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Basic Force Compositions - 7/20/2011 3:02:06 PM   
Locarnus


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From: Earth, Sol
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While terje439 opened a thread for discussing the types of units, I will cover some composition of independently operational formations.
I will refer to them as "corps".

ARMY COMPOSITION & TACTICS


The field army is the total force you command.
It consists of:
2-4 standard Corps (independently operational formations)
some mobile "libero" units, possibly forming several ad hoc Corps for minor operations during battle
1 independent bomber wing
1 independent fighter wing
special units
temporary units

The Corps is your main fighting formation. It is the center of a main offensive thrust, especially to attack fortified positions.
Eg one of your corps will try to achieve the northern objectives, another one the southern objectives and one will be at the center.
In the beginning it consists of:
2-3 infantry units
1-2 artillery unit
1-2 tank units
1 recon unit (is by many considered to be a wasted slot)
possible extensions include an additional tank or artillery unit, as well as AT or AA

Liberos are some highly mobile units, eg tanks. They can help out the nearest corps to build pressure or flank strongpoints.
Eg you have an additional tank between the Northern and Center Corps. The Northern Corps faces strong defenses, so the tank will try to help out there and eg take out a flak position in the north. After 3 turns the northern front is fine again, so it rallies to the Center to shield their advance.

A bomber wing consists of tactical and strategic bombers. It is even more mobile than the "liberos", so it can jump over the whole map to create temporary pressure points and help a corps to breach the toughest resistance.
Eg 2 bombers help out in the south, one in the north. Unfortunately the north needs more power, so you can relatively quickly send one additional bomber from south to north.

The fighter wing protects the bombers and achieves air superiority.

Special units like bridge layers and paras are given special objectives according to their usefulness on the map.
Eg you look at the map and see that the southern corps will run into a river after their first objective, so you assign the bridgers to the southern front for this battle.

Temporary units are often not mobile enough to fit in your force structure (infantry). Also it doesnt make a difference how bad they look after the battle (because you dont have to pay for them).
So they may very well be used as damage soakers to protect your own units and/or human waves to achieve initial breakthroughs...



CORPS TACTICS


Every corps will get some rough route of attack at the beginning,consisting of a series of navpoints (often enemy strongpoints, cities, bridges aso).

If facing an enemy strongpoint about 2 turns ahead, the recon unit will be sent to scout the enemy positions. Then the artillery (eg towed in the beginning) will be sent eg 4 points away from the enemy target so in the next turn it can move dismounted the one hex and fire in the same turn, without being too exposed to counterattack after the first turn.
The infantry is positioned accordingly. It should be able to walk into battle for the next turn.
The tank(s) and the recon unit are used to shield the mounted advance in the first turn.

In the second turn, the artillery fires on the enemy to suppress him, then the enemy unit is surrounded to further decrease its power. After that the ground attack commences with the appropriate units, eg infantry for an assault on a city.

If enemy artillery is present, it should be suppressed/attacked first. Own artillery, strat and tactical bombers are useful, also your mobile units (tank, recon - possibly libero units) can flank the enemy and take out the artillery and other supporting assets.
The same goes for flak positions, but tac bombers should only be used when the flak is either suppressed or heavily damaged to avoid counterfire.

< Message edited by Locarnus -- 7/20/2011 8:23:03 PM >
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RE: Basic Force Compositions - 7/25/2011 3:12:55 PM   
Locarnus


Posts: 287
Joined: 5/30/2010
From: Earth, Sol
Status: offline
So just to get some inspiration how a core force may look like, I ll post my Barbarossa core here (difficulty: General):

3 Corps, each consisting of:
1 Pionier INF, halftracks vehicle
1 other INF (Mountain or my SE INF), halftracks vehicle
1 towed ART, halftracks vehicle
1 ARTSP (self propelled artillery, all Wurfrahmen40)
2 ARM (tanks, mostly PanzerIVs)
I consider my Corps to be at full strength and do not plan to expand here.

Liberos:
1 Recon
Though I often use only 1 tank in a corps and the other one as de facto Libero, for each corps.
Also my next purchases may be tanks and later some self propelled AT, they would fit in here.

Bomber Wing:
3 Strat bombers
2 Stukas
1 Fighterbomber
I consider the Stukas to be a misinvestment to some degree.
I prob. will convert the Stukas into fighterbombers at some point in time (eg Sealion42, where you need fighters). A fighterbomber can help at the beginning to gain airsuperiority, but is more useful after achieving that than a fighter.
My overall force is 3 units oversize, due to 3 SE units I got (1 inf, 2 tanks). So if you got less SE units by now, I suggest leaving out a tac bomber.

Fighter Wing:
5 of the best fighter models (+ the fighterbomber(s) in the beginning)
Im not sure that I will permanently enlarge this force, I hope it is enough together with the fighterbomber. Maybe I will buy another fighter and use it only for the 2 invasions I expect to face...

Special Units:
1 Paratrooper unit
It is my best infantry unit (2 heros), often saving me a whole turn to get some faraway victory hex (eg Greece, together with the non core paras) or crushing enemy flak & artillery behind the river-city


< Message edited by Locarnus -- 7/25/2011 3:18:39 PM >


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RE: Basic Force Compositions - 7/26/2011 10:06:03 AM   
jomni


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Joined: 11/19/2007
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Good info.  Based on this my airforce (I only have 2 fighters for the Moscow assault) is lacking and I need to beef it up.  I also didn't buy any paratroops after losing them in some battle.


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RE: Basic Force Compositions - 7/28/2011 1:14:28 AM   
duhsveti666

 

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Joined: 7/27/2011
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Great stuff here, thanks for writing this up it helps alot.

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RE: Basic Force Compositions - 7/28/2011 6:55:25 PM   
Rood


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Joined: 7/16/2011
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It's good to see thare are such different force setups possible.

I for example am heavily focussing on tanks (in my 2nd 1939 campaign) and less on airpower (due to the crap weather I always seem to get and a heavy fighter force is useless after you gain air superiority). Instead of bombers I use more SP artillery now.

In the end I pretty much convert all my infantery to pioneers, they can also finish off the (medium armored) tanks that would else retreat and come back to haunt me later .

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RE: Basic Force Compositions - 7/28/2011 7:33:57 PM   
James Ward

 

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From: Baltimore, Maryland, USA
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I try to have one tank unit for each infantry unit, 10 of each if possible. For support I like 3-4 artillery units. For air 3-4 fighters and 3-4 bombers. The problem with going air heavy is bad weather. They are useless then where tanks and arty can always fire.

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RE: Basic Force Compositions - 8/1/2011 3:49:24 PM   
SeaMonkey

 

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I have to come in and say paratroopers are one of the most versatile units on the map simply because of their vertical envelopment feature.  I keep a core force of three, I guess that would be considered a division.  Any more than that and it gets a little cumbersome to re-embark them, but perhaps four would be optimum. 

Unless you're in the last few turns of a scenario use them only around places in proximity of airfields so they can be reused quickly without much downtime and don't forget they'll need protection when in flight.

< Message edited by SeaMonkey -- 8/1/2011 3:50:18 PM >

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