Community Strategy
This is a strategy page made by players of the game. No information on this page is guaranteed to give the player success.
The Blitzkrieg is a strategy in which you quickly control a nation or the majority of it before they or their allies have time to react. It is usually a very successful method but can backfire if done incorrectly. The Blitzkrieg strategy might give you quick and easy wins. Below are simple procedures and explanations to do the strategy.
Preparation[]
Firstly, make sure to get technology on all of your ground troops such as tanks and infantry then you can get a military leader that can help with the attack, you should be on the lookout for types such as: Aggressive, Defensive and Panzer Commander. Terrain leaders can also help with the invasion if the enemy has mountains or biomes that have huge amounts of attrition.
After that your ground troops should be better than the enemy's. Optionally, you can get air support such as bombers to severely damage the enemy's infrastructure and factories. If the enemy has aircraft, get anti-aircraft on your most important cities such as your capital, factories and/or shipyards. Naval support is recommended if the nation is an island or has islands. Try to place forts strategically around the border with the nation for defense, just incase they either launch an offensive instantly or you have to retreat to your lands after being defeated in the frontlines. Try to place some infantry and/or tanks on these forts for added protection.
Secondly, there are other things you must consider as well while preparing to avoid attracting unwanted attention from your soon-to-be enemy. Try expanding in other directions so the enemy doesn't think they will eventually end up as your next target. Also, you could try not to directly justify on the nation you want to annex. The idea is to justify on an ally instead of directly justifying on the nation you want to annex, as this will not immediately alert your opponent to your plans. Sometimes, the ally could say in chat that you have justified on them, defeating the whole purpose of the idea.
Starting the War[]
Before you start the war, you should begin making a line of infantry and tanks at the border of the enemy. then train them and put them in their respective military groups, and get bombers to bomb enemy cities if you have the budget for it. As soon as you are done making the troops, tanks and planes, declare war. Then take a couple releasables (if the enemy has some). This will draw attention to the occupied area. It's also recommended to use the Military Operation "Lightning Offensive". Quickly destroy their troops with the tanks and then auto capture the rest of the country. If the enemy has air support, create anti-air units near your biggest cities and factories, as they can bomb your capital and factories, lowering infrastructure and decreasing instability.
During the War[]
The tanks & troops will at least manage to take a quarter of the nation in the worst-case scenario, the best thing that can happen is that the enemy loses crucial cities such as square cities and cities with factories which can block them from creating tanks and counter your army. If this is the case then the enemy has no time to resist. It won't really matter to you, as you were ready for war. Just keep calm and let them exhaust their Manpower. It is crucial that you do not waste your manpower pool, because that will cause you to become unprepared for a possible enemy counter-offensive. When you are nearly in total control of their nation, they will probably panic and start spamming units, which will work to your advantage. Get at least 3 attackers for large armies and destroy the units the enemy has spammed.
Finally, you have either:
- Taken over most of the nation and you can force peace on them.
- Taken over all of it and annexed them. By this point they should be AI.
If the enemy manages to foresee your Blitzkrieg offensive and they make a defensive, attempt to distract any army divisions they could have placed by sending a wave of infantry or tanks at them. This will give your other units time to quickly sweep through the enemy's troops and make the enemy ragequit.
Counters[]
Like all strategies, there are different ways to counter the Blitzkrieg. Below are a few tactics to make you and your allies immune to or at least prepared for a Blitzkrieg.
- Be aware of your surrounding countries.
You'll want to make sure you watch what your neighbors are doing and if they are acting suspiciously. Bonus points if you have somebody tell you "(enemy) is going to attack you, (Your country)". Consider creating Sonar Stations so you can see any submarines near your coast. Then make a simple navy and air force in case they have support in those divisions.
2. Be prepared for unexpected attacks.
If you're invading multiple countries at once, try to keep part of your army back for defense, especially near your capital city. With Blitzkrieg usually your enemy will spam ~10-40k troops and 200-600 tanks at you rapidly, depending on the country size and economic ability. With a defense stronger than their Blitzkrieg, you'll have enough time to bring your main forces to the frontline. You can additionally utilize concentration of force to defeat each enemy element one by one. Use strategic unit placement to help you prepare, for example place your artillery on a city surrounded by mountainous terrain, so the enemy troops will take heavy damage before they reach the city and destroy the artillery. You can also research Support Range 1, which will increase the range of artillery fire.
3. Do not be afraid to ask for help.
If the Blitzkrieg begins to go in favor of your enemy, try seeing if any of your allies close by can hold the frontline or create a fallback line in time. Don't be afraid if you feel like a wimp for calling on your allies. Bonus points if your allies are already going to the frontline the moment the war starts. Do not drag tiny countries into the war for no reason, only call the allies that are willing to help you to war. Not all countries are going to be prepared to war a player at any given time. You can also try to retreat from the frontline and hold a defense until you gather your units.
4. Researching.
The anti-tank research tree can greatly increase your infantry units effectiveness against tanks, making them powerful enough to even wipe out entire tank squads especially if entrenched, so be sure to research this tree if you are being attacked with this strategy. You should research it anyway, since it's a really useful research tree. It costs 250 research power but it is worth it because it provides great protection from tanks and especially late-game, people usually rush it.
5. Biomes.
Your plans to invade can all be destroyed if you attempt to attack in winter. If, for example, you are attacking Russia from China, invade in April, so that by the time it is November, you have conquered Siberia and taken Russia's oil reserves. You can invade in the winter, though it is not recommended because the Mild Winter and Severe Winter biomes can cause large amounts of attrition and most notably, how much it slows down units. Nevertheless, you could place some defenses on the border, declare war in winter and wait it out till it's April. Of course, one thing you can't change is the Arctic biome, and so you shouldn't worry too much about that. The Arctic contains a very low fraction of the global population, and therefore it isn't a really big deal so it's recommended you don't waste your time on that, especially because you can simply force peace most of it.
6. Defensive Lines.
if the nation you are attacking has biomes and/or mountainous terrain, semi-mountainous or hilly terrain, they'll usually try to hold strong defensive lines, especially if they foresaw your attack. Biomes and terrain increase entrenchment power, which in turn makes these lines even stronger. They can also spam fortifications on the nation to make it harder for troops to invade. You can try to gather a large stack to push through the defense and occupy a city behind the defense, form a line and auto capture the nation (preferred to take the capital quickly (if possible). If you want to get a defensive lines you might want to get the Maggot Theory to rapidly fortify your units
Notable Things to Remember[]
- Don't be careless about this method. Always make sure to have your border defended by some sort of units in case your enemy’s allies reach your homeland.
- Don't spam too much or the war will exhaust your Manpower. There is a good chance you will lose if this happens.
- Make sure not to enter into deficit, or you will find yourself in debt within a blink of an eye.
- If you think you are going to fall into large debt or deficit early on in the war, then you need to question if the war is really worth it. You also need to make sure you have good policies in place and running factories.
- Don't only use Auto-capture. When your troops approach a large city, move lots of troops into it to capture it. Many square cities are hard to capture with small units
- Keep an eye on the amount of losses you have when using this strategy. Losing an excessive amount of troops in a war can dramatically raise your war exhaustion. If your war exhaustion gets high enough, your stability and economy will be crippled.
- Keep your capital protected at all times. Sometimes (especially if the nation you're attacking is a large one) the person you are attacking could gather and mobilize a large army somewhere you don't expect, break through the frontline and quickly rush your capital.
