paratroopers - special forces or just waste of ressources?

[Silas1775]

A regular infantry unit that's cut off has a high risk of panic, this isn't what they signed up for. For a paratrooper being cut off is EXACTLY what they signed up for.

Nah, it's mostly to get a snazzy hat and be smug at all the dirty legs.


Anyway, in the game the best thing to do is probably to drop them into a city or port, get the urban defensive bonus and rush guys into the harbor without needing a real amphibious landing.

 

[deadmancomand]

Paratroopers were pretty exploitable in HoI III, if that is your thing. You could easily snipe victory points of minor nations for cheap wins. I don't know if that will work in HoI IV though.

Certainly could, but the AI will probably garrison their VPs with at least something...

 

[Bonedeadmozart]

I am really curious to see if you can coordinate multiple landings at the same time, from the WWW's I have seen it has mostly been just dropping several Para units on the same prov. I don't this there is a multi prov selection button is their?

I'd assume so, I think that in WWW they don't want to show all aspects and features, but for you to find them out yourself. I may be wrong, but, I would've thought so.

 

[adam-tuck]

Thanks for the quick response, I really hope there is! Perhaps a button to let you pick multiple provinces or even a whole state and let the AI choose the best landing sights?

 

[Bonedeadmozart]

Thanks for the quick response, I really hope there is! Perhaps a button to let you pick multiple provinces or even a whole state and let the AI choose the best landing sights?

I think I recall in a WWW livestream on Wednesday, they said that you can't mark places for AI to attack or give them orders..

 

[Oriflamme]

So, let's say I was playing as an Allied country that invaded France and was trying to cross the Rhine. Would it be a beneficial use of paratroopers to land them a couple provinces behind the river crossing and simultaneously attack the river crossing provinces with my main infantry? Or would it not be worth the trouble?

 

[adam-tuck]

I think I recall in a WWW livestream on Wednesday, they said that you can't mark places for AI to attack or give them orders..

I was thinking more along the lines of how the AI decides where to place men along an offensive line. Maybe a DLC to add another battle plan option that allows you to pick multiple provinces for paras and the AI decides well you have 5 paras and 10 provinces selected so it picks which ones will be the most defensible after the landing and trys to keep them all connected to avoid pockets

 

[Denkt]

They have very high org but less HP then infantry and they are significant more expensive although much cheaper to field then tanks.

They are not worth it if you don't plan to paradrop them like mountaineers is not worth it without hills and mountains.

Each side you attack the enemy from increase width by 40 and give the enemy a penalty, it especially reduce the effectiveness of forts.

Paratroopers are very useful for encirclement as you can drop them behind and box in enemy division, this also make them useful for cutting of enemy supply lines, especially if the enemy leave very easy to defend terrain behind them in which the paratroopers can dig in.

 

[Sotahullu]

Well Paratroopers are usually well trained, and not small in size, unlike commando or other units. The German paratroopers were notorious, they had some special nickname I think. I have no actual data about their combat performance though.

Paratroopers shouldnt be that much more expensive, all there is to them is getting them more training to jump out of a plane.

Paratroopers were considered elite infantry by all nations. Only most hardcore troops could be paratroopers because they needed to be in top shape, have guts and they're needed special training in combat operation as they were dropped in middle of enemy. And oh believe me, parachuting in WW2 from height less then 800m was not exactly easy.

Heck, what Italian 185th Airborne Division "Folgore" during 2nd Battle of Alamein is stuff of legends!

 

[Caesar15]

I can see them being fairly useful in certain scenarios, for example if you're doing a naval invasion, dropping paratroopers in the surrounding area could keep the pressure off long enough for you to get everyone deployed.

 

[adam-tuck]

Also another question, a tad bit off topic but relating to the air dropping Para in. With naval invasions can 1 naval invasion target more than 1 coastal province? That would make life so much easier. I remember seeing naval invasion in a WWW and they only hit 1 costal prov at a time, it was the Japanese WWW a while back. If the idea hasn't been added I think it should be because dropping doom stacks on one prov doesn't sound like a good idea due to lack of supply, so landing over a few provinces could be a great addition!

 

[Denkt]

Yes you can attack several provinces.

 

[fredgiblet]

and in certain cases they are useful on the eastern front. For the Soviet Union they are of limited use against Germany

As both the Soviets and the Germans I've used paras to cut off retreating units and destroy them, sometimes multiple divisions. In fact as the Soviets there was a time where I was using paras in the Crimea, I would wait until the Germans moved a unit to face off against some troops there, then drop paras behind them and pincer them, move the paras back to the airfield as the germans moved fresh divisions into face off against my forces and repeat.

Paratroopers were pretty exploitable in HoI III, if that is your thing. You could easily snipe victory points of minor nations for cheap wins. I don't know if that will work in HoI IV though.

You can beat Poland in like...2-3 days if you do it right.

Certainly could, but the AI will probably garrison their VPs with at least something...

Not in 3. There'd be a few that were garrisoned, like Paris, but most VPs are left alone.

So, let's say I was playing as an Allied country that invaded France and was trying to cross the Rhine. Would it be a beneficial use of paratroopers to land them a couple provinces behind the river crossing and simultaneously attack the river crossing provinces with my main infantry? Or would it not be worth the trouble?

If it's undefended it probably wouldn't be worthwhile, if it's defended then paras would probably be ridiculously useful.

 

[adam-tuck]

Yes you can attack several provinces.

Well not several individual naval invasions, but 1 naval invasion that hits like 5 provinces. Say I have 20 marine divisions and I wanna D-day France. can I use the planner to hit 5 provinces with 4 marines each, or do I need to make 5 separate naval invasions to do this? Sorry if I am unclear of what I am asking for

 

[Denkt]

You can make one plan that is about invading 5 provinces and then you can assign the marine divisions that will be used in each invasion.

You can do similar plans with paratroopers as well.

 

[Aodhan_]

I always loved using paratroopers for certain objectives but with there being no other use for transport planes I think I will give them a miss, till we get their finest hour dlc, or what ever adds to the air side of things.

 

[Denkt]

I guess the transports are a single use only so to make paradroping very costly to use because how powerful it can be.

 

[Bonedeadmozart]

I was thinking more along the lines of how the AI decides where to place men along an offensive line. Maybe a DLC to add another battle plan option that allows you to pick multiple provinces for paras and the AI decides well you have 5 paras and 10 provinces selected so it picks which ones will be the most defensible after the landing and trys to keep them all connected to avoid pockets

A DLC? God no! I think that feature should come with the base game!

 

[Mirage2k]

Nah, it's mostly to get a snazzy hat and be smug at all the dirty legs.

Good to see I'm not the only one who knows the dirty truth

 

[podcat]

The question I have is why are Transport planes 3 times more expensive than even Strat bombers?

because each represent enough planes to carry an entire division.

paras are probably not really worth it if you dont plan to paradrop. Of the different special forces their only advantage over the rest is a little less supply use, but they have 25% higher training time as well.
if you can afford it using mountineers can be pretty good even outside mountains as they have better stats than regular infantry, and better terrain bonuses, but like all special forces take a lot longer to train and require more equipment. Same goes for marines if you plan to fight where their bonuses matter.
The general tradeoff is something like 40-50% more expensive with 30% more training time for 30% better breakthrough, terrain bonuses and better organization and morale