Do i have to use battle plans?

[Dr.SwitchOff]

Or can i manually attack whit my troops like in HOI 3?
And if i dont do it whit battle plans, do i miss something there, like bonuces or something when attacking?

[BoydofZINJ]

nope you do not need to use plans - but yes you miss out on plan bonus. Think of it like this... if your troops know what to do... and train to do it for a few weeks... they will perform better than them just showing up and doing what ever left click you did.. Especially, if you have docterines that increases your plans capabilities. On the flip side, do all plans always work? NOPE. Sometimes you will need to manually click a unit and it will make a world of a difference. If you see a hole - and you can exploit it... i would do it ... but normally I let most of my troops move with a plan... and they act much better than me clicking everything manually.

[pavig]

If they're on a front line waiting around assign them to a battle plan. Just standing around they get entrenchment bonus, but with a battle plan they get planning bonus. They keep this bonus even if you move them by hand as long as they are moving in the general direction of the planned line of agression (or fallback).

It is worth using battle plans anyway, even if you micromanage troops. Once you are fighting on multiple fronts it is good to know that your troops will continue to act reasonably in line with your intentions when you are concentrating elsewhere.

[Dr.SwitchOff]

Originally posted by pavig:

If they're on a front line waiting around assign them to a battle plan. Just standing around they get entrenchment bonus, but with a battle plan they get planning bonus. They keep this bonus even if you move them by hand as long as they are moving in the general direction of the planned line of agression (or fallback).

It is worth using battle plans anyway, even if you micromanage troops. Once you are fighting on multiple fronts it is good to know that your troops will continue to act reasonably in line with your intentions when you are concentrating elsewhere.

Ok, was asking because i watched some videos about gameplay and when troops attacked by the own when assigned whit battle plans, it seemed as big chaos....wasnt sure did the mountain troops really went to mountainous area or plains....
But if its true that i just can give them battle plans, and then manually direct them where i want...sounds little better.

[BoydofZINJ]

Originally posted by Dr.SwitchOff:

Originally posted by pavig:

If they're on a front line waiting around assign them to a battle plan. Just standing around they get entrenchment bonus, but with a battle plan they get planning bonus. They keep this bonus even if you move them by hand as long as they are moving in the general direction of the planned line of agression (or fallback).

It is worth using battle plans anyway, even if you micromanage troops. Once you are fighting on multiple fronts it is good to know that your troops will continue to act reasonably in line with your intentions when you are concentrating elsewhere.

Ok, was asking because i watched some videos about gameplay and when troops attacked by the own when assigned whit battle plans, it seemed as big chaos....wants sure did the mountain troops really went to mountainous area or plains....
But if its true that i just can give them battle plans, and then manually direct them where i want...sounds little better.

Generally speaking, you want to have multiple threaters attacking. I will tend to have 1 large threater... the general purpose people. Then I will have another threater that is specifically assigned to certain areas. As Mexico, I decidded to invade south America and went heavy into tanks and mountain troops. As a result, I have 1 large battlefront of 14 troops (with 1 or 2 tank divisions) on the front. Then I will assign my Mountain Threater front to a much smaller area that only has... obviously mountains. Then I have my Blitz threater (where its all tanks and mechanized troops) assigned to plain areas.

You can have fronts that overlap each other... which means my large force has the entire front (to help in offense or defense) while the mountain threater normally only has 1 province as a front and the blitz threater only has 1 front. So instead of having a stack of 24... i have three stacks. I will sometimes use a manual click when I see an opening... but other than that I use a bunch of plans.

[Sandman]

Is this way of having plans that overlap the best way to make breakthroughs in the enemy lines? I struggle a little with that. Currently it's just my whole line moving and they will encircle but only if their obstacle is completely gone.

Is there a way to power through a weak point in a line with a mass of men? Does it need to just be done manually?

[pavig]

Theatres, armies and battle plans are awesome, but it takes some time before they click I think. The AI does a reasonable job of assigning the right troops to the right areas but it takes time to learn how to get the right unit composition and develop the best plans. Good plans go great on their own (especially if combined with the right air and naval support), but bad plans tend to turn chaotic and need micromanagement.

[pavig]

Originally posted by Sandman:

Is this way of having plans that overlap the best way to make breakthroughs in the enemy lines? I struggle a little with that. Currently it's just my whole line moving and they will encircle but only if their obstacle is completely gone.

Is there a way to power through a weak point in a line with a mass of men? Does it need to just be done manually?

