Stuck, and facing supply issues - Ideas?

[TheMoe]

CAS demolishes infantry if they do not have AA in their division (or a certain leader trait).
I do not personally like TAC's because they do sub-par damage both ways compared to CAS or Strats, so I usually put my mils on CAS. The have the advantage of not taking supply in the same way as deploying say, a bunch of tanks on the frontline.

You might also want to try SPA

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I just did a quick example with 750 CAS2 vs the starting French army at the maginot line and each day its hovering around like...45-65 damage done. You can get more damage with more CAS, or more upgrades, air coverage etc.

Also the more air superiority you have the more penalty to defense they have,
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Lastly, I know its unorthodox, but grand battleplan is sometimes good for breaking entrenched enemies since you get so much planning bonuses that you might get a high enough attack to push them out of entrenchment, but then you sacrifice SF or MW, so...yeah. Might be worth a shot

Thank you for taking the time to explain the importance of CAS. I'm with you regarding what I read and watch on YouTube playthroughs about the tactical bombers being able to do everything, but nothing very well. So, if you go with CAS only and we know they have very limited range, how do you use them effectively? There are only so many airports that are close to the action, and I'm thinking that with partial coverage of the battle that maybe the fact the tactical bombers have coverage of the whole state or province evens out the superior CAS attack minus partial coverage. Does that make sense?

Edit: BTW, you mentioned I might want to try SPA? I'm not sure what that is. Would you mind explaining a bit more? Thanks.
Edit2: Oh, I hear you. SPA is when someone turns all the useless light starting tanks into mobile AA. Got it! I do have AA with my troops, and I use the older light tanks as motorized recon. It buffs my armor for the whole infantry division.

 

[CraniumMuppet]

Thank you for taking the time to explain the importance of CAS. I'm with you regarding what I read and watch on YouTube playthroughs about the tactical bombers being able to do everything, but nothing very well. So, if you go with CAS only and we know they have very limited range, how do you use them effectively? There are only so many airports that are close to the action, and I'm thinking that with partial coverage of the battle that maybe the fact the tactical bombers have coverage of the whole state or province evens out the superior CAS attack minus partial coverage. Does that make sense?

Edit: BTW, you mentioned I might want to try SPA? I'm not sure what that is. Would you mind explaining a bit more? Thanks.
Edit2: Oh, I hear you. SPA is when someone turns all the useless light starting tanks into mobile AA. Got it! I do have AA with my troops, and I use the older light tanks as motorized recon. It buffs my armor for the whole infantry division.

Do you upgrade your CAS? I usually don't have range problems, or if so I usually build airfields. Splitting a massive deathstack of cas might also help if u are having a lot of smaller air fields. They usually go quick to build

Your argument does make sense but I still think that CAS are superior, in my experience they dish out much more damage (but if I have tacs ill take em of course).
SPA (or SPART I guess) are Self propelled artillery.

Its this little button. Its basically a vroom vroom Artillery, with the benefit of being faster and having the obvious advantage of being armored. You sacrifice some things like hardness but they do more soft attack than a normal tank would, which might help with breakthroughs

And if its really impossible to break through, it is a totally valid tactic to just leave a defending force and go someplace else thats more favorable.

 

[TheMoe]

I'll look into going with regular fighters and CAS during my next playthrough. They're cheaper to produce, so I should have more of them.

Oh, artillery. Okay, I thought they were AA. That's an attractive option. Right now I'm using motorized artillery, which keep my medium tank speed up to a little over 10 km/h. If I wanted to go with SPAT, I'm thinking the process would be:

1. Build med tanks, and make sure I have extra
2. Research the SPAT
3. Create a new production line where I would be converting previously produced med tanks to the new SPAT variant

The last part I'm unsure of, which is how I would add those SPAT to a med tank template. Would the SPAT icon just show up after I had produce a few of them?

Also, there are quite a few artillery upgrades to research. Would I simply ignore that research, since I had already researched the SPAT? Thanks again!

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Thank you for the info. I was a bit perplexed by your last statement. Are you saying AI allies may crowd into areas where your troops are already low on supplies, and then exacerbate the supply attrition?

This is what I meant, yes. I have outright failed naval invasions simply because my faction allies overloaded supply (the landing was otherwise secure). They will do this even if you don't call them into the war unless you have the most divisions in the faction.

I do not personally like TAC's because they do sub-par damage both ways compared to CAS or Strats, so I usually put my mils on CAS. The have the advantage of not taking supply in the same way as deploying say, a bunch of tanks on the frontline.

IMO TAC is fine in SP, it's always done well for me when employed. Its range is a big advantage too. I don't strat bomb with it often but it's nice to have the option to just swap a few thousand TAC onto that if desired.

Lastly, I know its unorthodox, but grand battleplan is sometimes good for breaking entrenched enemies since you get so much planning bonuses that you might get a high enough attack to push them out of entrenchment, but then you sacrifice SF or MW, so...yeah. Might be worth a shot

GB is pretty solid in SP when you have time to constantly delete/remake spearhead orders to get units where you want them to go (I'm still salty about the unjustified stealth nerf to right clicking). At max planning it even surpasses superior firepower in damage slightly while giving a lot more breakthrough (direct bonus + more planning). It's less good if you have to rotate units to manage org as minor nations though, because you lose the entrenchment. SF is definitely the best for minors/IC-limited starts, even high manpower ones like China. You just get more damage for your IC (and even after the opener nerf, you still get it earlier than alternatives other than GB). You don't need manpower as them either, and manpower is usually best solved with puppets rather than taking a doctrine just for 5%.

