Problem with maginoit line

[unmerged(35123)]

Im new to the forums but have been playing HOI for like a year now and have had no serious problems until now. My problem is with the french provinces of strasbourg and colmar in other words the provinces that have part of the maginoit line in them. I decided not to Vichy France but instead conqouer them so i push them out of europe except marseilles, colmar, and strasbourg the reason for not taking marseilles was because thats where their capital was located and the french divisions in colmar and strasbourg had no org and i ordered the attack on colmar and strasbourg my divisions wouldnt reach them for a couple of weeks then all the sudden they move the capitol to colmar and the french divisions start getting supplied again and by the time i reached them the french divisions have like 20 org so i figure no big deal but when my 65 divisions reach strasbourg the french are taking not hits and my divisions are getting their butts kicked I decide to pull them back not wanting to lose divisions and I tried again at colmar but no luck there either.

So basically my problem is what do i do I outnumber them and the attacks are from all sides and with tactical bombers hitting the french divisions but still the french org. only budges 1 or 2 points after several bombing runs. when I attack the french org doesnt really budge. also the french have like 21 divisions in colmar and 23 in strasbourg. I just wanna know if any of you experts have any idea of what i should do cause I feel I've tried everything. Thanks in advance for any help.

oh yeah im playing 1939-1948 1.06 no mods except no time limit and normal difficulty

 

[Van der Gent]

This should be in HoI forum...

 

[Vulture]

Yup There you go.

 

[unmerged(11656)]

1. Make sure the weather is good
2. Use leader with Fortress Buster trait, -45% to you instead of -90%.
3. Use leader with Trickster trait, -20% to the enemy.
4. Attack from multiple direction.
5. Use bombers.
6. There are hills, so infantry with artillery brigades is better than tanks.


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[unmerged(3221)]

1. Make sure the weather is good
2. Use leader with Fortress Buster trait, -45% to you instead of -90%.
3. Use leader with Trickster trait, -20% to the enemy.
4. Attack from multiple direction.
5. Use bombers.
6. There are hills, so infantry with artillery brigades is better than tanks.

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In addition to Lint's excellent list:

do not overstack beyond command limits (12 for FM ....) Use Von Manstein to get tricksters and Von Salmuth and Heinrici to get fortress busters. Add a paradrop plus as many directions as possible with 24 at most from any one direction.

The longer that you can wait, the more difficult the situation becomes for the French forces there even when they have the capital. With only a few low IC provinces to produce supplies for 47 div, they will run out of supplies and manpower. Repeated attacks with inf will eventually beat them up sufficiently to takeover one province and then another.

But you might lose the first or even the second time despite multiple directions, good leaders, etc. So regroup and try again. You can always pull them out before they die. You are in an attrition battle here so you need to grind the enemy down. Beside tac bombing you might want to try strategic bombing even with tac bombers to see if that lowers IC which lowers their ability to produce supplies. Without IC and supplies they can not reinforce. If they can reinforce they are often at zero org and that is a great time to attack - but timing that is more luck than skill.

The other trick is to abandon one province to lure the enemy out of it's defense and then to attack them in the open. While doing that attack the other Maginot Line defenders in an adjacent province to tie them all up and prevent reinforcements.

 

[Van der Gent]

Also try ro use alot of infantry with engineer brigades. The give a bonus when attacking forts.

 

[unmerged(35123)]

Thanks for all your help and I decided to let them take a few provinces up to Paris then I cut them off they kept paris as their capital and they had only had 4 divisions in colmar and 5 in strasbourg and basically I beat them. Thanks again for all the great help.

 

[unmerged(34329)]

As well, doesn't TAC bombing slowly errode the fortifactions?

 

[LewsTherin]

Engineer brigades do not give any bonuses vs forts, but they do increase your defense and remove all river crossing penalties. Tac bombing used to erode forts in an older patch (forgot which one) but not anymore.

As john heidle said, the best thing is to lure them out. Open a path to Paris, but only let them escape two provinces from the Maginot line. Re-capture the province adjacent to the forts and destroy the encircled units outside the line. Rinse and repeat.

 

[Mediator]

Engineer brigades do not remove the river crossing penalty (they reduce it). Engineer leader remove the penalty.

One ugly exploit tip for the maginot line is the infiltration method:

Ask France for military access and move your troops there. As soon as they DOW you, combat will take place. However when using the mil access - cancel mil access - DOW routine (whereas the latter two are done by France in this case), your troops will be the defending troops (so use defensive FM for this). This means you will get the fort bonus and not France. So no matter how many troops they have there, they will loose.

 

[unmerged(34329)]

That's a naughty trick!

 

[danoh]

And the next time you attack France, NEVER take Paris before you reduce the Maginot areas if you are not going for the Vichy event. First isolate Maginot, then wait till the troops therein are at zero org (this can take a while, so conquer the rest of France except Paris while you wait.) Then the very last area in metropolitan France you take should be Paris. Works every time.

 

[Van der Gent]

Qoute from The rule book:
Engineers add to the attack rating against fortifications..

Ha!

 

[unmerged(24320)]

That's a naughty trick!

true, but very effective! that is an "experiment" that i would never have thought of...