| Unsthable | Wednesday, September 27, 2023 - 07:02 am 
WL 0 -> WL 1
This was tested when posted
A player's first war can be daunting, especially when following some of the old guides out there. This approach to a player's first war is not made with the idea of a quick mindless victory in mind. This will not be a blitz, but it won't drag out. While I will lay out the step by step progression of the war, it is made with the idea of not only limiting your own losses during the war, but introducing the player to enough of the war engine as to not be completely overwhelmed in future wars. Knowing the why of each move is arguably more important than just blindly following a 'to do' list when long term success is the goal.
**The good news: This war will be fought entirely with the units that you start with.** Unit customization can improve your results but the primary focus here is to win with minimal losses while familiarizing ourselves with the war engine. We will rely on basic warfare tactics within the game engine, ignoring other tactics such as Special Forces landing which you can dabble with when you're more used to the war engine and need an extra edge later on.
Step 1: Declare War
This war template assumes a bordering C3 country. Take the time to look at your C3 neighbors and check out their populations and corporations rather than randomly picking one. Remember that while you are going to be killing people and destroying assets, this country will be yours after the war is over so a country with more people or better existing corporations will almost certainly be a preferred war target, since the opposing military is set by the war engine regardless of the country's indexes.
Step 2: Disabling Air Defenses
In war, standard ground based defensive military units and garrisons will only respond to attacks made directly against the target they are assigned to defend (corp/city/etc). Mobile defense units are an exception, but they are not in play at this war level. Air defenses, on the other hand, are the first line of 'auto responders' in war, and will automatically involve themselves to defend any target within their range (which is their entire country in this case), provided the air defense unit would be effective against your attacking unit. Note Air DEFENSES automatically respond, not all air units. In the case of this war, the defending country has 1 Defense Interceptor Wing, 2 Air Force Attack Units, and 4 Air Force Attack and Bombing Units. Of those, only the Defense Interceptor Wing is a defense wing, so it is the only one that will automatically respond to your attacks.
A brief click on 'Military Units -> Air Wings' shows you the default units for a Defense Interceptor Wing, in this case Anti Aircraft missile Batteries and Interceptors. Both of these weapons target only aircraft, so any attack on any target in the defending nation by any of our air units would be responded to by the Interceptor Wing. This is where it is important to note that a unit like this that is responding to your attack will attack with its full strength and your unit will not fire back at it, since you are attacking either your target or its garrisoned defenses. So this Defense Interceptor Wing must be addressed if any air attacks are going to be successful.
So because we know ground based defenses will only defend their assigned targets and the only 'auto responder' in the defending country is this Interceptor Wing, we know that if we attack the wing itself with ground based weapons, it will be completely helpless. Looking through individual weapons, it would certainly appear that the Offensive Anti Aircraft Missile Battery is our go to. We can build a new military unit to suit that need, but don't need to in this case. Conveniently, we begin the war with 2 Long Range Divisions, each equipped with 140 Offensive AA Batteries. The Interceptor Wing also has some defensive AA Batteries as well, but our Long Range Divisions also have Mid Range Missiles that can make short work of them.
On the War map, using the menu on the left side click 'Select a Target from a List...' then go to 'Army Unit' then '(name) Defense Interceptor Wing' to target the wing directly. Attack using your Long Range Divisions (either one, you will end up needing to use both due to ammunition). Some weapons will be grayed out because they are out of range, but that is perfectly okay. Click 'Attack Defenses' and you will get your first war report which will show the enemy Interceptor Wing taking losses while you suffered none (as expected due to your ground based attack on anti aircraft units). Continue to attack with your Long Range Division, switching to your other one and continuing to attack defenses on the Interceptor unit. Note you don't have to micromanage weapons, even though your Mid Range Missile Batteries will be highlighted, you will notice they don't use any of their ammunition after the defending AA batteries are destroyed. A couple of attacks in with your second division, you will get the notice that the Interceptor Wing is completely destroyed. In this war, that means all 'auto responders' are now out of the way and your air force can attack while only having to worry about garrison defenders.
Step 3: Map Painting
The ultimate goal of war is to increase your opponent's damage points to 100, allowing you to take over. On the war map, using the menu on the left side you can click 'War Index (number)' in the Your Enemy section and it will give you a rundown of damage points currently against your opposing country. Obviously its a war so damage points are accumulated by causing damage in a variety of ways. A huge boost to the damage you can inflict on the enemy however without actually damaging the country you are going to take over, is by Occupying it. You can inflict a whopping 25 Damage Points on the enemy without causing any casualties or asset destruction, meaning more loot for you when it's done.
