How to encircle effectively?

[knul]

I am reasonably competent in using infantry to push back the enemy, but I still don't get the hang on encircling the enemy and destroying them. Sure, it sometimes works at a small scale, but I am not capable of large-scale encirclements, like I've seen in AARs about the East front.

One of the problems I encounter is that my spearheads themselves are routinely cut off. I send mots and leg infantry to reinforce my spearheads but the counterattacks occur with such large numbers that I have trouble keeping my spearheads connected.

Could it be that I attempt encirclements that are too small (I aim for only a couple of provinces)? Or is there something else I overlook?

Hints and tips are very welcome!

 

[inselkammer]

i can tell you how i use to do my barbarossa, though some might regard it unefficent.

i usually go for two huge encirclements. at first i leave in every front province around 12 - 18 divs, depending on how many provinces are bordering my province. this leaves me still with around 100 divs to start my encirclement. those i concentrate in the center and attack brest-litovsk. than i advance three provinces before i head south until i reach the black sea, making it altogether around 9 provinces i have to capture. usually this encircles around 60 - 70 divs. sometimes even more. what i do to keep them from breaking through is to leave a strong guard of 18 divs in the first province i capture on my advance since that is the only one where the sovs due to their high concentration of troops directly on the frontline are capable of a real counterattack. than i also attack the provinces directly bordering the breakthrough point, with the breakthrough point divs and the bordering divs, before the encirclement is finished to keep them from attacking in large scale. for the other provinces necessary for the encirclement usually 9 divs are enough to prevent a breakthrough since the sovs dont have many divs in the hinterland. a surplus of this huge encirclemnt is that you can let your spearheads rest and give the infantry time to catch up because it takes the sovs some time before they would be able to escape from the trap.

thats at least the way i do it but there are way more competent players around.

 

[mrsund]

The initial assult "should" be done with only inf and HQ, when the have won the battle you give the orders to the mech/arm/mot troops to assault trough the broken enemy lines, this way you save the strength and org on the troops that will encircle the enemy, you should also put them on off supply if you have the means for it.

It is also important to use the "shift" when you make the assault orders, so they do not stop in every provinces waiting for new orders, take also into consideration the weather and conditions on the ground, so you get stopped in the mud.

When making the assault orders for the breaktrough troops, give the orders to attack trough provinces with plains, and lock in the enemy troops in provinces with woods and marsh.

Sometimes you will have to make a couple off fake attacks, but take it carful so yo don not loose to much manpower.

 

[unmerged(27886)]

as MrSund said...

I fill in behind with infantry, moving my MOT and ARM forward on the double envelopment. This eventually gives you more troops at the critical connection points.

When the counterattack comes, use airpower to hammer those counterattacks, set other nearby MOT/ARM to support defense on the province. Hopefully the infantry filling in behind will have "permanently" freed up those mobile units.

sometimes in my large encirclements, the Russians will occasionally break it, but my own counterattacks and use of airpower, plus the occasional paratrooper assault, allow me to seal it. Once you have held it for a week or so, the tough part is over and you can start the collapse of the pocket with your INF.

 

[Stauffenberg13]

As Germany doing Blitzkrieg I have formations with just regular infantry, formations with just mechanized infantry (alternatively motorised, but either will work) and formations with just armor.

The regular infantry are used to guard the length of the front so the enemy doesn't push forward into territory I already hold, to help the armor with the breakthroughs, to move forward into the breach and guard it once I've made a breakthrough, and they are the major force used to squash the pockets.

The mechanized/motorised infantry formations are used to help making the initial breakthrough, to follow up a little behind the armor and guard their rear and flanks, and also to move forward and help them if they have trouble taking a province that has difficult terrain for armor (like urban locations).

The armor are used to break through, push forward and quickly cut off enemy troops in the front, and then just keep pushing while the regular infantry kills the pockets that have been formed (alternatively help the infantry, but it's better to keep pushing forward in my opinion, especially if enemy resistance behind their lines is light).


Two things are very important:

When making a breakthrough, the fast divisions must be given orders to attack and move on to the next province behind the province being attacked so they can keep moving forward right away instead of having to wait for 24 hours before they can be given orders again.

And the fast formations (the armor and the mechanized/motorised formations) must fan out as much as possible when moving forward after a breakthrough rather than moving along a narrow line. This makes it easier to encircle the enemy and, most importantly, makes it more difficult to cut of your armor spearheads. Also, if you can widen the initial breach to be more than just one province wide with your regular infantry, then do that as soon as possible.



