Air war, like any other wars, is won by factories. Yes, you may have high quality and experienced pilots at the beginning, but if you keep losing them, you will eventually lose air superiority. Just ask the Japs and Germans.
If you look at the screen, there are two important things to take note: first, the skull which represent kill counts, and the number of fighters you have.
Initially, I committed 5000 planes, then the enemy AI responded by increasing their plane number to 6000 planes (a little more than mine to achieve air parity). That is why it is important to have a large reserve of planes and a strong industry committed to producing fighters only. We have been in this air war equilibrium (green, yellow, red and then back to green) until I started to capture large number of enemy industries. Finally, I was in the green for a long time (the enemy fighter planes finally dropped below mine). Hence, it is good to take note of this tactical aspect of air war (the number of fighter planes).
The second thing is the skull. The skull represents the attrition aspect of air war. If your planes are better (qualitatively and quantitatively), the enemy will get more skull losses than you. And this skull tally happens everyday, day and night, as the fighters compete for air superiority. Once the enemy keeps losing large number of pilots and planes (represented by the skulls) everyday, and you replace yours as easily, this is when you know the air war is in your hand. So if you are confident, keep pushing the enemy to its limit by forcing them to clock up high skull loses while you ramped up your industries rapidly. While you may have a rather high loss on your side, you will still win in the long run.
Note that I only learnt this through constant observations of how air war is fought and won. I have actually tried to play the Battle of Britain (more info below), by focusing SORELY on increasing air wing production. Even though I failed to achieve air superiority, I think I understand the air war a little better. It is won by factories alone in the long run, not necessarily just the skills and experience of the pilots.
Another interesting thing is that we may get annoyed by random pop-up event about our ace's death. I think this is important because it plays into the attrition aspect of the game. If you keep killing a lot of enemy aces while accumulating a large number of yours, your air force will end up much more experienced and skillful than the enemy (this is not tested yet, but it is something I assume based on historical hindsight).
This is another good example.
Battle of Britain officially started when my planes first arrived in Southern England. Initially, there was no enemy planes, so I get to bomb their industries (first score!)
Then Uk fighters arrived to stop me.
Balance of power started to shift in their favor as more of planes came to help UK. In this example below, Free France sent 262 planes.
Then I am in the red because of larger number of enemy air force. This is when I ramped up production of air planes only, to compete and keep dropping their planes. It is now the war of factories -- who can replace planes and men faster. Germany should have the advantage since it has a larger industry base. The Allies only has UK to count on, because all the other allies have collapsed and lost their European industries. The skull tally will show the number of planes lost.
Eventually, the air war is back to parity, because new situation develops. First, some Allied planes have probably flown off to other theaters (Italy declared war on Greece, and she joined the Allies). Second, like I explained previously, the other Allies have no industries to speak of, so once their planes are lost, there would be no replacement. This is why the air war is back to between German and UK planes. The 1646 planes you see in the screen belong to UK only. Of course, I can keep pushing on to win the air war but I decided to just annex UK (my troops just landed successfully on their beaches). Hope this helps! And let me know you think.
If you look at the screen, there are two important things to take note: first, the skull which represent kill counts, and the number of fighters you have.
Initially, I committed 5000 planes, then the enemy AI responded by increasing their plane number to 6000 planes (a little more than mine to achieve air parity). That is why it is important to have a large reserve of planes and a strong industry committed to producing fighters only. We have been in this air war equilibrium (green, yellow, red and then back to green) until I started to capture large number of enemy industries. Finally, I was in the green for a long time (the enemy fighter planes finally dropped below mine). Hence, it is good to take note of this tactical aspect of air war (the number of fighter planes).
The second thing is the skull. The skull represents the attrition aspect of air war. If your planes are better (qualitatively and quantitatively), the enemy will get more skull losses than you. And this skull tally happens everyday, day and night, as the fighters compete for air superiority. Once the enemy keeps losing large number of pilots and planes (represented by the skulls) everyday, and you replace yours as easily, this is when you know the air war is in your hand. So if you are confident, keep pushing the enemy to its limit by forcing them to clock up high skull loses while you ramped up your industries rapidly. While you may have a rather high loss on your side, you will still win in the long run.
Note that I only learnt this through constant observations of how air war is fought and won. I have actually tried to play the Battle of Britain (more info below), by focusing SORELY on increasing air wing production. Even though I failed to achieve air superiority, I think I understand the air war a little better. It is won by factories alone in the long run, not necessarily just the skills and experience of the pilots.
Another interesting thing is that we may get annoyed by random pop-up event about our ace's death. I think this is important because it plays into the attrition aspect of the game. If you keep killing a lot of enemy aces while accumulating a large number of yours, your air force will end up much more experienced and skillful than the enemy (this is not tested yet, but it is something I assume based on historical hindsight).
This is another good example.
Battle of Britain officially started when my planes first arrived in Southern England. Initially, there was no enemy planes, so I get to bomb their industries (first score!)
Then Uk fighters arrived to stop me.
Balance of power started to shift in their favor as more of planes came to help UK. In this example below, Free France sent 262 planes.
Then I am in the red because of larger number of enemy air force. This is when I ramped up production of air planes only, to compete and keep dropping their planes. It is now the war of factories -- who can replace planes and men faster. Germany should have the advantage since it has a larger industry base. The Allies only has UK to count on, because all the other allies have collapsed and lost their European industries. The skull tally will show the number of planes lost.
Eventually, the air war is back to parity, because new situation develops. First, some Allied planes have probably flown off to other theaters (Italy declared war on Greece, and she joined the Allies). Second, like I explained previously, the other Allies have no industries to speak of, so once their planes are lost, there would be no replacement. This is why the air war is back to between German and UK planes. The 1646 planes you see in the screen belong to UK only. Of course, I can keep pushing on to win the air war but I decided to just annex UK (my troops just landed successfully on their beaches). Hope this helps! And let me know you think.
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