Sustainable force for invasion of U.S.?

[Commander-DK]

As Japan, I am planning an invasion of US mainland somewhere around 1942-1943.

Planning my research for the future, I am uncertain which route is best:

- Light armour + motorised?

- Mechanised infantry + TD?

- Simply equipping my invasion force with Anti-tank weapons and letting them sweep across the US from several directions, possibly with a small force of motorised support for cutting off enemy supply in smaller areas?

I want to research as few techs and doctrines as possible in addition to my core research, which is infantry, marines, navy and CAGS.

 

[BrotherJonathan]

From what I've read on the wiki, it is better to combine mechanized infantry with light tanks, rather than tanks destroyers, as both mechanized and light tanks benefit from the same research line. That said, the wiki also says the mechanized infantry are usually not worth the cost in research and upgrades, so you might want to go with your first idea.

 

[Commander-DK]

Yeah, but I am afraid that mechanised without TD will lack the penetration attack to stand up to American tanks. In that case I may as well use motorised rather than mechanised and save some fuel.

 

[SirArthur]

I have never played Japan, however I know a few things about invading US. You really want to attack from Pacific and Atlantic simultaniously, else the war will take forever. Even if everything works fine, you need half a year to a year. And that means no Us fleet to destroy your supply lines. (You most likely have to take Chicago and should prepare)

My main problem is always the supply situation. If you have too much troops the front will halt and US airforce will slowly feed on you. Too less troops means the US tanks will beat you. The main problem with the US are the armored units all over the place. I also would not suggest to attack over Mexico, the infrastructure is too bad to supply an army to seriously break through the US main army. In nearly all cases, an invasion over Canada works like a charme.

In the end it is like an invasion in Russia, only less enemy spam, more quality and less enemy manpower and all over sea. And the longer you wait, the harder it will be.

 

[marxianTJ]

Basically what sir arthur said lol.

You *really* want to attack the East Coast somehow - knocking out a few Central American countries and the canal is usually sufficient for that (plus you get a nice bonus for doing so) and then you can get ready to land in the East and West simultaneously - all the best stuff (the US IC and also their capital) is located fairly close to the East Coast as well, so you should note a decided decrease in resistance once you take DC and roughly the Pennsylvania/Ohio area. You'll want at least *some* AT, your own armor, or CAS, because the US tends to build a lot of armored stuff - just not oodles and oodles of it.

The riskiest time is *right* after you set up a few landing zones. Once you get some traction you'll find it gets a lot easier since the US doesn't really have the ability to spam tons of land units - and they'll be redeploying all over hell due to a simultaneous East and West landing.

 

[Oof]

Strategy and control of ports is the main thing. Before you invade the USA:
- Make sure you have enough convoys, 100+ at least, or your units will run out supply very quickly.
- Make sure you have enough transports or its gonna take years to transport your forces.
- Make sure you have enough GAR or MIL, to guard you rear once you start invasion.
- Invade Iceland and Greenland, this way you don’t have any ports the enemy can use to attack your supply convoys and especially Iceland can come in very handy as a forward or stop over base for troops.

Once you’ve done that, this is what I do:
- Invade Newfoundland, it’s got a nice lvl 10 port and can function as a large troop transport
- Now bring in a maximum of three armies. In my experience that’s about what you can keep supplied.
- Now invade the Nova Scotia to get control of Halifax, another lvl10 port, with one army.
- Once you’ve moved past the bottleneck that connects Nova Scotia to mainland Canada/USA land another army and head for Quebec.
- When you control Quebec, you can bring in another to attack towards Boston, another lvl10 port.
- Once you control Boston, bring in another army.
Keep repeating this. As a general rule, this works for me,: every time you take a lvl10 port, you can bring in another army. And the East coast has a lot of lvl10 ports….But you need 3-4 armies to beat both the USA and Canada (depending on unit, corps and army composition).

When it comes to unit and army composition:
Canada isn’t great tank country. Especially the regions north of Nova Scotia and north of the city of Quebec have very poor infra and very long supply lines. I use MNT and/or MAR in those areas. In the middle, the area between Quebec and Central USA, I use corps with two tank corps and three inf corps. I use a completely ARM/MECH/MOT corps near the east coast (3x SS-Corps + 2x ARM corps).
Unit composition:
As Germany I never have INF units with both ART and AT. I always have 4 INF div in a corps: 2x (3xINF+1xAT) + 2x (3xINF+1xART) and move them in pairs (AT+ART).
My ARM (try to be a bit historical): 2xARM + 1x MECH/MOT + 1xENG
I find ENG very beneficial for my tank units. Both in Europe, Russia and the USA, you encounter a lot of rivers and ENG really help.
MNT/MAR: 3xMNT/MAR + 1xENG

 

[CHIEFS KINGDOM]

Those divisions you mentioned making really reduce the speed of your forces. Light armor and mechanized would be fastest (although light armor adds nothing to the division besides a hefty combined arms bonus, an all mechanized division would have higher soft/hard attack). You can add armored cars to your mechanized to add hard attack while not increasing fuel consumption too bad. Mechanized do consume a lot of fuel but if you capture San diego and Los angeles then that is a solid beachhead for supplies, and you can build more ports along the coasts so supply wont be a problem. Armor and motorized divisions even out speed wise pretty well with a decent hard attack. I would recommend infantry with anti tank divisions over slowing down your armored/mechanized divisions with tank destroyers. If you set up a defensive front with infantry/anti tank you should be able to blunt attacks while focusing your armored and mechanized forces on weak points in the american lines.

Also if you outrun your supply lines as you advance into the heart of America, transport aircraft come in handy supplying your forces (as long as you have air superiority.)

 

[Oof]

Disregard my tips, I didnt read your post as well as i should. My advice was for Germany.

 

[Commander-DK]

Thanks for the input, guys!

Disregard my tips, I didnt read your post as well as i should. My advice was for Germany.

No worries, I sort of figured that out when you started talking about going via Iceland

 

[GIJoe597]

When playing as Japan, I generally only use 3 x Inf/1 x ART/1 x AT and have at least 1 full Army (5 full Corps), with full line of command. I do my utmost to have 2 full armies by the time I hold all West Coast ports. I always include 3 or 4, 2x INT and at least 2 - 3x or 4x TAC to destroy the infrastructure behind the US units. After I have the west coast firmly in my grasp I push east along the Mexican border until I capture Corpus Christ. Once I hold that port I move Marines and any complete corps to there and leap up the US east coast for Miami.

Waiting to get mechanized units and/or armor will take too long, for me at least. Inf all the way, also means I can use any unit in Siberia or Africa as they are all "Leg" Inf.

There is an issue where many US units retreat into Canada and it can become tedious as they periodically move back into the US behind your lines.

Concerning the Pacific, my first priority after taking Pearl and a West Coast port is to completely eradicate the USN in the Pacific. Once you have done so, convoy losses are trivial and you can use your naval units to speed up the east coast assaults.