How to win the Spanish Civil War as Germany?

[Doof doof]

So I'm playing Germany for the first time. Things are going alright. Then, I get a message from Franco over in spain:

"Many communists, no helicopters, plz help"

I see that the Republicans have only infantry. So I send over Erwinn Rommel and 3 Panzer divisions. Throughout their time there those 3 Panzer divisions would all become Veterans.

But that didn't matter, they always end up dying.

The Republicans seem to have a cloning facility that produces endless hordes of good quality soldiers, while the recruitment centre for my nationalist allies is a sewer - all their troops are crap!

The only 3 units worth a damn on the nationalists side are my own, and that's all I can send over - just three of them!

The furthest I've gotten is the outskirts of Madrid before my crap nationalist allies get defeated and I get encircled and just worn down by endless hordes of enemy soliders.

I've tried it several times now and no matter what I do, whether it's trying to just steam-roll rush or helping Franco build up a big army, it always ends the same way: superior number and quality Republican troops carve apart the nationalists, my 3 divisions get encircled and make their last stand against the communist zombies before being overwhelmed.

When we're limited by only being able to send over 3 divisions, and our allies are pure garbage while the enemy are superior both in number and quality, how in Hitlers balls are we supposed to be able to win this theatre?

[VampiricHitman]

You should be able to easily win the war for franco, use your light tank divisions to easily create encirclements and kill the communist troops. Your tank divisions will be much faster and armored than the garbage units they get so you should suffer virtually no losses.

Just keep encircling and killing divisions to wittle down their numbers, then franco will eventually have a numerical advantage and be able to win by himself. War of attrition basically.

[Doof doof]

But that's the thing, I can't. Unless you're talking about separating my 3 divisions into 3 separate armies and trying to do encirclements that way? But so far I've had all 3 grouped together under Rommel and it's like urinating into the wind trying to encircle or destroy enemy formations.

[VampiricHitman]

Are you actually microing each division or using battleplans? You need to order each division directly if you want them to be most effective. I rarely use battleplans to actually attack because they are largely garbage, ordering the divisions yourself gives you full control of the combat.

[GoldenTalon]

Just micro - use the 3 panzers and create encirclements of the republican troops. You can hammer any republican stack. Start near Madrid - make sure you don't let your tanks get cut off - leave one to defend your supply lines until nationalist infantry move in to guard supply lines

[Sir Squirrel]

Send some fighters and CAS to gain air experience. You can easily gain 800 air xp from de civil without using too much your tank division.

[|H|H| Fr3ddi3]

Send about 10k rifles to which ever side you want to win along with maybe 100 fighters so they get the air superiority bonus, that more or less wins the war with a hands off approach every single time, sending divisions is just about ranking up generals and FM's at that point. Divisions won't be keeping their experience as the template will be changed anyway.

[andersrlarsen]

You should send planes.

i usually send only planes, which also is enough to win the civil war if used correctly.
- send 2/3 fighters and 1/3 cas to spain civil war.
- send only tac to help italys war against ethiopia.
when ethiopia war end, the tac will transfer to closest friendly airfield, which is in spain. you will then be able to use double of the original amount of planes possible.
also notice that how many planes you can send depends on how many planes you have, and will increse depending on your production/loses.
having all those planes, you can pretty much decide how quickly you want the war to end. however, you can gain up to 2 air XP every day, that you can use to make better variants. do notice that there is a cap on 2 air xp each day, so it is enough to order your planes to only be active during daytime --> less planes lost because of accidents.
if you use the war to your advantage, and keep the war going for longer, you kan easily get the xp you want to make best possible variants to all your different planes (do try to keep reliability at 100%, since that means there will be no loses because of accidents)

if you decide to send divisions, you can also decide how you want the war to go. notice that there are 2 things that determine how many divisions you can send
- your total number of divisions
- their number of provinces.
at normal play, you will be able to send 2 or 3 divisions to the war, depending on how many divisions you have recruited. however, here is a exploit you can use;
- start early to train your troops to gain xp
- after you recived 5 xp, use them to make a new template with 1 brigade.
- spam hundreds of these 1-brigade divisions. they only need 20% training to be force deployd (which also means they only need 20% equiped)
since the amount of divisions you are allowed to send is determined on how many divisions you have, you can easily max out the amount of divisions you have in the civil war.

