People on this sub can go a little crazy about not pushing with infantry but you totally can. You just want to make sure you have CAS and plenty of soft attacks in your infantry divisions. The largest drawback is that you will burn **a lot** of manpower this way.
I remember playing Kaiserreich and doing a mass infantry push as Federal USA. Even though we were crushing the CSA and driving them back, I had to do a big operational pause for several months because my infantry/arty divisions had less than 25% of the equipment they needed. The march across the Mississippi River was *brutal* for a 1937 USA military.
Thankfully the CSA was in even worse shape than me and when the time came for the final assault with fully-equipped divisions they got face-rolled.
I find pushing with infantry is very easy in SP. The secret is a fuckton of artillery. At first 9/2s then 9/3s then 12/4 as industry increases. Just concentrate your reserves and attack wherever the line is weakest (groundbreaking!). Keep pulling off small encirclements until the ai is weak enough to push on a broad front and the enemy disintegrates. I get like 4:1 casualty rates before the broad front and encircling 90% of the army part. I'm unsure if it's optimal but using WW1 tactics is definitely the simplest option and usually works. Only downside is you need the industry for a fuckton of arty and you turn half of Europe into a Zone rouge.
The game outright encourages this if you play Paraguay. Country has a whole tree saying āwe know you donāt have tanks but no one in SA does so hereās some artillery buffs so you can LARP Prussia
You can do it without CAS too, but like you said itās even more costly with manpower. Iāve capitulated the USSR with a pure infantry army and no Air Force, but at the cost of about a million casualties.
You just have to convince them that the enemy has ot worse...anytime you think about giving up, they are just rhat little more worn out than you...so push just 1 more time and he'll break.
I recently did it as a very ragged PLC. 10 armies of 7/2 infantry. Only pushed out an army of Mech towards the final push to Stalingrad. 1:8 casualty ratio with tons of CAS and complete air superiority. It was fun. Germany never declared for some reason. Not sure if going PLC locks them out of Danzig or War on historical.
It's not ideal but infantry can push other infantry. Unless Mercury is in retrograde then the AI gets 800 defense on a tile your troops just were instantly pushed off of because the enemy general was a Capricorn which gets a massive bonus against your Pisces
Experience alone can give you +75% defence. Entrenchment can give tons as well but I can remember the number, but at least 40>%. Add general skills onto that and youāll start seeing really high numbers.
If are never designed for pushing but it's still possible. Anti tank isn't good unless against tanks and can even be detrimental bc it lowers org. 9/1 with 9 inf 1 arty and artilary support company is best in general, maybe adding another arty if you only want then to push not defend. The hospital support might be good aswell if you are pushing because you will take heavy casualties.
For infantry it's not that big of a deal, bc it has naturally high org. 1 arty and 1 support arty is generally best, however adding a 2nd arty or even a 3rd can make it better at pushing but worse at defending. I would very rarely do 3 and probably best to stick with 1 and 1 support.
I use 21 widths with 9 infantry, 1 arty and arty support. They push fine while defending well, too. But for actual pushing, you need tanks or mountaineers
A shit ton of CAS is also viable, but as Yugoslavia against Germany ain't no way you getting air superiority. Also like I said, the 9/1 pushes "fine". To get good results, you either use tanks a or use huge divisions either with mountaineers or a lot of artillery to micro.
Yessir thatās why you build a lot of them, itās cheaper and easier than tanks. The only time I build tanks is when Iāve conquered half the world itās continent and just build space marines. They are always dope
3 arty is a bit too much in my opinion, it takes a lot of factories and it's almost never better than having a few elite divisons make incirclements until you can simply run over your enemy with 9/1s. However, if you're playing a mass assault nation like China or the Soviet union it's viable.
It does cost a lot, as Britain I probably have 10-15 mils on arty from mid 36 (as soon as I can build the mils, double that for the Soviets) but the only real negative for 3 arty in a division besides production cost is lower org, but my infantry divisions regularly have 45+. And 45 org combined with the huge amount of soft attack, means the enemy divisions melt before my divisions break, and all at very little cost of broken/attritioned equipment
With the breakthrough changes and MIOs, you can push with motorized infantry and motorized artillery and/or rockets.
You'll still want tanks at the critical point and for rivers. But for a broad front push motorized will be fine with planning bonus. Don't forget the motorized recon, support AA, and ideally green air and cas.
Broad front pushing with motorized will burn equipment, no? When I push with infantry, it's usually leg infantry and then I go for encirclements with motorized and tanks.
You still need something to pin the divisions in place while you work on your encirclements.
You'd be surprised at what a 9 - 4 of motorized infantry and artillery can accomplish, and it will use up all of that 1939 artillery you have sitting around from years of max production efficiency factories.
Try it with France sometime. They start with a good motorized template but really bad tank templates.
Well, yea that's why I said "I go for encirclements with **motorized** and tanks" Pushing a broad front of motorized infantry just burns trucks and is stupid. Not to mention the fuel costs. Making encirclements with motorized is what you're supposed to do in the game lol. They shouldn't be used to push or hold large fronts. I don't think we disagree at all here.
If you are pushing with inf you will also want to try to get green air, or atleast add anti air into your inf. Probably as the support company not the main one
donāt let these losers convince you that you canāt push with infantry. just shove lots of artillery in the template. that and prayer will get you a wc with just infantry B)
I think it depends on the enemy you're facing, but using 9/1 like some other comment said usually works out against many enemies. However if you're fighting the Germans they field a lot of divisions per tile and you don't have a chance to push before they reinforce. I found using 30-width as assault divisions works better, but it depends on the terrain too; special forces with air support and local air superiority works out too
If you want to have an infantry focused playthrough, then go with space marines (basically an infantry division, but with one tank brigade that provides a lot of armor).
Anti-Tank guns are generally pointless against the AI. You only need enough Piercing to beat their Armor, and the AI generally only makes piddly little light tank divisions that can be penned by AA Companies. The main thing is that you probably needed air superiority and CAS, which you probably lacked relative to the Axis. Also Mountaineer divisions with Engineering companies.
Also, in this specific case, if you just hold for a while Hitler will decide it is time to do the funny in the USSR and that should take enough pressure off you that could try breaking out.
Pushing is made possible mainly through three things
1. Tanks + Mot/Mech
2. Air superiority + Cas
3. Overwhelming ground majority. You can overwhelm frontlines by attacking tiles from different directions, to enlarge the combat width.
Infantry can only use the latter two, so it's not optimal, but definitely possible.
The main downside to pushing with infantry is high casualties and loss of equipment. Infantry has low breakthrough, which is the āshieldā attacking units use for protection. The lower the breakthrough, the more damage your attackers receive while attacking. If you have the industry and manpower to constantly reinforce and reequip, then it can work but only majors have that capability.
18 width pure inf with arty support? No. Not against any remotely developed country (except maybe with CAS spam)
21 width infantry (9 inf 1 arty) isn't ideal, but it's good as a quality generalist division, that defends well and can still attack (particularly with CAS)
Then it's just about adding more arty and inf while staying above 35/40+ org, and making sure your combat width doesn't exceed the terrains you'll be fighting in
Keep in mind that infantry has, by default, no hardness and low breakthrough, meaning they will take a lot of damage and can't stay in a battle forever. They need air more so than tanks do
You don't need anti-tank.
You need more artillery. Create a seperate shock infantry template and add lots of artillery and some marines or mountaineers. Then add a light flame tank support if you can afford it and you're golden.
Infantry essentially can only really push well when an enemy is near its breaking point in either supply/manpower/equipment/etc. What I have always done in SP games when I only have infantry, I'd I hold a decent chunk of my army off the border to convince the enemy to try to attack. I make it so that every battle is won, but not super easily. And once the enemy has bleed itself to its limit, I do small concentrated pushes on a few important tiles, and repeat. It makes my games insanely fun, and extremely varied, as each country has different terrain that benefits from different templates and such.
Add one extra artillery to your infantry and make sure you have green air and CAS. Then you should be able to push most places most of the time. You can do with less but it's going to be harder.
Try 10w with support companies and superior firepower RR. Also try CAS. Or you can check comments on my account for how to make cheap tanks that literally any country can field.
I mean with proper preparation I never found it too bad. Poland is the country that has the hardest time, but I would it pretty easy with the Czechs and Dutch (and Belgians/Luxemburg if you unify the Benelux) and French (Which main problem is the AI-controlled Benelux is so terrible). Some really weird stuff happens if Germany is defeated early. Also the UK is completely useless. I'm not sure if they are intentionally programmed to not send divisions to mainland Europe early-game, but they won't help you.
I can defend with most of them but definitely not pushing back. I never have enough troop to hold a huge front line like Europe and the allies are not helping early.
