Amphibious Assault troubles

[WitOfTheKing]

So I have like 10 divisions of marines assaulting the Bahamas which is defended by 1 division of British soldiers. Somehow all of my marines get killed. The balance of power was greatly in my favor and I had ground and air superiority. How did I lose? I tried taking the Bahamas a couple of times. I even tried invading with over 30 non-marine divisions. That 1 division keeps pushing all my troops back every time. Am I doing something wrong? I'm also fairly new to the game.

[brutus_bg]

Hi ! You're right the marines are best for such operations, since the penalty is lower than for the rest types.
You have reserached the newest amphibious invasion tech? The max. number of divisions able to particiapte is quite low even for newew levels.
Also the general who leads the battle- is he at least Lt. General (for 6) or Gen (for 9 divisions)?
Landing max. number is pretty restrictive, so maybe try a carousel? (atacking with as much divisions as the limit allows, when they are about to break- cancel the attack and charge with next wave, etc.)
The lone division would benefit not only beach defense bonus, but also "no retreat". Is there an option to starve them? (if you let a fleet do indefinite "shore bombardment" mission, they can also hunt for convoys. Pretty neat sometimes)
And, of course, if the target is in range and there are nointerceptors- the Tac can help with lowering defenders' organization.
Good luck!

[WitOfTheKing]

Originally posted by brutus_bg:

Hi ! You're right the marines are best for such operations, since the penalty is lower than for the rest types.
You have reserached the newest amphibious invasion tech? The max. number of divisions able to particiapte is quite low even for newew levels.
Also the general who leads the battle- is he at least Lt. General (for 6) or Gen (for 9 divisions)?
Landing max. number is pretty restrictive, so maybe try a carousel? (atacking with as much divisions as the limit allows, when they are about to break- cancel the attack and charge with next wave, etc.)
The lone division would benefit not only beach defense bonus, but also "no retreat". Is there an option to starve them? (if you let a fleet do indefinite "shore bombardment" mission, they can also hunt for convoys. Pretty neat sometimes)
And, of course, if the target is in range and there are nointerceptors- the Tac can help with lowering defenders' organization.
Good luck!

Also when my troops lose they get stranded in the middle of the ocean. I can't seem to move them for some reason or load them back onto a boat. What's up with that?

[brutus_bg]

It's a little annoying, aye. The UI is a bit unfriendly when you want to chose between the fleet and the troops loaded in it. I mean, under the stranded soldiers there should be some ships. There are some ways to select the thing you want. One which always should work (unless redeploying, but that's other topic) is the land forces list from top left (where current battles list, the deployment pool and the decisions are).

[TheAmir259]

You have to be very careful on what you do. Here's a few vital points:

1) Use Marines ONLY for naval invasions
2) Make sure you are within the naval invasion limit
3) Make sure you use the correct commander
4) Use Air support if possible
5) Utilise Shore Bombardments
6) Make sure your troopships aren't intercepted

In-Depth Explanations:

1) Marines and Non-Marines doing Amphibious Assaults have different effects. Most Non-Marines tends to deal only 1 attack damage due to the overwhelming penalties. Marines on the other hand, only suffer -35% amphibious assault penalty whereas the non-marines usually suffer -99%

2) Carrying out an Amphibious Assault within the naval invasion limit is crucial. If you go slightly above the limit (even by one), all units will suffer overstacking penalties. It could go to as severe as dealing only 1 attack damage due to the -99% overstacking penalty.

3) Using the correct commander is also crucial. If you're using a Major General to lead 5 marines, you'll (once again) suffer overstacking penalty, but might not be as harsh as before. It's also a good thing to have higher rank commanders in the case of supporting the invasion with paradroppers.

4) Naval invasion battles will not be a quick one. Due to the duration of the battle, the enemy tends to reinforce that one spot and will usually result in a lost cause for you. Having Tactical Bombers doing Ground Support will help you significantly by reducing their organisation even more. Ultimately, a squadron of 8 Close Air Support doing Ground Attack & a squadron of 8 Tactical Bomber doing Ground Support tends to deal the most damage, just my suggestions.

5) Shore bombardments reduces enemy defense by adding a -25% modifier. It might sound little but it does help you in the long run to quickly establish your desired beachhead.

6) Never let your troopships be unescorted. Once they start their naval invasion, they're sitting ducks. If the enemy manage to destroy your troopships, not just that you lose the amphibious battle, you'll even lose your troops. If you set them on "Always Disengage from Combat", they will try to run from the naval battle, so your amphibious battle will also be cancelled, resulting in a lost battle on both.

Storytime

I played as Qing China in Kaiserreich several times. The last step would be to take back Manchuria from Japan so i usually set up armies of 2-3 divisions on each coastal provinces to avoid them backstabbing me. One of the things i usually see is that the AI (Japan) always lands with non-marines, and they usually send about 9-15 divisions in one go against my 2-3 divisions. When the battle starts, it always shows that the attacker is 75% towards winning but slowly, the percentage goes down and is going in my favor. 2 divisions against 15 divisions? Impossible right? Not in an Amphibious Assault. What tends to happen is that they'll eventually run out of org, at that moment i'll pull my 2 divisions defenders back on a retreat. The invaders will land, but they're badly battered, out of org and out of strength. My standby divisions adjacent to the tile will quickly kill them, it's so satisfying to see 15 divisions gone just like that. The AI did exactly what you tried, and if you were fighting me at that moment and it wasn't an island, i would've done the same trick.