How to capture Moscow? Failing with vastly superior forces!

[unmerged(88888)]

Playing as Germany, I have captured Leningrad, Stalingrad and most and half of the Western territory of the Soviet Union. My units surround Moscow (which is cut off from the rest of the country. I tried launching an attack from 5 directions plus paratroopers for vertical envolpment. My side totaled 114 divisions (11 paratrooper, 3 armor, the rest 1941 infantry with 50% attachment of armor cars 2nd generation). The Russians have 35 troops in Moscow with about half infantry 1941 and about half militia 2. I have a more than 3 to 1 ratio , attacked in early morning, summer, no rain conditions. Still failed. The longer I wait to build up my army strength, the more unfavorable the attacker, defender ratio becomes. Bombing Moscow with tactical bombers for interdiction is ineffective as it does not diminish organization of the defenders at all!

What am I doing wrong? Has anyone been in my situation and prevailed? What unit is best for attacking urban?

 

[kfijatass]

Encircle moscow. Then they will be out of supplies. ^^ And no forts will help them. Also, bombing helps to reduce the ammount of forts. (strategic bombers, as far as i know)

 

[unmerged(88888)]

Moscow is encircled/attacked from all directions, yet they churn out militia

Moscow is encircled/attacked from all directions, yet they churn out militia like crazy. I am assaulting with huge forces 115 rested divisions vs. 35 of theirs, still failing to take the city. Is my problem not having strategic bombers to hurt their forts?

Thanks!

 

[unmerged(62241)]

Are you doing interdiction missions with your air force? Try that, in conjunction with logistical strikes for a few weeks. Don't bother with strategic bombing. Or you could open up a corridor and let some of the russkies escape, and then attack and cut them off from the city. Repeat. But definitelytry interdiction/logistical strikes, day and night, with as many planes as you can.

 

[unmerged(51521)]

When I get into that type of position I open up the blockade slightly so that the AI moves its troops to other places which also need them. Then I reclose the blockade and attack again. It can be much easier to take after they move units away.

 

[unmerged(47937)]

moskou is a very tough nut to crack, especially if you made the mistake of surrounding it.
it's forts are strong, it's urban territory (this is what makes the militia fighting so well) and it's the capital, so they are still in supply.

there are two options, you can either reduce infrastructure and forts to zero with your bombers, then attack and use CAS/TAC for interdiction.

the other option is opening a hole, let them come out, defeat them, bomb them to pieces, and then take moskou

 

[unmerged(88888)]

Thank you all!

Thanks to all. I will try the baiting approach openning the corridor since I don't have strategic bombers and my 18 divisions of tactical bombers do not make a dent reducing defenders' organization strength in Moscow when sent on round the clock interdiction missions.

 

[coreymas]

You are probably way over your command limit.

When the battle starts go to the details of the battle and find the first division that is getting a 75 % penalty.

Stop the attack and only attack with the number of divisions that are not getting the 75% limit.

Wait until that fails then launch another wave attacke with another group ..... and so on and so on.

Combine this with Tac on Interdiction missions and you should win eventually.

Corey

 

[unmerged(88888)]

Surrounding Moscow and attacking is a bad idea.

I have tried to implement suggestions to attack in waves, and checked my stacking to avoid penalty (no penalty).

It all fails.

My forces get beat up. The enemy churns out militia faster than I can build my attack forces and the ratio of attacker to defender becomes more and more in the favor of the defender.

The four months long campaign of logistical strikes to bring infrastructure to zero followed by interdiction strikes with 20 turbo jet era tactical bombers does not reduce Moscow's organizational strength by one bit!

I think I am going to revert to an older saved game where I launch my attack against Russia and try to asault Moscow from fewer directions, without surrounding it, but I am very discouraged.

More thoughts anyone?

 

[kucing]

Have you tried giving ways out for the defenders in Moscow as suggested? Given enough space the AI will try to capture the empty provinces while weakening its capital.

 

[theokrat]

• Dont use Tanks.
• Use mainly Infantry and MTNs, plus maybe the paras for another attack channel.
• Use brigades of ART or - if you already have them on the tanks and can disband them from them temporary SpART.
• Use OS on all units.
• keep Infrastructure down by strats or tacs. one digit is ok
• interdict, night and day
• attack from every direction you can find with 24 Units, commanded by a FM (but split up in differnt corps). Make sure you have a HQ with a general adjected to each province.
• keep 2 or even trhee waves ready. By the time the third wave fails the first should be frech enough again.
• with differnet waves you can use day attacks only: A strikes on dawn of day 1 and battles till dusk, then you manually break the attack. B starts at dawn of day 2 etc...

 

[elpeladopocione]

what difficulty are you playing on?

Yesterday on my HARD/Aggresive GER-1936 I was able to encircle and destroy 35 enemy divisions inside moscow. With way fewer troops than you do. I attacked with about 70 divs, a lot of 39 inf....and some arm and 3 pars on vertical envelopment. The combat lasted for about 3 days and then it was over. Of course I spent almost 10 days of logistical strikes on them , and bombed to scrap with 8 CAS and 8 TAC on Interdiction during the attack.

 

[unmerged(88888)]

Thank you all!

The strategy of retreating (breaking Moscow's encirclement) on several fronts and launching attacks on nearby fronts worked in that it sucked Moscow's defenders to other regions. Then, weakened Moscow was attacked from just two directions with overwhelming force. Sweet victory, Moscow is mine! The adjacent provinces where then surrounded and destroyed. On to Siberia and USSR's annexation.

What's next I ask? India and China perhaps.

Thank you all for your advice and suggestions!

 

[unmerged(89090)]

Why not simply surround the city with enough forces to discourage them from attacking and focus on taking the rest of the country. With their capital surrounded they won't be able to send supplies to their forces outside moscow and as a result the whole country will be yours for the taking, once that is done you could negotiate a peace treaty that forces them to hand over all their territory bar moscow plus their entire supply stockpile. Once thats done declare war again attack moscow with strategic bombers for about a month. This will prevent them from manufacturing more supplies and organisation of the troops in the city will plummet and as a result the city should then be very easy to take.

 

[unmerged(89090)]

it appears you've succeeeded already, sorry

 

[kucing]

With their capital surrounded they won't be able to send supplies to their forces outside moscow and as a result the whole country will be yours for the taking, once that is done you could negotiate a peace treaty that forces them to hand over all their territory bar moscow plus their entire supply stockpile.

That's an interesting idea but I doubt the AI can ever agree to surrender that many territories. In the end (after a long fight) you may have the whole USSR except Moscow but you won't be able to capture it since there is a very large amount of troops there.

 

[unmerged(88888)]

I agree

It is a bad idea to surround Moscow and allow it produce a ton of dug-in militia.

 

[Tanttu]

That's an interesting idea but I doubt the AI can ever agree to surrender that many territories. In the end (after a long fight) you may have the whole USSR except Moscow but you won't be able to capture it since there is a very large amount of troops there.

If your bomb Moscows industy out, the troops there will not have supplies...

 

[JRShield]

Nuke 'em

 

[OscarIsaiah]

That's a intresting point - Would a nuke do the job?