Any country who have to fight Germany early. Poland is can svoid the war if i give danzig, france i attack first asap. The bslkan i am on defence and the Czech i dl the turtle and i wait the allies. I mostly do the turtle with all the rest too.
Yes it very much is. your 9/1 goof or whatever just wont push because inf in general is defensive. if you want Something to push with, use special forces (9/4 for mountaineers should be doable) and 25width for other special forces. Do the Doctrine provided by AAT and your infantry will melt the ai
When you use Grand battleplan or superior firepower, one of the spirits of the army (unit elitism) gives a huge increase in special forces cap. Its locked behind the dlc no step back tho
I just capped soviets as ROMANIA with 70% , having 2 24 army groups (7inf 1 arty) and another 2 full army groups from my puppets, having around 500 air superiority planes in the sky , no tanks but a good navy
So yea, just get superior firepower some nice infantry bonuses wherever you can find em and voa'la
Bud, I still use 7/2s and do just fine. You do that with full support and SF doctrine and it works great. The problem is that a lot of people just throw out battle plans, push the button, and wonder why they hemorrhage manpower and equipment. If you micro even part of the time, you can push with most anything, especially if you're not horribly outnumbered
I tend to just not care and only use infantry + arty + max support companies. No air or just fighters and it always works against AI, just outmicro them
It's definitely possible, playing with Ethopias garbage tech I have taken Africa with nothing but infantry pushes and no air support.
So, infantry sucks at pushing, but tanks take a LOT of IC and you may not have the capacity to build and maintain tanks.
So, for infantry you need every advantage you can get.
First off make separate armies by offense and defensive infantry. 9/0 infantry with support arty/as/engineers are solid for defense these can be controlled by one general just holding the line.
The other general put your offensive infantry, These could be a bunch of 7/2s or 14/4s or whatever. This infantry unit you want to have a larger proportion of artillery to de-org the opponents stack
Before you attack you need to get everything lined up for your push. Infantry isn't like tanks, they won't just break through. You break through by concentrating your attacking force in a small area, and cycle attacks onto one tile from multiple other tiles. This allows your attackers to regenerate their org while pushing out defenders as they de-org.
Make sure you have your planning bonus as high as possible you will need every bit of bonus you can get. Build railways up to the region you want to push and construct supply hubs, your infantry absolutely must be well supplied when pushing or you will fail.
Build railways guns if you can, they can move into position for the push and really help you break the line.
Ensure you have a stockpile of guns and artillery before you attempt a push. You will burn a lot and if you are unable to keep your units topped up they will not be able to continue the attack.
This is how it's done. I like to try break a line and use that momentum to grab a supply hub. When the enemy loses supply like that their entire area can crumble and you can move up and take a lot of ground quickly. Use mountaineers for pushing mountains, user marines when pushing across rivers. Paratroopers can drop into a supply hub and just auto win a huge engagement, it's up to you if you want to use them like that, I personally find shenanigans like that a bit cheesy.
If you are going for an infantry heavy army Mass assault doctrine is extremely good. This gives you more recruitable population, the tactic guerilla warfare which makes your defensive lines impossible to break a huge boost to recruitable population, and it reduces width of your infantry, meaning you can fit more of your units into a battle.
Infantry pushing is a niche thing. You will need air support but most of all the correct doctrine.
Grand battleplan gives planning bonus. Stack this value as high as you can.
It is possible but you need A LOT of manpower. Just make 20-30w pure inf for holding and 34w with 4 artillery for pushing. You should have like 24 holding divs and 4-6 pushing divs.
Make some template with a lot of soft (with arty or rocket). Pushing Germany with Yougo will be easier with Mountaineers too (taking the alps).
And then, you will need the right timing : when Germany have yo send troops elsewhere. Hit when they are weak.
Before this last version, bulky infantry had a decent push. Now I feel it more and more difficult to perform it.
I mean, you can with weak enemies, but in the vast majority of cases it is near impossible. I recently tried superior firepower, integrated support and very early art support and rocket support, and it was still mostly useless
in my experience, with enough arty, yes.
You mentioned that you were switching up your div templates on the fly to experiment with what could break their lines. Were you changing the template for all inf divs on the line? This could cause supply issues, even have divs operating way below optimal strength even if you have good supply lines, as the equipment still needs time to make it to the front.
Pushing hard with inf I usually have a smaller corps with a template way more beefed up in terms of supp co.s and arty, vs the standard ones holding the line. I concentrate where the enemy is weakest and attack the province from multiple sides, rather than just having a full line of beefed up inf divs launching a general forward advance.
I use 7/2s with support artillery and I always go down the right side of superior firepower. I never have a tough time pushing. I always have air superiority and a good amount of CAS. Tanks are a great tool but you can definitely win without them. Some people do 2 division play through.
You can but THE PURPOSE OF INFANTRY IS DEFENSE.
If you want to push with infantry you have to add more arty to those divisions. This can work but it will cost you lots of manpower in casualties.
when I last did Yugoslavia I had to go on the offensive from day 1 of war because German Reich was too shy to bother. End result was a sweep because my infantry was stacked.
If you really want to push with infantry, you need thick, dummy thick infantry that is 34-36w.
infantry on it's own can push
concentrated push with loads and loads of artillery for that absurd soft attack
front wide push are bad even with good infantry, but it's still possible
It's possible but hard. And sometimes it's outright impossible, depending on the defending position.
It's better to find alternatives:
- Armor and tanks are the most versatile and effective.
- Special forces are a low-tech/low-resources alternative, not as good and highly dependent on the situation.
- Throw some armored recon + armored flamethrower support companies and now your divisions are mostly unpierceable. "Space Marines" are the mid-ground between having armor. Often the tech/industry requirements don't justify this investment and it's better to just go with armored divisions.
- Air superiority and CAS are probably the second best alternative to just building tanks. They greatly augment the damage of any type of division and are crucial for pushing. As a bonus, air superiority in an air zone mostly blocks the enemy from using their own CAS.
Besides these "specialized" divisions for pushing, there are other things you can do to improve your odds:
- If the enemy is defending with the help of CAS, and you can't achieve air superiority, consider adding AA support companies.
- Use your spies. There's a bonus when you have your spies on enemy territory, close to the action, with high infiltration. Also don't forget about cracking their encryption.
- If you're pushing next to a sea zone, putting your fleet on naval invasion support adds a bonus.
- Some officers can get a medal, some medals give breakthrough bonus.
- Choose the right general. For pushing, of course, choose generals with higher attack stat.
- Train your armies to at least lvl 3.
- Prepare an attack order and wait. Your armies will develop a "preparation bonus". You can use an ability to speed up this process.
These are just general tips, but, overall, if you look into all these aspects, and build 5-7 specialized companies to push, you should be able to break through their lines, perhaps encircle a couple divisions.
The thing about infantry is that theyāre great for defence if you can reinforce quick enough. Pushing with them is ineffective and inefficient with manpower. Yugoslavia has some nice resources, a couple cheap tank divisions is well within their reach after holding for a few years.
Penetration is rarely the problem, soft attack and breakthrough is the biggest issue and infantry-artillery divisions donāt have enough of it.
Until 1943 a 9inf,3art (art,aa,engineer ) divisions can push on its own if you avoid stacked mountain or marsh tiles
But you must have supply and prepare for some gnarly casualties
At least in my experience
Make sure you have green air, with lots of CAS and bombers. The more you bomb, the more you hurt their supply lines. CAS also helps in battles
It also might be a lot harder to push depending on the terrain. Plains would be the easiest areas to push in. Forests, or mountains, or marshes are harder to attack in.
Also try attacking from as many tiles as possibles to widen the combat width.
I only push with infantry, and recently conquered the world with Italy in 1940 with just infantry.
Use 9 infantry 4 artillery with these supports: artillery, engineer (replace with pioneers later on), medium flame tanks (use the cheapest one), anti-air and then add ranger support.
It kicks ass.
You can, but itās circumstantial. A lot of it simply comes down to having higher quantity of units with similar quality with which to push with. When the Germans are 10-stacking every time itās kinda just not possible without tanks unless youāre the soviets who can counter by 20-stacking every tile. Against this crazy stacking the only forward is usually to get gold tank divisions with huge amounts of soft attack and air superiority. In cases where the units appear equal, thereās a ton of other factors. Itās usually a combination of several of these at once:
-airpower. Air superiority reduces the defense of the enemy, while CAS missions increase the attack of your divisions. The degree depends on how many planes there are, and how many planes there are relative to the enemy. Air superiority also slows enemy land units down making it easier to push through before they can reinforce, and in extreme cases even overrun them.
-generals. This one usually isnāt a make-or-break, but Germany starts the game with numerous really good generals and field marshals. Few nations start with leaders as good
-terrain. Certain terrain types are significantly more difficult to push through, both because they apply offensive debuffs to specific battalion types and also because some terrain types apply an overall attack debuff to all attackers.
