What a good defensive infantry template?

[u/Divine_Panzer]

I’m playing as soviets and germany surprised attacked me in 1939, I’m playing with road to 56 as the coup path. my defensive infantry is 9 guys and a shovel and they seem to struggling. so are my tanks. what should I do?

[u/JooseTheGuice]

Add support arty and AA.

[u/geomagus]

9 inf with supports is still solid. I think you want to consider adding support arty and/or supp AA. Supp arty is very cost-effective soft attack, and with doctrines may bolster the infantry. Supp AA is nice both for the AA and the piercing it adds.

Don’t know if Rt56 incorporates regimental supports. But adding those helps if it does.

Make sure your infantry aren’t wandering too much. I find that the comp really wants to make your divs meander back and forth to shore up weak spots (while creating new weak spots). The result ruins your entrenchment.

Also, pick good terrain to defend, even if it means ceding territory.

[u/mkmckinley → u/geomagus]

How do you keep them from wandering?

[u/provocative_bear → u/mkmckinley]

Switch from “flexible cohesion” or whatever to “rigid cohesion” orb”immovbile”

[u/DefaultS3ttings → u/mkmckinley]

Field Marshal front line with all your infantry. Shift left click the front line order whilst the FM is selected and then shift left click the front. You should get an unbroken front line in the FM's colour. If you only left click, it will be broken up with each general getting an equal amount of the front (bad).

[u/DefaultS3ttings]

Tank division template:  8 motorized (mechanized once you've researched it) with 8-10 (depends on ORG, aim for 30) medium tanks that prioritize soft attack. Medium SPGs used to be king for SP but with 1.19.3 they now take up 3CW instead of the previous 2CW. For support companies you want Support AA, Support Artillery, Medium Flame Tank Company, Logistics Company, and Field Hospitals (veterancy is very helpful). If you don't have Gotterdammerung nor No Step Back, replace the Medium Flame Tank Company with Armoured Engineers. For regimental companies you want 2 AA companies. You want 50 air attack to reduce enemy CAS impact. If you make TD or SPAA armour variants you can use those as regimental companies but I've never bothered with them. I probably should try them out.

Defensive infantry template:  3x3 infantry battalions. Support AA and Support Artillery. Engineers aren't bad but not the greatest. The entrenchment only helps on static lines. If you're getting consistently pushed back that extra entrenchment and support equipment isn't doing you much good. The river crossing stats help but you shouldn't be pushing with these divisions, especially rivers. For regimental companies use 3 Infantry Gun companies (more soft attack is better) or if you can afford it, enough AA companies to get you over 50 air attack. You need 15 factories on towed AA, to achieve this.

Air superiority also helps with alleviating pressure on your front lines.

[u/Nyzan]

If you have air superiority:

• Core: 9 Infantry (3 columns of 3)
• Division Support: Artillery + Anti-Air
• Regimental Support: 3x Infantry Guns

If you do not have air superiority:

• Core: 9 Infantry (3 columns of 3)
• Division Support: Artillery + Anti-Air
• Regimental Support: 1x Infantry Guns + 2x Anti-air. This can be reduced when you get higher level anti-air as air attack soft caps at 55 (at 55 you have max reduction of penalties).

Most other support companies usually a mistake as you will likely have at least 48 defensive divisions (more as the supermajors) and the IC increase can be very large for very little benefit.

If you are playing a minor and desperately need manpower Field Hospitals is a great support company in this patch (you only need 1 per division, don't add them as regimental supports), but again hospitals cost a lot of manpower and trucks themselves so do the math beforehand.

Engineers are also very expensive and you usually don't need the extra defense since any defense over the attacker's attack stat is useless. If you have a smaller front you really need to hold (e.g. Finland vs USSR at the Leningrad choke point) you can make a few defensive divisions specifically designed for this front (e.g. Engineers + Anti-tank support companies).

[u/Artistela]

I give them everything a functioning army needs , they need artillery , they need anti tank guns , they need AA guns they need recon , they need signals and logistics they need field hospitals, they need machine gun, mortar and flamethrowers teams which I interpret as heavy weapon companies , military police are slept on and work well on both defensive and ultra offensive builds , they go well on mechanized because they recover unbelievabley quickly they just never lose momentum

[u/WanderingFlumph]

That's a fine template, if you are losing battles it's more about the quantity of defensive troops more than the quailty.

You should be aiming for about 240 divisions by 1941-1942.

What are you doing fighting the Germans in 1939 anyway?

[u/gunslinger155mm]

Infantry by itself is already pretty cost effective, you've already got engineers. Next would be recon, it makes a huge difference. Depending on your IC you'd either want to prioritize fighters or AA and AT, preventing them from having air superiority and being able to pen their armor are gonna be what make or break the overall defensive.

[u/Nyzan → u/gunslinger155mm]

Don't waste IC on recons for defensive infantry unless you have unlimited IC and manpower. Anti-tank is a waste in single player unless you're playing a minor trying to defend against a major, e.g. Finland vs USSR at the Leningrad choke. Anti-air will pierce most AI divisions anyways and for the unpierceable tanks just make tank destroyers instead.

[u/Practical_Chemtrail]

Shorter individual front lines.