When attacking the Soviet Union I make 2 large breakthroughs in the initial phase of the invasion and form 3 pockets. The northern pocket is formed by reaching the sea near Riga. The central pocket by going around the swampy terrain on both sides (north and south) and meeting east of those provinces, where you have open terrain again, to close it. And the southern pocket is formed by pushing southwards to the black sea.

 

[unmerged(132371)]

Over run works as well. For encirclements 3 ARM 2* 3 MOT 2 * 3 CAV and 2 * 3 INF under control 1. The armor is faster the MOT follows then the CAV and INF. There natural speeds string them out nicely and bomb the -ell out of the whole front . As the previous poster said use shift and set multiple points to attack.

 

[unmerged(141551)]

Over run works as well. For encirclements 3 ARM 2* 3 MOT 2 * 3 CAV and 2 * 3 INF under control 1. The armor is faster the MOT follows then the CAV and INF. There natural speeds string them out nicely and bomb the -ell out of the whole front . As the previous poster said use shift and set multiple points to attack.

If your playing on easy, but these units on even hold a province against the USSR

 

[Roytje]

The initial assult "should" be done with only inf and HQ, when the have won the battle you give the orders to the mech/arm/mot troops to assault trough the broken enemy lines, this way you save the strength and org on the troops that will encircle the enemy, you should also put them on off supply if you have the means for it.

I always use all units in the first assault, including ARM/MOT. The first assault should be so overwhelming that it only takes a couple of hours. In these couple of hours of fighting your units will not loose much STR or ORG, but as soon as the attack begins your units start moving into the enemy province. If your units are fast enough you can overrun retreating troops and these extra couple of hours could be desicive. If your units are too fast, retreating troops will occupy your conquered provinces. So it is important to always leave atleast 1 division in the provice you just conquered, until your INF can catch up. All troops you destroy in the initial attack are troops you do not need to worry about, making encirclements easier.

 

[Jos de trol]

to add to what was already said you can try to aim for an encirclement 2 provinces deep or even more; the enemy is often strong/fast enough to nibble at the provinces immediatly arround them but when they are faced with another behind that one you can still have enough time to close the encirclement properly

what I do is force an initial breach which my mobile forces rush through and is quickly occupied by lots of infantry; then my mobile forces go for the double envelopment while infantry starts filling in the immediate provinces ever upwards into the breach

I let some mobile troops in each surrounding province until there is enough infantry to hold out; so the tip of the spear gets ever weaker as more and more provinces are taken further along but that is okay as long as you make sure their opposition is retreating or not strong enough to mount a serious counterattack (you don't need to have superior forces everywhere, just enough to pin or even but slow them down); I use single units to start taking provinces deeper into enemy territory to consolidate my advance

as you may notice I use a single thrust with all my mobile forces and the brunt of my infantry; I use either my own static infantry line (their attack helping me to close the final gap) or natural obstacles like coastlines or bad terrain to pin the enemy down

my personal favourite area for encirclement is the area around kharkov btw, between bellorussia and stalingrad

 

[unmerged(62860)]

I always use all units in the first assault, including ARM/MOT. The first assault should be so overwhelming that it only takes a couple of hours. In these couple of hours of fighting your units will not loose much STR or ORG, but as soon as the attack begins your units start moving into the enemy province. If your units are fast enough you can overrun retreating troops and these extra couple of hours could be desicive. If your units are too fast, retreating troops will occupy your conquered provinces. So it is important to always leave atleast 1 division in the provice you just conquered, until your INF can catch up. All troops you destroy in the initial attack are troops you do not need to worry about, making encirclements easier.

This is good advice, I too follow this doctrine. Speed, overrun, planned followup troops and sevral corps to spread out with at each breakthrough point is the key to a succesfull blitzkrieg.

 

[sbr]

If your units are fast enough you can overrun retreating troops and these extra couple of hours could be desicive. If your units are too fast, retreating troops will occupy your conquered provinces. So it is important to always leave atleast 1 division in the provice you just conquered, until your INF can catch up. All troops you destroy in the initial attack are troops you do not need to worry about, making encirclements easier.

This is the key; you fight overrun units once, encircled units you have to fight at least twice; once on the breakthrough, again (and again?) to eliminate the pocket.

 

[mrsund]

If one is low on motorised units, using infantry/mountaun units with eng brigades will hel filling up those empty provinces.

The could also be used for overunning the enemy as mentioned here above, that tactic can also be used against encircled enemy units.