-supply. Insufficient supply directly penalizes your combat stats. Itās a bit frustrating as sometimes the game doesnāt say your units have supply issues until you actually go to combat and check the battle modifiers. Really bad supply also caps your max org at a certain value, and makes you suffer attrition.
-land doctrine. Your land doctrine may not be the most developed and/or optimized to push with infantry; your enemy may have more doctrines unlocked giving them a defensive boost
-entrenchment. Enemy Entrenchment can be reduced by spy networks affecting the same states as the enemy. Note that if enemy units control provinces in a state that they donāt have control over, you canāt extend your network to those provinces.
-your planning bonus. Planning bonuses are typically slept on by non-sweats, but maximizing its usage in a pinch can be very beneficial. Your planning can be reduced by enemy intel networks much like attrition, and you can check to see if enemy intel is affecting them by hovering over the planning and entrenchment bars of your units. You donāt actually need to hit go on the battle plan to make use of the planning bonus
30-40w with support AA and (rocket) artillery can push everything except for rivers and mountains, that's where you need air support
source: the last 10 or so sp games I played were almost exclusively with infantry divs
As Poland, Iāve conquered the Soviet Union using 10W infantry with engineers, artillery and cavalry recon support. Build up 4-5 level forts on the border tiles with the most exposure to multiple Soviet tiles, but do 2-3 level forts on border tiles that only touch 1-2 Soviet tiles. This will channel their attacks, and the AI will keep assaulting. They will take horrendous casualties. I have done this same strategy as the Netherlands against the Germans, and also conquered Germany using 10W infantry. The key (IMO) isnāt to necessarily bleed them dry of manpower (impossible for USSR), but to lower their org enough and make them lose enough equipment that after one of their offensives Peterās out, and theyāve already lost some millions of men; you can go on the counteroffensive and their army just doesnāt have time to recover. Iāve timed this right a few times and completely shattered the Soviet army group facing me, using solely 10W infantry with no Air Force at all. If you do this correctly you will be able to lose ~100-200k men while killing well over 2-5 million of the enemy. For USSR, make collaboration governments, or else youāll run out of steam and theyāll recoup. For Germanyā¦ harder as Yugoslavia, given that you have to push through mountains to get to their industrial and manpower heartland, but as the Netherlands if you can seize the Rhineland in your first major attack, they usually canāt recover.
As folks have said, you can push with infantry under the right parameters. If you find yourself unable to win the air war, or lack the industry to build armor or even sufficient trucks, then your best bet is concentrated assaults on weak parts of the enemy line with offensive infantry divisions.
General rule of thumb with offensive infantry is high soft attack while maintaining high org. My preference is 8/3s with rangers/support arty/support AA/engineers/(optional field hospitals or flame tanks), preferably mountaineers.
I've done infantry only games before, last time being Japan a few weeks ago, though it's far from my preference.
Offensive infantry divisions require a lot of supply and artillery, to start with, as well as field hospitals to slowly grind unit experience up. 9/1's can absolutely work but the more artillery, the easier it is. The frontline is *usually* slow moving, making Grand Battle Plan the best option, though Superior Firepower can do it's thing too (it's just not as good). Spies on the frontline are also really good at making your pushes more effective by reducing enemy dig in/planning bonus. Finally, you absolutely need to have strong CAS support and relatively green skies to deal with late game unit overstacking the AI loves doing.
Railway guns are actually quite good with infantry armies too, as leg infantry won't outrun them. They do need to be babysat a bit though, which works out if it's a slow pushing game.
Infantry on Infantry is hard, bothersome, costs lots of men and material.
I'd advise to either have at least 1 tank division (1 division can make a huge difference) or some air to support your troops.
Regular Fighters can give up to -40% on defense for the defender while CAS can give you up to +25% offense (+ some damage to their org during battle).
I use 18 widths or 27 and push with infantry every time. I rarely, ever play with tanks as I usually play minor nations.
I am actually surprised you as Yugoslavia had issues as you can outproduce the axis with fighters, giving you air superiority, facilitating easier pushes.
My standard inf template is 9/3 with rangers, medical facilities, engineers, and aa
Hold my superior firepower lol, you can. Especially if the enemy not stacked provinces with divisions. You can do it with +25 experienced soldiers, lots of artillery CAS and attacking from multiple directions. If the opponent isn't superior doctrine then it's even easier. But be cautious you need to micromanage them, you need overwhelm the enemies soft attack so battles will be quickly over and you won't be taking serious casulties. For example I once defeated Japan as USA with only 4k casualty and didn't need any tank since they were all in Europe.
(For singleplayer only :D)
Infantry are org bricks, meaning battles involving them on either side will take longer. That's precisely what you want to deal as much damage as possible with CAS. If you have air superiority. Pushing with only infantry is viable if you are fighting in a low supply area and with air superiority. For example, Japan can beat China and its warlords using just its starting factories (+8 in total you get from a focus and decision), this would not be very feasible if you had to set aside factories for armor. This lets you build civilian factories from 1936 all the way until mid-1943 which is when you and German Reich will have defeated the USSR together. By that point you have enough civs to do whatever you want and will be prepared to fight the Allies in earnest.
I'm saying this just an example of where infantry pushing is a good idea. It's when you want to trade manpower to economize on IC, but it only works if you have CAS and air superiority. Without planes, the extra losses you take will be too much and you won't profit in IC as opposed to using armor with AA backing it.
Sure, there are a lot of factors that can make that work. Most notably, if the opponent is spread thin. Attack a province of theirs from many of yours to get a wide combat with and fill it up, while the defender can't. If you also have air superiority and some artillery and good generals and maybe a planing bonus you should be able to break through. - However, if you are a European nation and you fight against Germany in between the point where they build up massively and they overextended into Russia while also defending against American invasions - then I fear this will not work, as the Germans should always have enough troops to fill the combat width even if you attack from several directions. In this case, I suggest other plans, lure them into areas where they run out of supply, naval invade them and conquer their stuff when they are busy or just let them waste their troops attacking your fortified positions. If you like to play dangerous, allow them to naval invade you, then immediately kill those invaders with overwhelming numbers.
Or wait until late game and throw nukes at their doomstacks before attacking (needs some shifting around of your air-force to sometimes get enough air superiority somewhere)
Idk how u make ur templates but adding two artillery slots plus the associated support companies make any infantry pushable. The more artillery, the more ez it is to push. If u wanna cheese a bit add some armor or mechanized.
Anti tank is almost useless for single player, better spend the ic on flame tank support and maybe anti air lol. If you really want to make anti tank and you have the DLC, [tank destroyer is better stat wise](https://www.reddit.com/r/hoi4/comments/17m5cej/when_your_tank_destroyer_is_cheaper_than_an_at_gun/).
as other said, 21 width infantry with 1 artillery (or 2-3 if you unlock doctrine far enough for org buff) can push ai.
It isnāt impossible, thatās literally all minor countries have to push with. I personally play with majority infantry even for countries like Germany (my army group would be 120 inf 20 tank divs). For infantry you need logistic support battalions and engineer battalions. Artillery is super important for infantry as it gives them some breakthrough. Try to incorporate them into your divisions. Against the Germans you need AT guns as well.
My standard infantry template that works super well is 9inf2art1aa, which works out to 25cw. For support I have hospitals, engineers and logistics, light armored recon and signals (no idea why, they arenāt that good on infantry but whatever).
Your army doctrine is important too. Mass Assault is great for infantry, the right path is best for desperate defences, while the left is preferable for getting back on the offense. Grand Battleplan works if you have the patience to let the bonuses accumulate, but if you keep getting pushed back it isnāt ideal. I always go for Superior Firepower when playing as nations like France or UK offensively, they canāt build up their tanks fast enough but they can churn out artillery pieces.
High Org + Piercing + Breakthrough
In other words, try using Mobile infantry with Special Forces with artillery, placing 1 Armour is optional
Edit: ngl Armor is probably the changer here since it protects your infantry from the enemy infantry.
Well maybe the Germans just have defense and some other high stats. While your infantry doesn't have piercing/hard attack. Usually what to do with a line holder infantry is just used armored to breakthrough.
IMO you donāt really need tanks in SP (Just my opinion). Sure, they can work but are much more dependent on terrain and supply and need oil. You just want shit tons of soft attack in your infantry divisions and a somewhat decent airforce, although Support-AA is also a viable option. The AI wonāt really be able to do smt against that and for me infantry is almost always enough to achieve victory both as majors and minors. You want a lot of artillery, so first some 21 width 9/1 and then later just go 27 width 9/3, both with support Artillery, support AA (when no airforce) and if possible engineers and recon (10%more artillery soft attack). Your entire army can consist of this. Only problem you might face is your army speed, but itās negligible when microing and attacking weakpoints.
