Amphibious invasions

[tyronec]

Am playing the campaign game and just got up to D-day. Launched my invasions but two of them didn't fire, as I pick up my turn there are 4 divisions on two amphib units sitting off the beaches.
Any suggestions on why that would happen ?
I cannot see where to review any of the invasion battles or airborne landings as they don't appear in the battle report, is that right ?

[Joel Billings]

Yes, due to the sequence, unfortunately you don't see combat reports from the invasions (they happen just after the German Logistics Phase and get cleared before your turn starts).

It's very possible that these attacks failed when they tried to land and the units end the turn "at sea". Do the units seem to have taken losses? One of them was hitting St Malo, which is usually well fortified, so it could have easily lost the attack.

[tyronec]

Hi Joel,
Thanks for the response.
On further inspection it appears that two amphibs. were defeated and 3 out of 4 para drops were repelled. While St. Malo is a level 3 fort neither hex has large garrisons now. This is my first campaign but when I was learning the game tried garrisoning Italy beaches with good divisions and they always lost against the AI so am not sure what to make of this.

Am at turn 47 on this game, have been micro managing my airforce every turn and took Rome ahead of schedule after 3 successful invasions in Italy and thought I was winning. However the game is probably lost now. I don't have an issue with losing a game in one turn however I would like to know why so I can learn from it. I cannot replicate the turn because it is a server game, my opponent has given me feedback on his move but he did not review the critical battles and in any case I would want to see them for myself. I also can't see how to try different invasion set ups for D-Day because it is all dependent on how my opponent set up his defence.

So I think it is a fundamental issue for the game that the allied player should be able to review their invasions.


Another question, my turn casualties were showing 137k, I can only account for about 30k at a guesstimate. The figure then resets to 0. Is there any way to see total casualties for the Axis turn ?

[Devonport]

One issue that affects invasion success is preparation.

Firstly, I always reduce enemy ports in the area and aim for high levels of naval interdiction to make sure the amphibious task forces arrive in as good a shape as possible.

Secondly, only go with 90 target preparation.

Thirdly, have high levels of interdiction over the beachheads and just in land. You can usually achieve much higher levels than in Italy.

Fourthly, have impacted on defenders capability by long term railyard bombing over a large area.

All this helps to improve your chances in the fight itself.

[tyronec]

Did prep. pretty much as described and took no damage en route.
Does it make a difference to interdict over the beachhead, I thought interdiction only effected units that were moving and so better done around the invasion hexes rather than on them ?

How do you split your air forces between ground support and interdiction ?

Can you tell if your ground support has come in during the invasion landing ?

[Devonport]

I do the beachhead 'just in case' it helps. Not sure if reserve activations to the hex are impacted, so I do it anyway, but you may be right and it's a waste of effort.

The split depends on how much interdiction I have achieved before launching the invasion. Usually it is quite high so I can put more on ground support.

Must admit I don't spend too much time looking back so no idea if GS has come in. But then I only play the AI so don't have the challenges you face HvH. [:)]

[Joel Billings]

Interdiction helps in ground combat as it forces units to keep their heads down and makes it difficult for them to move reserves at critical times. The way it impacts a battle is by causing disruption. It may not be this simple, but I seem to remember that a level 9 interdiction translates to 9% disruption in battled, but I think there's more to it than that. So yes, it's a good idea to fly interdiction over the beaches.

I agree with you that not having these battle reports makes it harder to figure out what happened. IIRC, we just couldn't figure out how to provide the info given the sequence. Of course the German player does see the information, but I realize that doesn't help you. I'll ask the programmers again if there's some way to retain this battle info.

IIRC, the unit's don't take the losses from the landing until just before they do the attack, so you won't see the losses when they are placed out at sea during your turn (very early versions of the game didn't even put the units out to sea during the Allied turn).

[EddyBear81]

NEVER, EVER make a direct amphib assault on a port that is garrisoned (which is every port if your opponent in decent) !

=> The manual states that when you are assaulting a beach, the defender takes penalties and any unit above regimental size is scaled down to regimental size (/3 for divs, probably /2 for brigades). So that makes it easier for the boys coming ashore.

ALL OF THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO PORTS : when assaulting a port, you are facing the full force of the unit stationed here, and depending on the fort level, you take extra damage (hell, it evens causes damage to neighboring hexes)

All things considered, not a good idea.

I recommend to read the excellent "where to invade France / Italy" posts in the forum, it is great advice !