2 quick questions

[Stug_Life]

1. What are the pros and cons of having my infantry divisions either consist of special forces or normal infantry?

2. How effective are AA guns in giant plane fights? (talking about AA you build not equipment)

 

[Opanashc]

1. Special forces take longer to train, take more equipment per battalion, have less HP. They also have higher breakthrough, organization, recovery rate, bonuses in some terrain and some have lower supply usage.
2. I don't build AA, so cannot help you there.

 

[Anaraxes]

(2) What exactly is a "giant plane fight"? State AA will add to air superiority values for the air zone, though it does not damage enemy fighters on air superiority missions. It will attack and damage air units attacking its state, which is to say strat, tac, and naval bombers on port strike. (CAS attacking units are attacked by AA battalions in the divisions.)

 

[Bolshevik-]

1. What are the pros and cons of having my infantry divisions either consist of special forces or normal infantry?

2. How effective are AA guns in giant plane fights? (talking about AA you build not equipment)

1. Depends on the country. America and Japan should have Marines. Italy should have Mountaineers (simply because of their huge research bonus's for mountaineers). Its really up to you as a player. Marines are good for river crossings and mountaineers have huge bonus in mountain combat. Both are a lot more expensive to produce. Think about where your country is located and what you plan on doing. Don't mass produce marines if you will not be doing naval invasions.

2. AA increases accident chances. Unfortunately it won't count in # of planes shot down on the counter. You almost never need AA. Just build a bunch of fighters to do the exact same thing. Nothing worse than building stationary AA and never using them.

As for AA attached to divisions that can move around, I never build those either. Artillery or Anti-tank will do more good.

 

[therealpete]

Don't AA also help for ground combat?

 

[Bolshevik-]

Don't AA also help for ground combat?

They do but 99% of the time as any major (at least vs ai) there is nothing that adding AA into your divisions will do that your airforce won't do. Honestly half the time players are too lazy to even split their 6,000 planes into groups of 400 and 800 in order to put them on all the little air bases. Thank god they finally decided to do something about the air system.

 

[Bolshevik-]

Don't AA also help for ground combat?

Usually minors can't afford AA and are way better off spending their money on artillery.

 

[Stug_Life]

(2) What exactly is a "giant plane fight"? State AA will add to air superiority values for the air zone, though it does not damage enemy fighters on air superiority missions. It will attack and damage air units attacking its state, which is to say strat, tac, and naval bombers on port strike. (CAS attacking units are attacked by AA battalions in the divisions.)

For example when playing as Germany in multiplayer what often happens is a giant fight takes place over northern France prior to D-day, often German fighters vs. British fighters. So I was wondering how much stationary AA in Northern France would help the German fighters?

I just saw that AA does not effect fighters, which really blows. Hopefully they change this in the upcoming patch.

 

[Anaraxes]

I just saw that AA does not effect fighters, which really blows. Hopefully they change this in the upcoming patch.

How many fighters were lost to strategic AA in the actual war?

 

[Bryartuck]

State based AA will only fire at bombers bombing the state (strategic bombing), not at aircraft involved in ground combat. Unit based AA will only fire at aircraft engaged in ground combat that the unit it is part of is involved in.

 

[therealpete]

How many fighters were lost to strategic AA in the actual war?

Dunno, wasn't there. And historical inaccuracies are widely examined.

 

[Stug_Life]

removed - Had a dad

This website had some good information, Im not sure how much of what they are talking about is strat bombers or fighters. But they do mention how CAS was every bit as afraid of flak as bombers were, so maybe stationary AA should damage CAS in the game?

 

[Anaraxes]

Thanks for the links. I found a spreadsheet with stats for all the missions of the 8th Air Force, but I was getting strange enough numbers out of it that I need to spend some more time with it, and hopefully have another source to cross-check.

CAS was every bit as afraid of flak as bombers were, so maybe stationary AA should damage CAS in the game?

One of the things making it hard to compare stats is that most sources don't always make the same distinction that HoI does (fixed AA versus towed equipment, where the mobility is sometimes is a matter of intent rather than weapon type or physical capability). And on the other side of the coin, it's also easy to mix the missions together. A fighter sweep attacking airfields might reasonably be part of "air superiority" missions, yet run into different low-level flak than the bombers (or their escorts).

 

[FrancescoT]

@Stug_Life direct link to external forum sites are not allowed here. Please remove it from your post asap or I'll have to delete the whole post.