PT3: Operational Manouever Warfare

Is this a good strategy?

  • Yes

    Votes: 10 58.8%
  • No

    Votes: 4 23.5%
  • No Opinion

    Votes: 3 17.6%

  • Total voters
    17

Sarevok

Civ3 Scenario Creator
Joined
Dec 27, 2002
Messages
8,407
Location
Sacramento, CA
" We will punch a hole. For the rest we shall see, we did it this way in Russia " - Erich Ludendorff, 1918.

This plan that Ludendorff describes was to stress rapid advance and disregard for the flanks. the neemy would be attacked along 50 miles after a breif 5-hour long bombardment including tear gas and mustard gas. The Initial forces, or Stormtroopers would drive narrow cavities in the enemy line to be overcome by the conventinal waves of infantry.

Although the German offensive that opened on the 21st of March achieved initial success, the weariness of the Germans and the arrival of the Americans forced germany to retreat and end up losing the war. After the war, Ludendorff's strategy was looked at extensively by Army chief's, but were wiped away by governments who did not want to see a second great war. There was however, one man who was finally answered and the government decided to apply these tactics to the army. This country was Hitler's Germany, the man was Heinz Gudierlan.

Gudierlan's strategy, called Operational Manoeuver Warfare was a bit different from Ludendorff's. It was essentialy the same strategy except that after a heavy bombardment that would continue to hit enemy points of communication during the assault, an inital force would punch a hole while the hole would fill with soldiers, and they would appear behind the enemy force, encircling it and resulting in very lopsided battles and victories. the difference was that there wasnt Artillery, there were Bombers, and there were no Stormtroopers, there were Panzers.

This tactic, used first in September of 1939 proved to be extremely effective, and has been the dominiating tactic in land war for over 50 years. This tactic is now most commonly known as "Blitzkreig" or Lightning war.

To put this in Civ3 Terms, you would have a good tank force, with at least as many, if not more infantry. You also need an extensive array of artillery for field assault, and an even bigger emphasis on bombers and fighters. Your goal is to punch a hole in the enemy lines, or could mean cities, (taking 2 cities in a 'row' of cities is good). Bombers are used to hit points of communication and transportation, such as railways, and more importantly strategic resources. Despite this, be sure to leave at least 1 intact railline, as this tactic emphasises speed. After the punch is made, you should fill the hole with the infantry and AT while your tanks and possibly some cavalry exploit the enemy's rear areas and your bombers reak havok on the enemy's Infastructure. With this exploitation, you can reach the capital quickly and thus you can ed the war much quicker because the enemy AI would be so demoralized by this sudden victory that it would make peace on really good terms. My only peice of advice is to beware of large countries that may be 'Russia Sized', as Blitzkreig tactics may not be as effective there and attrition style offensives may be the ultimate result. The most important aspects are Speed, Efficiency, and making sure you have a large amount of tanks left over.
 
Very confusing....but that's is how i play. If attaking another continent, first, unite a large force and carriers, and some nukes, if you have.then....charge!
 
I'm currently using a very similar strategy in my latest CivIII game. France is slightly behind on tech parity with me, but has a large army and good relations with other people. My best defence against Joan is a swift offense. I really like combined arms with each section of the army offsetting a weakness in another part. My initial opening move was to use bombers to bomb the troops surrounding my initial target, Chartres. Once down to 1 hp my out-of-date cavalry mopped up these units easily. The computer moved survivors away from the conflict zone. My large artillery unit bombarded Chartres, which was followed by a tank assault. Once captured I moved in infantry to hold the city while the tanks moved on to the next target. This assault took a long time in RL time but was very cost effective with troops, my casulaties have been really light so far. 2 turns into the war and France's mobile army force is in tatters and I have taken 3 cities and moving on the 4th, city 5 is Paris.

As France and myself both have railway we can move armys around very quickly. When I was invaded after the inital assault, I bombed Frances invading force and mopped it up with cavalry brought back from my front line. The benefit of rails was I could get them back instantly after the bombers were finished. Her assault force was very badly beaten and retreated next turn.
 
ok, at this rate im probably not going to write my next article becuase there is nearly no response to this article and if people arent interested in reading these, im not going to write them. so PLEASE post something here!
 
I think its because there are so many blitzkreig articles out there than noone wants to bother.
 
A question, to help out....

About this, kind of attack...how about, if i have only marines or infantary...and another civ has, modern armor and all..

What's the better way to go, with this strategy??

I tried to use it....but i lost so many marines and infantary...and i couldn't conker that city,and it was in an island.

I send in this attack batleship, and carriers..but...couldn't..
 
sounds like one opf those things where your playing a lever too high for your skill.
 
Some thoughts.

I agree that for the mentioned strategy you need plenty of infantry. Sometimes it is tempting to only build tanks since they are good on the offensive. However the way I play the game I want to get something out of my newly conquered cities ASAP. To that end you will need many many infantry for garrison duty in order to quell resistance and prevent cultural flips. Also in order to prevent anarchy in conquered cities it is definately worth it to set luxury out put at hundred percent while the war lasts.

