Scorched Earth policy?

[unmerged(99265)]

First of all I do not know if the title is acceptable under the forum laws. If it's not please tell me to stop the thread asap.

There has been lots of situations in the game where the scorched Earth policy seemed necessary or at least a welcoming site. specially in the near to lose provinces it's a good idea to devast the land to leave nothing for the enemy to capture. Otherwise I have seen no option for attacking a province already in my hands. Perhaps I'm missing something or else it could give the game a more realistic feature.

 

[unmerged(87183)]

A rather pointless feature, just wait till the enemy captures the area then do an Infrastructure Strike.

 

[Krases]

It seems like a good idea as a retreat feature, just devastate the port and airstrip along with infrastructure and IC. It would transfer at least some of the cost of repairing all of that (in the form of a small TC hit and maybe a small IC hit) to the enemy.

 

[unmerged(99265)]

An attack on the enemy territory is recoverable. and rightly so. Well at most it can be no more than air logistical strikes or similar things and so the enemy can recover the IC and the infrastructure fast enough. On the other hand when the province is yours you have better chances of demolitiong everything standing in the province and so to devastate the entire land. Of corse this itself reqires much supplies and preprations. Perhaps a part of the IC could be assignd to scorching the provinces.

 

[Krases]

Yes, but the IC dedicated to maintaining this tactic along with a bit of ORG coming from the defenders who are retreating (they need to spare a lot of demo crews for this) needs to be worth losing, so for every IC lost maintaining the policy, the enemy deserves to lose three times as much.

I think the defender could also take a belligerence or dissent hit if they maintain the policy. Its best that this only be used as a sort of secondary tactic to good old fashion defense. Possibly even a last resort of democratic countries.

 

[kodiak491]

First of all I do not know if the title is acceptable under the forum laws. If it's not please tell me to stop the thread asap.

There has been lots of situations in the game where the scorched Earth policy seemed necessary or at least a welcoming site. specially in the near to lose provinces it's a good idea to devast the land to leave nothing for the enemy to capture. Otherwise I have seen no option for attacking a province already in my hands. Perhaps I'm missing something or else it could give the game a more realistic feature.

When you take a province it already simulates scorched earth by reducing everything to 0% and forcing a rebuild.
How about this instead? Have a slider setting that controls how much scorched earth to apply from none (leaving the area with damage but not as much as normal) to maximum (where the damage is complete and also takes longer far longer to repair). This slider would be best applied on the individual unit level for maximum control but it could also be applied on the policy page to be the same everywhere or on each nations list to affect just the areas fought over with that nation.
You could even choose to apply the area damage deliberately with orders to a division that is not in combat but you know will be overwhelmed soon.

 

[unmerged(45197)]

I think the issue is that under the current system the damage is repaired too quickly and too easily, and doesn't really reflect just how devastating a scorched earth policy should be.

 

[blue emu]

My version of a scorched-earth policy works like this:

Remember that each time a province changes hands, the Infrastructure level is halved... and that the current level of Infrastructure determines the rate-of-repair of all damaged province improvements (Factories, AA-guns, Forts, Infrastructure itself, etc).

When I am forced out of a province, I arrange my forces to counter-attack the instant the enemy enters it. My counter-attack consists of only ONE Division advancing back into the province, with as many other Divisions as possible giving "Support Attack".

So the Infra is halved when the opponent occupies the province, halved again when my single Division recovers it... and of course, my single Division is immediately driven out and the enemy occupies the province again (halving the Infra AGAIN), and I counter-attack again, just as before, with a single Division massively supported...

After four or five swaps of ownership, the province Infrastructure will be down to 5% or less... and will repair very slowly, because the (damaged) Infrastructure level determines the rate-of-repair of Infrastructure, too. The province will be basically a wasteland, and will remain that way for several weeks after the series of battles ends.

 

[kodiak491]

My version of a scorched-earth policy works like this:

Remember that each time a province changes hands, the Infrastructure level is halved... and that the current level of Infrastructure determines the rate-of-repair of all damaged province improvements (Factories, AA-guns, Forts, Infrastructure itself, etc).

When I am forced out of a province, I arrange my forces to counter-attack the instant the enemy enters it. My counter-attack consists of only ONE Division advancing back into the province, with as many other Divisions as possible giving "Support Attack".

So the Infra is halved when the opponent occupies the province, halved again when my single Division recovers it... and of course, my single Division is immediately driven out and the enemy occupies the province again (halving the Infra AGAIN), and I counter-attack again, just as before, with a single Division massively supported...

After four or five swaps of ownership, the province Infrastructure will be down to 5% or less... and will repair very slowly, because the (damaged) Infrastructure level determines the rate-of-repair of Infrastructure, too. The province will be basically a wasteland, and will remain that way for several weeks after the series of battles ends.

As long as you have the forces and time your approach works well. But it would be nice if it were possible to have a single unit do greater long term damage. Historically much of what the game considers IC and infrastructure damage took years to repair. A single supplied division with enough time and foresight could make a province a practical wasteland.
As a side benefit, this would open a good tactic of quick raids on islands and coasts for powers that know they can get ashore but not hold out lone.

 

[unmerged(99265)]

So the Infra is halved when the opponent occupies the province, halved again when my single Division recovers it... and of course, my single Division is immediately driven out and the enemy occupies the province again (halving the Infra AGAIN), and I counter-attack again, just as before, with a single Division massively supported...

Well nice Game simulation. and surely practical. However what I meant by the thread is the actual addition of scorched earth policy as a tactic. not as a side effect. Well in practice there is a lot difference between devastating the land and simply scratching it.

The tactic I'm looking after is something like what the Huchts chemicals ( Not sure about the spelling) did with Russian land while the Germans were on retreat Or what the allied did with Dressden (Though out of topic as it was not occupied but napalmed from air) as an ultimate to remain nothing for the occupying enemy but burnt land. ((Please don't consider it excessive)) I'm kinda just thinking about the tactical value of the approach. Nearly all the beligerants in cthe war took th same aproaches so why should the game not?