Air Forces Command and Structures

[reaperwolf]

Is there any intention for the AIr Forces to be overhauled and for Officer Postings to be added.
The Battle of Britain was typified not just by the Aces but by the Group Leaders of X, XI, XII and XIII groups as well as the overall commanders of Fighter, Coastal and Bomber Commands and their views and directiives. In the same way, the German Fliegkorps and Gruppen each had leading officers who directed things.
As the Generals work so well for the Armies and to a lesser extent the Navies, is there any intent to implement this level of command structure for the Air Forces with the development of skills and over-riding influence on the efficacy of particular zones and areas?

 

[Aeon221]

They're adding attaching planes to ground forces in the next content dump, which resolves the last big air complaint. So I kind of doubt that they'll make any other big changes to air for a whole when naval needs love so desperately.

 

[reaperwolf]

Seems a real shame though as all of the other armed forces have officers and commands and the Air Forces don't. Hopefully it will come up later along with the potential for Tank and Sub Aces as well so the level of indivudality for each service evens out.

 

[HaruhiFollower]

I don't think it would be worth it just for the flavour, but if it meant having the ability to have groupings of air wings perform missions like "air superiority over France" or "bombing of factories in Germany" (kind of like with navy, just without the limits on the number of air zones) then sure.

 

[reaperwolf]

I was thinking more along the lines of the tactical developments as well. One of the features from the Battle of Britain was the issue between Park and Leigh-Mallory over the Scramble or Big Wing tactics. Equally the German fighter commanders, some favoured Dive-Bombing, others High Level attacks. Each officer assigned to a group or posting could therefore influence the entire wings behaviour as well as developing individually which could add tactically to the situations as well.

 

[Gyrvendal]

I'd like to have some representation of pilots, devoting part of your airforce to training more and better pilots, pilot losses being very significant, and using aces as trainers rather than in combat.
Maybe an experience bar for aiwings, etc.
Lack of trained pilots was a recurring issue in ww2 and it fits well with the general macromanagement in hoi4.

Having commanders for airwings sounds like it would increase the already taxing micro of airwings for very little benefit. Maybe a few more choices for airforce high command in the politics tab would be nice to represent the various strategies employed by major nations in the air war.

 

[Praetori]

I would love if squadrons were a thing just like divisions and armies. Just create templates, combine them into airforces and select areas and they'd do their thing with basing and whatnot. Now we manually need to create every single wing and assign. Sure it's going to be easier with assigning stuff to armies but there's still a distinct difference between how armies, air forces and navies are handled in-game.

 

[Vohen]

You know, unlike in EU4, where sailors was a largely superfluous addition, HoI4 could indeed benefit from more manpower pools.
Two that come to mind right away is a pilot pool and an officers pool.
The first would require you to train air wings just like divisions and would have experience as well, ranging from green to veteran, depending on their training, the difference being that you wouldn't need a minimum time before deploying them as green.
Officers would be part of every division, and the ones in short supply of them would be penalized. They could be generated organically, at a slow pace, but decisions using/giving command power and/or pp could speed up/slow down their recruitment.
But their main use, in my vision, would be for a return of HQ divisions from HoI2 (not HoI3, that entangled mess), which could really change the face of the game to a more intricate, fun army management experience.

 

[Vohen]

You know, unlike in EU4, where sailors was a largely superfluous addition, HoI4 could indeed benefit from more manpower pools.
Two that come to mind right away is a pilot pool and an officers pool.
The first would require you to train air wings just like divisions and would have experience as well, ranging from green to veteran, depending on their training, the difference being that you wouldn't need a minimum time before deploying them as green.
Officers would be part of every division, and the ones in short supply of them would be penalized. They could be generated organically, at a slow pace, but decisions using/giving command power and/or pp could speed up/slow down their recruitment.
But their main use, in my vision, would be for a return of HQ divisions from HoI2 (not HoI3, that entangled mess), which could really change the face of the game to a more intricate, fun army management experience.

Oh yeah, not to mention the significant impact officers would have on the great purge.

 

[safe-keeper]

repaerwolf had a good point that the other branches have commanders, and I guess that if the generals once added are different enough and gives you some interesting, tough, and preferrably historical decisions to make, I'm for it. I like BlackICE's approach where ministers and whatnot are often "zero-sum" sets of bonuses and penalties, where boosting one thing often means another suffers.

I'm not sure if I want this to be very deep, though. One commander per theatre (Scandinavia, West Europe, East Europe, North Africa, and so on) would be enough for me, and perhaps different commanders for fighters and bombers. Perhaps choosing "doctrines" directly for your planes yourself would work even better, though.

A just as good feature, perhaps, would be to make ace stats a bit more interesting than they are, though. Instead of just having three skill levels, with increasing bonuses, there could be general-style bonuses and penalties.

You know, unlike in EU4, where sailors was a largely superfluous addition, HoI4 could indeed benefit from more manpower pools.

A bit off-topic, but yes, absolutely. At least add sailors and pilots.

 

[reaperwolf]

I would love if squadrons were a thing just like divisions and armies. Just create templates, combine them into airforces and select areas and they'd do their thing with basing and whatnot. Now we manually need to create every single wing and assign. Sure it's going to be easier with assigning stuff to armies but there's still a distinct difference between how armies, air forces and navies are handled in-game.

I like this idea as at the minute i can't help feel i am just sending a mass of indistinct planes into an area with no real identity to them whereas each of the other forces, the units have an identity. it could also allow for choosing where to post the older squadrons of now out of date aircraft.

 

[safe-keeper]

I like this idea as at the minute i can't help feel i am just sending a mass of indistinct planes into an area with no real identity to them whereas each of the other forces, the units have an identity. it could also allow for choosing where to post the older squadrons of now out of date aircraft.

Yeah, air wings are just "containers" for planes right now. It's made worse by how it's often more convenient to simply delete air wings and create new ones when you need planes in a new spot. Maybe they could gain experience like divisions do, but then again, I suppose this is kinda what aces are supposed to represent, if each "ace" represents a squadron of veteran pilots that you can dispatch to fight important battles.

Maybe the devs could rename "Ace" to "Veteran squadron" and have the ace just be the squadron commander.