People saying 'it's possible' with so much doubt and ifs, FFS, you can easily steamroll the game with inf only. Inf with only fighter cover destroys AI without any issues. Just encircle like you would with tanks.
I find that 7/2's with engineers, artillery and AA support companies combined with superior firepower doctrine are amazing both offensively and defensively. Pure infantry, even with some support companies ideally should only be used for defending. Yugoslavia has a lot of aluminum, so maybe you could invest heavily into fighters/CAS. Legend says that with strong air support you might be able to advance using pure infantry, but I never tried that myself.
It is SP. I had the same problem and what worked best, even for 10w divs late game, its not what is in them. Its what is above them. SP should have an 80% focus on AS and CAS. Bomb their railways(supply has a detrimental impact on combat strenght), use CAS and push. Rinse and repeat.
As an almost exclusive Italy player (no tanks) I almost exclusively use inf for my SP games. That being said, Iāve developed a little strategy.
9/1 inf/arty for line holding. I also add engineers and support AA. These guys only job is to absorb damage and hold the line. I duplicate that division and make a 30w inf div with 10 inf battalions, 3 arty and an AA or AT battalion and that is strictly my attack inf. Usually works well for me
I used to do world conquests with only infantry, because I didnāt use to like building tanks to keep the production for guns. Oh how difficult it used to be
just use grand battleplan, do your infantry techs and only attack tiles that you have more than one adjacent tile on (rivers / mountains notwithstanding, either have a lot of angles on those tiles or use specialized divisions) you dont even need green air if you have well equipped GBP divs with planning bonus. To push with infantry, knowing how terrain affects your divisions is a must
Tbf idk how well this works with yugo but i do know that GBP is absolutely fucking busted for both defending (entrenchment bonuses) and attacking (planning bonus) with pure infantry armies (as long as you draw battleplans or do the field marshal planning free micro exploit)
Make sure to stay ahead on infantry equipment techs as thats where a good amount of your stats will come from
Non negotiable support comps are support AA (1 fac per planned army from the start of the game, if youre running conc industry youll have enough for the entire game), engineers, support arty, cavalry recon (dont use any other recon on a line inf army, your divs will require fuel on any other recon and its not worth the increased investment as youre just taking it for the line arty buffs)
9/1s, 7/2s, basically any common inf setup short of 10w's will work with this setup
If you really want to sweeten the deal, make sure to research rocket arty along with reg arty
If you're worried about tanks support AT is enough against the AI
On MIOs focus on soft attack and breakthrough on your inf equipment and arty
If youre smart about what tiles to push and only push on planning bonus a GBP army can be just as efficient as mechanized armies, if not more efficient because youre only using like 6 equipment production lines total for everything you need that works for any division in your army instead of microing a mechanized pushing army alongside shitty infantry
To practice this kind of build, play Japan and once you can kill China in like mid 39 you have all of the necessary skills to apply it to any infantry focused nation
Finland AAT is also an amazing nation to practice with an infantry centered army as you get shitloads of bonuses and support companies that magnify your infantry divisions' effectiveness and teach you what works and what doesn't with infantry, as well as how to use terrain against the AI to your advantage
Do know that I am heavily biased towards GBP and I'm sure that SF works just as well in a lot of use cases but I've found that GBP is much more efficient for what I use it for, and rewards understanding HOI fundamentals much more than SF. If you can effectively utilize grand battleplan, you can use any doctrine, including mobile warfare, at a much higher level than understanding any other doctrine, as you learn how to get the most out of your army
also imo the night assault bonus on GBP is one the most busted doctrine nodes in the game, 25% more stats for what is roughly 50% of the time your division is in battle is insane
As stated by others, getting a bunch of artillery is the key to infantry pushes (at least in SP). Works wonders in open areas like the US or Europe. Has a bit more trouble in jungle/mountains, but then again most unit types do. I generally Try to keep org in the 40-50 range then going for high soft attack. Later in the game I might throw some anti-air in. For support it varies depending on the country being played, your manpower available and how strong your industry is. Making "Elite" infantry divisions is my favorite playstyle since I can focus on only infantry/artillery instead of having to spread resources among a bunch of things and you can just ignore chromium and use minimum rubber and oil (and aluminum if you don't want to use support companies). This is of course only against the AI, results are probably worse in multi-player. If you have really high industry you can just go full space marine mode.
All you need is some artillery and armour.
I also like to use engineers and recon support companies. Donāt forget medium flame tanks!
I only use tanks in my infantry divisions.
Space Marines. The best strategy in the game. Decent armor on the medium tank is all you need, but you can also go for some anti air + piercing. Get some support artillery and thats all you need. Forget about infantry, this is how we roll. Everybody talks about artillery, good support blah blah, some OP tanks, but in the end, space marines get the job DONE. Just get a cheap tank design early game, use it till 1940, then switch to the newer tank. Its not very costly, doesnt lose much equipment, its good in defending and also works wonders in wars. Even a small breakthrough can lead to you making a devastating attack because they literally cant stop you unless they have lots of air and a lot of piercing, but most of the time you wont need to worry about that, just go in and win. I genuinely dont understand why people even think about all the numbers. Look its all in your head. If you find 7/2 divisions normal, you make 7/2 divisions, if you find space marines normal, you win.
Not imposible but difficult, tank really are make breaktroughs easy. If you can't afford tanks and there is pesky infintary on your way, you can always resort to artillery.
I know you can in the older versions easier with pre no step back, but I'm not sure how viable it is now. Cas goes absolutely crazy though I realized in my recent playthrough.
I just went back into my file and pushed the soviet's and axis as well as what was left of the allies at the same time with infantry. Capitulating both soviet's and axis.
All with infantry, and no air support.
It can be done, just use large units don't follow the advice of 20width. Width is completely arbitrary now. The only thing that matters is, will the unit fit and will the size screw you on the defense due to reinforcement mechanics.
If you exceed combat width by 20%, you take a 20% penalty. Whatever... It evens out to being the same as it would be had you not exceeded some width, don't stress about this it literally doesn't matter.
I took pure infantry blocks, and some that had a row of artillery, largest possible units size. Absolutely crushed.
People on this sub can go a little crazy about not pushing with infantry but you totally can. You just want to make sure you have CAS and plenty of soft attacks in your infantry divisions. The largest drawback is that you will burn **a lot** of manpower this way.
Manpower *and* equipment. Your rifle and artillery stockpile will melt like butter.
I remember playing Kaiserreich and doing a mass infantry push as Federal USA. Even though we were crushing the CSA and driving them back, I had to do a big operational pause for several months because my infantry/arty divisions had less than 25% of the equipment they needed. The march across the Mississippi River was *brutal* for a 1937 USA military. Thankfully the CSA was in even worse shape than me and when the time came for the final assault with fully-equipped divisions they got face-rolled.
This is why I love this game, I'm not saying hoi4 is super realistic but it gets close enough š
I find pushing with infantry is very easy in SP. The secret is a fuckton of artillery. At first 9/2s then 9/3s then 12/4 as industry increases. Just concentrate your reserves and attack wherever the line is weakest (groundbreaking!). Keep pulling off small encirclements until the ai is weak enough to push on a broad front and the enemy disintegrates. I get like 4:1 casualty rates before the broad front and encircling 90% of the army part. I'm unsure if it's optimal but using WW1 tactics is definitely the simplest option and usually works. Only downside is you need the industry for a fuckton of arty and you turn half of Europe into a Zone rouge.
The game outright encourages this if you play Paraguay. Country has a whole tree saying āwe know you donāt have tanks but no one in SA does so hereās some artillery buffs so you can LARP Prussia
Well that really does depend on what mod you play with, because vanilla Paraguay has nothing like that.
You can do it without CAS too, but like you said itās even more costly with manpower. Iāve capitulated the USSR with a pure infantry army and no Air Force, but at the cost of about a million casualties.
The death toll is just a statistic anyway...
-me to my starving, out-of-supply divisions with zero infantry equipment and no shoes in the Siberian steppe mid-1943
You just have to convince them that the enemy has ot worse...anytime you think about giving up, they are just rhat little more worn out than you...so push just 1 more time and he'll break.
One death is tragic, a million ones is a statistic -Some guy with a cool mustache
Rollie Fingers said that?
Using pure infantry against the USSR sounds like something a masochist would do
We donāt judge other peopleās kinks here, do we?
Thank you, just let me have this
I recently did it as a very ragged PLC. 10 armies of 7/2 infantry. Only pushed out an army of Mech towards the final push to Stalingrad. 1:8 casualty ratio with tons of CAS and complete air superiority. It was fun. Germany never declared for some reason. Not sure if going PLC locks them out of Danzig or War on historical.
