most units. Those corps should either comprise of [3 infantry] or [1 Arm 2 Mot]. Use panzer leaders for the armoured corps. Use "Army Stacks" of [1 HQ 5 infantry] commanded by a general or field marshal to maximise combat power (HQ doubles the amount of units you can send into an attack without penalties).


Also I recommend you to browse the HoI2Wiki as it has all of that info plus much more!
http://www.paradoxian.org/hoi2wiki/index.php/Main_Page

 

[unmerged(63163)]

i think HQ are far over rated. just plenty of infantry with artillery and air attachments. tanks for quick advancement past your line of infantry and artillery

streamline your airforce: fighter are an all purpose bomber/ defence and tactical bomber. strategic bomber a waste of time.

 

[Eugenioso]

well, you are germany.

the trick to build a successful army as germany is one that quickly crushes all opposition by cooperation between the different army roots, the army and airforce (perhaps if possible the navy).

this is the whole point of blitzkrieg.

you should aim for the following:

Army:

_solid core of infantry, 1941 perhaps is great but if you want keep developing

_a good core of Armored units (medium armor, not light)

_a few HQ units (depending on your army, i usually get 5-6)

_many motorized/mechanized divisions, to help exploit breaches.

if you want to go with brigades, usually goes like this:

-for infantry, get artillery (makes them slower but more powerful, but then, infantry are not meant to be fast)

-for Armored units, SP-Art is the way to go (all benefits of artillery but dont reduce speed, they take up fuel though)

SIDE NOTE: on my games, i make at least 6 tank armies, composed of field marshall, HQ, and 5 Armored units with SP-Art (by the time i get them usually panzer 4's or Panthers), as this increases their already amazing speed and org regen.

-for motorized, its really optional, though if you really want to make Mot inf powerful, give them Armored cars or SP-Art.



Airforce:

_Significant number of fighters/interceptors to defend your bombers

_Tac. Bombers are great all rounders, and are great at Interdiction missions.

_CAS is VITAL to break enemy lines, as their soft/hard attack ratings are AWESOME

_strat. bombers are not necessary


Tactics:

you have to use your superior firepower and mobility to encircle and destroy enemy armies.


step 1.-

_set your infantry forces along the entire front. if you cant manage this try to keep at least some infantry forces in most areas. you are attacking, remember that.

_in one province, preferably in contact with a relatively weak link in the enemy force, set a large force of Armored units and Mot/Mech infantry.
the tanks will make the breach, while your motorized/mech units occupy the breach.

_if you havent done so already, send your tac bombers to interdiction/logistical strike, to reduce their org, org regain speed, and reduce enemy's ESE.

_pause the game if you need to and plan the blitz. how big will it be? how many armies will you trap/destroy? do you have enough men? is the enemy capable of cutting off your troops and destroy your armored spearheads?
the best time to attack is at the beginning of the day, usually 4am in areas around Germany. make sure the enemy province is not a forest or swamp, and that its not winter, since all of these things are, to put it bluntly, horribly awful to attack, but excellent to defend.

also, make sure that you use Shift to attack so your men dont have to reorganize for a day after an offensive. after a new province is taken, leave a respective numer of units (the mot/mech divisions) to guard the gained land and exploit the breach. keep doing this until you have cut off the enemy forces from their land. without supplies even massive hosts become relatively harmless and lose Org at a frightening speed.

_this is what would happen if successful. before you unpause, order your CAS to launch ground attack on the provinces you will attack, and send your Fighters/interceptors to fly air cover for your Tac's and CAS if you havent done so already.

after the enemy is trapped, begin reduction of the enemy armies with your infantry (that's what they are there for), and also make sure you hold the encirclement. if a province falls within their control again and they reestablish the supplies, not only will it be harder to kill them, but if they lose they will retreat instead of surrendering. do NOT allow this to happen. if the enemy escapes you have failed in your task to destroy the enemy.


_after the enemy pocket is destroyed, move your infantry forward, repeat and destroy your enemies



--------------------


as you see, this army (the german army) was made not to go into protracted attrition wars like Russia and (perhaps) UK and france, hell even the USA or japan. the german army's objective was to obliterate the enemy's armies and sue for peace.

this is why Germany didnt win in Russia; they could destroy entire armies of russian soldiers but they could just keep sending more men, while Germany could not replace their casualties.

i hope i was of some help

 

[person_12]

Advice for A successful army and successful strategy

Naval
Well, if you are playing as Germany you don't need many ships but you do need some for when you go to war with the scandinavian and baltic countries that can attack your shores, and also for further away more powerful nations such as Britain, France and the Soviet Union, The Danes normally are crush to soon to devastate fleets. The trick is to make many transports early in the game for the big showdown with the British Isles and with the transports already made, Britain cannot build up its forces as much as it could if you only started to build transports after invading France.

