Battleplan News

[p]Let’s go over the basics so you too can enjoy all the perks aircraft have to offer![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]AIRCRAFT[/p][p]Aircraft are special units – they obviously cannot take territory, and don’t fight like regular[/p][p]ground units. You’ll recruit different types of aircraft to perform different tasks.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]CLOSE-AIR SUPPORT[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Fighter-bombers armed with rockets, cannons & machine-guns swoop down and strafe enemy units, inflicting minor damage but HUGE morale damage & stat penalties. Strafing runs won’t destroy  enemy units on their own, but they apply huge stat penalties, making your own ground units have a decisive edge.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]You can set your doctrine to have fighter-bombers automatically patrol and aid friendlies in need, or you can give explicit orders to attack enemies within a specified area for a set amount of time.[/p][p]Close-air support isn’t very effective against enemies in fortifications – they’re most effective against enemies in the open. Use them to ravage exposed & unfortified enemy units pushing into your territory.[/p][p][/p][p]AERIAL RECON[/p][p]Reconnaissance planes fly overhead, providing many benefits.[/p]

• [p]Enemy units are revealed, becoming visible to you on the map. Enemy supply depots can even be spotted from the air, allowing you to plan on capturing them in future offensives.[/p]
• [p]Enemy units & positions are ‘tagged’, giving them stat penalties due to friendlies knowing their positions ahead of time.[/p]
• [p]You also gain ‘intel’ on the enemy division, learning more information on them such as troop number, types, commanding officer and even their future plans![/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]CARPET BOMBING[/p][p]In certain missions, medium bombers are available to make perform a singular ‘carpet bombing run’. Bombers fly overhead, dropping a deluge of bombs to plaster enemy positions. Fortifications are damaged or destroyed, enemy units are moderately damaged, and most importantly the majority of enemies break & panic. Use this brief window before their morale recovers to break through their lines and cut them off![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]FLAK[/p][p]Just because the Luftwaffe is mostly a non-threat at this point in the war doesn’t mean your aircraft can get reckless. Enemy flak units (such as the dreaded 88mm flak gun) will fire at your aircraft flying overhead. Flak deals minor damage, heavy morale damage and inflicts a devastating stat penalty. Don’t expect aircraft to perform close-air support or bombing runs very effectively whilst under flak fire! Flak is often positioned near enemy headquarters, so if your recon identifies their HQ you should be able to avoid flak.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]FUEL & SUPPLIES[/p][p]Aircraft take lots of fuel & supplies when performing tasks. After they run out of fuel, they’ll return to their headquarters/airfield (where they also hang out when idle). It’s important to position your headquarters/airfield near a supply depot so aircraft receive supplies quickly enough to refuel. You’ll want your headquarters close to the frontlines so the aircraft don’t have to fly as far, but not too close that they’ll captured or bombarded by enemy ground units.[/p][p][/p][p]WHISHLIST NOW:[/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink] [/p]

[p]In most battles you’re going to have to attack. Let’s go over the most efficient ways to take territory while conserving troops.[/p][p][/p][p]ESTABLISHING A TIMELINE[/p][p]First, are you in a hurry? Do you need to take that objective city RIGHT NOW, or can you wait? Read the mission briefing carefully, and look at the remaining time in the mission. Your approach will vary depending on how much time you have.[/p][p][/p][p]QUICK OFFENCES[/p][p]If you’re in a hurry, use a Breakthrough Attack followed by an Assemble order. Breakthrough Attacks have the division use a formation, then slowly push through a given route. Units WON’T stop to hold taken territory, and won’t wait to mop up enemy units.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Once at the end of the path, the Assemble order has units break formation move as quickly as possible to the destination.[/p][p][/p][p]This is ideal for quickly breaking through lightly defended frontlines. However this won’t break through heavy fortifications or breach dense cities.[/p][p][/p][p]LONG OFFENCES[/p][p]You’ve got time, or facing heavy defences/veteran enemies. Use the ‘Complex Attack’ order, which will have your officers generate an elaborate multi-step plan for you.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Steps will include:[/p]

• [p]Assemble: Move close to the frontlines (but don’t engage yet).[/p]
• [p]Simultaneously:[/p]

[p]◦   Prepatory Artillery Barrage: Artillery opens on frontline enemies, damaging them, reducing their fortications, lowering their morale and applying a status debuff. You can set the barrage duration – the longer the better (but it costs more ammunition).[/p][p]◦   Scouting: Scouts in armoured cars will move forward and ‘spot’ enemies – revealing them in the fog of war temporarily and applying a stat debuff. This also has a duration – set it to match your artillery barrage.[/p]

