Occupying/invading tips?

[Milkfingers]

Hi All, I recently abandoned a run built around Russia and the EAU/Warsaw pact federation, mainly due to falling behind in the mid game. One thing I did notice was how hard it was for me to invade Ukraine (lol), as I would send in 3 units to siege down the province, but they'd get their ass kicked and maybe occupy 30-40% before I had to pull them out.

Is there a strategy or meta to invading other nations? I understand the rugged penalties, and diff in miltech too - I just feel like invading certain nations/provinces is a lot harder than it feasibly should be, but way too easy for others. Do I just build a doomstack? or are there other ways of mitigating the damage taken by resistance?

P.s I am definitely not Vladimir Putin

[Batailleuse]

super early you probably wont win.

you need to invest most of your economy into boosting your military power.

or just send your agents, capture Ukraine with them, force a peace, federate with Russia and then Ukraine becomes Russia.

same thing applies to all previous Soviet regions, you can first take control of the government, set Russia to allied, and after some time you will be able to Federate.

after 1 year federated you can then absorb them.

[DWI_Suriil]

Direct military invasion is the second last thing you should do. If you are definitely not Vladimir Putin , then bring army out and make peace.
First last thing you should do - nukes.

But if you absolutly want to go military - first kill armies.
Second , you need something like 3 units per region. So if you have only 4 , you can safly occupy 1 at a time. You have 6 - you can try 2 at the same time.
On occupation your unit suffers losses. So keep 1 fresh unit on the border and send 2 to occupy. When 1 unit is at 25% STR - pull him back to restore its STR and send in fresh unit.

Its long. AND while your army is out of its original borders you pay a hard price on economy. Wars are bad, usually made by bad or mad people for illogical goals, while you can solve almost all problems with diplomacy.

[Blockhead]

Treat occupying areas as a siege - having more units doesn't really do anything. Send one unit in to start occupying, when it gets low, send in a 2nd unit and pull the 1st out (taking care to make sure the 2nd unit arrives before the 1st leaves), let the 1st unit begin to recover. Send in the 3rd when the 2nd gets low. Repeat.

[fortydayweekend]

Purge beats invasion for pretty much every reason but especially because it's quicker and less micro

[Lovecraft]

Originally posted by fortydayweekend:

Purge beats invasion for pretty much every reason but especially because it's quicker and less micro

Except for uniting a nation with claims. The peaceful way requires purging, waiting six months, federating, waiting again, then unifying, and defending the control points all that time. Invasion takes the claims immediately.

[fortydayweekend]

Originally posted by Lovecraft:

Originally posted by fortydayweekend:

Purge beats invasion for pretty much every reason but especially because it's quicker and less micro

Except for uniting a nation with claims. The peaceful way requires purging, waiting six months, federating, waiting again, then unifying, and defending the control points all that time. Invasion takes the claims immediately.

Good point. Especially when the AI leaves EU federation on the same turn you take the Exec CP.

I think the wait is probably worth it if there's a free army