paratroopers - special forces or just waste of ressources?

[Denkt]

Massed paratroopers are quite scary as they can instanlty remove supply access from your whole army and may prove very hard to dislodge if they are dropped in terrain that are easy to defend meanwhile the enemy could push with their army to keep you from sending divisions to deal with the paratroopers as time is on the enemy side as you can not reinforce your army while it is out of supply and the penalties will get worse and worse every day.

Paratroopers are far cheaper then tanks even if you count the transportation cost, sure they don't have the best combat stats but they have the advantages normal infantry get with mobility not even tanks can match.

 

[Sir Garnet]

After suffering heavy losses during the airborne assault and capture of Crete, Hitler never again committed his airborne troops to large-scale operations and they were instead used as ground infantry.

I read this on a WWII trivia site. 100% true or not?

Yes.

Also, the first few divisions were very GOOD ground troops although with airborne training (one might call them elites) , but training and quality fell-off with divisions formed late in the war. For these I picture Daniel forming some paratroop divisions demanded by the stream and having to throw them into a battle before they are near ready.

 

[Denkt]

Paratroopers don't have good offensive stats much like other infantry but they are very good if they are defending so they make excellent hold the ground units. They will dig in if they get the chance which will give them a defensive bonus while the enemy may have hard time using the offensive planing bonus against them.

Given that they are great at using terrain for defensive purpose and I think you can even drop them upon mountains they are not easy to remove if you drop enough of them much like normal infantry.

You can give them support guns and support companies (I think engineers is very good for them due to the entrenchment bonus they give).

Sometimes you may want to attack enemy division with them as each direction you attack enemies from will reduce the defenders combat ability and it is especially effective against forts but they are more suited as a hold the ground unit that cut of enemy supply lines then a direct offensive unit.

 

[Dreadlord]

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

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

Battleplans are so integral to gameplay than unless if it gets a major overhaul like Art of War DLC, it has to be included in a free patch

 

[Earmuffs]

I guess with naval invasions you can only attack coastal provinces. If you drop paratroopers in before the marines land you could get behind enemy troops and instead of having a beachhead of 1 province deep you could make it 2-3-4 provinces deep and establish a sizable chunk very quick. Considering supply is so crucial that could be the difference between a successful naval invasion and not.

Also regarding their expense. Yea they're expensive when you take into account transport planes as well. But you don't need that many.
I guess you gotta weight up if you want a few expensive units that have great utility and could be very helpful or you wanna spend those resources on a few extra whatever.
It's all well and good having hundreds of division of infantry, but if your enemy is sitting on a big island and you can't make a successful naval invasion all your hundreds of infantry divisions are for naught.


Speculation of course, they could be utter garbage for all I know.

 

[Daddl]

I'm fine with how paratroopers work. If you think about the scale of a HoI4 province, I don't think you will find a historical example where paratroopers were dropped more than two provinces away from your own lines. And if movies do anything right in showing WW2, then its the fact that paratroopers are doomed if they are not reinforced in time, and thats how it was. They are there to conquer strategic positions and hold them until reinforcements arrive. They were absolutely unable (maybe with the exception of more or less little islands like Crete with limited enemies) to group together and form an ordinary army that fights on their own, thats not what they are meant to do. They are just meant to hold out.

 

[Bonedeadmozart]

I think regular infantry is the base, you can still deploy them early without completing the training but they require more hence you cannot deploy them until they reach I think it's 20% of their total, not the base infantry total.

Oh I see, I'd rather deploy them when they're completely done, but, i'd only deploy them early if I was in dire need of them

 

[Bonedeadmozart]

Wiki lists Paratroops' training time as 150, Marines and Mountaineers as 120, Infantry as 90. So paratroops take 66.66...% longer to train than infantry and marines/mountaineers 33.33...% longer. I think you can still deploy them without complete training as with any unit.

Thanks!

 

[Rommel 459]

all special forces need more training. it ranges from 30-60% more. they will use 40% more equipment, but same equipment as infantry

Does the increased training time affect veterancy in any way? Such as an elite paratroopers unit requiring 66% more xp or a decreased base xp for replacements

 

[Redswingarcus]

May be necro but with the update 1.5 the changes are huge.

Is airborne and marines any more to luxe option? What is the best choice.

I made as Germany moutainers and i later discovered marines but then my division already gone What to do now?

 

[Misaka_Complex]

You can still use them to take Japan, just convert them to infantry after they land and drop in new ones, converting them to infantry every time after they land so you can keep sending more ignoring the Japanese navy.

 

[Tisifoni12]

The first four german Paratrooper Divisions are the Elite troops, the other 10 fought as normal Infantrie.

After Crete, where the German paratroopers took heavy losses Hitler banned them from further parachute operations, they effectively became elite infantry.

German paratroops had one 'control line' and less control over their descent than paratroops (UK and US) who were equipped with dual control lines and could to an extent steer during their descents.

 

[jpapple]

Get rdy for the lockdown between now and a couple of hours

 

[Nabrotleon]

Paratroopers are the best. With them i tock japan as china, while i have no fleet and was not able to start a naval invasion. so i fly over and smashed the forces of the tenno.

 

[Gyrvendal]

Lol 2 year necro

 

[Sir Garnet]

OK, I started a new thread
TigerForce: Discuss Special Forces in 1.5
so this venerable thread may rest in peace and we can move on. Amen.

 

[AndrewT]

May be necro...

May be?