Army
Your army should consist mostly of Infantry (Over 100 by the time you declare war on the allies) most should be positioned at Poland at the start of the war with a few near France to fend them off while you take over Poland. However don't position soldiers on the borders of Austria or Czechoslovakia because remember thanks to events you annex Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938. Also, try not to huddle all soldiers together for when an army attacks you may panic and abandon tactics and just send all soldiers to the area of conflict which is VERY bad! Also don't spread them out too much otherwise powerful armies can bulldoze through your front line, even if you have more soldiers than them. Also NEVER rely solely on Armoured devisions, they may be powerful but eat through your supplies and oil which means if half your army is armour, eventually half you army is lost due to lack of supplies and this makes your TC 3-4 times over the limit making your army useless!

Air Force
You only really need the aircraft you start with, these only really are needed for bombing cities for resources and defending your skies from enemy aircraft. However not as important as the navy or army, it still is best to maintain an air force.

Diplomacy
Diplomacy wins wars. Build up relationships to get military access and military control of their forces to increase your forces and alliances can be very rewarding, for example and alliance with Turkey means you can go through the Bosphorus but the Russians can't so this is good if you are in a sea battle with the russians in the black sea you can retreat through the bosphorus where the russians cannot follow. (However in some versions, you cannot pass through the bosphorus if you are allied to the Turks but are in a war)


Hope this helps

 

[Solon]

I agree wholeheartedly with everything written to date.

Since you are new I wish to mention some assumptions buried in the above that you may not infer.

First: While you can get by with 5-6 HQ's do not ignore them. Placement and use is important (particularly so when engaged in a rapid advance) since the bonuses are often critical. Reading up on their proper use and placement in the Wiki files is extremely helpful.

Second: Implicit is the idea that you group similar SPEED units together as maneuver elements. This is not to say that slow and fast Corps cannot attack in unison from one province in one big stack, however. You just want those units that are faster to be able to out-pace the others and move on.

Third: The "Combined Arms" bonus is valuable. Read up on this in Wiki and use it if at all possible. 'Basically' you need one Armored OR Mechanized unit in a 3 division Corp with two "other" divisions. Since Speed is critical, this usually means Motorized Divisions are required. This will cost some speed and some firepower, but...it does allow you to spread your spearheads out across a much longer stretch of front, versus all your armor bunched into a couple or three overwhelming attacks. Example: 3 x Arm + 6 x Mot could be one Armored Corp of 3 x Arm followed up by two fast infantry "exploitation" groups of 3 x Mot to follow-up. Alternatively, use three spearheads of 1 x Arm + 2 x Mot per Corp to create 3 potential spearheads. The "bonus" is real, so you will gain in overall firepower and breakthrough potential on the front, you will simply have less available at a single point. Something to consider, depending on your needs and what the enemy has placed in front of you. Be sure to use "Panzer Leader" for these Corps too. (This is particularly useful on secondary fronts that might otherwise be all infantry.) Ah...the problems of command!:wacko:

Fourth: Apparently HoI3 is going to re-address the issue of the chain of command structure in fundamental ways. Right now, however, in HoI2 the general you put in command of unit(s) X+(XX...) also defines the command structure and bonuses going to them. However, during an actual battle, ALL units in the fight get 'lumped together' and also benefit from the bonuses of the top General in command, as well as from any HQ that can influence them. Well, as the Germans, you may notice that you have a bunch of very talented Major Generals, so how to get them valuable battle experience points? For a 12 Division Army the normal solution is:

1 'Full' General with 3 Div +
3 Lt. Generals with 3 Div each

It was pointed out to me once by a very clever gamer how to work your Major Generals into the mix for the same Army:

1 'Full' General with 1 Div +
3 Lt. Generals with 1 Div each +
8 Mj. Generals with 1 Div each

You avoid a micromanagement nightmare by forming this up in advance, and then using the "Group" hot keys to make all of them a single Group. You can then always call them up using the hot keys and give them a single set of orders, objectives, etc. Up to 10 hot keys can be assigned and they can be changed at any time. They are simply a convenience, and in no way interfere with Game mechanics.

You can do the same with Corps of 3 (i.e. one Lt. and two Mj. Generals), etc. The hot key does not 'bind' them together, rather the Game does it automatically whenever they are engaged in a battle, and hands out bonuses accordingly. So, after a breakthrough, if you want to send a 3 division Corp out from the Army to cover a flanking province, just select 3 divisions individually and send them. Just make sure that at least one of them has a Lt. General, in case they get into a fight.

