USA Division composition

[kawalski]

Hi,

Playing as USA 1936 start & I was wondering if I could get some help on Division composition. I attempted to read the various threads & you tube videos on this subject & they've only served to either confuse me or send me to sleep. So I was hoping for an concise practical guide to getting the most out of the US.

I need an guide to three different theaters; Pacific, Med/Desert/Italy & France/Europe.

I'm not looking for the killer ultimate super division but rather whats a sensible mix of divisions, how many of each type & there composition of battalions for the various theater's.

Also if it's not too much trouble I've noticed most guides use this sort of format 7x INF + 2x ART (+ART/AT/EN) for example. Would it be possible to display them as the Division designer has them such as;

ART INF INF INF ART
ENG INF INF INF ART

I don't know if it makes much of a difference or not how you set them up but if it does this would be helpful. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[nightgerbil]

The idea is what your using the division before/against and how its meshing with your plans. I can give a list of division types but they all revert around how you use them. Example if you use superior fire doctrine as your land doctine tech, that buffs support units, that means you can stack support artillery and anti tanks into very small (10 width) divisions to maximise those bonuses. Ofc those divisions being so tiny will fold easy, so the idea would be to bury the enemy in numbers and to basically stall them by losing ten battles in a row at a river line and still being able to start the 11th as you have so many more fresh troops then they do. Eventually their front line troops run out of equipment and tanks and then they stall and you push them back. Good tactics for china, russia and france.

does that make sense?

everything else wether its 44 width "space marines" med armour divisions or the classic 7 inf/2 arty depends on what your facing. whats the situation and who is the enemy?

for a usa play there are too many unanswered questions to give you a generic answer. single or multi player? you gonna wipe the japs out from the get go or go europe first? Want to take histrical empahisis on aircraft or plan to invade europe with a 120 tank divisions and stop when you hit the urals?

 

[kawalski]

First up thanks for the prompt reply.

This is my first play through so I'm not sure what to expect (although I've played lots of HOI3) but I'll try to tell you what I do know. My game is Single player, I've gone with Superior Firepower as its the default & its Dec/37. I don't know who I'll be fighting first although I'm going done the Monroe plan so I can pick a fight with Venezuela so I may find myself Fighting the Germans first in France but more likely the Japs & the Desert & on to Italy. Other than that I can't tell you much else, I will likely stick to mostly historic choices no crazy or gamey decisions no going Fascist & I'll join the Allies first chance I get as I'm still learning this game. I'm mostly asking so I can plan what to build & don't waste exp on dud division designs. Whatever advice you give doesn't have to be perfect or all encompassing just a good starting position also preferably qualified with what your own experiences have been. If it makes it easier for you to explain to me the basics please use examples of when & what circumstances you used various setups & why you think they worked. Also I'd love to hear what you recommend that I'd do.

 

[macegee]

Here's my TO&E:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...XEYR7PbMY1XYRaO0p7SOWZAGzs/edit#gid=615710287

But, frankly, for SP games, it doesn't matter much, unless you do assaults against heavily fortified and numerous enemy (big stack on an island, etc.).

 

[grandad1982]

America is rich. Build divisions with lots of expensive kit.

Tanks with mech instead of mot.

Inf with heavy td or spart battalions.

Mech divisions supported by medium td or spart.

Etc etc

 

[BaddoSpirito]

7x marine 2x ART 3x AT with ART,RART,AT,ENG,LOG support is what I use for dday. Drop the 3xAT for 1xART for Pacific. Back the marines with some tanks on dday if you can. 5x mot, 15x medium or heavy tanks should be fine. Land doctrine is SF right-left. Go BF support for air doctrine and make sure you have a lot of CAS.

 

[macegee]

Note that the TO&E I provided requires Integrated Support branch of the Superior Firepower doctrine, that gives +20 organization and +50% soft attack for all Support units. This way your support artillery will be almost as effective as a single unit of Line artillery, and +20 org improves overall organization of your divisions (support units have the lowest org, and since I use all 5, it's a good idea to improve their org).

