Question Regarding Air Wings / Squardrons

[Nosliw]

Hi guys,

I'm trying to make sense of how air wings should be utilized and in what numbers. I consulted the DH Manual and was able to find this text from page 144:

[...] a maximum of only four air wings may be combined into a single squadron. [...] Air officer ranks are similar to their land force counterparts, with a major general being able to command 2 wings, a lieutenant.general may command up to 4 wings, an air general may command up to 8 wings, and an air marshal may command as many as 16 wings. This is the maximum number they can command in a combat, not the number of wings that can be combined into a single squadron under their direct command.

This has me confused, and I'm not sure what the optimal way to organize my air force is. Right now it's June, 1937 and I'm playing as Japan, and am trying to organize my TAC bombers to help with the initial offensive. This is my air wing right now:

He can command a maximum of 8 squadrons, and currently has 7 TACs assigned to him.

Any clarification or elucidation on the best way to organize is much appreciated.

Nosliw

 

[Pasha]

I haven't played DH full in years, but the mods I usually play only allow air groups of 4 wings maximum, which is why the manual says that. But I know there are mods that allow up to groups of 8. The thing to remember is that although that air general can command up to 8 wings, if your group of planes is active in a region with another stack of 7 bombers combined by another Lt. General, then you'll be hit with an overstacking penalty. Personally, I don't think the overstacking penalty is as crippling to planes as it is to ships and land units so I don't let it worry me much.

Regardless, whether a mod allows for groups of four or eight, I still prefer groups of four if I have enough air generals..

 

[TemporalAnomaly]

I can answer a few things for you.

#1. Don't listen to me. I often forget about about my air units and my men on the ground suffer for it.

#2. They changed the max wing size in one of the patches up to 8.

#3. NEVER base air-wings out of a province without a land division (even a very weak on is fine). If the province is taken from you ALL of your planes there are lost.

#4. Think carefully about whether you can afford to run air-missions. Airplanes are VERY expensive and thirsty for fuel. Keep an eagle-eye on your fuel stockpile. Ask your self what you are getting from the mission. Doubly so if your planes are taking losses; you probably had other plans for the IC that will get pulled for repairs.

#5. Value matching general traits to the mission over raw skill level.

#6. Dig-in reduces 'ground attack' mission damage to zero. It can chew up retreating units (who have zero dig-in) and can help a little when the AI is attacking you (though they tend to keep some units in the source province out of the fight, preserving their dig-in and wasting around half of your planes shots). The mission really shine when fighting in the large infra-10% provinces in Africa. Overruns and encirclements are almost impossible, and retreats can easily take 2 months. Having an air wing chew up 900 men every day can really add up. Of course, the veterans here would yell at you for fighting in Africa at all.

#7. Use the province-scope mission to keep your bombers where they can do the most good. (yes this adds to management load)

#8. Air superiority is a forgone conclusion if you take all of the enemy's airbases. This is very helpful in China and in the Pacific.

#9. The 'air scramble' mission can really help to conserve fuel over 'air-superiority'.

#10. Transport planes can only air-drop your paras at max org. This makes it very hard for multiple divisions of paras to 'share' (expensive) transport planes.

#11. I think 7 1x bomber wings do the same damage and gain commander experience faster than 1 7x bomber wing. (I am hazy on this one. double check with someone who knows what he is talking about)

#12. Specialize your air-research. Only the USA is rich enough to keep up to date on all plane types. FTR & NAV only is a good fit for Japan. (don't ignore float planes and CAGs, though, obviously) This also helps you get the most from your air-minister bonuses.

#13. Air-Doctrines are very important! Especially the ones that give mission effectiveness.

#14. I don't understand the ground support mission and how it interacts with dig-in. It is important, though. Ask someone else about it.

#15. Don't listen to me. I often forget about about my air units and my men on the ground suffer for it.

 

[TemporalAnomaly]

#16. If your NAVs are in range of your enemy's main naval base, and you can get air-superiority, then the enemy won't have a Navy anymore.

#17. NAVs patrolling open ocean often find nothing.

#18. NAVs really help resisting amphibious invasions. Once you get the pop-up, send a wing of them to attack the neighboring sea-province. Sink the enemy's transports and the Marines go with them.

#19. Set very high str/org minimums to keep your wings from getting too chewed up and keep your damage high, unless you are doing something super-time critical (ie D-Day/Sea-lion)

 

[Sisma89]

An example from my misc.txt in C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Darkest Hour A HOI Game\Mods\WIF II\db

# Air Leader Command Limit (nr of divisions), Rank 0 (highest)
12 #
# Air Leader Command Limit (nr of divisions), Rank 1
8 #
# Air Leader Command Limit (nr of divisions), Rank 2
4 #
# Air Leader Command Limit (nr of divisions), Rank 3 (lowest)
1 #
# Maximum sizes of air-stacks
12

Those numbers are what matters, the manual is just reporting standards.

I took the air stack size from 4 to 12 for WIF II.

Remember to change the misc.txt in the folder of the mod u playing be it lite nor full nor wif nor tgc nor anything else.

Check the file out, some of the lines are easy to understand and modify.