Share How you allocate your Air force in WTT

[coreymas]

So let me introduce (or re-introduce) myself to the forum

My name is Corey and I am an HOI-aholic

JK.

To my point.

After a serious absence from these forums I am returning with a serious question about air power in HOI4.

Just so you know i have been around since HOI1 times and I consider myself to be a decent player.

I have always been playing my HOI4 games with a minimal usage of Air power ... I have always relied on my Land forces to save the day.

With the release of Cornflakes it appears that Air power is much more important (IMHO rightfully so) and I am now searching for advise on how to construct and allocate my air forces.

Lets assume for this analysis that I am playing as Germany with a historical path in mind.

So ....

How many fighters? How many CAS?
Where to allocate them? Into regions (for Air Sup) or attached to Armies/Army groups?

So looking for your perspective on how many of each type, and where to assign them

Thanks for any advise

Corey

 

[Eh up me duck]

I had about 5k airforce total by the time I conquer France, about 4k fighters and 1k CAS. Assign CAS where you're attacking, assign fighters until you have air superiority. You will always outnumber the UK/France.

edit - I just double checked, at the end of the campaign in France I have 3,000 CAS and 4,600 fighters, January 1940.

 

[coreymas]

Okay so assign the CAS and FTR to armies?

Do I assign FTR to air regions as well?

Just trying to figure out what is better using the army attach method or old method of air region

 

[Eh up me duck]

I assign by air provinces so that I can see at a glance that I have superiority. I haven't really tried assigning to armies but I am naturally averse to change so it could well be an improvement.

 

[Felius]

I assign by air provinces so that I can see at a glance that I have superiority. I haven't really tried assigning to armies but I am naturally averse to change so it could well be an improvement.

Very useful in an offensive, specially if you are managing to advance reasonably quick, as well for being able to use less planes for fronts that take more than one air zone, which can be useful if there aren't many airbases available near the front or if you're playing a minor with limited production.

That said, it does seem to make micromanaging and getting info at a glance a bit harder, although that could be me just not having gotten used to it yet.

 

[Cutty1911]

I use air regions assignment for air wings that are defending something static, for instance interception missions on enemy strat bombers, Atlantic Wall, etc . For your frontlines that are mobile, the army attachment seems better, and greatly helps minimize micromanagement.

Note that for interception missions, you need to periodically check the air map mode to see if enemy bombers have switched to bombing a different air zone, and move your interceptors accordingly. But for sure, the war is won and lost in the air.

 

[ithillid]

So what I do is make all of my air wings size 100, because they fit everywhere.
CAS gets wholly attached to the armies, because I don't want to bother with micromanaging it.
Fighters get split 2/1 armies/regions. Region assignment is mostly defensive, and regions that I definitely want air control over.
TAC NAV and STRAT all get assigned wholly to regions.
That way, I hopefully don't have to deal with microing dozens upon dozens of air wings to fit where I want them to go, while maximizing the destruction of enemy airpower and ground forces.