I tend to do that with multiple overlapping plans. Have a long frontline of general troops planned to advance to say a river. and a short frontline with calalry/tanks/motorized planned to an offensive line on a control point or somewhere to cut of supply. Set the general troops fighting and they'll engage and start to occupy the enemy, then trigger the tank plan and you can break the line before they have time to disengage and close. You may need some micromanagement to deal with surprises or attack problem units from multiple directions but mostly it'll work as planned.

[qwe229a]

So far I have been playing useing a combination of both methods. Most of my forces are in large armies given the order to hold a border. Small mobile forces that I control manually do all the pushing which moves the border forward and your main force moves up as the border moves up.

As far as letting the AI attack on it's own?? Seems like a bad idea so far. The AI can hold a line but it cant effective push an enemy back and create pockets unless it has an overwhelming force advantage.

Also something I have noticed paying as the USSR. No matter how many troops you give an army the AI puts everything right on the front line. The idea of defence in depth of even a reserve force seems to be beyond the AI's imagination right now. I plan on letting the AI do it's thing once the germans attack just to see how it does but my guess is it will only do well if the attacking AI is it's usual sluggish self.

[pavig]

Originally posted by qwe229a:

Also something I have noticed paying as the USSR. No matter how many troops you give an army the AI puts everything right on the front line. The idea of defence in depth of even a reserve force seems to be beyond the AI's imagination right now.

The AI will spread out everything it's got along the entire front, so you really have to draw your own frontlines. If the front is narrower than the available force you'll get encirclement and use of reserves when possible. If you look click on the little red or green battle circles you can get a rundown of which units are engaged and which are in reserve.

Unfortunately the default behavior of clicking on a border and creating a massive frontline makes it difficult to manage battle plans. Drawing your own works much better. And if the AI is having trouble executing a battle plan due to not being able to bring in reserves quick enough just hit the stop button and allow them to regroup. They do pretty good when you don't dash them against a wall of death. :) As ussr though I think you'll need multiple armies and fronts along that border so you can reinforce/push/etc without it turning into chaos.

[qwe229a]

Originally posted by pavig:

Originally posted by qwe229a:

Also something I have noticed paying as the USSR. No matter how many troops you give an army the AI puts everything right on the front line. The idea of defence in depth of even a reserve force seems to be beyond the AI's imagination right now.

The AI will spread out everything it's got along the entire front, so you really have to draw your own frontlines. If the front is narrower than the available force you'll get encirclement and use of reserves when possible. If you look click on the little red or green battle circles you can get a rundown of which units are engaged and which are in reserve.

Unfortunately the default behavior of clicking on a border and creating a massive frontline makes it difficult to manage battle plans. Drawing your own works much better. And if the AI is having trouble executing a battle plan due to not being able to bring in reserves quick enough just hit the stop button and allow them to regroup. They do pretty good when you don't dash them against a wall of death. :) As ussr though I think you'll need multiple armies and fronts along that border so you can reinforce/push/etc without it turning into chaos.

Right now my concern is that if the germans break through and the rest of my line is being fixed down by combat they could be in trouble. I have been pretty happy to let the AI defend a border and Im only is 1938 as the USSR so I havnt seriously thought about how I am going to break down the german front til after poland/baltics/romania resolves but the thought of an entire border being engaged and when there is a break through the AI wont retreat from winning defenses is scary. Especially since the AI doesnt seem to worry about how it will plug a gap.

All that said in my first run through with poland I was impressed at how well the AI fell back to a non-border line that I created. I would have been even more impressed if the germans managed to knock me out of that game. ;)

So I am very interested to hear if anyone is getting the whole battle plan thing to work without micromanaging. If paradox can make the AI smart enough this is the best thing since wargames went from cardboard to microchips.

[Radioactive]

Originally posted by qwe229a:

So I am very interested to hear if anyone is getting the whole battle plan thing to work without micromanaging. If paradox can make the AI smart enough this is the best thing since wargames went from cardboard to microchips.

IMO, it works okay for most unit and front line management that you want to do. But really effective breakthroughs with encirclements it doesn't do.

I might like a smarter AI as a mod, but I think the unmodded game's AI might be better off not being *perfectly* smart. Most players wouldn't like it if they can't tweak anything on the frontline, right?

[Curiosity]

Hi i know this isn't very relevant and this page is very old but how do you chain your left click commands like i clicked on a unit and told him to go somewhere then can i tell him to go some where else but still go to the first place i clicked?

[Sandvich]

Originally posted by Wolf:

Hi i know this isn't very relevant and this page is very old but how do you chain your left click commands like i clicked on a unit and told him to go somewhere then can i tell him to go some where else but still go to the first place i clicked?

I'm pretty sure you can hold down the shift button to give a unit multiple orders.

[Curiosity]

Thank you