Blitzkrieg scenario and planning

[henri51]

This scenario is a fun scenario for learning the game, and is also a good scenario to learn the art of planning. I am assuming you are playing the Reich with Fog of War and you havent looked at the opponent's forces. Since you have a huge advantagfe in forces at the start, a few small mistakes will not screw up your game very much.

The briefing says that you have a much stronger force (presumably enough to win if you play well), but the opponent has 5 cities and you have none and only just enough supply bases to supply your existing forces, so no unit production for you until you capture a city.

A look at the map shows that the closest city is to the SW, across a river and a large forest with a road passing on each side. The next closest is in the center of the map, and the third nearest is to the NE behind a dense and very large forest. What should you do?

You have 3 armies, North, South and Center. Each has a few armored units without any infantry, and a fair amount of infantry, none of them motorized. Each has one unit of non-motorized infantry and a motorized artillery unit. Your HQ has a few trucks and no infantry. Yo need the trucks to transfer supplies, so your infantry must remain non-motorized at least for a while.You have a couple of air forces and one transport with a couple of paratroops.

Since you know you are stronger and time is of the essence, you might consider throwing everything in the center, but hold on - your fast units are your armor, and they have zero recon ability (they can be standing next to an enemy unit without being able to see what it contains). You can presume that the enemy will have lines of defense and that his best strategy is delay - if he can build up enough before you get 2 or 3 cities, he could hold you off. If these first-line units contain bazookas or AT guns, throwing armor at them might not be the best idea...

Another thing: you have to protect your flanks to avoid small enemy units from cutting off your long supply lines on this long map. Because the map is big, it means you will have to mop up all enemy units as you advance to avoid having to leave a large garrison force behind.

You COULD send one army NE, one in the center and one South, but this has disadvantages. First, getting to the SE city means fighting a river crossing, and probably assaulting a series of delaying battles. And sending tanks to the big forest to the NE means a long series of battles with the denfender in thick forest, not ideal country for tank warfare, and therefore very slow going.Another disadvantage of this idea is that it leaves you without a reserve, an idea that would get you kicked out of any military college...

You have to send SOMETHING in the forest to the NE, if only to avoid enemies coming down from there to disrupt your supplies, so a couple of infantry units can be split from Army North to go there with orders to advance if possible and to hold if not.The rest of Army North moves forward to the central front that is sure to be defended by a front line.

Army South is sent directly South to assault the front that is surely defending the river line and to take the SW town eventually. Army Center moves Eastward with the idea of swinging South after the forest to possibly assist in taking the SE town, but remaining flexible with respect to other options. If the enemy is delaying Army South at the river line, then perhaps Army Center can pocket them from behind along with Army South in addition to taking the SE town.If needed, units from Army Center can also aid Army North in the center battle.

Your hammer is your armor and your air force. Moving your air forces close to the front can be dangerous, but because you know you are much stronger in this scenario, there is less danger of an enemy breaking through and destroying your air units.Your air force can be used for recon, and so can your artillery. The latter can shoot from 2 hexes away and allows you to see what you are hitting, so if there are no bazookas, then ram your armor through.

You don't know if or how many bazookas the enemy has in his units, but you can bet your sweet patootie that if he does not, he will build a carload really fast.

Sol you move close to the enemy, determine where his soft units without anti-armor are, hit the tough ones with artilley and/or air power to soften them up, cripple them with your armor and mop up with your infantry.You might have to hit blind with your armor occasionally, but be careful not to melt away your armor - an infantry unit on the defense with 4 or 5 bazookas can really cripple one of your light tank armor units.If you MUST hit an enemy unit with AT with your armor, support it with an infantry unit, you will have a pretty good chance of not losing any armor. From this you can see that when you have a choice, armored units should also have infantry - preferably mounted - as in real life.

(to be continued)

[henri51]

Never put your artillery in the front line; put them in the second line. You should be able to finish this scenario without losing a single artillery unit except from air strikes.

Choose your paradrops carefully. You can do it early on to cut enemy supply lines, and later between a town you want and the defending line ahead of it.

When I played this scenario, there was indeed a river defense line on the Southrn road, and the Central Army did wheel around the forest and head south to pocket the defenders of the SE town. A couple of North Army infantry went into the NE forest and managed to neutralise the enemy units there, and much later help to go take the Town in that area. The central town falls relatively fast - earlier than the SE one that follows.

At that point you have 2 out of 5 cities, and since you have exterminated much of the enemy, you are in good shape, but the enemy still has 3 cities producing replacements. If your kill ratio is not 3:1 or better, you could be sliding backwards, although most of your units are experienced and new enemy units are not. If you can get another city, then you have a production advantage and unless you have suffered massive attrition, you should win easily (4 cities required for that).

You have to waste time mopping out enemy units as you advance, which slows you down considerably, so you might want to produce trucks or horses after you stabilize your supplies and refitted some of your weakest units. You might also consider adding an intermediate HQ in the middle of the map to avoid a distance penalty as you push forward.

In sum,, this is a fun and instructive scenario that allows you to practice skills that will allow you to play better on less forgiving scenarios.You COULD learn afew bad habits because of your initial overwhelming force, such as putting HQs and aircraft too close to the front, forging too far ahead with armor when infantry cannot follow when the enemy is able to cut off your phalanx, and attacking without sufficient preliminary scouting, and attacking when you should be defending instead.

It would be interesting for someone to post a strategy guide or AAR when playing the other side, which is an exercise in fighting a retreating defense. The Germans were very expert at this (having done it for 3 years against the USSR and one year in Western Europe. After the war,when German general Von Luck (commander of the 21st Panzers)was released, the Swedes hired him to teach their army how to fight against a much larger force (the Russians, we guess....).

Henri

Henri

[Grymme]

Very nice posts. Should have been put in the War Room section though. Thats what its for. So that readers can find threads about strategy easily.

[henri51]

OOps you are right. Didnt think of that...

Henri

[Widell]

Maybe someone with admin powers can "fix" it?