The Use of German Armour

[GPounda]

Good morning;

My question today concerns the placement of German Armour within the Armies for Barbarossa.

Is it more practical/powerful to place Armoured Divisions within an army or to keep them separate as their own army?

What I mean is if I have 24 divisions under a General, should say 8 of those divisions be armoured and the rest MOT of should i have a solid 24 armoured divisions under a different commander fighting beside another 24 divisions of MOT?

*yes I have MOT regiments within my Armoured Divisions.

 

[Praetori]

Good morning;

My question today concerns the placement of German Armour within the Armies for Barbarossa.

Is it more practical/powerful to place Armoured Divisions within an army or to keep them separate as their own army?

What I mean is if I have 24 divisions under a General, should say 8 of those divisions be armoured and the rest MOT of should i have a solid 24 armoured divisions under a different commander fighting beside another 24 divisions of MOT?

*yes I have MOT regiments within my Armoured Divisions.

Depends on your playstyle and how you utilize battle plans. You can easily enough draw a separate front for the Armored/Mot spearheads <-INF-INF-INF-INF-><-ARM-ARM-ARM-ARM><-INF-INF-INF-INF-> as three fronts within the same army if you wish. Or you can handle the armored formations as its own army.

 

[Alpha2518]

Good morning;

My question today concerns the placement of German Armour within the Armies for Barbarossa.

Is it more practical/powerful to place Armoured Divisions within an army or to keep them separate as their own army?

What I mean is if I have 24 divisions under a General, should say 8 of those divisions be armoured and the rest MOT of should i have a solid 24 armoured divisions under a different commander fighting beside another 24 divisions of MOT?

*yes I have MOT regiments within my Armoured Divisions.

I find it easier for the sake of management, that the armored and motorized forces are place in their own separate armies as it makes drawing the blitz plans are easier. No having to frustratingly drag that attack line so it comes from the left flank as oppose from the right flank or what have you. I also found smaller armored armies to be more sustainable for armored production. I use 8 Armored supported 4 motorized (later mechanized) divisions and I have three of them.

All of them are concentrated spearheads with large envelopment's. One towards Leningrad to envelop the Baltic's. One towards Rostov and cutting off those in Ukraine and the Crimea. The center drives towards Moscow and I micro them for many local envelopment to be destroyed as the advance presses forward. Be sure to micro to exploit gaps because the AI loves to get bogged down in battles as opposed to actually advancing and exacerbating the breakthrough. And to keep the frontage for the armored armies small. I have it no more than 3 provinces wide for concentration of force.

 

[mabus81]

Good morning;

My question today concerns the placement of German Armour within the Armies for Barbarossa.

Is it more practical/powerful to place Armoured Divisions within an army or to keep them separate as their own army?

What I mean is if I have 24 divisions under a General, should say 8 of those divisions be armoured and the rest MOT of should i have a solid 24 armoured divisions under a different commander fighting beside another 24 divisions of MOT?

*yes I have MOT regiments within my Armoured Divisions.

I usually form armored corps with germany, 4-6 tank divisions with 5-10 motorized divisions. Then I use then as pincers, let them pierce through the enemy lines and encircle the enemy, leaving behind a motorized division as a garrison in each conquered county. In my last Barbarossa i destroyed about 30% of the red army in the first weeks with one big encirclement. Made advancing into the soviet heartland a lot easier.

Later on I convert my "ordinary" tank and motorized divisions into width-44 tank and motorized and let them form an entire army group which simply steam rolls the enemy.

 

[Daddl]

I always have armour in their own army and maneuver them manually, most often split in two groups that make a pincer movement towards each other. I set them up at positions where a breakthrough is promising. Only after I broke through the enemy frontline I activate the battle plan for all the infantry to push at the whole front while my tanks encircle as fast and as much as they can. I usually don't use extra motorized infantry to defend behind the tanks, if you got 24 armour divisions (12 can potentially do the job just fine as well) they are enough on their own to create and hold a ~6-10 province long corridor to create a pocket. Then I stop the infantry push, rearrange troops and clean the pockets.

Rinse repeat. For me, that is the most satisfying way to play the game.

 

[Corner79]

Then I stop the infantry push, rearrange troops and clean the pockets.

I do things very similarly, but one thing i also do when i have the equipment to do so, is have a 3rd Panzer Army in reserve with at least 6 Panzer divisions sometimes more in charge of attacking the pocket i created, which frees up my two spearheads to get ready for the next push and helps the frontline infantry do it faster. I have only used this against the USSR as Germany, and against Germany as the U.S.A. in France (usually from Spain because the Spanish always seem to join the Axis before Normandy can happen)

 

[Galithor]

It'll be interesting to see if the AI's gotten any better in 1.4 at dealing with super-marines. It appears they put some effort into better enabling the AI to deal with armor/piercing discrepancies.