Edit: SPG also outperforms artillery ever since latter was nerfed, with heavy/modern SPG giving most soft attack per width in the game.

 

[TheMoe]

This is what I meant, yes. I have outright failed naval invasions simply because my faction allies overloaded supply (the landing was otherwise secure). They will do this even if you don't call them into the war unless you have the most divisions in the faction.



IMO TAC is fine in SP, it's always done well for me when employed. Its range is a big advantage too. I don't strat bomb with it often but it's nice to have the option to just swap a few thousand TAC onto that if desired.



GB is pretty solid in SP when you have time to constantly delete/remake spearhead orders to get units where you want them to go (I'm still salty about the unjustified stealth nerf to right clicking). At max planning it even surpasses superior firepower in damage slightly while giving a lot more breakthrough (direct bonus + more planning). It's less good if you have to rotate units to manage org as minor nations though, because you lose the entrenchment. SF is definitely the best for minors/IC-limited starts, even high manpower ones like China. You just get more damage for your IC (and even after the opener nerf, you still get it earlier than alternatives other than GB). You don't need manpower as them either, and manpower is usually best solved with puppets rather than taking a doctrine just for 5%.

Edit: SPG also outperforms artillery ever since latter was nerfed, with heavy/modern SPG giving most soft attack per width in the game.

Haha! Yes, I absolutely understand what you mean about the AI crowding the beaches! I've yet to experience it, but it makes perfect sense! Those naval invasions are a real balancing act for sure, and a crowded beach reduces everyone's fighting effectiveness due to the supply issues you identified.

LOL! I've finally found a follow TAC bomber enthusiast. Well, the range sure makes attacking the Soviet Union easier, thought I absolutely know I'm trading damage and accuracy for range. Next game I'll try the smaller TAC bombers and see what happens. I'll assign them to armies and let the AI handle things.

I'm with you regarding the stealth nerf of the right-click direction of units, and I'm happy to hear that the SPG is a good option. I'm still not so sure how to create them or add them to a template. Can you build SPG directly after you research or do you have to convert from already built med or light tanks? I'm also guessing that we get the option to add them to our templates once we research them. Thank again!

 

[CraniumMuppet]

Haha! Yes, I absolutely understand what you mean about the AI crowding the beaches! I've yet to experience it, but it makes perfect sense! Those naval invasions are a real balancing act for sure, and a crowded beach reduces everyone's fighting effectiveness due to the supply issues you identified.

LOL! I've finally found a follow TAC bomber enthusiast. Well, the range sure makes attacking the Soviet Union easier, thought I absolutely know I'm trading damage and accuracy for range. Next game I'll try the smaller TAC bombers and see what happens. I'll assign them to armies and let the AI handle things.

I'm with you regarding the stealth nerf of the right-click direction of units, and I'm happy to hear that the SPG is a good option. I'm still not so sure how to create them or add them to a template. Can you build SPG directly after you research or do you have to convert from already built med or light tanks? I'm also guessing that we get the option to add them to our templates once we research them. Thank again!

You build them and research them as any other piece of equipment and add them to your division.

they will appear as a production option and as a division type in the division designer.

 

[TheMoe]

You build them and research them as any other piece of equipment and add them to your division.

they will appear as a production option and as a division type in the division designer.

Fantastic! I've got it now. Thank you.

 

[Harin]

I'm still not so sure how to create them or add them to a template. Can you build SPG directly after you research or do you have to convert from already built med or light tanks? I'm also guessing that we get the option to add them to our templates once we research them. Thank again!

Follow what CraniumMuppet said, but also I want to give you a hint. To convert a tank into a self-propelled gun, you must first have an obsolete tank to do it with. If you stopped research at Panzer IIs, but want to convert some Panzer IIs into SPGs, then you first must decommission them to make them obsolete. To do that, open up production, select the Panzer II and then click on the green circle in the top right of the Panzer II box. That will make it obsolete and convertable to SPGs. You can still build Panzer IIs, this just gives the Panzer IIs the correct label for the game to know it can convert them.

Of course this works on any piece of equipment that you want to convert, but Panzer IIs is where I stumbled upon this and another forum member showed the hint to me.

 

[TheMoe]

Follow what CraniumMuppet said, but also I want to give you a hint. To convert a tank into a self-propelled gun, you must first have an obsolete tank to do it with. If you stopped research at Panzer IIs, but want to convert some Panzer IIs into SPGs, then you first must decommission them to make them obsolete. To do that, open up production, select the Panzer II and then click on the green circle in the top right of the Panzer II box. That will make it obsolete and convertable to SPGs. You can still build Panzer IIs, this just gives the Panzer IIs the correct label for the game to know it can convert them.

Of course this works on any piece of equipment that you want to convert, but Panzer IIs is where I stumbled upon this and another forum member showed the hint to me.

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This is super helpful! Thanks! I've read about conversions, though I've never tried to do it. It certainly makes sense to list it as obsolete so you don't accidentally build more of them. Nice tip!