Here's what they should have done: Launched a surprise attack by marching through neutral Switzerland. They could even use their Italian allies to launch a joint invasion from the South, since Italians must be good at Alpine fighting, what with all their mountains and whatnot>It's mountainousExactly. Hence why no one would see it coming
>dude just march through the alps bro
>hehehehehe the german high command was ao hecking dumberino!! Just go through the mountains with heavy and armoured vehicle! The swiss will not resist at all!! Just do it, I did it in my HOI4 game!Actual retard
>>535378628>since Italians must be good at Alpine fighting,THOUSANDTH BATTLE OF ISONZO
entire swiss defense plan was predicated on defending their mountain areas. enemy can't use vehicles = logistically impossible to invade. remember when they went through the ardennes there were gigantic traffic jams but since the allies had no air force superiority they couldn't mow the vehicles down.
>>535379027This, in WW1 germans were slowed down by Belgium.Mountainous terrain is incredible difficult to attack... what would happen? >germans invade swiss territory>swiss resistBest case situation>germans either get an excuse to get out of the situation or proceed the war, taking huge casualtiesWorst case>France mobilises>Surprise element is completely lost>War either gets stalemated or Germans get to Paris with way, way higher casualties
Like others have said Switzerland is on top of a mountain. Border with France was heavily fortified.Much weaker fortifications facing Belgium.OTOH invading Belgium would bring Britain into the war, which presumably Germans did not want, due to dependence on imported food.Germans calculated they could knock out France before any British blockade could have an effect. This didn't work because>Stronger than expected resistance in Belgium. >Faster Russian mobilization than expected, forcing diversion of troops away from France>French used automobiles instead of trains to move troops to the front, which German planners also did not expect.By 1915, Western Front was stalemated, and would remain that way until final weeks of the war.
>>535378769Hannibal did it without any technology and with fucking elephants
>>535379196Invasion of Switzerland would also bring Italy into the war. (This happened anyway I know, but Germans in 1914 assumed Italy would remain friendly or neutral.)
>>535380165The roads were better back then before they said We need to destroy our mobility infraestructure because africans
>>535378628>just march through the fortified mountains bro
>>535378628>Italians must be good at Alpine fightinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_invasion_of_France
>>535378628Real issue was they didn’t have enough men to make this plan work.It was always on a razor edge and the French stopping their march at the Marne just killed the German warplan.They would have needed to focus more fully on France and basically abandon the East to pull this off, that or mobilize a greater percentage of their population as France did.
German offensive of 1914 was intended to knock out France before the Russians could mobilizeGerman offensive of 1918 was intended to knock out France before the Americans could arrive.Both offensives failed.You can see why everybody was so surprised when France collapsed in 1940.
>>535378966>I did it in my HOI4 game!why is this such a common refrain when Hoi4 is much more punishing than real life?You cant even do the Ardennes in Hoi4 because of how many penalties even medium tanks get in forests.Lets say you min-max the perfect tank build, high armor, high soft attack, high breakthrough, expensive tank division made solely for blasting through defensive lines in 1940.You have 1000 Soft attack and 800 Breakthrough for 30 Width (this is an extremely small width for a tank div btw, it would get one-shotted by a TDD).Mountains confer a -30% attack debuff to ALL divisions attacking through them.Armored Divisions are typically 50% tank 50% Mechanized/Motorized, but lets assume you are using mountaineers, taking the massive speed penalty of mountain infantry, to offset the tank debuffs. The most adaptable tanks (mediums/lights) have a -45% attack debuff in mountains, Mountaineers have a +30% bonus when attacking through mountains.each is 50% of the div.thats +15% and -22.5%.-7.5% attack inherent in this specialized "mountain tank" division with Mountain Rangers, Mountaineers, flame tanks, and assault engineers.That is -37.5%.That's 600 soft attack and 500 breakthrough and due to mountain Width being 50 you can only have ONE of these divisions attacking at a time.Lets say you give them a mountaineer division of 21 Width with the mountaineer doctrine bonuses, they are going to contribute at best 200 soft attack and 150 breakthrough.In total, your absolute best is 800 soft attack and 750 breakthrough.Swiss Militia get a +200% attack bonus on the Swiss Plateau.They get an 80% defensive bonus when fighting in Switzerland itself.Swiss Militia are I think 16 width and 120 soft attack and 300 defense.That's comfortably three divisions.with 1800 defense (youre NEVER hitting them) and 720 soft attack (theyre shredding you even with your armor bonus).
>>535380599Americans don’t realize how militaristic France was in the early 20th century, and arguably the mid-late century as well.
>>535378966Southern Switzerland is 'impassable' in the game btw. So no Italy cannot do a joint invasion of Switzerland with Germany.There is Gotthard pass and Chur, everything else is impassable border due to mountains.Have you even played the game?
>>535380165>without any technologyThat works both ways.If Hannibal tried that today the entirety of his forces could be taken out by one redneck with a $5,000 Bass Pro Shops gift card.
>>535380165Yea and how much of his force did he lose in the crossing.The only reason it “worked” was because it was a complete surprise and the pass was largely undefended.
>>535381382This is some powerful autism
>>535381652Bass Pro is banned in Europe
>>535381382bodied that normgroid
>>535378966see, you call this stuff retarded, when it is it really any retarded than what was actually tried IRL?
>>535378628this is you
>>535378628>just go through the alps instead of the lowlandsdriving tanks through the Ardennes was already a massive gamble
>>535380165and most of them perished