Finally, this will not work with the "Combined Arms" bonus. There, all assigned units must be under a single leader in a single Corp in order to get the bonus.

Fifth: Most players will tell you that once they learn the most efficient and rational way of winning the game, they will then, build some 'oddball' units just for historical 'flavor' or to see if they make any difference.

Sixth: HQ units seem to attract a disproportionate amount of interest from AI enemy aircraft, particularly tactical bombers. So if you are 'light' in your air force fighter defenses, and your enemy has some bombers you can't deal with for a while, you might want to consider an AA brigade for the HQ, even if it slows down an already slow unit.

Seventh: HQ units do not stand up well to combat, and are very expensive to "reinforce" back up to 100%. Most players will add two other infantry divisions and weld them into a 3 division Corp; the other two divisions are there to take the punishment in case the HQ Corp comes into contact with the enemy. Since HQ units can have their effect from one Province 'away', they need not enter the battle immediately. I like to use the HQ Corp to 'guard' the province you are attacking from, initially. Keeps out 'retreating' enemy units that are lost! HQ units are slow, however, and the advance goes on! So I will usually order them forward once the battle is winding down...but you will have to find your own style on this, General!

Solon

 

[unmerged(141551)]

I mix motorized with panzers, and I also put engineers on all my infantry, because speed kills, and I don't like infantry that take a month to take on province

 

[Solon]

I mix motorized with panzers, and I also put engineers on all my infantry, because speed kills, and I don't like infantry that take a month to take on province

I presume you meant that, "A lack of speed will kill you..." o

Very true, especially as Germany!

Solon

 

[Eugenioso]

this is as a way of adding info on above posts:

while all the strategies above are fine and dandy, please dont fucking forget the fact that all brigades (sp-art and engineers) take supplies and some of them take fuel, which can really fuck up any mayor oil stocks that you may have.

3rd time i played as Germ i tried to save as much oil as possible but after a year of Barbarossa i was dry as a... dry oil well. my army became so much destroyed it took me a month to try another Germ. war attempt.

the best tip i can give to a new player, as germ, is to trade for those oil supplies and rare materials, with a huger emphasis on oil from 1936 onwards

(venezuela, USSR, Persia, even USA or Mexico and even Brazil and Argentina have loads of oil.)

make sure you stock on that because, as soon as War begins, its likely that your provinces will get less overall trade due to the RN fleets attacking your convoys (return the favor with 200 + submarines convoy raiding the Irish Sea!) thats a place to wonderfully raid Convoys going for africa.

 

[PNEawf]

Can't disagree with anything except the guy who suggests INT instead of FIG. You are Germany and should be on the offensive until WC. FIG are better for that. If you find yourself on the defensive you have lost anyway.

For trades buy supplies off Hungary, Bulgaria, Switz, Rumania, Arg, etc for energy, then use those supplies to buy everything you can off the USSR, but only in small amounts (10 - 15 supplies at a time) to prevent them from cancelling straight away. Buy energy off the USSR too. (Do this first) use this energy to buy more supplies as you will get a better deal from certain countries. Then buy every ounce of oil and rares from everyone who has them. By Barbarossa you will have so much in reserve and will never run short.

 

[unmerged(139263)]

I wouldn't go overboard on the panzers - they take far too much TC and oil. Anything over 10 divisions is probably more then you need. Your TC will be horribly overloaded when fighting in the USSR anyway. In my last game, I built some mot/mech only after conquering the US - the army composition was preety much 16x panzer, 100-is mountaineers (brigaded with art) and 50 regular inf (brigaded with art) plus about ten HQs - with some 20 fighters / tacs. I ditched blitzkrieg and went for inf. assault.

I also really like using mountaineer hordes (brigaded, too) as germany instead of just pure inf... they're probably the fastest unit on frozen terrain, which is rather handy in USSR (and preety much everywhere else).

Also, fighters > ints. Range is everything, ints are good for defense but preety much only that.

Also, I prefer straight out TACs for everything, they're more flexible then CAS and can be brigaded with escort fighters. They're a life-saver for destroying british fleets.

 

[unmerged(70654)]

Army:

* 3 division unbrigaded infantry armies (75% of army): comprise the "fixing force" to engage the enemy from the front
* 3 division armor armies with SP-art (15-20% of army): comprise the "enveloping force" to encircle and pocket enemy forces
* 1-2 3 division corps of marines, paratroopers and/or mountain troops with ART/SP-ART (5-10%): comprise the special forces, useful in special situations (amphib. landings, vanguard attacks into mountains, capturing important provinces) but inferior/ineffective battle troops

AT LEAST 100 divisions by August 1939. At least 150 divisions to invade Russia, if later than spring 1941, at least 200 divisions.