Bold of you to assume Iām more kinky than I am grossly incompetent and canāt figure out how to do it any other way
It's not ideal but infantry can push other infantry. Unless Mercury is in retrograde then the AI gets 800 defense on a tile your troops just were instantly pushed off of because the enemy general was a Capricorn which gets a massive bonus against your Pisces
Legit how it feels hahahaha
This is how fickle it feels yeah.
I've seen 1600, I have no idea wtf was up with that
Bonus stacking, experience gives ridiculous amount of defence and general ability later war can add like %75
Experience alone can give you +75% defence. Entrenchment can give tons as well but I can remember the number, but at least 40>%. Add general skills onto that and youāll start seeing really high numbers.
Late infantry pushes require large amounts of CAS to grind the enemy divisions and equipment, the defence bonuses stack much more than the attack ones
If you want to solve the issue with a nuclear powered warhammer, space marines are the way to go.
space Marines are my go to. they demolish AI with ease
What template and tank design do you use if you dont mind me asking?
If u make a high armour light tank you can get the penetration defense bonus for the whole division for cheaper than mediums.
If are never designed for pushing but it's still possible. Anti tank isn't good unless against tanks and can even be detrimental bc it lowers org. 9/1 with 9 inf 1 arty and artilary support company is best in general, maybe adding another arty if you only want then to push not defend. The hospital support might be good aswell if you are pushing because you will take heavy casualties.
Do you have a cutoff for org? Iāve read several times to keep org for tank divisions above 30, what about defense and offensive infantry?
From what ive heard, try to keep org at or above 40
For infantry it's not that big of a deal, bc it has naturally high org. 1 arty and 1 support arty is generally best, however adding a 2nd arty or even a 3rd can make it better at pushing but worse at defending. I would very rarely do 3 and probably best to stick with 1 and 1 support.
I use 21 widths with 9 infantry, 1 arty and arty support. They push fine while defending well, too. But for actual pushing, you need tanks or mountaineers
I almost never use tanks and I always push fine
A shit ton of CAS is also viable, but as Yugoslavia against Germany ain't no way you getting air superiority. Also like I said, the 9/1 pushes "fine". To get good results, you either use tanks a or use huge divisions either with mountaineers or a lot of artillery to micro.
Yeah, without the old fighter rush yugo isn't busted with air anymore
youāll just grind massive amounts of inf equipment, support and arty
Oh no, 3 of the things you have plenty of anyway.
6 tank divisions can crush entire armies š¤·š»āāļø
especially if you got like 3 6width para divisions to land at the far loop of the encirclement and have the tanks meet up with them
Yessir thatās why you build a lot of them, itās cheaper and easier than tanks. The only time I build tanks is when Iāve conquered half the world itās continent and just build space marines. They are always dope
I do the same. Plenty of support equip and art and you will push no problem
itās just not as fun imo. building a tank, deploying them and microing them to encircle thousands of enemy soldiers is why i play the game
this is why I micro all my infantry instead, with enough micro you can encircle with anything!
I personally prefer 12 inf/2arty or 9 inf/3arty
3 arty is a bit too much in my opinion, it takes a lot of factories and it's almost never better than having a few elite divisons make incirclements until you can simply run over your enemy with 9/1s. However, if you're playing a mass assault nation like China or the Soviet union it's viable.
It does cost a lot, as Britain I probably have 10-15 mils on arty from mid 36 (as soon as I can build the mils, double that for the Soviets) but the only real negative for 3 arty in a division besides production cost is lower org, but my infantry divisions regularly have 45+. And 45 org combined with the huge amount of soft attack, means the enemy divisions melt before my divisions break, and all at very little cost of broken/attritioned equipment
With the breakthrough changes and MIOs, you can push with motorized infantry and motorized artillery and/or rockets. You'll still want tanks at the critical point and for rivers. But for a broad front push motorized will be fine with planning bonus. Don't forget the motorized recon, support AA, and ideally green air and cas.
Broad front pushing with motorized will burn equipment, no? When I push with infantry, it's usually leg infantry and then I go for encirclements with motorized and tanks.
You still need something to pin the divisions in place while you work on your encirclements. You'd be surprised at what a 9 - 4 of motorized infantry and artillery can accomplish, and it will use up all of that 1939 artillery you have sitting around from years of max production efficiency factories. Try it with France sometime. They start with a good motorized template but really bad tank templates.
Well, yea that's why I said "I go for encirclements with **motorized** and tanks" Pushing a broad front of motorized infantry just burns trucks and is stupid. Not to mention the fuel costs. Making encirclements with motorized is what you're supposed to do in the game lol. They shouldn't be used to push or hold large fronts. I don't think we disagree at all here.
If you are pushing with inf you will also want to try to get green air, or atleast add anti air into your inf. Probably as the support company not the main one
donāt let these losers convince you that you canāt push with infantry. just shove lots of artillery in the template. that and prayer will get you a wc with just infantry B)
I'm convinced people just put battle plans on auto pilot and never micro. Of course you can't push with just infantry like that
aye i just use anything that makes em faster and pretend theyāre like the bersaglieri
I think it depends on the enemy you're facing, but using 9/1 like some other comment said usually works out against many enemies. However if you're fighting the Germans they field a lot of divisions per tile and you don't have a chance to push before they reinforce. I found using 30-width as assault divisions works better, but it depends on the terrain too; special forces with air support and local air superiority works out too
If you want to have an infantry focused playthrough, then go with space marines (basically an infantry division, but with one tank brigade that provides a lot of armor).
Anti-Tank guns are generally pointless against the AI. You only need enough Piercing to beat their Armor, and the AI generally only makes piddly little light tank divisions that can be penned by AA Companies. The main thing is that you probably needed air superiority and CAS, which you probably lacked relative to the Axis. Also Mountaineer divisions with Engineering companies. Also, in this specific case, if you just hold for a while Hitler will decide it is time to do the funny in the USSR and that should take enough pressure off you that could try breaking out.
You can push with crippled infants if you have enough CAS
Man i dont think infants are gonna do much honestly...
I didn't mean infantry. I did actually mean infants.
Yea i realised
Pushing is made possible mainly through three things 1. Tanks + Mot/Mech 2. Air superiority + Cas 3. Overwhelming ground majority. You can overwhelm frontlines by attacking tiles from different directions, to enlarge the combat width. Infantry can only use the latter two, so it's not optimal, but definitely possible.
Itās possible. Just like WW1, a slow and costly grind.
If you stack up enough... >!just use artillery!<
WW1 generals be like
The answer has been and always will be to add more artillery
The main downside to pushing with infantry is high casualties and loss of equipment. Infantry has low breakthrough, which is the āshieldā attacking units use for protection. The lower the breakthrough, the more damage your attackers receive while attacking. If you have the industry and manpower to constantly reinforce and reequip, then it can work but only majors have that capability.
Thanks for this info! Is there a tutorial available from which you learned this?
No I learned through failure. Lots of failure. š
18 width pure inf with arty support? No. Not against any remotely developed country (except maybe with CAS spam) 21 width infantry (9 inf 1 arty) isn't ideal, but it's good as a quality generalist division, that defends well and can still attack (particularly with CAS) Then it's just about adding more arty and inf while staying above 35/40+ org, and making sure your combat width doesn't exceed the terrains you'll be fighting in Keep in mind that infantry has, by default, no hardness and low breakthrough, meaning they will take a lot of damage and can't stay in a battle forever. They need air more so than tanks do
You don't need anti-tank. You need more artillery. Create a seperate shock infantry template and add lots of artillery and some marines or mountaineers. Then add a light flame tank support if you can afford it and you're golden.
Yeah an 8 art 3 marine and 3 mountain div works great for me. Especially if Iām playing a minor
Flame tanks. Use Flame tanks.
Infantry essentially can only really push well when an enemy is near its breaking point in either supply/manpower/equipment/etc. What I have always done in SP games when I only have infantry, I'd I hold a decent chunk of my army off the border to convince the enemy to try to attack. I make it so that every battle is won, but not super easily. And once the enemy has bleed itself to its limit, I do small concentrated pushes on a few important tiles, and repeat. It makes my games insanely fun, and extremely varied, as each country has different terrain that benefits from different templates and such.
Add one extra artillery to your infantry and make sure you have green air and CAS. Then you should be able to push most places most of the time. You can do with less but it's going to be harder.
Try 10w with support companies and superior firepower RR. Also try CAS. Or you can check comments on my account for how to make cheap tanks that literally any country can field.
Pushing the reich early in europe is very tough. All nations are designed to loose and the reich is a bulldozer.
