Chapter 17: Sic The Dogs Of War
“I love it when a plan comes together!”
Since this is a wargame, it would be nice if we all knew exactly what combat entails, wouldn’t it?
First of all, this is still a strategy game. You don’t fight, just for the sake of fighting. There must be a reason to fight. Combat experience is all nice and good, but any combat costs Manpower and IC to replace casualties.
We should therefor always be mindful of our objectives. Why do we fight? Objectives come in two forms: tactical objectives, where we decide to capture a certain province, and strategic objectives, the reason WHY we need that province.
For instance, the historic German invasion of France was composed of two strategic objectives: the destruction of a large portion of France’s defenders, and the capture of Paris and other important cities. These two shaped what we know as “Von Manstein’s Sickle Cut.”
The way we achieve strategic objectives is through tactical ones. Let’s look at each one in detail. Germany knew most of French troops and the British B.E.F. were situated along the border with Belgium, ready to jump into the fray should Germany have any plans like WWI (attack through Belgium first). This became the cornerstone of German planning.
Any assault into Belgium and Holland would be met with force. There was nothing Germany could do to stop that. But one man had a briljant thought: “how about we use it?”
Army group B, consisting of the 18th and the 6th Army, would invade the Netherlands . At the same time, Army Group A would launch a powerful feint into belgium, using the 4th Army. This would be enough to convince the Allies that the main assault had begun. They would send their men North to stop the fieldgray tide...and into the trap. (tactical objective 1)
Army Group B.
The 18th Army was tasked with pacifying the Netherlands.
The 6th Army was instructed to close any path north into Holland, preventing the French and British from reaching Rotterdam or Amsterdam. They would try to break through, hopefully not looking over their shoulder until it was too late.
Army Group A.
The 4th Army would launch a powerful attack into Belgium, aiming for the belgian coast.
At the same time, Panzergruppe Kleist would launch a quick, all-out race to the coast, cutting off retreat to France. (tactical objective 2)
The 12th Army would cover their southern flank, while the 16th Army would cover their rear. If succesful, a huge portion of Allied soldiers would be trapped between the 6th Army to the North, the 4th Army to the west and the Panzers to the south...and destroyed, thus fullfilling the first strategic objective.
While all this was going on, Army Group C, guarding Germany’s border with France, would launch attacks against the powerful French fortifications known as the Maginot Line, designed NOT to win the fight. Their purpose would be to pin the French army in place, preventing it from a coordinated counterstrike.
With at least 75% of their armies cut off or destroyed, the Allies would not be able to stop Germany any longer from achieving their second strategic objective: the surrender of France.
Why this elaborate example?
Because it is vital in the midst of war not to lose sight of who is supposed to be doing what. In the above example, it would be very easy, in the confusion of manually ordering about 100 divisions around, to send 12th Army forces to help in the fall of Brussels (Belgium’s capital). That was not their purpose.
Getting back to the game, I’ve found that it helps if we start from the corps level. Clicking a corps’ green bar to select all it’s subordinate commands helps A) to keep the corps HQ within radio range of the divisions (200 km range, remember from our lesson on the OOB?) and B) to keep them focused on a single mission as a unified whole (for instance getting the entire corps to
defend a single province or group of provinces).
So if need be, write down on a piece of paper each army’s objective in shorthand (something like this: I. Armeekorps - >Amsterdam, II. Armeekorps ->Nord Holland). Be as detailed or as broad as you need it to be. After a bit of practice, you will find that it becomes increasingly easier to keep most of it stored in your head. Come 1941, we will have an active front from the Baltic Coast all the way down to the Black Sea and beyond. You’ll drive yourself bonkers otherwise. For the longest time, I kept Barbarossa purely on AI control because the sheer magnitude of it all made my head hurt.
Germany’s military doctrine stands or falls based on speed of execution and the use of combined arms.
In this context, combined arms means the real-world use of the term: the combination of ground-, air- and naval assets to achieve the greatest possible result in the shortest time, hopefully with the least losses.
In HOI3, your armies will attack or defend, while your fighters keep enemy bombers away and your own bombers will decimate the enemy. If your chosen nation has plenty of warships, and the fight is in a coastal province, you could contemplate sending your battleships to bomb the coastline (much like was done during the US’ Pacific island-hopping campaign).
Speed of Execution:
The two ways to ensure this is by firstly, researching the right doctrines.
Operational Level Command Structure reduces the time needed to occupy an enemy province after a successful attack. In 1936, we researched a 4% increase in attack speed. By the time the war begins, our forces will move 6% faster than normal. This reduces the chances of having to fight for the same province twice (against reinforcements, for example) and increases the chance of succesfully cutting off the enemy’s retreat in some cases.
Operational Level Organisation reduces attack delay (the time needed after a fight to treat the wounded and reorganise yourself back into a cohesive fighting force). The basic time needed for this is 165 hours. This is modified by the length of the fight and other factors, of course. What the tech does is reduce the base amount of hours needed until you can give the division new orders. Our tech-rushing of this doctrine will enable us, by the time Barbarossa starts, to cut Attack Delay by 96 hours. That’s a lot of time between attacks. With the right modifiers, we will be able, in some cases, to just order the division into the next fight without any delay.
And let’s not forget the techs that increase a unit’s organisation. Organisation is reduced, along with strength, by sustaining damage in combat. More org means the division can last longer until they need some R&R. Combine this with the two previous ones and we see a division having attacked a province, move at break-neck speed into the enemy province and straight on into
the next one without so much as needing a breather. (Morale, by the way, is the amount of org regained per day)
Secondly, speed of execution also depends in no small manner in deploying our troops in the right place and with the right equipment (using engineers to attack forts, having mountaineers ready in hilly terrain, marines in the jungle,...). Stationing your panzers one measly province too far left or right might mean extra hours needed to reach their tactical objectives, or forcing them to advance through less than advantageous terrain.
Similary, it also requires us to act proactively: during any attempted breakthrough, the enemy is bound to try a counterattack to stop us. If he were to succeed, our fast panzers would get stuck on Attack Delay. So make sure to have extra forces present to pin the enemy in place, preventing him from doing the same to you.
There’s a neat trick to overcome Attack Delay, known as Leapfrogging. You have an army consisting of, say, 3 corps. You attack with one corps. When they arrive at their destination and are forced to halt, send in the next corps to attack the province behind it. The third corps is send forward, waiting for the second corps’ attack to finish, after which they get their turn.
This is where planning comes in, as well as knowledge of enemy strongpoints. Where are his airbases? How can they be neutralised or taken for our own use? Are there any forts they could retreat into? How many divisions are in the strategic reserve, one or two provinces back where we can’t see them? Questions such as these and finding answers to them are what this game is all about.
Luckily, there is two techs of vital importance here: radar and decryption.
Powerful, level 10 radar, stationed in Dover, enables a Uk player to watch German forces amass, and picks up Army Group HQ’s as far away as East Prussia. It tells you which air- and naval bases are manned with planes or ships and whether or not they are defended.
Decryption gives you more details. If your decryption tech is higher than the enemy’s encryption tech (hiding such things from enemy intel), you might see that there are heavy armour divisions behind the frontline.
Knowledge is power. Knowing where the enemy is weak is the start of strategic planning and the deployment of troops.
As you can see, Hearts of iron requires you to think on your feet. What would you do if the situation were reversed, and how could you stop it from happening to you?
That’s where the fun is. It is like chess, only with guns and Hitler.