Share your favorite stacks!

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    • Share your favorite stacks!

      Ever had those moments where you make a killer stack and you feel so good about it? I just did. Day 9 in World at War, and I know that no one else will rule the seas with this stack around :)


      And take a peek at the stats:



      A perfect all-around naval stack.

      Anyways, feel free to share your favorites here as well. I'll be posting more stacks here whenever I get really good ones.
      P.S. Advice for Naval players: Allied and Pan Asian doctrines are great!
      “A battle fought without determination is a battle lost.” - Josip Broz Tito

    • TheZhukov wrote:

      Axis melee stack

      5 mechanized infabtr, 5 medium tanks, 5 sp anti air as soon as possible
      SPAA is key. Strangely, there are some people that think regular AA is better because "low production costs". The thing is, if you play right you won't really have to worry about SPAA costs. Plus they don't slow down your stacks.
      “A battle fought without determination is a battle lost.” - Josip Broz Tito

    • Brando Dilla wrote:

      Ever had those moments where you make a killer stack and you feel so good about it? I just did. Day 9 in World at War, and I know that no one else will rule the seas with this stack around :)
      By no means a "killer stack" but I used to love my standard early-game pan-Asian area army (this had so many disadvantages):
      Infantry division, for dealing the real damage:
      6 infantry lvl.2
      2 anti-tank lvl.2
      2 light tanks lvl.2
      1 artillery lvl.2
      1 tank destroyer lvl.1/medium tank lvl.1

      The idea is that this stack can deal reasonably good damage to all three land armour classes plus decent anti-air, has a good number of hitpoints, and deals good damage in many terrains. Tactically the idea is when fighting, place the arty behind, wait for enemy to play offensively and defend using anti-tank and infantry unless coming across armoured cars, in which case charge with the light tanks.

      In the area army, to this would be attached a cavalry brigade, for scouting and exploiting breakthroughs:
      2 armoured cars lvl.2
      4 motorised infantry lvl.1

      And an artillery battery, for besieging enemy positions:
      4 artillery lvl.2
      2 rocket artillery lvl.1
      2 anti-air lvl.1

      These were meant to be an efficient use of oil, which I would use in ships, and also in aeroplanes to support these armies. My Allied version replaced most units with mechanised, armoured versions.

      I don't make these so much anymore because I really didn't understand how SBDE works, that pan-Asian medium tanks were not so good, or how good regular pan-Asian gun artillery was against infantry. This also doesn't do so well as using terrain bonuses, a focus of Pan-Asian. As I've said it's a bad stack. But I still liked the idea of a standardised, regular area army.
      Aeroplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.
      — Marshal Foch

      A pretty mechanical toy [...] the war will never be won by such machines.
      — Lord Kitchener, on tanks

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Lord Crayfish ().

    • I've made a few 10-10-10-10 naval stacks, which are huge resource wastes but are incredibly fun to use. I sent them along the shoreline with Offensive fire control.

      My favorite land stack, outside of the RRG stacks, was something like 10 heavy tanks, 5 mot inf, 5 SPAA, that I just sent on its way and watched it roll over everything in its path. Again, a huge resource waste, but so fun to use.

      If we're actually looking for resource-efficient stacks that are also reasonably effective, I think some of the stacks you all have designed will fall a bit short. They're too small or too mixed or too weak to something specific.

    • Lord Crayfish wrote:

      Brando Dilla wrote:

      Ever had those moments where you make a killer stack and you feel so good about it? I just did. Day 9 in World at War, and I know that no one else will rule the seas with this stack around :)
      By no means a "killer stack" but I used to love my standard early-game pan-Asian area army (this had so many disadvantages):Infantry division, for dealing the real damage:
      6 infantry lvl.2
      2 anti-tank lvl.2
      2 light tanks lvl.2
      1 artillery lvl.2
      1 tank destroyer lvl.1/medium tank lvl.1

      The idea is that this stack can deal reasonably good damage to all three land armour classes plus decent anti-air, has a good number of hitpoints, and deals good damage in many terrains. Tactically the idea is when fighting, place the arty behind, wait for enemy to play offensively and defend using anti-tank and infantry unless coming across armoured cars, in which case charge with the light tanks.

      In the area army, to this would be attached a cavalry brigade, for scouting and exploiting breakthroughs:
      2 armoured cars lvl.2
      4 motorised infantry lvl.1

      And an artillery battery, for besieging enemy positions:
      4 artillery lvl.2
      2 rocket artillery lvl.1
      2 anti-air lvl.1

      These were meant to be an efficient use of oil, which I would use in ships, and also in aeroplanes to support these armies. My Allied version replaced most units with mechanised, armoured versions.

      I don't make these so much anymore because I really didn't understand how SBDE works, that pan-Asian medium tanks were not so good, or how good regular pan-Asian gun artillery was against infantry. This also doesn't do so well as using terrain bonuses, a focus of Pan-Asian. As I've said it's a bad stack. But I still liked the idea of a standardised, regular area army.
      why one artilery

      it is useless

      only slows you down
      Glory to the Union!

