This is indeed an interesting question. Imo it depends heavily on nations involved and geographic situation.Is this approach also valid from a strategic bombing perspective? A concentration in industry also means fewer provinces to protect with AA, thus higher AA concentration against enemy strategic bombers. Will this be more effective than a distributed industry approach with less AA against each enemy bomb run but more industrial targets?
In general, concentrating your industry makes it more vulnerable to enemy attacks, since damage done to concentrated industry is more severe (less synergy bonus = more IC lost per IC damage inflicted) and repairs slower (several provinces with IC overall repair faster than a single one).
A very important factor is the limit of 10 AA guns per province, preventing the defender from creating an AAA stack of doom. However, in AoD radar adds greatly to the firepower of AAA: I played as UK and Japan was late for Pearl Harbour, so I was able to fortify Hong Kong, reaching level 10 AAA and radar, resulting in 255% (!) AAA efficiency ('41 AAA and '43 radar tech) which discouraged Japan from any bombing of the province so far.
I loaded as Japan and made a few bombing runs on Hong Kong, using 4 of their TAC III bombers with ~40 XP (7 surface defence) and they suffered losses of roughly 40 strength per bombing run (10 per squadron). Now this result doesn't look bad, but (1) this was midwar tech level AAA/radar vs. early war TAC and (2) cost was not really equal here: 4 TAC cost roughly 1000 IC days, while lvl 10 AAA alone accounts for 10 x 150 ICd = 1500 IC days, plus 2x100 ICd = 2000 ICd from radar (however, AAA is one of the greatest beneficiary from gearing, so that IC cost would be up to 30% less if you consider a heavy AAA buildup). On the other hand: for a lvl 10 AAA province you could get 2-3 INT squadrons (but aircraft also have a "stacking" limit due to air base size!).
However what I have learned from the German bombing campaign on my homeland was one thing: AAA is a tool for long-term air defence (for example in an area that is constanly passed or raided by planes on ground attack / interdiction mission), not for short-term defence. If the enemy brings enough air units (and I would say 8 squadrons should be well enough to dispers AAA damage amont the units during a direct air attack), no AAA will save your day.
Concentrated air attacks will overwhelm any AAA and radar defence. Your AAA will inflict some losses to the enemy, but even 2 STR bombers deal ~1 AAA damage per (daylight) run when targeting installations. On the other hand, AAA can be repaired quickly, so even if the enemy knocks out your lvl 10 AAA, it will fully be back in action within a few weeks.
But thanks to the fixes in AoD, AAA can finally shoot at enemy planes that fly over the province, which makes AAA a great tool of aerial defence-in-depth: Putting a single AAA level in each German province allied bombers might cross will increase their losses significantly. Even if these lvl 1 AAA will only do something like 0.1 to 0.2 damage per attack (roughly estimated for 50% AAA efficiency, reduced damage for high altitude taken into account), the attacker will have to cross several provinces - and twice per raid. So if some allied bombers would make a run for, lets say, Dresden, they would suffer roughly 1% STR damage from lvl1 AAA per run. Considering that STR cost easily 2000 or more ICd during the early war, this would mean you have inflicted 200 ICd of losses to them. Although we should take into account that STR have somewhat higher surface defence, so that damage values could be a bit lower.
So what does AAA do?
(1) AAA discourages bombers, whether on strategic (including logistical strikes and installation strikes) or tactic (interdiction, ground attack) level and is esp. useful against weaker aircraft like TAC and CAS.
(2) AAA also discourages attacks deep into your territory, giving rear areas indirect protection. Obviously useful if many IC provinces are far behind the front line.
(3) AAA helps preventing the enemy from getting air superiority over your territory (since AAA also fires on fighters).
(4) AAA defende your position where you have no airforce of your own that could protect you - or where any airforce would be endangered by air port strikes.
(5) AAA damages the enemy and thus equalizes IC losses on both sides, as well as reducing effective enemy XP gain, preventing enemy bombers from becoming more dangerous over time.
So should you concentrate IC in few provinces if you take strategic bombardment into account?
Yes - If you can afford an adequate airforce to protect your homeland.
Yes - If you already have several high IC provinces and get massive syngery bonuses.
Yes - If the enemy will rely more on TAC than on STR for bombing.
Yes - If your provinces are out of range of enemy bombers or at least have several provinces in front of them.
Yes - If the enemy is an AI (which is too dumb to make any effective bombing campaigns)
No - If the enemy is human and can make massed attacks on single provinces.
No - If you have no adequate airforce, either because you lack the IC and techs to build one or your existing planes are out of range.
No - If you expect that the enemy will be able to gain air superiority.
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