How to defend?

[dsaheiko]

Hallo! Maybe i do something wrong, maybe i miss something. But how can i defend? Lets have an example. I play as Nat. China against Japan. I try to defend the great River. I have two Armys of together 12 Inf and 6 Militias (6 Corps) with good Commanders to defend the province "Kaifeng". But the Japs attack from 3 diffrent Provinces with 40+ Divisions. (They have 160 Div what is stupid to) and will ever win! Ok i let them break through and let them cross the river. Now i start a Counter-Attack with 48 Divs and they have 16 in Kaifeng, but i loose! So iam frustrated. If ever they can attack from diffrent direction to put together the forces from many provices, but i can only use what i have in the attacked provinde, i will lose! So miss i something? Did i something wrong. Is there a good way to defend but i dont see that way?
Maybe someone can help me.
Thanks!

 

[Orm]

You need more divisions defending the province. There is no other trick that I'm aware of.*
When you counter-attack, keep an eye on things that can affect your troops to perform poorly, like weather and terrain, and avoid attacking at night.
And I hope you're not attacking with all 48 divisions from the same province, right?


*Edit: What you can do is try to get some flank attacks against the japanese while they are attacking you. Just try to get a good-sized attack going against provinces where they are attacking from. This will give them a big penalty in defense.

 

[unmerged(138457)]

Make sure that your commanders command limit is high enough. And if you happen to have some fast moving troops you can use the 'support defense' option in the neighbouring provinces so when you get attacked they will rush to reinforce your troops.

And also this:

And I hope you're not attacking with all 48 divisions from the same province, right?


*Edit: What you can do is try to get some flank attacks against the japanese while they are attacking you. Just try to get a good-sized attack going against provinces where they are attacking from. This will give them a big penalty in defense.

 

[Rocket88]

I strongly support Beowulf's tip about counterattacking - you get a +50% bonus. Assuming that you need to defend a line of provinces - and you cannot put as many divisions in each as you would like - then you can use them to help defend this way.
Wait until the AI has started its attack (I assume you are playing against the AI of course and not MP!) - then launch an attack against one or more of the stacks who are attacking you (you may be able to attack from more than one province as well). Remember all the normal rules still apply - command limit, weather, terrain bonuses etc. If you only want to hold the line and not advance then ensure all but one unit / stack is using 'Support Attack' - it can be very embarrassing for all the units in a province to win a counterattack and advance - leaving a big whole in your own line!

You should also consider using Support Defence - this means units will move very quickly to an adjacent province if it is attacked. You have to choose this in advance so it needs planning. In my experience as the AI tries to attack from 2 or 3 provinces against 1 - then it will not usually have any units left to attack your adjacent provinces. This means for every province in a line you could set some up units as Support Defence to a neighbouring province. Again - do not give this order to every unit - or you will have another gap in your line - and if you repulse the attack reorganise the units.

 

[unmerged(132858)]

Defense in depth.

You should always defend at least two provinces in depth, preferably three if you can afford it. This means two things: First, the enemy can't easily capitalize on the hole in your first line and break through. Second, you have readily-placed troops with high ORG to counter-attack from all neighbouring provinces. This should make it pretty easy to throw them back out -just remember that you need to have high-level commanders in every third province or so. When you do kick them out, do not enter the province with more than a few troops -do not sacrifice your defensive line. They'll arrive with low ORG and be kicked out again almost immediately, and you really want your enemy to be doing that rather than your own troops.

If you have the manpower and the divisions, this can keep a front near-static for ages if the enemy isn't much stronger than you. The only way it's a winning strategy is if you can bleed them for manpower though -works for USSR vs Germany, not sure about China vs Japan. You'll probably need a cunning counter-attack plan too.

 

[dsaheiko]

Thanks for the replys, i will try some of your suggestions. Most interesting is the "Area of defence" vs. "Defence Line" tip! I can not perform normal counter attacks, cause in my situation i have to cross the river. But i will try to build up a 2 or 3 provinces deep Area of defens and then perform counter attacks against the advancing japs (low org) units from different direktions.

 

[RobbieAB]

If you have the manpower and the divisions, this can keep a front near-static for ages if the enemy isn't much stronger than you. The only way it's a winning strategy is if you can bleed them for manpower though -works for USSR vs Germany, not sure about China vs Japan. You'll probably need a cunning counter-attack plan too.

Unless they have bugged MP for Japan, this works VERY well if you keep it up for a few years...

China are the only country who can take the USSR on in a straight battle of attrition, and hope to win.