Optimal number of fighters for Germany in 39-40

[Gefallener_Held]

In my most recent playthrough, I had over 2000 fighters once Fall Weiss commenced, I thought this wa enough but by December it has fallen to around 1200, thanks to air superiority missions over Western Germany. I loaded as France and Britian, and they had very few fighters (500) or so.

Thinking maybe I need to start yet once more to get 3000 fighters. Or perhaps more raders and aa on the Western Front.

 

[bobre]

0
Build only CAS.

 

[Gefallener_Held]

0
Build only CAS.

NO!

 

[Meglok]

In my most recent playthrough, I had over 2000 fighters once Fall Weiss commenced, I thought this wa enough but by December it has fallen to around 1200, thanks to air superiority missions over Western Germany. I loaded as France and Britian, and they had very few fighters (500) or so.

Thinking maybe I need to start yet once more to get 3000 fighters. Or perhaps more raders and aa on the Western Front.

Depends. How many of CAS and or TAC, and heavies are you building? 2000 should be plenty for France in SP 1.3.3, assuming that is not all the planes you make. You can also improve your doctrines, make sure you use the fighter industrial company, and variant to up reliability to 88% and upgrade engines.

0
Build only CAS.

Don't get into bad habits. CAS are currently OP and should be getting a downgrade in 1.4.

 

[Gefallener_Held]

Depends. How many of CAS and or TAC, and heavies are you building? 2000 should be plenty for France in SP 1.3.3, assuming that is not all the planes you make. You can also improve your doctrines, make sure you use the fighter industrial company, and variant to up reliability to 88% and upgrade engines.

I go for a 2:1:1 ratio of fighters, tac bombers, cas. I think my problem was not building enough aa and not building radars in southern germany, so I am going to have to restart again, I think. Or maybe I should just do a new restart from close the beginning

 

[Juan Peron 2]

I go for a 2:1:1 ratio of fighters, tac bombers, cas. I think my problem was not building enough aa and not building radars in southern germany, so I am going to have to restart again, I think. Or maybe I should just do a new restart from close the beginning

Why TAC and CAS? It's just a waste of research and production efficiency. Choose CAS if expect to be fighting mostly in Europe. TAC I suppose might be better as Japan or other places where you need the range.

 

[Meglok]

I'd probably go 4/1/2 on the ratio, you don't need that much tac for France but building them up for other theaters like UK and North Africa isn't a bad idea.

Radar is always good.

Positional AA won't help much unless fighting is in the province, and it will not target fighters. Tactical AA will fire at any enemy aircraft doing ground support in it's province. It will not fire on fighters doing air sup or interception.

 

[Gefallener_Held]

Why TAC and CAS? It's just a waste of research and production efficiency. Choose CAS if expect to be fighting mostly in Europe. TAC I suppose might be better as Japan or other places where you need the range.

Maybe it is from my experience playing hoi3, but tactical were essential because of the range issue. Also, Tac were better at certain functions like bombng airfields and roads, iirc.

 

[Gefallener_Held]

I'd probably go 4/1/2 on the ratio, you don't need that much tac for France but building them up for other theaters like UK and North Africa isn't a bad idea.

Radar is always good.

Positional AA won't help much unless fighting is in the province, and it will not target fighters. Tactical AA will fire at any enemy aircraft doing ground support in it's province. It will not fire on fighters doing air sup or interception.

I am trying to decide if I want to restart the entire game or just go back to early 39. In this game I achieved Anschluss mid 37 by producing less aircraft. Problem if production efficiency was low on the fighters. I think next time I will just produce one factory tac, two stukas to make up the difference. Hate to start again but may have to.

 

[Meglok]

Why TAC and CAS? It's just a waste of research and production efficiency. Choose CAS if expect to be fighting mostly in Europe. TAC I suppose might be better as Japan or other places where you need the range.

Because even in Europe there are air regions where CAS are screwed by range. Then you have the North Africa region, flying from France to Midlands, etc etc . 90% of a TAC wing is better than 20% of a CAS wing.

 

[Emden1]

I start the war (o/a Sep 39) with 600 fighters flying in each air-sector. I do make heavy fighters, I use them in 300 groups (will have less than 300 by Sep 39). CAS and TAC are only used on the front lines for me, never in the air defense mode (no idea why they mention that above).

To do that, at start, use every single factory spot on the BF-109 and never reduce that factory.... slowly start a second one till it gets filled up. After Poland falls and I focus on the west and north, I will have to shift all fighters to the west. After France falls, only England is left, you can reduce your fighter production since the Russians are not near as bad with their air efforts... good luck

 

[ForsakenSoldier]

I go for a 2:1:1 ratio of fighters, tac bombers, cas. I think my problem was not building enough aa and not building radars in southern germany, so I am going to have to restart again, I think. Or maybe I should just do a new restart from close the beginning

Useful tip if you are unaware; if you keep up on RADAR tech you should only have to build 3 or 4 stations to cover the entirety of mainland Germany and Poland, plust the Baltic and eastern North Sea. It's really awesome. You have to get like level 4 radar but its totally worth it, i actually go all the way to the max. I build one in Ostpruessen, Thuringen, and Hannover/Wesser-ems/Schleswig-Holstien (any one of those 3) Doubling or tripling up in the Eastern North Sea area can give good benefits though, there is lots of enemy activity in that sea zone so every last bit of detection you can get helps.

 

[Gefallener_Held]

My restart is going a lot better. Though I only had about 2400 at start of the war, I upgraded reliability to 100 percent. And I added level to radar in Wurttemberg, and level 1 in Hannover and Wilhelmshaven, with one in Moseland to be finished by mid October.

Thanks for the help.

 

[kettyo]

Depends on the war you have.

If you're planning to take France and UK out one-by-one then 2:1:1 is a good approach, if you're going to fight them in the same time then more like 3:1:1.

Don't forget that TAC is very good at hitting fleets in port so they'll never get repaired if you can get the air superiority.

 

[Gefallener_Held]

So in my most recent game, I went from 3000 plus fighters to half that by air batles in Wuerttemberg and the alpine region. Have 100 percent radar in Wuerttemberg, a stack of over 12000, most fighters in 100 percent range, about 1000 in alpine region.. I upload as Britain and he is using a lot of 36 level fighters. What am I doing wrong?

 

[Diados]

Are you sure your losses were from air battles? You lose quite a lot to attrition on air superiority if you don't upgrade reliability.

 

[Gefallener_Held]

I have reliability up to 96 percent. This time around I created a block of 2000 fighters in Wuerttemberg and 1200 in alpine, also made sure to upgrade at Wuerttemberg because Oberbayern is only 96 percent in range. Doing better this time.