To further clarify. I tend to go for ~70 infantry, 24 armored, 6 marine and 6 airborne divisions. If I feel I can spend EXP, I create motorized template and convert ~1/3 infantry into motorized, for European theater. Sometimes Africa. Supply is a struggle, but even undersupplied, motorized usually perform better (read - faster) than leg infantry. 24 infantry and 4-6 marine, 0-2 airborne divisions go to Pacific/Asia, the rest goes to Africa/Europe.

As for templates themselves, strategy and use defines them. I use infantry for defensive and support operations. Defensiveness, piercing and hardness are the key. Infantry battalions give more Defense, so this is why I don't like the idea of decreasing the amount of Infantry in favor of more artillery. As for a tank battalion (I go straight for medium) for each infantry division, the US can sustain it.

Let me expand a bit on tank battalions for infantry. AT units (except TDs) require research. AT units don't improve hardness. They are cheap to produce and might be good for small countries, but the US can handle mass tank production. Why I don't use TDs? Tanks give more breakthrough and soft attack. And even tho I try not to use infantry offensively, and use armored divisions for attacks, infantry can be used for tricky terrain (mountains, cities, etc). Also, I think about utility and unification. I'd rather improve my tanks and mass produce them. After all, with template settings, you can set your divs to use only older models of tanks. Plus, you don't have to give all your infantry tanks. You can have separate templates for frontline infantry and for reserves/homeland defense.

For armored divisions, breakthrough and hardness are the key. Ideally, you want to use only your armored divisions for attacks. When it comes to mountains/cities, you need to remember to isolate and surround such areas first, and only then assault them. Plus support with air attacks (TAC/CAS).

Marines are a must for island invasions, obviously. I once tried to naval invade an island off the African coast in mid Atlantic, with regular leg infantry. Heavies casualties I've recieved. After that, I decided that sending at least some marines to help with Africa/Europe is a good idea (historically, Marines only fought in the Pacific). Paratroopers should not be dropped right on top of enemy divisions, and even when deployed properly can be easily wiped, so use with great caution. Reinforce and send support to them asap.

Oh, and a few more words on motorized. Historically, the US did experiment with motorized, but never really employed them due to logistical reasons. They used pools of transports instead, on corps level. So using motorized divisions as the US is a rather historical thing. Without line artillery, they are not that supply heavy. If you decide to use supply companies, even better, but I don't. Simply not using line artillery is enough IMO.

ADDED:

BTW, if I understand correctly, the US ditched the AT guns entirely after the WW2. US Army did not like them during the war, the crews received heavy casualties, guns were easily lost. TD concept also did not play out very well. Later, "Main battle tank" became a thing as a result of all this experience.

 

[kawalski]

Thank you all for your replies & advice especially macegee for your very detailed reply & TO&E. I shall give your suggestions a try & see how I go.

 

[macegee]

More notes regarding my US Army armored divisions. Light tanks are much easier to build en masse in earlier years, same with motorized infantry. So I usually join the war with my armored template looking like this:

2x Light Tank
2x Medium Tank
4x Motorized Infantry
1x Medium SP Artillery

Later I replace Motorized with Mech Infantry, as I build my stock of half-tracks. And when I get enough Medium Tanks for my infantry divisions, I slowly replace Light Tank battalions with Medium, but it can happen really late, around 1944-1945.

Thank you all for your replies & advice especially macegee for your very detailed reply & TO&E. I shall give your suggestions a try & see how I go.

Glad to help! Will be interesting to hear your experience afterwards, if you don't mind.

Few more tips. Not sure if you know this already or not, but moving units (or fighting) over tricky terrain (mountains/desert/jungle), or in really bad weather (hot/sandstorm/mud etc), even on your own turf causes equipment attrition. So far, equipment attrition was the biggest part of equipment losses for the whole war for me. Enemy AI usually can't deal much equipment loses to me for various reasons. So watch out for attrition.

Another thing to know, training divisions is the main source of army XP for the US before the war. XP is much more valuable than equipment, so mass training is a must. There's also a government guy you can hire that gives +army XP over time and a discount on Superior Firepower doctrine tech cost.

 

[GeorgieBest]

14 Marines & 4 Artillery, w/ Engineers, Artillery, and any other support brigades you want.