Taking a fortified city

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Taking a fortified city - 11/15/2020 12:13:43 PM

PaulAllen1982

Posts: 38
Joined: 6/6/2020
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Hi all,
Does anyone have any tips for taking a well defended city from a major?

Can the enemy be "starved out"?
I've got an enemy capital surrounded but it's got a shedload of troops in it, and even when mounting an attack from all directions the combatodds are in their favour.

I'm assuming I'll need to pound them with artillery for a while but I have no idea how many turns to do this for or how to identify if the enemy units are being affected by supply shortages.

Any advice gratefully received.

Post #: 1

RE: Taking a fortified city - 11/15/2020 1:15:27 PM

Soar_Slitherine

Posts: 426
Joined: 6/7/2020
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If there's a SHQ in a city, starving it may be difficult as in addition to any food stocks in the SHQ, the traders in the city likely also have their own food stocks and can still acquire more at a reduced rate via smuggling. Food production, particularly via private farms (which don't need the SHQ to provide them with water), can also continue unless the production facilities are starved of water or bombed out. Preventing the SHQ from producing ammunition is not any easier either.

If you have good recon on an enemy unit, you can select it on the map and there will be a supply indicator on the bottom right of the unit details, like with your own units. It won't give you detailed information, but if the enemy units aren't receiving adequate supply, it will be colored red.

(in reply to PaulAllen1982)

Post #: 2

RE: Taking a fortified city - 11/15/2020 3:05:21 PM

KingHalford

Posts: 488
Joined: 8/18/2016
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You can starve them out eventually, particularly if your bombardments take out their farms. But that's a slow way to win, can you find another way of reducing their combat effectiveness? Remember, each time you attack them in a turn, it brings their combat readiness down...

_____________________________

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www.eXplorminate.co

(in reply to Soar_Slitherine)

Post #: 3

RE: Taking a fortified city - 11/15/2020 3:22:36 PM

Nachtjager

Posts: 63
Joined: 3/2/2018
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quote:

ORIGINAL: PaulAllen1982

Hi all,
Does anyone have any tips for taking a well defended city from a major?

Can the enemy be "starved out"?
I've got an enemy capital surrounded but it's got a shedload of troops in it, and even when mounting an attack from all directions the combatodds are in their favour.

I'm assuming I'll need to pound them with artillery for a while but I have no idea how many turns to do this for or how to identify if the enemy units are being affected by supply shortages.

Any advice gratefully received.

In my opinion the two most important metrics to be keeping track of here are readiness and entrenchment. Both of these stats can be observed in the bottom right corner even on enemy units, depending on your recon level.

You never want to attack without high readiness, so make sure you're not throwing your troops into hopeless attacks or moving them around too much before you want to strike the final blow.

You definitely want to reduce enemy readiness and entrenchment as much as possible, and this is where artillery comes in. On the text screen of the combat report, again, depending on recon, you can see the before and after of these stats. A couple good barrages by an independent artillery battalion or two should be good to reduce the hex enough for the rest of your forces to move in, depending on the hex terrain.

There is a massive difference in performance between a unit dug into a ruins hex at 100 readiness and 250 entrenchment and the same unit recently bombarded at 50 readiness and 100 entrenchment.

As others have mentioned, starving them out isn't a particularly viable strategy.

(in reply to PaulAllen1982)

Post #: 4

RE: Taking a fortified city - 11/15/2020 4:29:08 PM

KingHalford

Posts: 488
Joined: 8/18/2016
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You've got two options here at the least:

1. Do you need the city intact? If that's not so much of a concern, then I'd build yourself an Independent Artillery Regiment with the best/biggest design, and then watch it reduce the city to rubble and destroy their entrenchment before you waltz in with your grunts.
2. Do you have a lot of "useless" militia troops? Why not send them in as a human wave after an initial bombardment, reducing enemy readiness and entrenchment, and using your best troops to assault afterwards? Remember you can get a lot of men around a city, and it's not always best to attack with everybody at once. You'll wear them down with a few rounds or three of this kind of assault.

I'm kind of assuming you're sort of near the early-mid game, because once you're further into the game and you've gotten to an enemy city, it's usually quite easy to take even very heavily defended cities using your high technology weapons. Nukes can make the task quite trivial...

< Message edited by KingHalford -- 11/15/2020 4:30:02 PM >

_____________________________

Ben "BATTLEMODE"
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Post #: 5

RE: Taking a fortified city - 11/15/2020 7:59:17 PM

PaulAllen1982

Posts: 38
Joined: 6/6/2020
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Thanks everyone, this is giving me plenty to think about!

