Where to begin as the Central Powers

[Archer]

I've been playing the game a bit as the Central Powers and I've been wondering where people start their offensives.

As the Allies its clear that Noyon, Vouziers, Metz and Colmar are weak points you can push trough.

However as the central powers you only have the bulges of Ypres and Verdun, and those are slaughterhouses to attack.

My main aproach has been atempting to surround Verdun by assaulting Sainte-Menehould and Bar-le-Duc, or to push trough Aras or Hazebrouk to try and cut off Ypres and Calais, of course, this meaning EVENTUALLY.

Sainte-Menehould also has teh advantage of covering my line by limiting attacks of Vouziers (which the ai wont do because of my force concetration there honestly speaking) and letting you attack Bar-le-Duc from both sides.

How are you guys handling your warplans?

[Heretek1914]

My first major offensives were into Ypres, seized it by April. I may have gotten lucky with the AI moving troops for offensives from Nancy, but early on stripping areas of extra troops and moving in the elites helps shore up the supply situation. I determined it would be better to seize Ypres in the early war before fortifications made it a slog.

My next steps were to go through Dunkerque or Arras to try to reach Calais but after losing Ypres the allies dumped forces into the region. Might still try Arras, but the Marne and the regions south of Verdun are also tempting targets. I don't intend to attack Verdun itself until late since they start with heavy fortifications.

Always invest in surgical tents and supply depots in areas before major offensives, and it definitely pays to overload on the corps from the attacking region. I find conscripts to be useless but they give you an extra 150 supply before the global bank needs to be used for your artillery and good troops.

Dispersing forces to other regions does not actually help unless you are able to chain great victories, in my experience. You only need enough to blunt enemy attacks and force a stalemate or only minor defeats. If you're in Ypres claiming great victories while the EC is winning minor victories in Metz, that's a win, the front moves for the CP

[Wenatchee Willie]

I'm stubborn and am still trying for Ypres and Verdun on the second turn, 10 corps attacking the 3 star and 2 unit Ypres, and 12 corps attacking the 4 star and 2 unit Verdun.

[Alpha2518]

This is what I say to do. Look at the bottom of the map on the French side south and 1 hex column left of Verdun. You will see a one star province. Make that your now look one province to the left of that one, that province should be your aim to cut off the southern front. I did it and I encircled all the provinces on the southern front to include Verdun and I just let them wither on the vine. One turn I inflicted -180 national will onto the enemy as their provinces just ticked away and became mine. Easy. Also took out about 10-12 corps since I counted how many I encircled without firing a single shot at them.

Ignore Verdun or any 4 star province. You inflict more national will damage by taking the two star provinces if you can repeat it over and over and I got an event that boosted my national will because I was doing so well.

First techs should be the level 1 supply depot, and rush the tech that give's bonus's to tech events. Then grab the tech that will let you give grenediers. Look on the infantry path and follow the tech upgrades for grenades. It'll be the one right before you get the flamethrower. Grenediers cost 20 supply to deploy so if you're going to use them, deploy ALL OF THEM on the deployment phase. They may only be 40 men strong but they will take out a whole company or two or eltie infantry in a trench fight if its 2 v 2. If its regular infantry I think they'll go up to 4 or 6. And they throw grenades INTO the trenches before they storm into them from open ground killing whoever is there or substantially damaging them. This works best with them in skirmish formation. I have seen it done in column formation, but they sometimes don't do it in column. They are best used in concentrated attacks. I find I get best results with 10 corps as each corps gets 1 grenedier so that's a lot of damage lets me push in a concentrated fashion to guarantee great victory.

If you lack grenediers and are facing enemy elite infantry, your only reasonable counter is your own light infantry. In such cases I reccomend have 3 elite corps for every 1 that they have so you are guarenteed to chew through all of their elite infantry with yours and still have some to spare to lead the assault. It can be done with two to one but more careful management is required to ensure your elite troops are not caught in the open so they can take out the allied elite troops in melee.

I also only use light artillery batteries because the suppression is worth more for my assaulting forces which procede in this order Grenediers>Elite Infantry>Regular Infantry>Conscripts. I don't reccommend conscripts EXCEPT as suicide scouts since they are only two supply arn't worth anything really. I only include them in attacks for the extra supply. When my forces assault I use column formation because I need them to get there faster AND before the barrage stops. If enemy artillery is coming in some micro is needed to quickly change to skirmish formation because heavy artillery can inflict at least half damage if they catch them in column formation. Once they are out of danger, back to column formation because speed is essential.

Later on you may need the 2nd warehouse upgrade whcih is what I have at most now as I use 10 corps to punch a hole continuously though the Allied lines. The war of movement is back!

[Iceman]

I just start a German campaign in Elite, just to test the "complain" about some players in Elite.

First turn, I launch attacks on Sainte-Menehould. Two major victories, so I cap the province the first turn of the campaign, without too much casualties.

Starting turn 2, the AI deploys reinforcements south of Sainte-Menehould and in eastern part of the front (Lorraine). But left only 1 corps in Verdun. So two options for me, attacking the last province south of Verdun to incircle French forces and wait 4 turns to cap Verdun without any losses, or attacking and trying 4 major victories. I think I will take the first option, since the last province is not so defended.

