GAME MANUAL - Steam

HEARTS OF IRON DARKEST HOURSoftening Up the EnemyA well-entrenched enemyforce is a very difficult foe todefeat, particularly when itoccupies a province withappropriate fortifications. It willusually be crucial to soften upthe enemy to the greatestpossible degree prior tolaunching your attack, andthen continue to damage themas much as possible as thecombat progresses.The easiest means of doingthis is to delay the timing ofyour attack by an hour or twoand to first conduct a powerfulan aerial bombardment atdawn. You should send in amixture of bombers with avariety of missions to try toinflict heavy organisationaldamage and impair theirsupply efficiency. You willprobably not inflict very muchstrength damage, butcasualties should usually beconsidered a secondaryobjective. Maintaining apersistent bombardmentduring the ensuing landcombat will greatly increasethe likelihood of your troopsbeing able to defeat theenemy, and remember thatyou can always bomb forcasualties later as they retreat.You may also use navalbombardment during combat ifthe province is coastal, if youhave some large capital shipsin the vicinity, and if youinclude an amphibious assaultas a component of yourattack. This also has thebenefit of adding to theenvelopment.Of course, the same strategyis likely to be applied againstyou, so you should try yourbest to build up your AAdefences and keep a strongfighter presence in the air,which will disrupt the enemybomber formations and limitthe damage they can inflict. Ifyou lack the sea power toforce an enemy fleet awayfrom your shores, you mayneed to devote some of yourair power to making them payfor being so close. Whenyou’re on the defensive, youshould also remember to usebombers to disrupt enemysupply and damage theirorganisation.Staggered Attack StrategyIf you simply must attack awell-defended provincebecause there is no otheralternative, your only optionmay be to use the abovestrategy and hope for the best.You may still fail to capture aprovince against a wellestablisheddefence, but if youhave the manpower andresources to spare then yournext approach would beto set up an unrelenting seriesof attacks from a successionof armies. While you might failthe first few times,you mayeventually be able to grind thedefenders down to nothing.This is a very costly and oftendangerous technique thatshould only be used if you areconfident on all other fronts. Ifapplied doggedly, though, itwill eventually gain you thatprovince you so desperatelywant. Be very careful in yourtiming, however, to avoid125