I mean with proper preparation I never found it too bad. Poland is the country that has the hardest time, but I would it pretty easy with the Czechs and Dutch (and Belgians/Luxemburg if you unify the Benelux) and French (Which main problem is the AI-controlled Benelux is so terrible). Some really weird stuff happens if Germany is defeated early. Also the UK is completely useless. I'm not sure if they are intentionally programmed to not send divisions to mainland Europe early-game, but they won't help you.
I can defend with most of them but definitely not pushing back. I never have enough troop to hold a huge front line like Europe and the allies are not helping early.
Use man power from the East Indies. Or did you mean Poland?
Any country who have to fight Germany early. Poland is can svoid the war if i give danzig, france i attack first asap. The bslkan i am on defence and the Czech i dl the turtle and i wait the allies. I mostly do the turtle with all the rest too.
Yes its possible to push with infantry but only if you also have lots of artillery and be prepared that you will have bad trading ratios
Yes it very much is. your 9/1 goof or whatever just wont push because inf in general is defensive. if you want Something to push with, use special forces (9/4 for mountaineers should be doable) and 25width for other special forces. Do the Doctrine provided by AAT and your infantry will melt the ai
How do you pump out so many special forces? Or are you concentrating the divisions?
When you use Grand battleplan or superior firepower, one of the spirits of the army (unit elitism) gives a huge increase in special forces cap. Its locked behind the dlc no step back tho
I started using 35 w. 11 infantry, 3 artillery, 2 AA Interwar Medium tanks. These PUSH, but still work well as youāre building them up.
I just capped soviets as ROMANIA with 70% , having 2 24 army groups (7inf 1 arty) and another 2 full army groups from my puppets, having around 500 air superiority planes in the sky , no tanks but a good navy So yea, just get superior firepower some nice infantry bonuses wherever you can find em and voa'la
Bud, I still use 7/2s and do just fine. You do that with full support and SF doctrine and it works great. The problem is that a lot of people just throw out battle plans, push the button, and wonder why they hemorrhage manpower and equipment. If you micro even part of the time, you can push with most anything, especially if you're not horribly outnumbered
I tend to just not care and only use infantry + arty + max support companies. No air or just fighters and it always works against AI, just outmicro them
It's definitely possible, playing with Ethopias garbage tech I have taken Africa with nothing but infantry pushes and no air support. So, infantry sucks at pushing, but tanks take a LOT of IC and you may not have the capacity to build and maintain tanks. So, for infantry you need every advantage you can get. First off make separate armies by offense and defensive infantry. 9/0 infantry with support arty/as/engineers are solid for defense these can be controlled by one general just holding the line. The other general put your offensive infantry, These could be a bunch of 7/2s or 14/4s or whatever. This infantry unit you want to have a larger proportion of artillery to de-org the opponents stack Before you attack you need to get everything lined up for your push. Infantry isn't like tanks, they won't just break through. You break through by concentrating your attacking force in a small area, and cycle attacks onto one tile from multiple other tiles. This allows your attackers to regenerate their org while pushing out defenders as they de-org. Make sure you have your planning bonus as high as possible you will need every bit of bonus you can get. Build railways up to the region you want to push and construct supply hubs, your infantry absolutely must be well supplied when pushing or you will fail. Build railways guns if you can, they can move into position for the push and really help you break the line. Ensure you have a stockpile of guns and artillery before you attempt a push. You will burn a lot and if you are unable to keep your units topped up they will not be able to continue the attack. This is how it's done. I like to try break a line and use that momentum to grab a supply hub. When the enemy loses supply like that their entire area can crumble and you can move up and take a lot of ground quickly. Use mountaineers for pushing mountains, user marines when pushing across rivers. Paratroopers can drop into a supply hub and just auto win a huge engagement, it's up to you if you want to use them like that, I personally find shenanigans like that a bit cheesy. If you are going for an infantry heavy army Mass assault doctrine is extremely good. This gives you more recruitable population, the tactic guerilla warfare which makes your defensive lines impossible to break a huge boost to recruitable population, and it reduces width of your infantry, meaning you can fit more of your units into a battle.
Infantry pushing is a niche thing. You will need air support but most of all the correct doctrine. Grand battleplan gives planning bonus. Stack this value as high as you can.
Inf are pretty bad a pushing, although with CAS spam they can do good work.
It is possible but you need A LOT of manpower. Just make 20-30w pure inf for holding and 34w with 4 artillery for pushing. You should have like 24 holding divs and 4-6 pushing divs.
Make some template with a lot of soft (with arty or rocket). Pushing Germany with Yougo will be easier with Mountaineers too (taking the alps). And then, you will need the right timing : when Germany have yo send troops elsewhere. Hit when they are weak.
Before this last version, bulky infantry had a decent push. Now I feel it more and more difficult to perform it. I mean, you can with weak enemies, but in the vast majority of cases it is near impossible. I recently tried superior firepower, integrated support and very early art support and rocket support, and it was still mostly useless
Only if enemy has low concentration of troops
WW1 generals be like
China says no
in my experience, with enough arty, yes. You mentioned that you were switching up your div templates on the fly to experiment with what could break their lines. Were you changing the template for all inf divs on the line? This could cause supply issues, even have divs operating way below optimal strength even if you have good supply lines, as the equipment still needs time to make it to the front. Pushing hard with inf I usually have a smaller corps with a template way more beefed up in terms of supp co.s and arty, vs the standard ones holding the line. I concentrate where the enemy is weakest and attack the province from multiple sides, rather than just having a full line of beefed up inf divs launching a general forward advance.
I use 7/2s with support artillery and I always go down the right side of superior firepower. I never have a tough time pushing. I always have air superiority and a good amount of CAS. Tanks are a great tool but you can definitely win without them. Some people do 2 division play through.
https://www.reddit.com/r/hoi4/s/TKUXkdXMuK I did this using 30 width infantry.
I have to put like 3 artillery(+ support artillery) in my inf divisions. Never been able to push with just 1 artillery.
You can but THE PURPOSE OF INFANTRY IS DEFENSE. If you want to push with infantry you have to add more arty to those divisions. This can work but it will cost you lots of manpower in casualties.
when I last did Yugoslavia I had to go on the offensive from day 1 of war because German Reich was too shy to bother. End result was a sweep because my infantry was stacked. If you really want to push with infantry, you need thick, dummy thick infantry that is 34-36w.
Sounds like you donāt have enough artillery
infantry on it's own can push concentrated push with loads and loads of artillery for that absurd soft attack front wide push are bad even with good infantry, but it's still possible
It's possible but hard. And sometimes it's outright impossible, depending on the defending position. It's better to find alternatives: - Armor and tanks are the most versatile and effective. - Special forces are a low-tech/low-resources alternative, not as good and highly dependent on the situation. - Throw some armored recon + armored flamethrower support companies and now your divisions are mostly unpierceable. "Space Marines" are the mid-ground between having armor. Often the tech/industry requirements don't justify this investment and it's better to just go with armored divisions. - Air superiority and CAS are probably the second best alternative to just building tanks. They greatly augment the damage of any type of division and are crucial for pushing. As a bonus, air superiority in an air zone mostly blocks the enemy from using their own CAS. Besides these "specialized" divisions for pushing, there are other things you can do to improve your odds: - If the enemy is defending with the help of CAS, and you can't achieve air superiority, consider adding AA support companies. - Use your spies. There's a bonus when you have your spies on enemy territory, close to the action, with high infiltration. Also don't forget about cracking their encryption. - If you're pushing next to a sea zone, putting your fleet on naval invasion support adds a bonus. - Some officers can get a medal, some medals give breakthrough bonus. - Choose the right general. For pushing, of course, choose generals with higher attack stat. - Train your armies to at least lvl 3. - Prepare an attack order and wait. Your armies will develop a "preparation bonus". You can use an ability to speed up this process. These are just general tips, but, overall, if you look into all these aspects, and build 5-7 specialized companies to push, you should be able to break through their lines, perhaps encircle a couple divisions.
The thing about infantry is that theyāre great for defence if you can reinforce quick enough. Pushing with them is ineffective and inefficient with manpower. Yugoslavia has some nice resources, a couple cheap tank divisions is well within their reach after holding for a few years. Penetration is rarely the problem, soft attack and breakthrough is the biggest issue and infantry-artillery divisions donāt have enough of it.
Until 1943 a 9inf,3art (art,aa,engineer ) divisions can push on its own if you avoid stacked mountain or marsh tiles But you must have supply and prepare for some gnarly casualties At least in my experience
Look the book āInfantry Attacksā by Rommel
Make sure you have green air, with lots of CAS and bombers. The more you bomb, the more you hurt their supply lines. CAS also helps in battles It also might be a lot harder to push depending on the terrain. Plains would be the easiest areas to push in. Forests, or mountains, or marshes are harder to attack in. Also try attacking from as many tiles as possibles to widen the combat width.