After the fall of Verdun, I will certainly launch an offensive in the Marne or another "run to the sea" to take Calais.

[Archer]

Ah both interesting points, I struggle with offensives still a bit, defenses im alright with, I think I was giving too much to defenses and spreading out my forces too thin.

I'm going to try the turn 1 cap of Sainte-Menehould a few times, but I'm affaid I keep screwing up that and getting only good, but not star worthy victories, it may be my attacking strategy, I will stop using heavies for now, but my strat of sending in a small probing attack with 4 units to get a foothold then rushing in with 10 to take over the trench system completly is probably screwing me too much.

Unsure still what to do with the massive stacks, conscripts I usually use as defensive troops and put them in the front, unconnected trenches as regulars stay on the second and third, but I dont usually hold against a 10 stack.

I also try to launch like 5 probing attacks on the other fronts but I think that may just be an absolute waste since I rarely get much other than a stalemate on those.

Also how do you handle the two regulars in the first trench?

[Machiavelli]

Encircle Verdun

[Alpha2518]

Originally posted by Archer:

Ah both interesting points, I struggle with offensives still a bit, defenses im alright with, I think I was giving too much to defenses and spreading out my forces too thin.

I'm going to try the turn 1 cap of Sainte-Menehould a few times, but I'm affaid I keep screwing up that and getting only good, but not star worthy victories, it may be my attacking strategy, I will stop using heavies for now, but my strat of sending in a small probing attack with 4 units to get a foothold then rushing in with 10 to take over the trench system completly is probably screwing me too much.

Unsure still what to do with the massive stacks, conscripts I usually use as defensive troops and put them in the front, unconnected trenches as regulars stay on the second and third, but I dont usually hold against a 10 stack.

I also try to launch like 5 probing attacks on the other fronts but I think that may just be an absolute waste since I rarely get much other than a stalemate on those.

Also how do you handle the two regulars in the first trench?

It may be worth noting to be more "mobile" in your warfare. I've noticed that when the AI reinforces a point i'm trying to attack, instead of feeding into the grinder if I pull back they will go on the counter attack for a few waves and so I grind them against my trenches. That may not always be the case or the terrain and trench layout may mean you need to keep feeding into the system. When it comes to feeding into the system I find this is advantageous when I have a large manpower and supply advantage and they have an entire integrated trench network from left to right so if I can grab the first trench line and immediately shuffle my troops to their neighbors I can just feed in more and more troops into the network and grind them down in melee. Elite troops work best for this method as they will overpower weaker units and be on an event footing with other elite units if present. Do not forget to withdraw your weak units from enemy trenches. This can be done, but you need to provide them with artillery cover to suppress the enemy so they aren't shot trying to withdraw so you refund some of the supply you spent for more elite troops.

Oh and I just noticed your last question, I only use elites for my offensive action with a minimum of 3 elite corps present. If I use standard infantry I make sure that I have enough of them to do it. But weather they are elite or standard infantry having enough artillery support to suppress the enemy is key.

[puree]

At a high level I think it depends on your own personal goal. If it is to win then it doesn't matter where you go through, just play battles and win victories, reduce his national will power. At least at solider difficulty battles are so easy to win that the overall strategy becomes irrelevant.

Most of my games so far have really been just testing various techs, and the impact they have, or testing playing a pure strategy (auto resolve) game.

Funnily enough I didn't find Ypres hard to take in my last game when I went for it, it was a bit later in the game, as I was wanting to test some techs, so waited until I had them first. But with 3 regions to attack from you can impose a significant penalty to the enemy when for the final attack in a turn, and because you only have to attack once a turn to stop stars refreshing then it is easy to grind it down even if you don't take it in one turn. Bizzarely after taking Ypres the AI left just 1 unit in Verdun, and I then took it with just auto resolving all attacks., which ended the game with the Allies on 0 national will to my 500 or so.

As an indicator of just how many ways to win battles there are, I will note that I love conscripts - I don't get the dislike others have for them. All the infantry types are good in their own way, but I make sure I have at least 1 conscript and preferably 2 in any expected battle, not for the supply (that is what elites provide) but to use them.

What conscripts give you is a really cheap force that in turn means a lot more other stuff. For example 30 starting standard infantry will set me back 150 points, 30 conscripts will set me back 30. That is an observation balloon or an extra artillery and enough supply to keep it firing for a good part of the battle.

Conscripts don't need to be that good, artillery will stop them getting shot, so it all about melee. As artillery will have reduced the enemy morale having the conscripts leap in will do the job on the first objective no problem. Then if needed you can withdraw them or push on.

It is also worth noting that, unless the patch changed anything, conscripts plus booze are amazing. Nothing mitigates that bad morale like a trip to the canteen before a fight. Get down your high level canteens, and send a care package before an attack - conscripts plus booze and letters from home will sweep anything away for just a few pennies of supply. Obviously the down side to that strategy is that you have focused on one branch way whilst the enemy does something else - every tech you choose is another you didn't, so will your roaring recruits meet tanks or mustard gas etc?

conscripts are also great in defensive battles, especially with canteens, but even without they can be held back for the counter attacks - let the enemy bleed at the start of the game, but when he starts taking trenches bring on 2 pt conscripts to retake them in between the attack waves, and force the enemy to retake them again.