Capturing Enemy Capitals

# SR2020 Warfare Guide - Capturing Enemy Capitals

Submitted by Balthagor on Fri, 01/04/2013 - 19:24
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When playing a game with the "Capital" Victory Setting, the player need only take a Region's Capital city to cause the entire Region to Surrender. If the "Fixed Capitals" setting is also used then the enemy can not and will not move its Capital to another city once the first Capital is taken. This makes taking Capitals very important.

However typically a Region's Capital is its best protected hex. The longer you wait to attack an enemy Capital the better defended it will become, since a Region's unit fabs are often located in or near its Capital.

So contemplating an attack on a Region's Capital well into the game can be pretty intimidating. A direct land attack with infantry and armor will inevitably turn into a furball/blood bath with dozens of your infantry/armor units slamming up against dozens of enemy defenders, and getting pelted by enemy aircraft and artillery. An immediate airborne attack is usually out of the question since enemy AA will likely severely damage your transport aircraft full of para-troop units. Wearing down enemy defenses with air and artillery attacks is time-consuming. Baiting and killing enemy units until the Capital is weakly defended will waste enemy units that could soon become yours if you could only take that Capital.

Here is a solution: use missiles or other means to neutralize the AA protecting the Capital and any armored units within the target Capital hex. This will allow a well-timed, successful airborne assault on the Capital.

Prior to a DoW on the target Region:

1. Ready your airborne assault group and load 7-14 of them onto transport aircraft.
2. Park these transport aircraft at a nearby air field.
3. Gather one or more full stacks of missle launchers.
4. Locate the launchers in stacks of three at a safe distance from the target Capital.
5. Form a protective layer of armor in front of your missile artillery.
6. Protect your launchers with strong AA units.
7. Move your remaining forces away from the target region and its naval vessels.
8. Put up patrol aircraft to act as spotters if you lack full satellite coverage.
9. Organize an attack force to attack any air fields near the enemy Capital.

Pick strong air-droppable units with long combat times and good supply statistics for your airborne assault team. Have a supply aircraft standing by as well.

Load your launchers with direct-attack missiles such as ATACMS, with sufficient range to attack all enemy AA units that are within range of their Capital. This could include long-range enemy AA units located 100 km or more on the opposite side of the Capital hex. We want to locate our missile launch site close enough to pick off the enemy AA and armored units inside the Capital, but also far enough from the Region not to be over-run by attackers. Strong AA protection should keep off the enemy aircraft.

We are not going to attempt to contain the enemy region. It is OK if they take the border towns and bases - we will soon get them back. You can also remove garrisons from the surrounding complexes to save them from the enemy. Each garrison battle will just attract additional enemy attackers.

Move your units far away and set up a perimeter along a river or some other obstacle. Start up air patrols to pick off enemy units that stray too close to your units.

Check all over the map for potential enemy units. Their ships could be wide-spread and could attack your transports. If the target Region is a current ally, it may currently have land and air units within your territory. You will want to make arrangements to destroy all of these before they can cause trouble.

When everything is ready break all treaties and then DoW the Region. Check to assure that your defenses are holding. Then start searching for all long-range (greater than two 32 km range) enemy AA units withing range of the Capital hex. These units are easy to spot due to their distinctive dark-green camouflage color.

Assign one stack of three launcher units to target and disable each of these AA units with direct-fire missiles. For hexes that contain multiple enemy AA units you may bombard the hex with indirect-fire/saturation missiles or with a naval bombardment. Most AA units that you target and damage will eventually retreat into their repair barracks rather than be totally destroyed, so you must complete this mission before they have a chance to complete their repairs and re-deploy.

Your missile-fire will be weakened by enemy close-air attack from both AA and enemy units that your missiles fly over. Surprisingly the MANPADS or hand-held AA units are the hardest to kill because they contain 70 AA launchers per unit. Make sure that you use your fastest, most stealthy missiles. This resistance will lessen as you destroy more and more enemy AA.

If you are not getting the desired damage to the targets then you can try adding more launchers or use strike aircraft usingtkobo's Wild Weasel tactics. Conventional or nuclear ICBMs are not subject to damage from AA fire and can also be used to take out stubborn enemy AA. Unless you are allowing Capitals to be relocated, you are playing for big stakes here and you can afford to invest your best, most powerful weapons. The payoff is an entire Region and most of its units.

Enemy naval units can also possess long-range AA. If any do then these must also be neutralized if they are a part of the enemy Capital's air-cover "umbrella".

If you find that the defending AA is too strong for your missile forces to penetrate then continue reading, but plan to use "Plan B" below instead.

Plan A:

When you have neutralized the long-range SAM sites you must target and disable the shorter range SAM and AA gun sites immediately surrounding the enemy Capital hex. Even a small AA gun with a listed range of 10 km can actually hit and damage close-air targets within its Zone of Control - that is, it can hit any close-air target in its own hex AND in all adjoining hexes. Neutralize all AA within the Capital hex and in those hexes that adjoin the Capital hex in order for your transport planes to safely drop their units on the enemy Capital. At least clear a safe path along which to fly your transports.

