Strategy & Tactics

[tigerclawstyle]

and when i ask everyone here to come up with plans for breaking a stalemate or crush enemy defences?

to start with something:
you have 10 divisions (7 infantry, 2 armoured and 1 elite armoured for a grand total of 180.000 men and 900 tanks, 350 of which are slightly aged)
facing you are 22 enemy divisions (a total of 350.000 men and 2000 tanks).

intelligence suggest they consist of 15 infantry, 5 armoured and 2 mechanized infantry divisions, of which 1 armoured and both mechanized infantry divisions are kept in reserve behind the lines.

lets say the front line is quite like a straight line, with one minor bulge (about 50 km deep), both under your control, on either end.

the enemy does not have superiority in the air, but has a powerfull AA defence readied and waiting.

you are given the command over a airfleet of 500 planes, of which 150 bombers, 300 fighters and 50 divebombers.



suprise me with some good tactics, guys, I'm wondering what you could make of this!

What about artillery support?

[Seeme]

....

Anyway with tactics. It would be partisan, falls, airborne, and commandos. But I just mostly love partisans. They can attack from almost anywhere. Come out of a building, cloak, then strike when they see an AT gun or other easy target. And sniper ace is just... awesome.

So basically, in you can get a bunch of troops to harass the enemy, he will either rage-quit(90% of the time) or have a very bad front line.

[pariah]

Haha, you can't rage quit in real life, man!

[tigerclawstyle]

confusing thread lol. Keeps jumping from COH to real life.

[pariah]

That's where it's supposed to be, man.

Come to think of it, though, i guess Hitler pretty much rage quitted, didn't he?

[Tankbuster]

That he did. He didn't have much of a front line left though.

[Tico_1990]

@Loatty: I'm with tigerclawstyle on this one, I'd ask command for a bunch of NLoS howitzers. Let them pound their merry ways on the enemy's AA defences and when they are down, start doing bombing (both tactical bombings, runway cratering and interdiction) missions. Once the enemies ranks are thinned, their airforce shut down, and their communications and logistics severly hampered, I'd start making small flanking manouvres from this bulge of yours. In other words, I'd have my forces make a break, and widen (not deepen) the bulge one step at a time.

[loatty]

@Tico_1990: and the enemy is just going so sit there, waiting to get slaughtered? really?


BTW: this topic is about what you would do in real life, not COH or any game.

[Tico_1990]

With the amount of forces he has (compared to the ones you gave us), it's even unlikely that there is a stalemate, so yeah.
But for argument sake: if my bombers (or at least a good number of them) are F117's, then I'll just use those to pound the crap out of the enemy AA defenses and afterwards to start pounding his army.

[Otto Halfhand]

Nothing was stated about length of front or terrain in this problem. It is stated that a stalemate exists and the enemy outnumbers you 2:1. 3:1 is the normal ratio for victory: Your opponent is cautious. Sounds like the Ardennes. One third of your armor is obsolete: Sounds like France 1940.
Call for 2 more airfleets in support. While your waiting for support to arrive conduct a Phony War of posts and alarums. Recce to find the weak spot in the the Enemy's dispositions. When these conditions have been met take the town, cross the river, advance your Shwerpunkt  through the weakest/least accessible point in a deep penetration and disrupt rear formations and lines of communications. That's what I make of this problem.

Read Panzer Leader, Heinz Guderian  for fancy tactics.  A 2P vs 4AI easy compstomp on the Hochwald Gap map might simulate this. (High resources?). At start consider the town to be Sedan, the river to be the Meuse.

[loatty]

@Otto 213: wow, I'm impressed, i merely created a very basic example and you immediately link this to actual history...

your approach of this situation impresses me and i agree with your tactics.


BTW: I'm planning on reading Achtung - Panzer!, which i think is the best book on motorized warfare.

[Otto Halfhand]

I haven't read Achtung Panzer, Die Tiger Fibel or Die Panther Fibel. I  would be particularly interested in the last two. 
For good reading:
Von Mellenthin, Panzer Battles
Von Luck, Panzer Leader
Guderian Panzer Leader, what he did do rather than what he would do
Mantstein, Lost Victories
Liddel-Hart Strategy

Slightly OT but related: T. E. Lawrence, The seven Pillars of Wisdom.

Is there a good English translation of the memoirs or biography of G Zhukov?

[/]

[Seeme]

Real life?

Ill be defect to the winning side.

[Tankbuster]

Why you opportunistic little... I will join you.

[Vast enemy]

and when i ask everyone here to come up with plans for breaking a stalemate or crush enemy defences?

to start with something:
you have 10 divisions (7 infantry, 2 armoured and 1 elite armoured for a grand total of 180.000 men and 900 tanks, 350 of which are slightly aged)
facing you are 22 enemy divisions (a total of 350.000 men and 2000 tanks).

intelligence suggest they consist of 15 infantry, 5 armoured and 2 mechanized infantry divisions, of which 1 armoured and both mechanized infantry divisions are kept in reserve behind the lines.

lets say the front line is quite like a straight line, with one minor bulge (about 50 km deep), both under your control, on either end.

the enemy does not have superiority in the air, but has a powerfull AA defence readied and waiting.

you are given the command over a airfleet of 500 planes, of which 150 bombers, 300 fighters and 50 divebombers.



suprise me with some good tactics, guys, I'm wondering what you could make of this!

My military doctrine would generally call for a massive counter defence along the straight line, building miles and miles of bunkers, tank traps, and barbed wire, with complex trench systems and machine gun posts. i would also heavily fortify the bulges on either side, but have small openings in the line to allow vehicles to pass through, i would also construct it in a fashion that would ALLOW infantry to pass through freely, as a defender, but as an attacker it would seem like a maze of barbed wire and dragon's teeth. much like the siegfried line.

On the straight line defense, i would man it reasonably lightly with only 2 infantry divisions. the rest of the divisions will be stationed on the bulges, the Elite armoured division and 3 infantry divisions on the left. On the right will be 2 armoured divisions and 2 infantry divisions. the main attack would be on the right flank as a diversionary attack where it will draw some soldiers from enemies straight front line, weakening their lines further. after some time of fighting, the left hook will be unleashed and the 3 division's on the left wil drive through the enemies lines and go for their AA batteries, the 2 infantry divisions will spread to cover the holes left by the divisions. once the AA batteries have been weakened enough, the entire airfleet will engage the entire front of the enemy, forcing them into a tight and almost surrounded position. they will continually be ground into the dust and when they are about to break out, the two infantry divisions will emerge from their positions and attack them, putting even more pressure on the enemy, and finally grinding them into the dust.

Long yes, but it's a sure way of getting victory.

It's probably flawed yes, but it's what i could come up with in the short space of time.