Freeing an area takes a lot of time

[daishi]

I have now 7h in the game, and still trying to free my first area (the first one after the tutorial one). Do I do something wrong?

What I did so far:
At first I just moved in with my mobile base and took out the enemy base, and 2 other locations just to notice that a forward base popped up, which was strong than the other locations I attacked, weird.
So I thought it is time to send in the homeguard to help, but they just create more locations to fight.
After a few fight the enemy strength is now at 50, I needed to head back home to resupply and the homeguard strenght dropped to 40.
I think I need another 2-3 fight to conquer the area... it would take ages to conquer the whole map this way. Are there better strategies?

My expectation actually was, that when I take out the large bases and send in the homeguard there is then just one final battle and I have the area. Or when I send in the homeguard before taking out the bases, they assault the bases and I help them.

[ExavierMacbeth]

Have you been killing random bases... or taking the Home Guard listed objectives?

After the Red vs Blue fight starts, the meter will get little battles or marked objectives under it. If you take those out then each one will noticably hurt the enemy... unless you lose, then it hurts the friendlies.

[daishi]

I think 1 or 2, I am not sure, but I needed to destroy 2 patrols close to a battle location, because otherwise they would have joined it and made it impossible to win.

So does it in anyway help, that I take out bases before I send in the homeguard? I would have expected that this give me some sort of benefit.

[McFuzz]

'send in the homeguard'? Do you mean contesting?
You can't take a region til you contest it. It's a couple fights after that before you can take it. Usually about 4 or 5.
But you can immediately contest a region the first time you ever visit it to jump right into capturing it.

Taking out the bases only rewards a small amount of Warscore if it's not an objective. Do the objectives. Prep before contesting, then do a whole region in one go, then rest and resupply.

[ExavierMacbeth]

Nope... Blowing things up before you actually trigger the Conquest mechanic is just "Raiding the enemy"... Good for getting supplies & gear for you, especially if you don't want to raise the Threat level of your "real" target... But doesn't help the conquest until Home Guard are activly contesting it.

Killing patrols after Home Guard is contesting will help a little (especially if you wipe them out entirely with all reinforcement units) but in general you get most of your score from attacking the bases they designate or helping them win their Battles (preferably without losing the Home Guard alliy units)