Amphibious Landing Tactics

**Amphibious Landing Tactics** incorporate all tactics that are centered around the usage of transport ships to land units directly onto enemy territory and provinces in order to engage enemy units and/or capture provinces.

Whenever performing
an amphibious landing, careful planning must be done in advance in order to
ensure the operation is as successful as possible. This is because amphibious
landings are among the riskier operations in the game due to their logistical
and tactical constraints.

An amphibious
landing presents the following challenges or risks:

* Seaborne units (i.e. ground/air units that travel in transport ships) are slow and virtually defenseless. As such they are extremely vulnerable to all enemy attacks while in ship state and while disembarking.
* Disembarking on foreign territory takes 4 and a half hours, giving the enemy plenty of time to notice and react to your offensive.
* The combination of slow sea travel and slow disembarking can result in drawn-out supply lines, causing reinforcements to take significantly more time to reach the frontline than they would on land. Thus, the possibility that your landing force may have to face enemy counterattacks by itself for a while must be taken into account.

## Strategies

#### **Escorting**

“Escorting” in this context means protecting your transport ships with warships and air units (when possible). This is important because transport ships are extremely vulnerable to enemy attack. As such, exposing them to enemy fire without any support puts you at risk of having your troops decimated by the enemy.

To guarantee the landing forces’ safety, it is vital to protect your ships by having warships escort them and eliminate enemy ships that may threaten your convoy. Be especially wary of enemy submarines, as they are stealth units and can stalk your ships without your knowing. Fighters can help establish air superiority over your convoy and the landing zone to ward off enemy bombers.

#### **Securing the landing zone**

In order to facilitate your landing operation and to help establish a beachhead, the intended landing zone should be secured prior to the landing. When planning a landing and/or looking for a territory to land on, submarines can be used to stealthily scout out enemy presence and strength.

   Powerful units such as battleships and other units with ranged abilities (bombers, and where possible artillery) should be used to eliminate any enemy presence at the targeted zone before the landing. This is to ensure that the landing force will run into as little resistance as possible.

After a successful landing, the targeted zone should be prepared in order to use and defend it as effectively as possible. Harbors (for quicker subsequent landings) and air bases, which are quick to build, can help further strengthening your position by allowing closer support from ground and air units. Building a fortification at the landing zone can also be a good idea whenever strong enemy resistance is
expected.

#### **Diversifying your landing force**

As mentioned above, the difficult logistics of an amphibious landing likely mean that your landing force will have to face potential enemy counterattacks by itself and with little support, for at least a little while. As such, it needs to be able to fight effectively against a variety of enemy units.

Accordingly, an optimal landing force will include (aside from “basic” attack units such as infantry) units with anti-tank and anti-air capabilities, as well as faster units such as armored cars for quick reconnaissance or to help speed up progression into enemy territory. That way, the landing force can attack or defend against a greater variety of enemy units.

### Overwhelming Speed

An amphibious landing can only succeed in taking a nation effectively by using overwhelming speeds. If you perform a landing and don't move forward from your landing zone, then your enemy may have enough time to establish a heavily armed an fortified defensive line, effectively trapping and forcing you to either wait for reinforcements and risk the enemy performing a multi-front counteroffensive, or send your units to a fortified zone where they expect you. As such, the need for speed is very important. Using fast moving units such as light tanks, motorized infantry, and SP Artillery during the initial landing can help you to quickly conquer multiple provinces, overwhelming the enemy before they can mount a proper defensive line. After you have taken multiple provinces, then you can use stronger units such as Mechanized Infantry, Medium/Heavy Tanks, and Commandos to properly wage a ground war.

## Units

Almost every unit can be used for an amphibious landing, but some have advantages over others in performing different tasks. Here are some of the best ones:

**Scouting:**

* Submarines: definitely the best unit for scouting as they remain hidden and can find out which and how many units are defending the coast.
* Interceptors: also really useful because they can spot hidden units on the beachhead, though their short range may mean that you have to have a carrier near the coast.

**Escorting (against naval vessels):**

* Submarines: These can easily ward off any surface ships that try to intercept the naval convoys.

* Destroyers: If you have a convoy group that stretches out in the sea, two or three destroyers can quickly attend any problems on either side of the convoys.
* Aircraft carriers: Carriers carrying naval bombers can attack incoming ships from a distance, so its useful to get at least one escorting your ships.

**Escorting (against aerial threats):**

* Aircraft Carriers: If your opponent(s) have a large amount of aircraft (especially naval bombers, since they pose a threat to your ships), a few carriers with several interceptors can eliminate the threat.
* Cruisers: cruisers can deal quite a lot of damage to incoming planes, so its useful to have them as they too attack ships.

**Clearing the landing zone:**

* Cruisers/Battleships: These are quite useful to bombard structures and units from far away, though be careful because well placed artillery units on the beachhead can deal serious damage to you ships.
* Bombers (tactical bombers, strategic bombers, naval bombers): depends on what type of units or structures are protecting the coast, but they are useful, fast, and in an upgraded carrier you can store lots of them (except strategic bombers).
* Paratroopers: If you deploy them correctly you can take out important cities that produce units for defence or damage fortifications and infrastructure so the enemy has a hard time reinforcing and/or retreating.
* Interceptors: to clear out any bombers that might threaten your landing units.

**Landing units:**

* Armored car: The armored car is a lightly armored defensive unit with a high view range, being especially effective against infantry. They are useful during an amphibious landing to hold captured territory and spot incoming enemy units.

* Light tank: The light tank is a lightly armored offensive unit with a fast speed, particularly effective against lightly armored units, they can still pose a serious threat to enemy heavy armor when used en masse. They are useful during an amphibious landing to capture enemy provinces and deal with light armor.

* Tank destroyer: The tank destroyer is a heavily armored defensive unit that is quite effective against heavy armor, but can pack a punch on offense. They're able to remain hidden unless revealed by spies or scouting. They are useful during an amphibious landing to hold captured territory and defend from heavy armor. Alternatively, they can be swapped out for Artillery, or SP Artillery. Which are more effective on offense, but lack armor.

* Infantry: Infantry are an unarmored defensive unit that is effective against most armor classes, especially when deployed in large numbers. They are useful during an amphibious landing to hold captured territory.

* Motorized Infantry: Motorized infantry are an unarmored offensive unit with a fast speed and high view range. As such, they are very crucial during an amphibious landing, as you would want to disable the enemy's defenses as quickly as possible whilst conquering provinces. Motorized infantry can also be swapped out for Mechanized Infantry, which can be switched around from offense to defense quickly.