• [p]Simultaneously:[/p]

[p]◦   Breakthrough Attacks: Depending on the composition of your divisions, multiple Breakthrough Attacks may be created, with different regiments moving along different roads to breakthrough enemy lines.[/p][p]◦   Reserves: Normally one Regiment will be held in Reserve. They sit in in friendly territory, and move to assist friendlies who are in trouble. This happens simultaneously to the Breakthrough Attacks.[/p]

• [p]Seize Ground: Lastly, your units will split up to seize and hold all remaining ground, forming a defensive perimeter. This will mop up enemies who fled earlier.[/p]

[p]Feel free to edit/delete/customize orders within the generated attack plan.[/p][p][/p][p]It’s best to draw the territory to seize in a Complex Attack starting from your frontlines, and pressing inwards 5-15 km depending on the strength of your troops and strength of the enemy.[/p][p][/p][p]WHICH UNIT(S)?[/p][p]First, what units should you use to attack? Armoured divisions are ideal. Tanks & mechanized infantry are hard-hitting, and most importantly FAST. They’re vehicles, and move more quickly than infantry do marching (regular infantry ride in trucks whilst in safe territory, and dismount close to the front).[/p][p][/p][p]Furthermore, your attacking division should have Artillery to perform prepatory barrages, Scouts to perform recon, Engineers to assault fortifications & clear minefields.[/p][p][/p][p]The division should also ideally be fresh and have sustained few casualties.[/p][p][/p][p]You don’t have to limit yourself to one attacking division – merge multiple divisions into a Corps!Combine an Armoured Division combined with an Infantry Division (or even two Armoured Divisions) make a mighty force. More regiments allow for better Complex Attacks. It also lets you create fewer plans.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]You can also split units off from division (their artillery or engineers) and give them to another division to help an attack. Don’t let your specialty units languish in the frontlines! Or in the army constructor, create specific ‘storm’ divisions that contain your expensive units, and create ‘hold’ divisions filled with cheaper infantry.[/p][p][/p][p]SUPPLY[/p][p]Don’t use a division with less than half its maximum supply for an offensive lest they run out while fighting. Armoured divisions use supply more quickly, so be sure to set up a supply depot at the attack assembly point BEFORE initiating the attack.[/p][p][/p][p]After extensive fighting, pull your units back to a supply depot to replenish more quickly.[/p][p][/p][p]TERRAIN[/p][p]Analyze the terrain carefully. Use the elevation view to see where the high ground is. Seize high ground to see further and gain combat bonuses.[/p][p][/p][p]MORE TIPS[/p]

• [p]Officers have different personality quirks & stats – assign ‘offensive’ Officers to your ‘storm’ divisions. Ex: movement speed bonuses, offence bonuses.[/p]
• [p]Use ‘wait until date/signal’ to sync multiple attacks to occur simultaneously.[/p]

[p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Wishlist now:[/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p]

