Troop Movements

[apfan465]

Is there a way to move troops and spread them out over an area without having to move each unit individually?

Context:

I have ~60 divisions in Europe after defeating Germany as the US. The UK has ~25-30 and has them mostly aimed at the Balkans and Southern Poland (who now being liberated is once again an Allies member - the USSR never even got back to Warsaw in this game). I want to be able to move them into Poland and spread them out along the border with the USSR for when I eventually attack, however the only way I know how to do this at the moment is to move each unit individually. I've found that if I let the AI control the troop movement, they will somewhat spread them out. However, I also end up having stacks of 8-10 divisions rather than the 2-3 that I'd prefer.

 

[marxianTJ]

Since it's liberated territory things will always be funky because the AI doesn't really handle allied/foreign territory well - it'd be easier for the AI to do if you used small theaters - it's pretty unrealistic but it can help the AI if you want units spread in a specific way.

 

[apfan465]

Since it's liberated territory things will always be funky because the AI doesn't really handle allied/foreign territory well - it'd be easier for the AI to do if you used small theaters - it's pretty unrealistic but it can help the AI if you want units spread in a specific way.

I tried splitting Europe into theaters. I have the Atlantic Theater controlling everything in Europe, but my attempts at creating new theaters has been pretty useless. When I create new ones, I can't define any territory for them to operate in because I haven't annexed anything in Europe. So, I can't put them on AI control (which usually allows them to put any troops I attach in the mainland on ships and send them over).

The thing I really like about HOI4's battle plans is that you can pretty much tell your armies to spread out over certain borders or to protect certain areas.

 

[Didz]

Strange I've quite literally done exactly that in my Soviet Campaign. Extending my Theatres to encompass Finland, Turkey and the Baltic States which I recently liberated but didn't annex, and it worked fine.

 

[marxianTJ]

Weird :/ whenever I liberate a nation it's usually blacked out on the theater painter :/ and so my assumption is the AI just kinda figures what's going on based on which theater shares the border.

 

[Didz]

Perhaps they have to share a border with your existing territory.

 

[Kovax]

I tend to generally redeploy units by Corps, which allows me to roughly position them in the vicinity of where I need them. Moving by Army is only good for getting the whole blob to the right part of the map, like a redeployment from France to Poland. I'll then send the various Corps to points along the Soviet border, and when those arrive, possibly send individual divisions to either side of that province.

In case you haven't read here or in the documentation (poor as it is), switching to the appropriate command level and grabbing the green bar across the middle of the unit display will select that HQ and all of its subordinate units, so you can move them as a group.

....and then people ask why we even need a command structure in HOI4.