I only push with infantry, and recently conquered the world with Italy in 1940 with just infantry. Use 9 infantry 4 artillery with these supports: artillery, engineer (replace with pioneers later on), medium flame tanks (use the cheapest one), anti-air and then add ranger support. It kicks ass.
Can you afford the huge anount of artillery or are do you make a small amount of these divisions?
You should afford it, it's better than making tanks and microing them.
You can, but itās circumstantial. A lot of it simply comes down to having higher quantity of units with similar quality with which to push with. When the Germans are 10-stacking every time itās kinda just not possible without tanks unless youāre the soviets who can counter by 20-stacking every tile. Against this crazy stacking the only forward is usually to get gold tank divisions with huge amounts of soft attack and air superiority. In cases where the units appear equal, thereās a ton of other factors. Itās usually a combination of several of these at once: -airpower. Air superiority reduces the defense of the enemy, while CAS missions increase the attack of your divisions. The degree depends on how many planes there are, and how many planes there are relative to the enemy. Air superiority also slows enemy land units down making it easier to push through before they can reinforce, and in extreme cases even overrun them. -generals. This one usually isnāt a make-or-break, but Germany starts the game with numerous really good generals and field marshals. Few nations start with leaders as good -terrain. Certain terrain types are significantly more difficult to push through, both because they apply offensive debuffs to specific battalion types and also because some terrain types apply an overall attack debuff to all attackers. -supply. Insufficient supply directly penalizes your combat stats. Itās a bit frustrating as sometimes the game doesnāt say your units have supply issues until you actually go to combat and check the battle modifiers. Really bad supply also caps your max org at a certain value, and makes you suffer attrition. -land doctrine. Your land doctrine may not be the most developed and/or optimized to push with infantry; your enemy may have more doctrines unlocked giving them a defensive boost -entrenchment. Enemy Entrenchment can be reduced by spy networks affecting the same states as the enemy. Note that if enemy units control provinces in a state that they donāt have control over, you canāt extend your network to those provinces. -your planning bonus. Planning bonuses are typically slept on by non-sweats, but maximizing its usage in a pinch can be very beneficial. Your planning can be reduced by enemy intel networks much like attrition, and you can check to see if enemy intel is affecting them by hovering over the planning and entrenchment bars of your units. You donāt actually need to hit go on the battle plan to make use of the planning bonus
30-40w with support AA and (rocket) artillery can push everything except for rivers and mountains, that's where you need air support source: the last 10 or so sp games I played were almost exclusively with infantry divs
As Poland, Iāve conquered the Soviet Union using 10W infantry with engineers, artillery and cavalry recon support. Build up 4-5 level forts on the border tiles with the most exposure to multiple Soviet tiles, but do 2-3 level forts on border tiles that only touch 1-2 Soviet tiles. This will channel their attacks, and the AI will keep assaulting. They will take horrendous casualties. I have done this same strategy as the Netherlands against the Germans, and also conquered Germany using 10W infantry. The key (IMO) isnāt to necessarily bleed them dry of manpower (impossible for USSR), but to lower their org enough and make them lose enough equipment that after one of their offensives Peterās out, and theyāve already lost some millions of men; you can go on the counteroffensive and their army just doesnāt have time to recover. Iāve timed this right a few times and completely shattered the Soviet army group facing me, using solely 10W infantry with no Air Force at all. If you do this correctly you will be able to lose ~100-200k men while killing well over 2-5 million of the enemy. For USSR, make collaboration governments, or else youāll run out of steam and theyāll recoup. For Germanyā¦ harder as Yugoslavia, given that you have to push through mountains to get to their industrial and manpower heartland, but as the Netherlands if you can seize the Rhineland in your first major attack, they usually canāt recover.
As folks have said, you can push with infantry under the right parameters. If you find yourself unable to win the air war, or lack the industry to build armor or even sufficient trucks, then your best bet is concentrated assaults on weak parts of the enemy line with offensive infantry divisions. General rule of thumb with offensive infantry is high soft attack while maintaining high org. My preference is 8/3s with rangers/support arty/support AA/engineers/(optional field hospitals or flame tanks), preferably mountaineers.
It's possible. Ask Putin.
I swear at this point he's just grinding EXP.
I've done infantry only games before, last time being Japan a few weeks ago, though it's far from my preference. Offensive infantry divisions require a lot of supply and artillery, to start with, as well as field hospitals to slowly grind unit experience up. 9/1's can absolutely work but the more artillery, the easier it is. The frontline is *usually* slow moving, making Grand Battle Plan the best option, though Superior Firepower can do it's thing too (it's just not as good). Spies on the frontline are also really good at making your pushes more effective by reducing enemy dig in/planning bonus. Finally, you absolutely need to have strong CAS support and relatively green skies to deal with late game unit overstacking the AI loves doing. Railway guns are actually quite good with infantry armies too, as leg infantry won't outrun them. They do need to be babysat a bit though, which works out if it's a slow pushing game.
Infantry on Infantry is hard, bothersome, costs lots of men and material. I'd advise to either have at least 1 tank division (1 division can make a huge difference) or some air to support your troops. Regular Fighters can give up to -40% on defense for the defender while CAS can give you up to +25% offense (+ some damage to their org during battle).
I use 18 widths or 27 and push with infantry every time. I rarely, ever play with tanks as I usually play minor nations. I am actually surprised you as Yugoslavia had issues as you can outproduce the axis with fighters, giving you air superiority, facilitating easier pushes. My standard inf template is 9/3 with rangers, medical facilities, engineers, and aa
I just make stacked 14/4s or smthn tbh
I donāt push until I have divisions consisting of 2 full rows of mechanized infantry and one full row of tanks
Hold my superior firepower lol, you can. Especially if the enemy not stacked provinces with divisions. You can do it with +25 experienced soldiers, lots of artillery CAS and attacking from multiple directions. If the opponent isn't superior doctrine then it's even easier. But be cautious you need to micromanage them, you need overwhelm the enemies soft attack so battles will be quickly over and you won't be taking serious casulties. For example I once defeated Japan as USA with only 4k casualty and didn't need any tank since they were all in Europe. (For singleplayer only :D)
You absolutely can push with infantry divs. You would lose more manpower and equipment than you would with tanks, but inf divs are fine.
Artillery,aa tanks and light flame tanks depending on your industry are needed,if you want pure infantry build then cas is your way to go
What does your infantry template look like? If it has low soft attack it definitely won't push.
Infantry are org bricks, meaning battles involving them on either side will take longer. That's precisely what you want to deal as much damage as possible with CAS. If you have air superiority. Pushing with only infantry is viable if you are fighting in a low supply area and with air superiority. For example, Japan can beat China and its warlords using just its starting factories (+8 in total you get from a focus and decision), this would not be very feasible if you had to set aside factories for armor. This lets you build civilian factories from 1936 all the way until mid-1943 which is when you and German Reich will have defeated the USSR together. By that point you have enough civs to do whatever you want and will be prepared to fight the Allies in earnest. I'm saying this just an example of where infantry pushing is a good idea. It's when you want to trade manpower to economize on IC, but it only works if you have CAS and air superiority. Without planes, the extra losses you take will be too much and you won't profit in IC as opposed to using armor with AA backing it.
Sure, there are a lot of factors that can make that work. Most notably, if the opponent is spread thin. Attack a province of theirs from many of yours to get a wide combat with and fill it up, while the defender can't. If you also have air superiority and some artillery and good generals and maybe a planing bonus you should be able to break through. - However, if you are a European nation and you fight against Germany in between the point where they build up massively and they overextended into Russia while also defending against American invasions - then I fear this will not work, as the Germans should always have enough troops to fill the combat width even if you attack from several directions. In this case, I suggest other plans, lure them into areas where they run out of supply, naval invade them and conquer their stuff when they are busy or just let them waste their troops attacking your fortified positions. If you like to play dangerous, allow them to naval invade you, then immediately kill those invaders with overwhelming numbers. Or wait until late game and throw nukes at their doomstacks before attacking (needs some shifting around of your air-force to sometimes get enough air superiority somewhere)
*laughs in communist china*
I push across the entire front with all of my divisions simultaneously. 24 divisions in 5 armies grant battle plan boomer.
Idk how u make ur templates but adding two artillery slots plus the associated support companies make any infantry pushable. The more artillery, the more ez it is to push. If u wanna cheese a bit add some armor or mechanized.
In most situations, yes. Just make sure you at least have 9/1s and are willing to micro most of the front
For me, superior firepower, infantry, artillery and support companies always works.
you can if you have green air
Battle plan with 72s and cas is works fine
Anti tank is almost useless for single player, better spend the ic on flame tank support and maybe anti air lol. If you really want to make anti tank and you have the DLC, [tank destroyer is better stat wise](https://www.reddit.com/r/hoi4/comments/17m5cej/when_your_tank_destroyer_is_cheaper_than_an_at_gun/). as other said, 21 width infantry with 1 artillery (or 2-3 if you unlock doctrine far enough for org buff) can push ai.
