There's already a thread devoted to vigorously debating the worth of the air stacking penalty, but I'd like to see a discussion of how to deal with it as it is right now.
Right now it's difficult to do much in the air. Consider my recent game: I was playing as USSR, and WW2 started right on schedule with a German invasion of Poland in September 1939, the formation of Vichy, and a Japanese attack on the USA in October 1941. Barbarossa never happened, however, and I stayed out of the fighting for a long time. By 1945 I had a very large army, a good air force, and very high tech levels in all important areas. Seeing that things were stalled in the west, I decided to declare war on Germany and settle the matter.
My air units were organized in 4-plane groups, one in every province along the front plus some in reserve. Germany, however, sent large 12-15-plane stacks against me and decimated all of my fighters in short order. My invasion ground to a halt as my land units were whittled down in org by Stukas and tac bombers. Even Zhukov (whom I had made a Field Marshal) couldn't make headway leading my best 24-unit tank army.
Given the reality of the stacking penalty as we have it now, what is to be done? My 4-fighter stacks obviously don't work. Has anyone tried larger stacks, accepting the penalty in order to spread the damage around? What size is best?
I'm wondering how humans are coping with the penalty now. As it is, I can't even take Lvov, let alone Berlin.
Right now it's difficult to do much in the air. Consider my recent game: I was playing as USSR, and WW2 started right on schedule with a German invasion of Poland in September 1939, the formation of Vichy, and a Japanese attack on the USA in October 1941. Barbarossa never happened, however, and I stayed out of the fighting for a long time. By 1945 I had a very large army, a good air force, and very high tech levels in all important areas. Seeing that things were stalled in the west, I decided to declare war on Germany and settle the matter.
My air units were organized in 4-plane groups, one in every province along the front plus some in reserve. Germany, however, sent large 12-15-plane stacks against me and decimated all of my fighters in short order. My invasion ground to a halt as my land units were whittled down in org by Stukas and tac bombers. Even Zhukov (whom I had made a Field Marshal) couldn't make headway leading my best 24-unit tank army.
Given the reality of the stacking penalty as we have it now, what is to be done? My 4-fighter stacks obviously don't work. Has anyone tried larger stacks, accepting the penalty in order to spread the damage around? What size is best?
I'm wondering how humans are coping with the penalty now. As it is, I can't even take Lvov, let alone Berlin.