Usually I will just put a support AA company on my templates... However, I am not familiar with the AA combat mechanism enough to know whether or not adding a full AA battalion would help. Can anyone comment?
Anti-Air: How much is enough?
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For Single Player game the support batallion AA is enough.
I can't say about hard level or mods that enhance AI difficult.
I can't say about hard level or mods that enhance AI difficult.
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Enough is a relative and in war if we have "enough" it is probably a sign of redundant and waste.
The AA do four things: reduce damage, reduce air superiority penalty, kill enemy CAS. Any AA is enough for the first, but may not for the 2nd and 3rd job. And the last job is scratching enemy tanks, and pierce enemy tank or increase piercing of AT.
If we use 20w+ infantry and face enemy with huge air , the support AA shoot CAS down quite slow, and the air superiority penalty is big. At least have some special AT divisions with line AA too, probably both line AA, line AT and support AA to boost where the enemy attacked.
If we use 14-16w, the density of support AA is increased 30%, we shoot CAS 30% faster also we have more division to rest and recover. But it is good to have some special AT-AA division too, especially in open plain terrain.
The AA do four things: reduce damage, reduce air superiority penalty, kill enemy CAS. Any AA is enough for the first, but may not for the 2nd and 3rd job. And the last job is scratching enemy tanks, and pierce enemy tank or increase piercing of AT.
If we use 20w+ infantry and face enemy with huge air , the support AA shoot CAS down quite slow, and the air superiority penalty is big. At least have some special AT divisions with line AA too, probably both line AA, line AT and support AA to boost where the enemy attacked.
If we use 14-16w, the density of support AA is increased 30%, we shoot CAS 30% faster also we have more division to rest and recover. But it is good to have some special AT-AA division too, especially in open plain terrain.
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One thing to keep in mind is that in contrast to AT, line and support AA provide similar piercing. And AA does not use tungsten. Since generating divisions (not individual tanks) with high armor values requires a lot of unfavorable tradeoffs, high armor is rarely an issue and an AA support company can usually also replace support AT. And since line AT only has 1w, if you need high AT, it is better to have support AA and line AT (not necessarily in the same division) rather than support AA and AT.
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For AT division, better get both line AA and AT just in case. If we use them with regular infantry, then try to get a little more Org than the regular, by add some extra infantry. This way the tanks will not select them to kick first.
Just support AA with just 1936 AA tech (so no additional % buffs or better equipment) will give your divisions full damage reduction from enemy CAS. In SP support AA is probably all you'll ever need, although I can maybe imagine scenarios where you might want to add extra AA for the purpose of shooting down enemy CAS, you're usually probably better off spending the IC on something that wins the war faster or state AA to stop the AI constantly logistic bombing you (or just, ya know, make fighters ).
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Pretty much this. The only situation where support AA isn't enough is when you're trying to use tanks in a no-air build, or when you're losing the air war. You really want to have enough AA to completely mitigate the air superiority penalty so that your tanks can move at full speed. I'm not completely sure but if I remember correctly the value is somewhere around 112 air attack worth of AA. The best way to achieve this currently is by stacking motorized AA, as it has half the combat width of self-propelled AA per battalion and therefore higher air attack per combat width.Just support AA with just 1936 AA tech (so no additional % buffs or better equipment) will give your divisions full damage reduction from enemy CAS. In SP support AA is probably all you'll ever need, although I can maybe imagine scenarios where you might want to add extra AA for the purpose of shooting down enemy CAS, you're usually probably better off spending the IC on something that wins the war faster or state AA to stop the AI constantly logistic bombing you (or just, ya know, make fighters
In single player, you should always be able to win the war as a major(and green air is still better than red air), so no-air builds are mostly relegated to test builds for MP and playing as minors. No-air is still a solid choice for a "historical" USSR build, but if you plan on fighting the allies after defeating Germany or doing ahistorical things you'll probably want to have planes.
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That's roughly 4 line AA or 1 support AA and 3 line AA with Tier 2 AA and 1941 AA techs. You can cut that down to 3 line AA or 1 support AA and 2 line AA with max AA techs.
That's basically something like 15-20 aircraft worth of production cost per division if you convert the cost of the AA guns to aircraft cost. I was thinking that maybe you could immunize the entire front this way instead of just panzer formations, but the cost is so prohibitive, you should have just built an air force instead.
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I don't know how much of it has changed, but @el nora did make this post which suggests that 112 AA is the value... for the basic 35% defense/breakthrough penalty. It can stretch upwards the more air superiority modifiers they have, and 84 is enough to negate the speed penalty. But this is an older post.
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AA in support battalion is mostly good enough, except when you invade Germany, and to a lesser extent the USA and the Soviet Union (especially after 1942, when they built up their powerful industry). Unless you built a significant air force and have air superiority in (some) regions, I recommend adding 1 battalion of AA in your infantry templates, to balance with the expected colossal air superiority by the opponent.
Note: usually your infantry divisions are fully trained, so don't just add 1 battalion as this will result in experience loss. What you can do for example is have a template with 10 battalions (let's say 100% infantry), then you substitute 1 infantry battalion with 1 AA battalion. This way you won't lose experience. But make sure you have plenty of equipment in reserve, to keep your organization high.
Note: usually your infantry divisions are fully trained, so don't just add 1 battalion as this will result in experience loss. What you can do for example is have a template with 10 battalions (let's say 100% infantry), then you substitute 1 infantry battalion with 1 AA battalion. This way you won't lose experience. But make sure you have plenty of equipment in reserve, to keep your organization high.
Did it always work this way? That might be a confirmation bias, but I recall receiving less damage with multiple AA (or SPAA back when they were actually good at their main role).
Before CAS is less devastating. With BBA we can stack very high ground attack.
Patch 1.5.2:
- Division anti air reduces damage to the division caused by close air support attacks, in proportion to the AA's ability to shoot down planes.
Prior to that, divisional AA shared some defines/mechanics with ship AA. The values have not been rebalanced since.
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