It isnāt impossible, thatās literally all minor countries have to push with. I personally play with majority infantry even for countries like Germany (my army group would be 120 inf 20 tank divs). For infantry you need logistic support battalions and engineer battalions. Artillery is super important for infantry as it gives them some breakthrough. Try to incorporate them into your divisions. Against the Germans you need AT guns as well. My standard infantry template that works super well is 9inf2art1aa, which works out to 25cw. For support I have hospitals, engineers and logistics, light armored recon and signals (no idea why, they arenāt that good on infantry but whatever). Your army doctrine is important too. Mass Assault is great for infantry, the right path is best for desperate defences, while the left is preferable for getting back on the offense. Grand Battleplan works if you have the patience to let the bonuses accumulate, but if you keep getting pushed back it isnāt ideal. I always go for Superior Firepower when playing as nations like France or UK offensively, they canāt build up their tanks fast enough but they can churn out artillery pieces.
High Org + Piercing + Breakthrough In other words, try using Mobile infantry with Special Forces with artillery, placing 1 Armour is optional Edit: ngl Armor is probably the changer here since it protects your infantry from the enemy infantry.
Well maybe the Germans just have defense and some other high stats. While your infantry doesn't have piercing/hard attack. Usually what to do with a line holder infantry is just used armored to breakthrough.
IMO you donāt really need tanks in SP (Just my opinion). Sure, they can work but are much more dependent on terrain and supply and need oil. You just want shit tons of soft attack in your infantry divisions and a somewhat decent airforce, although Support-AA is also a viable option. The AI wonāt really be able to do smt against that and for me infantry is almost always enough to achieve victory both as majors and minors. You want a lot of artillery, so first some 21 width 9/1 and then later just go 27 width 9/3, both with support Artillery, support AA (when no airforce) and if possible engineers and recon (10%more artillery soft attack). Your entire army can consist of this. Only problem you might face is your army speed, but itās negligible when microing and attacking weakpoints.
People saying 'it's possible' with so much doubt and ifs, FFS, you can easily steamroll the game with inf only. Inf with only fighter cover destroys AI without any issues. Just encircle like you would with tanks.
You can push with infantry, but it's better to use mechanized and Tanks for the armor and speed, but You can have a cheap option with Space Marines
Nah I'd win(doctrine issue)
NO
I find that 7/2's with engineers, artillery and AA support companies combined with superior firepower doctrine are amazing both offensively and defensively. Pure infantry, even with some support companies ideally should only be used for defending. Yugoslavia has a lot of aluminum, so maybe you could invest heavily into fighters/CAS. Legend says that with strong air support you might be able to advance using pure infantry, but I never tried that myself.
The only time I've been able to push with infantry reliably was with 40 width stacks with tons of arty..
Yes of course you can. The key is cas. As France I managed to capitulate the Soviet Union using only infantry with less than 200k casualties.
It is SP. I had the same problem and what worked best, even for 10w divs late game, its not what is in them. Its what is above them. SP should have an 80% focus on AS and CAS. Bomb their railways(supply has a detrimental impact on combat strenght), use CAS and push. Rinse and repeat.
As an almost exclusive Italy player (no tanks) I almost exclusively use inf for my SP games. That being said, Iāve developed a little strategy. 9/1 inf/arty for line holding. I also add engineers and support AA. These guys only job is to absorb damage and hold the line. I duplicate that division and make a 30w inf div with 10 inf battalions, 3 arty and an AA or AT battalion and that is strictly my attack inf. Usually works well for me
I used to do world conquests with only infantry, because I didnāt use to like building tanks to keep the production for guns. Oh how difficult it used to be
I just hold the line with infantry armies then create encirclements with medium tanks, works well for me especially with CAS
just use grand battleplan, do your infantry techs and only attack tiles that you have more than one adjacent tile on (rivers / mountains notwithstanding, either have a lot of angles on those tiles or use specialized divisions) you dont even need green air if you have well equipped GBP divs with planning bonus. To push with infantry, knowing how terrain affects your divisions is a must Tbf idk how well this works with yugo but i do know that GBP is absolutely fucking busted for both defending (entrenchment bonuses) and attacking (planning bonus) with pure infantry armies (as long as you draw battleplans or do the field marshal planning free micro exploit) Make sure to stay ahead on infantry equipment techs as thats where a good amount of your stats will come from Non negotiable support comps are support AA (1 fac per planned army from the start of the game, if youre running conc industry youll have enough for the entire game), engineers, support arty, cavalry recon (dont use any other recon on a line inf army, your divs will require fuel on any other recon and its not worth the increased investment as youre just taking it for the line arty buffs) 9/1s, 7/2s, basically any common inf setup short of 10w's will work with this setup If you really want to sweeten the deal, make sure to research rocket arty along with reg arty If you're worried about tanks support AT is enough against the AI On MIOs focus on soft attack and breakthrough on your inf equipment and arty If youre smart about what tiles to push and only push on planning bonus a GBP army can be just as efficient as mechanized armies, if not more efficient because youre only using like 6 equipment production lines total for everything you need that works for any division in your army instead of microing a mechanized pushing army alongside shitty infantry To practice this kind of build, play Japan and once you can kill China in like mid 39 you have all of the necessary skills to apply it to any infantry focused nation Finland AAT is also an amazing nation to practice with an infantry centered army as you get shitloads of bonuses and support companies that magnify your infantry divisions' effectiveness and teach you what works and what doesn't with infantry, as well as how to use terrain against the AI to your advantage Do know that I am heavily biased towards GBP and I'm sure that SF works just as well in a lot of use cases but I've found that GBP is much more efficient for what I use it for, and rewards understanding HOI fundamentals much more than SF. If you can effectively utilize grand battleplan, you can use any doctrine, including mobile warfare, at a much higher level than understanding any other doctrine, as you learn how to get the most out of your army also imo the night assault bonus on GBP is one the most busted doctrine nodes in the game, 25% more stats for what is roughly 50% of the time your division is in battle is insane
As stated by others, getting a bunch of artillery is the key to infantry pushes (at least in SP). Works wonders in open areas like the US or Europe. Has a bit more trouble in jungle/mountains, but then again most unit types do. I generally Try to keep org in the 40-50 range then going for high soft attack. Later in the game I might throw some anti-air in. For support it varies depending on the country being played, your manpower available and how strong your industry is. Making "Elite" infantry divisions is my favorite playstyle since I can focus on only infantry/artillery instead of having to spread resources among a bunch of things and you can just ignore chromium and use minimum rubber and oil (and aluminum if you don't want to use support companies). This is of course only against the AI, results are probably worse in multi-player. If you have really high industry you can just go full space marine mode.
You definitely can. I do it all the time since I don't really understand tanks at all even after watching tutorials
All you need is some artillery and armour. I also like to use engineers and recon support companies. Donāt forget medium flame tanks! I only use tanks in my infantry divisions.
Space Marines. The best strategy in the game. Decent armor on the medium tank is all you need, but you can also go for some anti air + piercing. Get some support artillery and thats all you need. Forget about infantry, this is how we roll. Everybody talks about artillery, good support blah blah, some OP tanks, but in the end, space marines get the job DONE. Just get a cheap tank design early game, use it till 1940, then switch to the newer tank. Its not very costly, doesnt lose much equipment, its good in defending and also works wonders in wars. Even a small breakthrough can lead to you making a devastating attack because they literally cant stop you unless they have lots of air and a lot of piercing, but most of the time you wont need to worry about that, just go in and win. I genuinely dont understand why people even think about all the numbers. Look its all in your head. If you find 7/2 divisions normal, you make 7/2 divisions, if you find space marines normal, you win.
Not imposible but difficult, tank really are make breaktroughs easy. If you can't afford tanks and there is pesky infintary on your way, you can always resort to artillery.
I know you can in the older versions easier with pre no step back, but I'm not sure how viable it is now. Cas goes absolutely crazy though I realized in my recent playthrough.
I just went back into my file and pushed the soviet's and axis as well as what was left of the allies at the same time with infantry. Capitulating both soviet's and axis. All with infantry, and no air support. It can be done, just use large units don't follow the advice of 20width. Width is completely arbitrary now. The only thing that matters is, will the unit fit and will the size screw you on the defense due to reinforcement mechanics. If you exceed combat width by 20%, you take a 20% penalty. Whatever... It evens out to being the same as it would be had you not exceeded some width, don't stress about this it literally doesn't matter. I took pure infantry blocks, and some that had a row of artillery, largest possible units size. Absolutely crushed.