tactical combat: defensive (land)

[Diefledermas]

(figured I'd break tactics up)

STATIC

1. set up defensive lines along natural barriers such as rivers and mountains. Don't try and use static defense in areas where mobile warfare is at its strongest (open plains)

2. build defenses and AA guns in these provinces.

3. set up choke points in the front where plains, etc.. must be defended. Force your enemy to attack where you want him too. This will allow you to "pincer" the bulge and cut off his advancing armies.

FLUID

1. Behind your static defense line hold armor/mechanized units in reserve to plug/cut-off enemy attack. Remember, blunt hammer tactics are not the answer, encircle enemy advances and then attack when they are out of supply and unable to retreat.

2. Once again, force the enemy into choke points so you know where to mass your defensive mobile forces

CAP

1. Set up fighter groups close to but behind your fronts and set them to INTERCEPT missions. This will cause any tactical bombing against you to be very costly.

2. If you have available tactical/dive bombers for defensive missions. Use them to pound bulges. This will harass and slow the enemy advance.

 

[unmerged(5553)]

Intercept

How does the intercept mission work?

 

[Diefledermas]

INTERCEPT MISSIONS

select an air division (pref. fighters) and right click. The mission box will appear (same thing you see when you send units into a battle). The defaut air mission will always be tactical bombing (or str bmbing if str. bomber). Select the drop down and interecept is one of the missions. Just set it to intercept and the fighters will attack any aircraft within their range (ie. you don't have to tell them to intercept in a neighboring province, they will). The mission is "repeating" so once set the fighters will keep intercepting forever. You can also set intercept missions over hostile territory but this is more to establish CAP (combat air patrols) over intended ground attack targets.

NOTE: for some reason the mission box doesn't always appear (bug?) so if it doesn't show up, deselect the unit, reselect and try again. It will appear eventually

 

[unmerged(5553)]

Thanks

It didn't seem to work that way for me the other night (the CAP part). Two obsolete Austrian fighters kept me from tac bombing despite repeatedly losing battles to my fighters and tac bombers. My tac bombers would get there, win the air battle, then return home without bombing. By the time I could get them back, the darn austrian fighters were back and we did it again. My fighters would win the air battle then go home, and the austrian fighters would just come right back. It was very frustrating.

 

[unmerged(12244)]

some good tactics there Dief.

A question: what units and brigades do you use for defending against a bigger foe with mixed units?

I never use armour in my defending unit, always keep them behind the defending army if i can.

Maybe this tactic is not so good against a larger , mixed army with panzer in it.

some use only e-brigades, some seem to mix brigades what do you recommend? For defense that is.

/Regards

 

[Diefledermas]

My fighters would win the air battle then go home, and the austrian fighters would just come right back. It was very frustrating.

Well, I was going to handle this is in the "offensive" tactics but here goes. Attaching a fighter group your tac bombers helps break thru enemy fighter cover (and the CAP strategy is still good - but this is a more specific to individual groups). Even though the attached fighter is technically bombing along with the rest of the units if they are intercepted it defaults to air combat. I'm not positive on the exact game mechanics here BUT I've noticed that decisive air victories allow the bombers to complete their assigned mission(s).

A question: what units and brigades do you use for defending against a bigger foe with mixed units?

Infantry

I try and mix in a healthy does of anti-tank brigades (say 1:3 ratio to normal inf). For mountains/hills - I use mountaineers (same mix). Anti-air brigades (say 1:6 ratio) is good too. I tend to invest heavily in Luffewaffe..er air power... so I tend to ignore the AA brigades in favor of achieving air superiority but you get my point.

Armor

Armor and mechanized units by there nature are mobile fluid units. Tying them down to static defense is a waste of their abilities. You can build 2 inf divisions with anti-tank for 1 tank (approx.) so build the infantry.

Note on Static Defense

Static defense by its nature is going to fail against an armored spearhead. Modern warefare is mobile. The point is you need to defend your territory and if its wide open you'll get blitzed. Sound like a contradiction? It is. And that's half the fun of tactics.