[GoldenTalon]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από andersrlarsen:

You should send planes.

i usually send only planes, which also is enough to win the civil war if used correctly.
- send 2/3 fighters and 1/3 cas to spain civil war.
- send only tac to help italys war against ethiopia.
when ethiopia war end, the tac will transfer to closest friendly airfield, which is in spain. you will then be able to use double of the original amount of planes possible.
also notice that how many planes you can send depends on how many planes you have, and will increse depending on your production/loses.
having all those planes, you can pretty much decide how quickly you want the war to end. however, you can gain up to 2 air XP every day, that you can use to make better variants. do notice that there is a cap on 2 air xp each day, so it is enough to order your planes to only be active during daytime --> less planes lost because of accidents.
if you use the war to your advantage, and keep the war going for longer, you kan easily get the xp you want to make best possible variants to all your different planes (do try to keep reliability at 100%, since that means there will be no loses because of accidents)

if you decide to send divisions, you can also decide how you want the war to go. notice that there are 2 things that determine how many divisions you can send
- your total number of divisions
- their number of provinces.
at normal play, you will be able to send 2 or 3 divisions to the war, depending on how many divisions you have recruited. however, here is a exploit you can use;
- start early to train your troops to gain xp
- after you recived 5 xp, use them to make a new template with 1 brigade.
- spam hundreds of these 1-brigade divisions. they only need 20% training to be force deployd (which also means they only need 20% equiped)
since the amount of divisions you are allowed to send is determined on how many divisions you have, you can easily max out the amount of divisions you have in the civil war.

Do you need a DLC to send planes?

[andersrlarsen]

air volunteer should have been made avalible in the FREE cornflake update.

edit; seems like that this is a WtT feature, not the free update...

[Guy Sepiol]

Easy war :

Send light tanks, SUPPORT the spanish, encircle and wipe them, bit by bit.

[GoldenTalon]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από andersrlarsen:

air volunteer should have been made avalible in the FREE cornflake update.

edit; seems like that this is a WtT feature, not the free update...

OK that's what I thought. You can just use tanks and mech if you don't have WtT

[WereWolf112]

Dendoris is correct.

At start, bang out your armies fast as you can (20:1 on volunteers, I believe.) (But do those you will actually use, don't make them too light for the sake of getting units.)
Hope for a late war start.

Send your 2-3 tanks with Guderian or Otto Skorzeny, and squeak in the SS motorized it you have a chance.

Keep as a group: retake central northern port near Santander.

Cut Republicans into small bite size peices the AI might actually finish off. Rinse and repeat.

Don't get too far from the main army, so you are not encircled. Also bypass the Russians, but make them priorities to encircle, cut off and kill.

Every Republican division you kill means less the AI Ally worries about, and can start to gang up on the remaining units.

[donalddawkins]

LANDLEASE

send poor old franco a monthly percentage of your rifle production and it'll help him vomit out more troops

[drewbstar]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από donalddawkins:

LANDLEASE

send poor old franco a monthly percentage of your rifle production and it'll help him vomit out more troops

Basically this. The #1 limit bot sides face, AFAICT, is gun production.

-
My personal take:
-If you're rushing Anschluss, you can probably get more than 3 volunteers
-I generally don't send 3 tanks. I send 2 (to pincer), and a motorized. Then tank/mountaineers depending on how much you rushed. Motorized is great for rushing to gaps in the Franco lines.
-Lend lease a huge amount of guns and planes. It'll turn the tide

For actual battle plans:
-Remember to give them attack plans before you send them. They'll keep the bonus when they arrive.
-I help them take the north port first. It'll free up some important troops to hold the line, plus the Republican troops are quickly encircled.
-After that, I split the North-East region away from the southern part. Drive towards the sea, hold the river.
-Push north and keep the encirclements up. IIRC this will grant them a military factory or two, so it'll help with their gun production.
-Swing south, cut off their coast. Encirclements are required if you want to keep things fast.
--If you encounter Soviet troops, you're going to have a tough time. Their mountain units are wide and on good tiles. Encircle them and wait until they run out of supplies.

-Consider leaving a unit in the capital if they push that far. Urban = defensive bonus and you'll keep the surrender limit at a good level.

[NotTheHRE]

Encircle everything