Any enemy aircraft based near the Capital can ruin your airborne assault by attacking your transport AC and by bombing our units once they are dropped into the Capital hex. Rather than destroying these aircraft, damage or destroy their air fields that are close to the Capital. This will cause the enemy air cover to leave the area and buy our paratroops additional time once they land in the Capital. Air fields can be put out of commission with ICMBs, Strategic Bombers or with Tomahawk cruise-missle attacks.

Enemy Capitals along the coast can be secured by neutralizing its defenders using stacks of close-in naval attack vessels. Your ships can also provide an AA "umbrella" to protect your assault team against enemy air attack.

Once AA and nearby enemy air cover has been neutralized, if possible, you should begin clearing the enemy Capital of armored units using missiles, in order to allow your para-troops to capture the city more quickly, and before enemy aircraft can ruin your assault. Target and destroy each armored APC and Tank in the enemy Capital. You can also take out any light infantry and MLRS for extra credit.

At this point you may want to save the game so that you can replay it from this point in case anything goes wrong with the air assault.

It is best to send the transport aircraft and its assault team at the same time that your launchers are engaging the armored units in the Capital. If each enemy armor target is being engaged by a stack of three launchers, then by the time that the assault team is unloaded and finishes defeating the soft defenders, your launchers should have finished neutralizing most of the enemy armor. If your launchers take out the enemy armor before the assault team lands, the enemy AI may just replace them with new, even stronger armored units.

Enemy land units like Infantry and Tanks can damage close-air targets like your Transport helicopters. Cargo aircraft however are mid-air targets and can are vulnerable to close-air attack only when they unload your assault team inside the Capital hex. A transport AC that is lightly damaged by enemy AA will unload a damaged assault team. A transport AC that is heavily damaged will veer off its approach and return to base with its badly damaged assault team.

If the enemy Capital is on the coast or has a clear path leading up to it you may want to try landing your assault team using helos. An amphibious assault is also a possibility.

Dropping too many airborne attackers into one hex will decrease their combat capabilities and cause them to "de-stack" and spill out into adjacent hexes. Ten attackers is probably optimum, but have a supplementry backup team ready in case something goes wrong. Plan on losing several.

Now comes the tricky part - timing the air-drop. We want to drop our attackers into the enemy Capital before midnight, but still give them enough time to neutralize the soft units and garrisons defending the hex. Unless the Capital is lightly defended, this will probably take at least nine hours. Once the assault team announces that they have taken the Capital, the Region will fall to us promptly at midnight. If we miss this "window" of time then our assault team will be under enemy counter-attack for at least an additional 24 hours. Also at midnight the enemy AI will send attack aircraft to pound on our assault team.

Have your transport AC approach the target Capital from the clearest, safest direction. Drop the assault team into the Capital and immediately entrench them. They will then engage the soft enemy units and Garrisons while your missiles finish off the remaining armor.

Begin your aerial re-supply patrol immediately - your little guys will run out of bullets quickly. Attackers that run out of supplies will stop fighting and will be slowly destroyed by enemy defenders. Supply aircraft or helos must circle within one hex of the Capital. Medium-sized cargo AC like the C-5A, C-130 and C-17A are ideal for re-supply. If the Capital is near the coast then your supply helos or naval supply transports can re-supply from nearby aircraft carriers.

You must destroy or surpress all enemy defenders in the Capital hex. By "surpesss" we mean attack all enemy units and garrisions until they become over-matched, stop fighting and attempt to escape from the hex. Hopefully just before midnight you will get the welcome report from your assault team - "We have taken their Capital".

If you have a game setting that allows the enemy to move its Capital then once your guys take the original Capital, the enemy AI may move its Capital to the Region's next largest city. If it does then the enemy will continue to attack your assault team and this cycle will continue until you have defeated all enemy units or until the enemy AI surrenders.

Plan B:

If your missiles cannot neutralize the enemy AA then you can still land an airborne assault team in the Capital hex, but to do this you will need to sacrifice some "decoy" aircraft. Remember, we are attempting to take the entire Region, so consider the trade-off between losing these aircraft and what you will gain if you take the whole region and all of its units.

Flood the area around the enemy Capital with cheap, disposable aircraft like small Transports, Patrol AC or Interceptors. While the defending AA is busy shooting up these decoy aircraft, quickly send in your assault Transport aircraft or helos and unload/"drop" your team into the enemy Capital. Immediately withdraw your surviving "decoy" aircraft. The team's task will likely be more difficult and time-consuming, since they will be required to neutralize any enemy armor in the Capital hex, in addition to the soft units and defending Garrisons.

You most likely will need to re-supply them by air. The "decoy" transports and Interceptors can be re-used to escort the supply aircraft to and from the Capital.

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