 

[L G]

Had some fun as Germany getting crushed by the Sovjets i bet had it happen to me, more fun than you would think.....

 

[unmerged(8114)]

Originally posted by Diefledermas
(figured I'd break tactics up)

STATIC

2. build defenses and AA guns in these provinces.

Good post!
A minor note: Why would you build AA guns? AFAIK they are only good against strategic bombing?

 

[Diefledermas]

A minor note: Why would you build AA guns? AFAIK they are only good against strategic bombing?

I was thinking about AA brigades. My mistake.

 

[L G]

I thought they were able to be used against any enemy aircraft entering the province, or was i mistaken

 

[Diefledermas]

provincial AA guns only work against strategic bombing (think of it as the guns being around industrial centers, etc.. so they wouldn't be in range of the battlefields

 

[Mr.Bigglesworth]

Originally posted by Diefledermas
For mountains/hills - I use mountaineers (same mix).

It is a common misconception in the game that mountaineers are good at defending mountians. (At least, that's what I thought forever) They're not. They are actually worse than infantry. In mountainous provinces, attacking units get a huge percent penalty (-80% for armor/mech, -40% for others). However, there is no bonus for defenders. So since infantry is usually of better quality than mountaineers, defending die Berge is better handled by infantry. However, if you want to take that mountain back, attack with mountaineers, as they only get a 10% penalty, as opposed to the 40% penalty infantry takes.

 

[Diefledermas]

It is a common misconception in the game that mountaineers are good at defending mountians.

learn something new every day

 

[unmerged(2833)]

Originally posted by Mr.Bigglesworth
It is a common misconception in the game that mountaineers are good at defending mountians. (At least, that's what I thought forever) They're not. They are actually worse than infantry. In mountainous provinces, attacking units get a huge percent penalty (-80% for armor/mech, -40% for others). However, there is no bonus for defenders. So since infantry is usually of better quality than mountaineers, defending die Berge is better handled by infantry. However, if you want to take that mountain back, attack with mountaineers, as they only get a 10% penalty, as opposed to the 40% penalty infantry takes.

Interesting. What about mech/armor in mountains? Do they defend as good there?

And AA guns fire at every passing enemy aircraft, IIRC.

 

[SideshowBob]

AA guns fire at every passing plane, and if you are involved in combat over the province, they will even fire at your own. For this reason i don't like the tactic of setting up AA on the front line provinces as it can hurt you as much as the enemy.

 

[Diefledermas]

okay,

now I have a question.

do AA guns fire at every plane? just the enemy planes? just strategic bombers?

 

[vodkafire]

Originally posted by SideshowBob
AA guns fire at every passing plane, and if you are involved in combat over the province, they will even fire at your own. For this reason i don't like the tactic of setting up AA on the front line provinces as it can hurt you as much as the enemy.

HAHAHA that's funny. You would think Paradox remembered to make AA cease fire when there are friendlies in the province. For christ's sake, they even did it in Civ(SAMs don't fire when friendly in the area)

 

[unmerged(14719)]

Really? do AA fire on your own Planes? is that why my wittle bombers keep getting cut up? by my own AA emplacements? sigh.....

but in reality..the Italian Air general was shot down by he's own AA guns while flying home to see old mussolini....

 

[Mr.Bigglesworth]

Originally posted by SideshowBob
AA guns fire at every passing plane, and if you are involved in combat over the province, they will even fire at your own. For this reason i don't like the tactic of setting up AA on the front line provinces as it can hurt you as much as the enemy.

Are you sure about that? I've never noticed it, but then again I'm not big on air combat...

 

[Vissarion]

I cant get the intercept missions to work.

I select a group of fighters, ctrl-right click in one of my frontline provinces and select intercept. There is now a symbol saying "intercept" below the leader picture.

However, the fighters do not respond when the province they are sat to intercept in is attacked by bombers,even if they are sitting in a nearby province.

I also have set the planes to intercept in the province they are based, but they dont intercept even in the neighbouring province.


You say that you only right-click to bring up the box, are you talking about a garrisoned enemy province or just a random friendly province?