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*** Feature Thread of the Month - Timing Land Attacks

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Aug 23, 2010
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First, I must say that I'm VERY new to the whole HOI thing. I'm very early in the learning curve.

I'm playing Germany, and am battling Russia along the Germany/Poland border. Russia currently has about 300 infantry divisions units, against my total land forces, hard and soft, of about 130. I have a VERY well developed air force.

Here is the problem ......

Every time I attack a province, I usually win. But it takes varying times for my forces to arrive there. The armor usually arrive within 24 hours, then the mech, motorized, calvary, and finally the infantry. As such, the forces trickle in a few at a time ............ AND GET ABSOLUTE ANNIHILATED by defending Russian forces of 30 or 40 !! This usually takes all of an hour to defeat me, and sends my forces retreating, with organization from 0 up to about 9, which takes a LONG time to recover from !!

I've TRIED to use "Synchronize Arrival", on the right-click attack orders, but this (for SOME reason) does NOT synch their arrivals, obviously. Am I doing something wrong ? Also, when I click "synchronize arrival", I have no other option but to attack immediately, which doesn't seem right. After I click "synchronize arrival", I can no longer adjust the time with the "+" and "-" keys .... they are greyed out.

Answers to my questions, or even an example of a skilled attack, would help me GREATLY !!

All help would be appreciated.

Thanks for help with "Mein Kampf",

MarkTeacher01
 
To get the most out of an attack you need to attack from different directions. Remember that your generals can only handle a certian amout of divisions under their command. For example a General can only command a max of 9 division IN TOTAL when attacking. So if you have 12 divisions attacking into a russian province but they are divided under 2 seperate armies being commanded by a general and Lt General respectively, then the divisions that are over the max command will suffer a -75 penalty. To counter this, use HQ divisions which increase the command limit by x2 (only works for Generals and Field Marshals) or you can attack from seperate provinces. Attacking from seperate provinces will add on the max command limit of both generals in the seperate provinces


Eg: General A attacking from A province has 12 divisions under his command, General B attacking from B province has 6 divisions under his command. Normally General A would have a command limit penalties apply to him, but because there is another general attacking with him he gets General B's command limit (9) added onto General A's command limit (9), giving a total of 18 max command limit. Now if General B had a HQ within his army then his command limit gets boosted to 18, giving 9 + 18 = 27 max command limit.

Now a very good question is what year are you attacking in? If it's 1943+ and you only have 130 divs to their 300 then there is a high chance that you will not be win this battle at all. During the early years (1940-1941) the Soviets get a huge maulus to their defence, to replecate their ineffeciancy at commanding as it was historically, but improves greatly around 1942-1943.

It is very odd that sychronize arrival isn't working. Are you selecting all your armies that you want to arrive at the same place, and then synchronizing? I'm not sure why it greys out ability to delay the attack, but really you shouldn't be wanting to delay an attack anyway.

Check the wiki for more detail about how to attack effectively: http://www.paradoxian.org/hoi2wiki/index.php/Main_Page
 
Thank you for your help, Midget.

I AM familiar with the stacking issues involved with commanders and HQs, that you pointed out, as well as attacking from different provinces. That is not the problem or issue. As I fully understand commander stacking limits, and HQ potential, THAT is why I initially have NO PROBLEM winniing a battle, and starting to move into a province. The problem lies AFTER the inital battle, when I'm moving my forces in. At this time, to the best of my knowledge, it's THEN that the Russians are sending in DOZENS of reinforcements with an AI eqivalent of "Support Defense" of the province that I just conquered. The AI usually sends in 30 to 40 units, from surrounding provinces in defense. If I could get ALL of my units to arrive at once, I think I would be alrignt. But the problem, as mentioned, is they dribble in, because of the speed differeces of the units, with armor arriving first, then mech/motorized, cavalry, then infantry. As each arrive a FEW AT A TIME, the are BLUDGEONED by the defending Russians, at odds of, typically, 40 to 4 !! As I mentioned, earlier, the results aren't pretty, with HUGE losses to organization !! If all 25 units could arrive at once, I'm sure I could put up a valient defense, with the help of Ground Attack, Intervention and Logistal Strikes from the air units.

Can anyone still figure out what the issue is, of NOT getting the syncronized arrival ? Or WHAT I need to do to get it ?

Oh, by the way, I'm playing in late 1942, October.

Thanks,

MarkTeacher01
 
My suggestion :)

Mere your army together. Of course arm-mot-mec in the same mobile corps while infantry-art/mil in the others corps,it's better to use pure cavalry corps only (unless you want to attach them in mobile corps).That way you still have speed advance for mobile corps. You'll probably combine in 1:2 ratio to get bonus.Try to use large corps with 9 or 12 corps so they will move with the same speed and arrive at the same time.

Try to make a "huge corps" of infantry consits of:2 corps which have 9 inf-art/mil under generals and 1 corps have 5 inf-art/mil plus 1 HQ under the command of Field Marshal. These corps have the same speed so they will come to the provide in the same time. You can also do that which mobile force but to me corps of 9-12 mobile division is enough

After you have that kind of corps so attack. When attacking there are some option.

