Simplify your Air War

[unmerged(11981)]

For fighter squadrons......

Pick a fighter squadron send it to some zone a few over ..Ctrl-right click so the Mission/time/etc menu pops up set it to intercept or patrol they both work( I do not know if one type of mission or the other gives any advantage or disadvantage so I play it safe and usually choose intercept in the lower right corner is a box check it. The box will vanish if you change the mission type just Ctlr-right click again to bring it back up and check the box.

Now the fighter will take off fly through a couple zones to the zone you designated then turn and head back to its base.... land and then immediately head out again(you need to watch these ocassionaly so you dont forget them and end up loosing them due to losses overtime) they never stop.

If you set it up right you can have a ongoing series of planes flying over your front lines..they intercept whatever is in the same zone with them including the zones your your planes are simply travelling thru to their destinations.


This also works with the other mission types......so you can have ongoing naval air patrols deep into the Atlantic....or if you simply want to bomb the hell out of London for a month check the little box on those ging there and they will go til you stop them or they die. Keeping an eye on the enemy as Japan is immensly simplified as they need many patrols to keep watch out in the Pacific.

Hope this helps someone made my life alot easier when I figured it out.

 

[Lord Prime]

That's a great tip, thanks i have been wondering on how to make use of the aircrafts.

 

[unmerged(10167)]

Thanks for bringing it up!

Haven't thought of putting my fighters to that "loop", only my bombers.

 

[Darkrenown]

Thats a great idea! I never thought of using a fighter loop. D'oh!

 

[unmerged(12007)]

You can also use transport aircraft as long range patrollers that loop.

You will lose these aircraft if they get intercepted. On the other hand, they are cheap and have an enormous range. Great for spotting enemy moves through FOW.

 

[unmerged(12036)]

Sweet.
Thanks guys.
Can't wait to get off work now. =)

 

[unmerged(11981)]

A clarification--apparently I wasn't paying attention when I was doing this

In order to have the fighters do the patrol you will have to give them tactical missions....just make sure the target zone is a friendly zone---they will stil intercept in the zones they pass through and unless enemy units enter the target zone they will not do a ground attack.




Sorry about that

 

[unmerged(11923)]

Ok I was wondering about what you said. However if tactical missions work out the same way this is great to know.

 

[unmerged(576)]

It is handy, but I've always prefered to simply station air units along the border (if I have enough to do so). This saves on fuel since they're not moving unless enemy squadrons enter their province.

However, I do use it for strategic bombing. Just make sure you switch them off at night, as its pretty useless in the early stages of the war.

 

[unmerged(11258)]

The mysteries of HOI

It seemed logical that this was intended but I had no idea how to do it....Thanks guys.

 

[blah.blah.blah]

Originally posted by whyamihere
It is handy, but I've always prefered to simply station air units along the border (if I have enough to do so). This saves on fuel since they're not moving unless enemy squadrons enter their province.

However, I do use it for strategic bombing. Just make sure you switch them off at night, as its pretty useless in the early stages of the war.

I haven't tried this since I've been playing mostly minors until the ai is patched a bit. Not much sense in patrolling the borders of canada that way. So how bad is the fuel consumption if you use this with say 10 squadrons? Is it going to hurt say a Germany on hard?

 

[unmerged(576)]

Originally posted by blah.blah.blah
I haven't tried this since I've been playing mostly minors until the ai is patched a bit. Not much sense in patrolling the borders of canada that way. So how bad is the fuel consumption if you use this with say 10 squadrons? Is it going to hurt say a Germany on hard?

Well I haven't used the patrolling technique extensively yet as I haven't needed the air units currently stationed along the western border (that'll change when I invade Russia, I'm sure). Currently each unit uses 0 fuel per day, excluding those days when the Brits come across (which has recently stopped - I think their airforce took a mighty battering). I believe its helping to conserve fuel because I'm finally producing more than I need (although I am only conducting one campaign at the moment vs Greece and that's kind of come to a halt right now while I wait for my paratroopers to take the final islands). On top of that organisation remains high as the units get alot of rest time.

10 squadrons patrolling all the time? Well thats 20 oil per day in your patrol force alone. With my current strategy and position I'm creating 27 per day and using 20. That includes all fuel for the navy, army and airforce (which, as I said is using hardly any). I think I'd be screwed if I used 10 squadrons to patrol (I have 11 along the Channel at the moment, most along the Belgian/French border), and I certainly wouldn't have that surplus of 7 per day (which will make a nice stockpile for Russia) if I was patrolling. Let's not forget that any extra oil means you can commit more of the navy to destroy convoys.

I think patrolling has two advantages though. 1) It allows you to cover the same ground with less units and 2) it'll allow you to engage land units too. My current strategy would be particularly dangerous if I didn't have ground units (or the Channel) to protect those airfields, as an enemy land force could catch my airforce on the ground and <poof> they disappear. If they're patrolling and their airbase gets taken you can, if you're quick enough, land them elsewhere.

 

[blah.blah.blah]

Thanks! That is useful info for sure. My only worry with the patrol system is that I imagine a lot of aircraft would just sneak right on through between patrols. Still, it's not like this never happened historically