Occupying the country is termed 'painting' in Simcountry and the reason why will be obvious when you start the process. It can be a little confusing to start the process but is easy to get the hang of. First, on the War map, using the menu on the left side near the very top click 'My Countries' then select your country from the list. It will move you to a war map of your country. Find one of your Long Range Divisions on the map (default icon is a blue rectangle with an arrow sticking out of the middle) and click on it. On the top of the map you'll get a notice saying 'Moving Long Range Division (name)' and ask you to click on a destination. Using the menu on the left near the top click Enemies then select the country you are attacking. Now that you are on their map, click an open area that isn't near defending fortification, city, or military base icons inside their country that is near your border. Your Long Range Division will begin moving to that location. Go through the same process to move your other Long Range Division into the defending country.
At this point, you should see some small orange markings on the map along the path that your Divisions have traveled into the country. That is the beginning of the painting and signifies areas that your forces have occupied. Click on your divisions and move them around the map trying to paint more of the defending country by setting destinations on random spots throughout the country. You will notice at times the division will stop movement and have an alert icon over it. That signifies that a defending garrison is blocking its path, but don't worry that doesn't mean that you are engaging them. You can simply click the division somewhere else to move around the garrison. As they move around the map, periodically click to check the enemy War Index. You will notice the damage points building in section 6, Occupy Country. Continue painting until the score in this section reaches its limit of 25. The entire map doesn't need to be painted to reach that score, so don't fret areas that you have to skip around.
Step 4: Capital B for Bombing
With the defending air force neutralized and the map sufficiently painted, we head into the death and destruction phase of the invasion. For this invasion, we're going to rely on our air force to spill the blood of the innocent, as they can drop the hammer hard and without a defending air force to worry about they're only harmed by defending AA batteries at the targets themselves.
An added bonus of attacking with air force units, is they coordinate with units on the ground if you have friendly units in the area of an attack. Your ground units don't participate in the attack, but they make your air force attacking unit more precise in their attack, which in turn also helps reduce your casualties by eliminating more of the enemy. Wouldn't you know, in this war we happen to have a couple friendly ground units on hand in the defending country ready to assist.
One of the biggest bangs for your buck to get started in finishing off your opponent's war index is the enemy capital, so we're going to attack it. Remembering the boost our air force gets from having friendly ground units nearby, we select one of our divisions and move them to the enemy capital. They don't have to be right on top of it to lend their support, so just get them close. On the menu on the left side of the war map we click 'Select a Target from a List...' and select Capital. Click on 'Plan Attack' and make use of one of your Air Force Attack and Bombing Wings. Remember these targets all have garrisons, so you need to 'Attack Defenses' to neutralize them first. The Capital is likely the most well defended target so you will lose roughly 100 precision bombers in this attack. That is okay though, no war can be won without some loss. Click 'Other Attack' and repeat the attack on defenses by another of your Air Force Attack and Bombing Wings. You will notice substantially less losses on your side this time because you crippled the defenses. Continue to 'Attack Defenses' until your report in the combat log says that you experienced no losses in the attack. This signifies that defending AA batteries are gone and your air wing is in no danger. You then select 'Attack Target' to destroy the target itself. Destroying the capital will inflict huge damage points on the defending country leaving you on the cusp of winning your first war.
Step 5: Mopping Up
Rinse and repeat the tactics in Step 4 on defending country cities, fortifications, or factories to build up more damage points and take over the country. You can see the damage points inflicted by each by clicking on the enemy 'War Index' from the menu on the left side in the War map. Casualties are likely going to be worth the most points, assuming you haven't hit the damage point limit for them, so find a city that is near one of your ground divisions. Just like above, move the division near the city, use the Attack and Bombing Wing to destroy the defenses, then with enemy AA batteries all gone destroy the target itself. Keep selecting targets from the map to reach 100 total damage points and enjoy your new country.
Conclusion
I tend to be long-winded, I apologize for that if this was a TLDR. I'm hoping that this did help in any small way not only in helping you grab that first slave country, but in understanding the process of going through war understanding the defense system to take advantage in choosing the right targets at the right time so you have a smoother experience going forward. There is a Documentation section in game that can give you a look ahead at future war levels so you can prepare for future wars knowing the basic operation of neutralizing air defense, painting the map, and assisting attacking air force units. There's so much more that you can do to tip the scales with navy units, special forces, and other units as you progress!
If you have any questions or even want to comment on something in here that you may not like or you disagree with, definitely don't hesitate to reach out! As a rule, if I can help I will help. |
