I did it! I sat down and stated a 1936 campaign as the Germans directing everything towards attacking the Maginot line. I learned several things. Bombers with the installation strike mission do not attack bunkers. (Nope) So they were a waste of IC and research. The Parachutists (4 Div) were not enough to change the outcome of the fight. I attacked the first time in two waves. one of mostly infantry and the other of all mobile forces. The main attack was against Strasbourg, the secondary against Mulhouse. Both waves of the secondary attack were made up of all inf. All 4 attacks failed. Here is a shot pre war. Here is a shot of the first wave. Here is the Second wave. As I said earlier this method failed. Here is a little bit of info. I had to wait till 41 since by the time everything was in order in 40 it was late October. I went to attack in June but found that if I did Poland would Declare war, their boarder had no troops so I had to make some garrisons to keep that side safe. I didn't want any dissent or the like to hamper the Maginot line attacks. All my mobile groups consisted of 1 Armor with 2 Motorized Inf all with SP Artillery attached. All my Inf divisions had normal Artillery attached. I had 4 para divisions, nothing attached. FYI I also had 8 Strat, 10 Fighter, 4 Int, 10 Tac, and 8 Cas. After I failed I tried a different approach and failed then I tried a more direct approach. I put 72 Divisions all directly across from Strasbourg and just kept adding more to the attack until I won. The key is to attack the French First. Do not give them time to move any units to the Maginot Line and you can win. The line is breached. And the End of the French is in sight. Notice that I tried taking Metz with some 48 divisions and still lost despite having them surrounded. The armor is moving in nicely and if I had continued it would have been over in a month at the most. The Maginot Line is no more! I would like to try with more Parachutists, say around 18-24 The transport load alone would be a waste in a real game. Also I would like to try more Armor, remove the Mot Inf and go with 24 Armor.
Don't forget to go for the full encirclement moves. Use your armoured forces to race right to the other side of France and cut the north from the south, and they continue to do the same thing over and over again cutting them in half, limiting the amount of divsiions that can throw at any one place, it also slows down there organization and there supplies.
This was just a test to see if the line could be breached I just conquered enough to show that once the line was breached I could still conclude the war against France. But yes had I actually cared about the game I would have done so. I also would not have 250 IC making supplies.
one thing, is the maginot stronger than the game's other normal forts? it seems to me like it is. even a 6-1 numerical superiority and technological superiority cannot conquer it.
Its because they have level 10 forts. Considering the Siegfred line only has around level 2, it's a big difference.
Tik, I am saying I used 70 divisions (Mixed inf and armour) to break though and did so in less than a month. I just concentrated all of them into one provence.
The only reason I find it gamey is that having a "super stack" of divisions in 1 province is a little gamey. But...meh..not a big deal.
I suppose it is a bit gamey, do you think it would be possible in real life to muster then effectively move 70divisions through that small area?
I just invaded France through the Maginot Line last night, although I did not mean too (at first). I was playing as Germany on normal, normal dif., invaded Poland on 1st Sept `39 and while I was finishing of (around 24,25 Sept) the French army broke through my 6 divisions in Freiburg with 25 divisions. I redeployed my troops from Poland and in October I had about 90 divisions near Freiburg, Stuttgart, Frankfurt (France took those provinces ) they had about 27 or 28 divisions there, but they made one big mistake, they left just 1 division in Strasbourg and I send about 20 div. from Saarbrucken to invade it, I took it and then invaded Mulhouse from there, it had 4 divisions.Then I got Freiburg and Frankfurt back leaving 27 (or 28) French Divisions in Stuttgart, that got killed, quite fast by the lack of supplies. Obviously France was withouth an army and fell rather fast. This is the first game when I dont invade France through Belgium. (King Leopold must be quite happy about it).