Command:
* One HQ for approximately every 48 units (4-5 is enough in total): enable elastic offensive operations by doubling the command limit of all generals within 1 province range; Useful for spearhead attacks accompanying enveloping forces due to superior speed.

Airforce:
* At least 8 fighters/interceptors by August 1939: for basic air defense
* ~8 more fighters: For air superiority.
* ~1 group of 4 tactical bombers per HQ area (12-16 is ideal to invade Russia): Interdiction sorties enables inferior ground forces to attack and defend against superior forces. Ground attack sorties enable the destruction of retreating divisions. Logistical strike sorties attacks the transportation infrastructure of the enemy provinces, enabling you to ground enemy attacks to a halt, where you don't have enough forces to defend, you can slow down the attack until reinforcements can arrive.
* Eventually equip your tactical bombers with escort fighters, especially post 1940+ when enemy air superiority becomes deadly.

Navy:
* Start a serial production of 99 convoys as soon as the game starts, or at the latest, early 1938. If you never intend to invade the UK, this is not necessary.
* The ideal fleet composition for Germany is super heavy battle ships (to destroy enemy capital ships), light cruisers (to escort both ships) and light carriers (to absorb the enemy carriers).
* Use tactical bombers to naval strike areas where your fleets are, so that if they are engaged by enemy fleets, they will have a substantial advantage.
* Use tactical bombers on naval strike to disrupt naval landings.
* Use tactical bombers to port strike the British ports after you have acquired air superiority over Britain.
* Naval production/usage is the most difficult aspect of playing as Germany (the British start out with a massive fleet and it takes very careful strategy to slowly whittle it down and make the seas around Europe safe), I recommend just focusing on the land war for your first game.
* Ultimately, land production is the most important aspect of playing Germany - Russia's army is a much bigger threat than UK/US's navy.

 

[unmerged(139263)]

Question - i'm still rather new to this so I have to ask - why are 3 division armies so popular on the forums?

 

[unmerged(70654)]

Question - i'm still rather new to this so I have to ask - why are 3 division armies so popular on the forums?

* They offer the most operational elasticity. I.e. Why should you move 9 or 12 divisions to a province which only needs 3 divisions to defend?
* No country starts off with enough generals (****) to form larger armies. Manually promoting generals to higher ranks diminishes their skill, which diminishes the fighting ability of the army.
* Lieutenant generals tend to be higher skilled, have better traits and gain experience faster.

Another perfectly viable army position is 1 division armies, and I usually use that composition when playing a country with horrible starting generals, as I want to skill up my officer corp. I went from 0-2 skill generals with Poland to 5-6 skill generals by 1945 after invading Germany and Russia. Can be a little overwhelming for new players though.

 

[unmerged(70654)]

I wouldn't go overboard on the panzers - they take far too much TC and oil. Anything over 10 divisions is probably more then you need. Your TC will be horribly overloaded when fighting in the USSR anyway.

I also really like using mountaineer hordes (brigaded, too) as germany instead of just pure inf... they're probably the fastest unit on frozen terrain, which is rather handy in USSR (and preety much everywhere else).

Your TC Is overloaded due to using all those brigaded infantry units, not because of Russia.

 

[unmerged(139263)]

Ah... never had issues using 9 division armies for most frontline work, except having to promote generals but they skill up fast anyway at war.

I'll try the 3x division approach once.

My TC wasn't really overloaded before USSR since at the onset of barbarossa, I had 0 motorized divisions and only 8 armoured divisions (but I was holding england/n.ireland/spain/parts of india/yugoslavia/parts of africa with 0 puppets/greece at the time, contributing to the TC load). It gets preety bad when you get to the Urals though. Rest were brigaded inf/mtn divisions. Steamrolled the more numerous USSR army within a month and something. The AI actually DOW-ed me first in middle of freezing winter, since I intended to leave russia alone while I take india and rest of british territories first, fun when you have a mountaineer horde.

 

[Avatar Federal]

The important thing, as stated earlier, is never mix motorized, mechanized, and armored with infantry. Have infantry follow after your more mobile forces have taken the province.

The idea for Germany (and blitzkrieg in general) is to rush with the armored, motorized, and mechanized, use your airforce to destroy enemy organization, then have infantry hold the province.

I'd generally build a mix of armored and infantry. I personally think motorized and mechanized just eat up oil.

 

[blue emu]

I'd generally build a mix of armored and infantry. I personally think motorized and mechanized just eat up oil.

I would much rather have one Armored and two Motorized than have two Armored. That gives me more combat power and battle-winning ability for roughly the same price in Oil and IC-days.

 

[unmerged(139263)]

I need to do WC with Mnt only army once