It sounds like starving out isn't an option and the primary goal should be reducing entrenchment and readiness using artillery for a few turns, then performing an initial assault with throwaway militia troops, then assaulting with my main infantry forces.

I've been bombarding the city (ruins terrain type) with 100x105mm howitzers but it doesn't seem to be impacting the entrenchment level much.

I've got a GR hellraiser which I've just tried using on the city but the units all still seem to be sitting at 100 entrenchment (same as before I used it) and it only inflicted about 300 casualties.
I was thinking I just needing more artillery to make a significant impact on their entrenchment levels but now I'm doubting that if the hellraiser didn't really scratch them at all.

I will try more artillery guns and see what happens!

(in reply to KingHalford)

Post #: 6

RE: Taking a fortified city - 11/15/2020 8:24:35 PM

Nachtjager

Posts: 63
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Don't forget recon! It's hard for your guns to make any impact if they don't know what they're shooting at. Check your recon level on the hex, and if it's low consider raising some buggies or motorcycle infantry to help get eyes into the city.

(in reply to PaulAllen1982)

Post #: 7

RE: Taking a fortified city - 11/15/2020 8:47:04 PM

Soar_Slitherine

Posts: 426
Joined: 6/7/2020
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quote:

ORIGINAL: PaulAllen1982
I've been bombarding the city (ruins terrain type) with 100x105mm howitzers but it doesn't seem to be impacting the entrenchment level much.

I've got a GR hellraiser which I've just tried using on the city but the units all still seem to be sitting at 100 entrenchment (same as before I used it) and it only inflicted about 300 casualties.

Infantry in ruins automatically entrench to 100 points and can go up to 250 entrenchment points if they don't move and aren't disturbed, so it sounds like your artillery might already be keeping their entrenchment level down? On the other hand, if the enemy units have trucks, tanks and such, that can bring down their unit's displayed entrenchment level (which is the average among the subunits) even if the invidual infantry subunits are still just as entrenched.

(in reply to PaulAllen1982)

Post #: 8

RE: Taking a fortified city - 11/15/2020 9:35:08 PM

PaulAllen1982

Posts: 38
Joined: 6/6/2020
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I didn't realise recon level influenced how effective your artillery bombardment is, this may be a significant factor!

I've taken on board the advice here and used a motorbike battalion to ramp up my recon levels. I also ramped up the no. of artillery from 100 to 250; this seems to have had the effect of destroying significant numbers of buildings after 4-5 rounds of bombardment and reducing readiness down to sub 50 levels.

The infantry entrenchment levels are still at 100 but it sounds like that's the minimum it can drop to in this terrain.

I also got a fresh infantry division there and assaulted with about 10,000 troops compared to the 3-4,000 I'd been assaulting with before.

I've finally taken the city!
Though it's unfortunately now a smoking ruin after being bombarded into oblivion.

Next time I'll get my recon elevated sooner, use more infantry and also use some "all out attack" stratagems on my units.

Thanks for the help everyone, I'm starting to understand the system a bit more.

Still a little baffled why the hellraiser seemed so ineffective, I'll assume that the defending infantry must have been hunkering in underground bunkers to survive that with minimal casualties.

(in reply to Soar_Slitherine)

Post #: 9

RE: Taking a fortified city - 11/15/2020 10:20:41 PM

Maerchen

Posts: 348
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From: Germany
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For important battles, I always go in with one or two throwaway units first ro raise recon level to 400, then I follow up attack with the main assault. If there is nothing to hide during the main assault, the enemy falters quickly.

_____________________________

The logistics hell this game is IS the fun part! - Maerchen, 2020

The good thing is, we have all the information in the reports. The bad thing is, we have all the information. Maerchen, 2020

Came for SE. Will stay for SE.

(in reply to PaulAllen1982)

Post #: 10

RE: Taking a fortified city - 11/15/2020 10:40:17 PM

KingHalford

Posts: 488
Joined: 8/18/2016
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Recon is so important. The Hellraiser probably missed it's target.

The new airforce patch gives you a new way to recon, using air recon missions. That might also help! But motorbikes are an excellent choice too (they're good all round, because they're essentially infantry without the assault penalty that normal infantry get!)

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Ben "BATTLEMODE"
www.eXplorminate.co

(in reply to Maerchen)

Post #: 11

RE: Taking a fortified city - 11/16/2020 6:43:56 AM

PaulAllen1982

Posts: 38
Joined: 6/6/2020
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Thanks everyone, the importance of getting a good recon value on the hex is something that I'd missed.

Hopefully giving that more emphasis in future will help.

I'm currently researching advanced sensors which should help in my current game.

(in reply to KingHalford)

Post #: 12

RE: Taking a fortified city - 11/19/2020 4:38:08 AM

wodin