[p]Welcome to the Battleplan developer diaries! We’ll cover various topics to help you understand the game better and give you an edge against the enemy! Today we’ll cover defence – holding territory and vital landmarks.[/p][p][/p][p]POSITION UNITS DURING DEPLOYMENT[/p][p]Planning your defence starts before the mission does! In the deployment phase you can position your units anywhere in friendly territory. Your units instantly gain fortifications when the mission starts, so position your units during deployment, rather than moving them AFTER the mission starts.[/p][p][/p][p]TERRAIN[/p][p]Terrain alters the stats of units sitting inside it. Towns & forests are defensive terrain, increasing defence and firepower, whilst decreasing movement speed. Position your units at the edges of forests and towns, so enemies have to approach through the open.[/p][p][/p][p]Swamps, wetlands and beaches are all-around terrain. They lower defence, firepower, movement speed and morale drastically. Avoid putting your units there, and force the enemy to move through them instead![/p][p][/p][p]ELEVATION[/p][p]Click the ‘Elevation’ view toggle to see real-world elevation of the area. Units on high ground can see further downhill, letting you see the enemy further away. Elevation also confers firepower and defence bonuses. Try to position units above the enemy, though this isn’t always possible since the Allies are mainly on the offence.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]KNOW WHEN TO GIVE UP TERRITORY[/p][p]Just because you start with a large amount of territory, doesn’t mean you need to keep it. Often you have too few troops to properly defend the entirety of the frontline. It can be better to give up ground, and defend a narrower front or hold more favourable terrain.[/p][p]
[/p][p]Looking at Caen, the airborne troops start in terrible swamps. This makes attacking from there miserable. Consider pulling them back across the river, narrowing your frontage and allowing your frontlines to be thicker.[/p][p][/p][p]FORTIFICATIONS & MINEFIELDS[/p][p]Units automatically dig fortifications when stationary. Most units can dig minor fortifications, whilst engineers can dig more effective fortifications. Fortifications appear visually on the map (trenches, foxholes) and change based on their effectiveness. Some scenarios have pre-build fortifications (bunkers & tank traps) which are very effective.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Mousing over a fortified unit shows their fortification level/percentage near the mouse, and more stats in the stats panel. Fortifications provide defence whilst also increasing firepower. During combat fortifications are degraded (and are rapidly degraded by planned artillery barrages & aerial bombing). Fortified units are hard to damage until their fortifications are destroyed.[/p][p][/p][p]Engineers automatically lay minefields (seen visually as red skull signs and small, gray round mines). Units moving in minefields take damage, and have lower defence, firepower, speed and morale. You can give an explicit ‘Lay Minefield’ order if you want certain intersections or roads mined, or just let engineers to it automatically. When units are in minefields, they’ll call friendly engineers to clear the mines which removes the combat penalties when moving through minefields.[/p][p][/p][p]FRONTLINE & RESERVES[/p][p]Defending everything is the same as defending nothing. -Sun Tzu, probably.[/p][p]
You often don’t have enough troops to properly defend the ENTIRE frontline. If a panzer division attacks, it will breakthrough most frontlines with ease. You can’t know where the break through can occur, so how can you defend against this? Have reserves.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Have a thinly spread frontline of infantry to prevent the enemy from cautiously advancing. Then place your armour divisions a few kilometers behind the frontline using the ‘Reserves’ or ‘Counterattack’ orders. Reserve formations should sit in front of/on top of supply depots to protect them. They should also be placed along roads leading towards objectives you MUST hold (ex: Bayeux in the Caen mission).[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]When a panzer division attacks it WILL pierce your thin frontline, however your armoured units should quickly arrive and stop a deep penetration. If the enemy moves too quickly and doesn’t leave any rear-security, your broken infantry frontline may reform and cut them off from behind (cutting them off from supply, applying debuffs).
[/p][p]Use the ‘Complex Defence’ order to have a single division split itself up with several regiments defending the frontline, and one regiment in reserve.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]
INFANTRY & ARMOUR ON DEFENCE[/p][p]Infantry gains more bonuses from fortifications. They’re also more plentiful and move more slowly. Use them on the frontlines.[/p][p][/p][p]Armour and mechanized infantry on the otherhand receive fewer bonuses from fortifications, and move  quickly. They’re also far more valuable on the offence, so try to limit their losses. Use them as elite reserves that rush to plug any gaps. [/p][p][/p][p]TRUST AUTO-PLACEMENT[/p][p]Your forces are deployed automatically at mission start, and will follow the above doctrine: thin infantry frontlines, armour on counterattacks. If you’re new, just stick with this deployment! Trust your officers know what they’re doing.[/p][p][/p][p]
SUPPLY DEPOT PLACEMENT[/p][p]We’ll cover supply more in-depth in a later article, but suffice to say units need supply (ammo, food & fuel). If your frontline is thin, placing a depot nearby is risky since you won’t be able to prevent a determined breakthrough. [/p][p][/p][p]If your frontline is short/thick, or you have a reserve unit, place a supply depot on top of or nearby to maximize supply flow (the shorter path the faster supplies are transferred).[/p][p][/p][p]Now you know the basics of defence. Apply the above advice to limit your casualties, whilst inflicting maximum casualties on an attacker. [/p][p][/p][p]See you at the front, General![/p][p][/p][p]Wishlist now:[/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p]Join on Discord: https://discord.gg/aShtuyPaj6 [/p][p][/p][p]
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[p]We are excited that during the Slitherine Next 2025 – 25th Anniversary we have revealed our latest title:[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Battleplan is not just another World War II strategy game. It's a real-time strategy experience at army level that brings together everything we love about historical depth, tactical planning, and immersive gameplay. It’s ambitious, it’s innovative, and it’s designed to give you the tools to think and act like a real commander-in-chief.[/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]What Makes Battleplan Different?[/p][p]Set on the Western Front, Battleplan puts you in charge of massive divisions, giving you full operational control across a vast real-world-based maps. You’ll literally draw your strategies, lines for defensive fronts, arrows for flanking attacks and watch them unfold as your officers and units execute complex plans autonomously.[/p][p]
Join the Discord channel so you don’t miss anything, and sign up for the Beta on the Slitherine website to share your feedback[/p]