      Glory to the Red Army!

      Glory to the Revolution!

      Marshal of the Forum High Command

    • I agree with jubjub. The ideal stack is the one that does the job. Very often, that means "One armored car". It is completely unglamorous and very boring. It also gets defeated by just about anything decent an enemy will put up against it. But at least 60% of the time, it does the assigned job: "drive into that province and take it". That's all it needs to do, and that's what it does. Nothing fancy, nothing glamourous, just do the job.

      At the same time, you're busy concentrating all the ranged artillery you can muster and breaking down the main enemy stack at some frontier province. They're powerful and they're also doing their job, but they couldn't do it without all those single armored cars cutting off options and movement speed from the enemy.

      So at the end of the day, who are the heroes? Are they that big 20-unit stack with all that ranged fire power that rained down on the enemy? Or are they all those nameless single AC's, who made sure that that main enemy stack couldn't retreat when they needed to?

      I go for the latter. The best stack in CoW is one single AC.
      When the fake daddies are curtailed, we have failed. When their roller coaster tolerance is obliterated, their education funds are taken by Kazakhstani phishers, and their candy bars distributed between the Botswana youth gangs, we have succeeded.
      - BIG DADDY.

    • Preach, brother Rokossovski!

      In terms of bang for the buck, a stack of 1 AC can only be beaten by a stack of 1 militia. You can land behind enemy lines, walk around taking critical production centers and transportation lines, and very often they can't do anything to stop you because they don't even understand what's happening.

      In terms of dealing maximum damage, this is a stack of 10x Allied SP Arty at level 3:
      Images

      • table.jpg

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    • TheZhukov wrote:

      why one artilery
      it is useless

      only slows you down
      That's yet another disadvantage but in general back then
      The idea is that if I want a heavier barrage I wait for the dedicated artillery battery to come.
      'Twas a shitty doctrine, I'm just saying I liked the idea.
      Aeroplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.
      — Marshal Foch

      A pretty mechanical toy [...] the war will never be won by such machines.
      — Lord Kitchener, on tanks

    • When you add ints to a bombing stack, you still need ten bombers for top ground damage, so in this case you overstack. It would look something like 5 tacs, 5 AB, and a few ints.
      When the fake daddies are curtailed, we have failed. When their roller coaster tolerance is obliterated, their education funds are taken by Kazakhstani phishers, and their candy bars distributed between the Botswana youth gangs, we have succeeded.
      - BIG DADDY.

    • K.Rokossovski wrote:

      When you add ints to a bombing stack, you still need ten bombers for top ground damage, so in this case you overstack. It would look something like 5 tacs, 5 AB, and a few ints.
      Exactly.

      And (if you're active when this happens) you can send the ints to attack an approaching air stack separately, so your bombers won't take (as much) damage.
      “A battle fought without determination is a battle lost.” - Josip Broz Tito

    • K.Rokossovski wrote:

      When you add ints to a bombing stack, you still need ten bombers for top ground damage, so in this case you overstack. It would look something like 5 tacs, 5 AB, and a few ints.
      When it comes to air stacks, I usually add every interceptor I can muster, sometimes add in other planes too. Every unit in that air stack is more to spread the damage over and keep your bombers healthy longer. Interceptors are cheaper than bombers. I've used a stack of 10 tac bombers with 20 interceptors and even add in a few naval bombers if the situation is desperate (like the opponent has significant AA and I don't have a ground stack in the area). This is an often overlooked use for interceptors, just to spread the damage from ground units and save my bombers.

      Otherwise I agree with Roko, the best stack is often the least necessary to take a province quickly. If you have air superiority, a single leveled AC is extremely effective as if takes unguarded terrain very quickly. This is typically the core of my strategy, use ground units against substantial ground formations, use ACs to gobble up undefended territory, and use a combination of air units for air superiority and to clear the way for my AC rush. It can be effective, but certainly has a few weaknesses.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by 6thDragon ().

    • z00mz00m wrote:

      Preach, brother Rokossovski!

      In terms of bang for the buck, a stack of 1 AC can only be beaten by a stack of 1 militia. You can land behind enemy lines, walk around taking critical production centers and transportation lines, and very often they can't do anything to stop you because they don't even understand what's happening.

      In terms of dealing maximum damage, this is a stack of 10x Allied SP Arty at level 3:
      I simply love Militia.
      Cheap, fast production, strong defense, stealth, 50% bonus in Forest.

    • Mark Dethief wrote:

      z00mz00m wrote:

      Preach, brother Rokossovski!

      In terms of bang for the buck, a stack of 1 AC can only be beaten by a stack of 1 militia. You can land behind enemy lines, walk around taking critical production centers and transportation lines, and very often they can't do anything to stop you because they don't even understand what's happening.

      In terms of dealing maximum damage, this is a stack of 10x Allied SP Arty at level 3:
      I simply love Militia.Cheap, fast production, strong defense, stealth, 50% bonus in Forest.
      I never research them past level 1, and I only use them as garrisons in provinces I don't want to rebel.
      “A battle fought without determination is a battle lost.” - Josip Broz Tito