I think the 'blitzkrieg' statetegy works best with small civs that can be conquered in 1-3 turns. I am not too fond of using arty or bombers, except in the open, since they tend to destroy city infrastructure. Capturing a city with a full complement of improvements is obviously a good thing. To that end armies will be very useful, so one will not lose too many units.

Correction to article: the name is Heinz Guderian, not Gudierlan. Not that I want to be a spelling nazi, however in this case I feel it appropriate to correct it. :)
 
Isn't it interesting how different people can play the same game and have totally different perspectives? I think I operate at the opposite end of the spectrum from Dr. Dr. Doktor in every respect ....

Originally posted by Dr. Dr. Doktor
I agree that for the mentioned strategy you need plenty of infantry. Sometimes it is tempting to only build tanks since they are good on the offensive.
Infantry in my games is just upgraded spears and pikes. I never build them, and the ones I have stay home to mind the kids. Mech infantry is a different animal, but the enthusiasm for foot Infantry in combat in all these articles is a mystery to me. They cost almost as much as a tank, they have lousy attack statistics, and they can't keep up with the tanks. Build tanks!! :hammer:
However the way I play the game I want to get something out of my newly conquered cities ASAP. To that end you will need many many infantry for garrison duty in order to quell resistance and prevent cultural flips.
You get nothing out of a conquered city if you already have a good sized core of your own, as it will be over the optimum city count, and corrupted to blazes. You need a silly number of units to avoid flips and if it flips with a large garrison you lose a lot of units A single unit can quell resistance, so I only put one or two wounded tanks in town until they heal, then reduce the garrison to one unit. Put a couple of tanks on guard duty outside the city. Guardian tanks can often cover two or more cities as they can be stationed a few tiles distant from each and still reach any city in one turn. Then if a city flips you only lose one garrison tank, it'll only have one regular defender, and you just use your guardians to take it back again next turn, with one less foreign pop point to worry about.

Recruit the non-resisting citizens into the IRS to get gpt out of the city, and starve it down to one pop point. Once the resistance is ended, rush build settlers to in-fill your new borders and reduce the foreign population faster.
I think the 'blitzkrieg' statetegy works best with small civs that can be conquered in 1-3 turns.
If the civ is small enough to roll over in two or three turns there's nothing subtle required. Just take it out! Flips should be no problem because there isn't enough time for them to happen, and resistance disappears fast once you've destroyed the capital.
I am not too fond of using arty or bombers, except in the open, since they tend to destroy city infrastructure.
I use arty and bombs (and battleships for coastal cities) to reduce big cities to below 13, and to red-line as much of the defence as possible to improve the kill ratio for my tanks. That gives a better chance for a tank to be fit to hit twice, and to roll forward to the next city faster.
Capturing a city with a full complement of improvements is obviously a good thing.
Not obvious at all. Infrastructure in captured cities doesn't do you much good because of corruption, except barracks for faster troop repair.
To that end armies will be very useful, so one will not lose too many units.
Use bombardment to reduce losses. I never build armies either! Well, just the one I need to enable the Heroic Epic. I suppose you could use Infantry amies as attackers, though each one will probably only fight once in a war as they will take heavy damage and then take forever to heal. Armies of mobile units are actually pretty restricting. All the units are stuck together, so you have no choice but to move them all at once and all to the same target. If they are damaged they take a long time to heal.
 
Originally posted by Sarevok
how did you get into that situation anyway?

So, i tried to attack, the other, i build up an defense in my cities, and build up an attack. I put the armies in war time, and i've attacked my weakest neigbhour. It was funny, because, i've created aliances, but, almost all civs, respond to my attacks on rome, by declaring war. The map was an pagea, and all covered by railroads, so the attack made by the civs was, very strong and fast. I checked if rome had any treaties, but they had none..i don't get it.
 
Originally posted by Sarevok
thats your way alan, but blitzkreig requires some infantry to fill the hole, possibly more infanrty than tanks.
Why? I am sure you are right about real life strategies, but we're talking Civ3 here, and the AI doesn't know how to do it your way. I've never been counter-attacked for more than a few turns at the beginning of a campaign, and the AI really doesn't pre-build many offensive troops, so it's pretty ineffective. My response to approaching AI forces is *always* pre-emptive, which again takes advantage of fast offense ... Tanks! I avoid letting the AI attack me whenever possible. So why do I need defenders? After the initial flurry, the enemy is down to defenders and longbows and whatever he can build in real time, and it's apples-in-a-barrel time.
 
Originally posted by AlanH

I've never been counter-attacked for more than a few turns at the beginning of a campaign, and the AI really doesn't pre-build many offensive troops, so it's pretty ineffective.

I'm sure you had played, in harder levels, in my post above, i suffer an defeat, with an attack of >50 units from various civs. I think that, in the ocasion, they build up an strong army,and when they declare war on me, they've send all.

The Chinese, in the game, attaked me, with almost 20 batleships, and transport invasions, in waves.

I've got the save if you like. Now on...i would built up my defenses, not just in the fronteir with another civ, but also near oceans.;)
 
Top Bottom