Unable to execute battle plans...

[our_man]

Hi All,

I just picked up HoI4 a few weeks ago after a long absence from the series - I never really got around to playing HoI3 - and I'm really struggling to get to grips with battle plans. I'm hoping one day to work my way up to designing good battle plans, but at the moment I'll settle for just being able to execute them successfully! I've been confounded by this issue a few times in my playthroughs where I've defined a front line, outlined an offensive attack and hit the green swoosh to see... nothing. My troops just stand there and refuse to execute the battle plan. Sometimes if I quit the game and then load it up again they execute the plan once the game starts up again (which screams bug at me rather than I'm doing anything incorrectly). That's not even working on this occasion. As you can see from the screenshot below I'm about to invade Poland as Germany and I've let over 24 hours go by since clicking "execute battle plan" and still nothing happens. There are other occasions where I draw my front line, define my offensive and click "execute" and my troops do my bidding, and it is driving me nuts why it is working sometimes and not working on others! Can anyone help please?

 

[Simon_9732495]

It seems to me you want to do the following:

• 1 Field Marshal order for 2 Armys
• 2 General orders for the other 2 Armys

And I think your problem is that the 2 Generals that should have Field Marshal orders, have General Orders without Offensive Lines. That means they will not attack. The Field Marshal Offensive Line has no Units attached to it.


I would do it like this:

• Delete everything.
  • Click one general, press the DEL button and click all front lines OR
  • Click the Field Marshal and right click the dustbin to delete all orders, than to the same with EACH general
• Give the General orders. Click the General (all units are selected now), click Frontline, draw the Frontline, click Offensive line, draw the offensive line
• Do the same for the other General
• Now you have 2 Armys with orders and 2 Armys without
• Click the Field Marshal, click Front line, click SHIFT while you draw the Frontline. Now you have drawn a defensive Field Marshal Frontline.
• All Divisions of the remaining 2 Armys (24+17) should now be assigned to that frontline.
• Click the Field Marshal, click Offensive Line and draw a offensive Line.

Then it looks like this:

Note:
The defensive Field Marshal Frontline only means, that there is only 1 frontline and offensive line for more generals. When you do a normal Field Marshal Frontline, each Army gets it's own Frontline and Offensive Line additional. You can give orders in more detail then.

Then it can look like that:

Or like that:

Important is that the Offensive Line has units attached.

If the Field Marshal Offensive Line looks like that something is wrong:

 

[our_man]

It seems to me you want to do the following:

• 1 Field Marshal order for 2 Armys
• 2 General orders for the other 2 Armys

And I think your problem is that the 2 Generals that should have Field Marshal orders, have General Orders without Offensive Lines. That means they will not attack. The Field Marshal Offensive Line has no Units attached to it.


I would do it like this:

• Delete everything.
  • Click one general, press the DEL button and click all front lines OR
  • Click the Field Marshal and right click the dustbin to delete all orders, than to the same with EACH general
• Give the General orders. Click the General (all units are selected now), click Frontline, draw the Frontline, click Offensive line, draw the offensive line
• Do the same for the other General
• Now you have 2 Armys with orders and 2 Armys without
• Click the Field Marshal, click Front line, click SHIFT while you draw the Frontline. Now you have drawn a defensive Field Marshal Frontline.
• All Divisions of the remaining 2 Armys (24+17) should now be assigned to that frontline.
• Click the Field Marshal, click Offensive Line and draw a offensive Line.

Then it looks like this:

View attachment 583878


Note:
The defensive Field Marshal Frontline only means, that there is only 1 frontline and offensive line for more generals. When you do a normal Field Marshal Frontline, each Army gets it's own Frontline and Offensive Line additional. You can give orders in more detail then.

Then it can look like that:

View attachment 583879

Or like that:

View attachment 583880

Important is that the Offensive Line has units attached.

If the Field Marshal Offensive Line looks like that something is wrong:

View attachment 583881

 

[our_man]

Thank you very much Simon - that worked a treat. I executed the initial orders with my panzerkorps to break through at Danzig, then rezoned their front line in East Prussia and did a spearhead offensive behind Warsaw to cut Poland in two... I was beginning to think I had the hang of this but then... My field marshal's army has stopped just short of the end of their offensive line and will not advance any further to destroy the Warsaw pocket. I've left the game go on for several days and they just continue to sit there... There's also a smaller pocket in the south that they're not attacking. What's going wrong this time?