1.You want speed and risk. Order all your force to attack. Your large mobile corps will arrive first and leave your inf behind. Your large mobile corps have more firepower (and combine arms) can withstand the enemy counter attack.

2.Set your mobile corps in support attack. Use your "huge infantry corps" to attack. Your men will arrive en mass (24 division at once). Then send your mobile corps their to strengthen the line or to attack another provide. Your mobile force will have enough strength to attack at once when your enemy is weaker due to the fail counter attack. If somehow your "huge infantry corps" get crush and have to retreat the enemy will also take many lose and your fresh mobile force (who is following inf) will be able to retake provide

It's good to pay some respect to your horsemen. They make a good reserve. Send them to reinforce your infantry. Single cavalry division also useful to scout the enemy
 
Not sure then :/. Synchronise arrival has always worked for me, what version are you playing?

Only other way I can think of getting around it is by incorporating your ARM into with your INF, that way on the defence they get a +15 bonus while also slowing down your troops. Otherwise I'm guessing you will have to time the attacks correctly. You can do this by having only 1 army attack and all the rest support attack, then cancelling the support attack mission and giving them the move order, but this will take a lot of trial and error and alot more micromanagement. If the mission button is greyed out so you can't attack, select the army then shift+right click to override it.
 
Are you giving the "synchronise arrival" order to all units at the same time? Ie. you select the units from, say, all three adjacent provinces, and THEN opt to attack and synchronise arrival?
Or are you using the order on a province, or even unit, basis?

Another one that I *suspect* exists, but isn't too common that I'm sure, is that terrain traits affect movement speed, but synchronisation is NOT updated, so a general that gets the trait during the battle that should result in synchronous arrival, will arrive sooner than others.

If it's neither of those, I'm at a loss.
 
ForzaA said:
Are you giving the "synchronise arrival" order to all units at the same time? Ie. you select the units from, say, all three adjacent provinces, and THEN opt to attack and synchronise arrival?
Or are you using the order on a province, or even unit, basis?
Click to expand...

This is the problem. All units that you want to arrive simultaneously must be selected when you hit synch arrival. I made the same mistake myself a bunch of times before someone helped me out.
 
Thanks, guys !!

I tried out "synchronizing arrival" after selecting all involved units, and it worked like a charm !! Thanks, Forza and ecnan for nailing it. Thank you, too, to Midget and nhinhonhinho, also. Being new, you both gave me VERY valuable info, about mixing forces, for maximum benefit, that I SURELY will use often, in battles to come.

As an asside to this, maybe this info on "synchronized arrival" should be put somewhere in a "sticky" file, for beginners, as this information DEFINITELY is not included in the 120 page manuel that is included on the HOI2:DD disc, and is VERY necessary info, that is needed to understand to operate ANYWERE near top efficiency, in battle. Maybe Forza can do this, so others don't suffer the same frustration, like ecnan and I did.

Thanks, again,

MarkTeacher01
 
No problem,
A recommendation - keep your fast, mobile units out of the initial attacks, then when the infantry has won the breakthrough, order them throught the gap, that way you often won't have to fight the same folks as you will overrun them, or at the least, keep them retreating.
 
Okay I will bite.

Thread Stickied
 
midget_roxx said:
Why sticky? You may as well sticky the Hoi2 Wiki while you're at it
Click to expand...

Inner Circle said:
Same here
Click to expand...

If you have a question about what a moderator does the proper procedure is to communicate with the moderator in a PM......

I decided to feature this as a sticky for a while as it is an important feature of HOI2 that tends to get overlooked. My plan was to "unsticky" (or unfeature) the thread after a little while.

I will consider other interesting topics as candidates for being featured should anyone bring it up to me in a PM.
 
Stay mobile

I would suggest u do a little hit and run as u are outnumbered by the wall of Sovjet divisions. That is: make ur breakthrough and when getting BT abort the attack. AI will "support defence" and u attack the moment they return to the battlebield. While on the run throw in ur very well airforce and hit them - but only on the run (airsupport by interceptors ofc) with groundattack. Take a look at situation. Sometimes i pick on an "unimportant" region - my decoy region's) - until the defences of my prime target(s) has somewhat been reduced due to AI mooving their divisions around. Then i hit hard and move in with a strong/defensive army. Reinforce by "support defence".
I thk its realy important - especialy for the opening battles - to be very flexible by feinting attacks, shift attacks and adapt. The AI is like an "old guard" type. In due time - with a creative and optimal timed offence u will get more oportunities and also options to hit with ur Airforces (ground attack: only on the run, interdiction: when attacking - and destroy infrastructure when u havent got other things to do or as preparations).

When the frontlines seems to stiffen - its time to swap targets - to adapt. A defensive and slow moving war is not an option for Germany - u get steamrolled by the Sovjets. Keep it mobile - somehow :)

Just my cent - and yes it takes micro management - in particular for the Airforce if u want to keep it :p
 
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