Transport Planes for suppliyng troops

[alp177]

I have been playing since the day 1 HOI3 and always try to use air supply when trying to invade somewhere. The thing I want to ask why Daniel or Johan did not try when invading this option? Does transport planes do not have this mission in the game or it can not be used. I think in WWW if they had used this option their troops would have more survivability chance then now. Otherwise one player invade can not reach port and get routed. Especially US troops.

 

[agentgb]

I asked a similar question on if transports can supply encricled troops, apparently they can, someone quoted me a reply from podcat, but not sure how old it is, can't find it atm, not sure why they didn't do it in WWW, perhaps forgot, or its not in there current build.

 

[alp177]

I think also most likely because they forgot it because of a lot of micro

 

[Victor Cortez]

I suppose you need airsuperiority to do it.

 

[agentgb]

Put transport planes on a mission to drop supplies. Useful for cut off troops (this is still WIP so can't show it yet.

that is what was quoted to me, sounds like it's from a while ago

 

[alp177]

I wish at next WWW build it is finished so we could see some good battles

 

[agentgb]

Yea apart of me wants them to start again, just so we can see the new build, and the playing field is fairer, but then, i'll like to see Dan go down first!

 

[Vidkjaer]

Or they would be shot down because lack of air supremacy.
It is not like in HOI 3. Transport planes are expensive and divert resources just to be able to supply encircled troops is not cost effective.
Better to not get encircled at all.

 

[alp177]

Or they would be shot down because lack of air supremacy.
It is not like in HOI 3. Transport planes are expensive and divert resources just to be able to supply encircled troops is not cost effective.
Better to not get encircled at all.

Of course transport planes are expensive but 10+ routed divisions are also very expensive for equipment and manpower

 

[agentgb]

Or they would be shot down because lack of air supremacy.
It is not like in HOI 3. Transport planes are expensive and divert resources just to be able to supply encircled troops is not cost effective.
Better to not get encircled at all.

isn't fighting in cities meant to favour encircled troops now? I suppose dropping supplies on them wouldn't hurt either, plus, i tend to use transports to make sure troops are getting supplied in bad areas, or perhaps were there is a bottleneck of supplies causing not everyone to get supplied, but sometimes, i do like to risk some bold moves that can potentially get troops cut off, and transport planes can be life savers, atleast in hoi3.

 

[HenkieDePost]

Well if we take a look at the WWW's we got so far we can see that A: Daniël almost completely neglected his airforce until recently and B: Johan didn't. So we have a situation where Johan has airsuperiority at will and Daniël probably hasn't even produced any transportplanes. It would therefore be pretty difficult for Daniël to reïnforce his surrounded troops via Transport planes. For Johan on the other hand I can see this being a viable strategy but the question is: has he truly been in a situation so far where he needed it? I can remember the failed Swedish invasion but I'm not sure if Johan had the range to use there. Otherwise it seems that as long as he controls the ports he is fine when it comes to supplies. I would like to see how transport planes work exactly in a future WWW though, are they 'units' that you can give direct commands or are they tied to the area system?

 

[agentgb]

I would like to see how transport planes work exactly in a future WWW though, are they 'units' that you can give direct commands or are they tied to the area system?

hmmmm, the impression i got from podcat is that they would work has an individual unit, although not 100%, he said that they could be intercepted enroute unlike how the rest of the airwar system works. But it's currently not in the WWW build they are playing atm.

 

[Vidkjaer]

Well if we take a look at the WWW's we got so far we can see that A: Daniël almost completely neglected his airforce until recently and B: Johan didn't. So we have a situation where Johan has airsuperiority at will and Daniël probably hasn't even produced any transportplanes. It would therefore be pretty difficult for Daniël to reïnforce his surrounded troops via Transport planes. For Johan on the other hand I can see this being a viable strategy but the question is: has he truly been in a situation so far where he needed it? I can remember the failed Swedish invasion but I'm not sure if Johan had the range to use there. Otherwise it seems that as long as he controls the ports he is fine when it comes to supplies. I would like to see how transport planes work exactly in a future WWW though, are they 'units' that you can give direct commands or are they tied to the area system?

They works like convoy ships. They are not a single unit. Daniel has used them for paratroopers.

 

[LordOfWar16]

You can, of course, air supply your troops. They simply didnt do it because they didnt need it tho. The only area where it was really bad was in egypt, since the infrastructure was completly destroyed. Transport Planes on Air-drop missions wouldnt really help with that, especially since Johan's armored divisions eat up tons of supplies.

 

[alp177]

You can, of course, air supply your troops. They simply didnt do it because they didnt need it tho. The only area where it was really bad was in egypt, since the infrastructure was completly destroyed. Transport Planes on Air-drop missions wouldnt really help with that, especially since Johan's armored divisions eat up tons of supplies.

I think they needed air supply especially when a lot of divisions surrounded at Sweden or Crimera it could save those troops. At least buy them some more time

 

[LordOfWar16]

I think they needed air supply especially when a lot of divisions surrounded at Sweden or Crimera it could save those troops. At least buy them some more time

As you said, transport planes are rather expensive (compared to their useage of course) and it would require an insane amount of them to supply troops on the ground sufficient enough. They are more meant to supply paratroopers after they dropped behind enemy lines since they require much less supplies than regular units. Supplying tank divisions via air really is an waste of time and resources, since you would require absurd amount. Cities now generate some supply themself aswell, so cities will always be the best choice to hold out in.

If you plan to start an naval invasion of any size you better make sure you are able to keep sea superiority in order to be able to support your troops. Something like the Berlin Airbridge certainly wont work for supplying any regular sized divisions in larger numbers, unless you are called USA and produce unlimited amount of them maybe.

Besides that it wont be possible for the allies to land troops in Sweden after they fixed the strait crossing blockage. If germany controlls denmark the allies arent supposed to be able to enter the baltic, similar to how gibraltar, the Suez, Kiel Channel and Panama Channel are supposed to work. That function is inactive in the current built tho.

 

[alp177]

We do not know exactly how air supplying works now so we can't say it is waste or not. I would like to see in next WWW an example or at least an explanation about how it is working. It will answer all our questions.

 

[TheRomanRuler]

I am sure everyone knows West Berlin was historically air supplied for a year. Way more people were supplied way longer than during battle of Stalingrad. So if you manage to achieve air superiority and build large numbers of transport planes and destroy enemy AA, you should be able to supply huge numbers of troops by air. It would have to be huge task, but you should be able to do it.

 

[LordOfWar16]

I am sure everyone knows West Berlin was historically air supplied for a year. Way more people were supplied way longer than during battle of Stalingrad. So if you manage to achieve air superiority and build large numbers of transport planes and destroy enemy AA, you should be able to supply huge numbers of troops by air. It would have to be huge task, but you should be able to do it.

there is a difference tho between supplying civilians with some basic stuff and supplying a whole army with supplies. There is a difference between dropping some candy here and there and dropping tons of ammunition, fuel, weapons etc. Supply isnt the only thing you need to factor in. Replacement equipment aswell and i doubt you will be able to air-drop Tiger II tanks for example.

 

[Premu]

there is a difference tho between supplying civilians with some basic stuff and supplying a whole army with supplies. There is a difference between dropping some candy here and there and dropping tons of ammunition, fuel, weapons etc. Supply isnt the only thing you need to factor in. Replacement equipment aswell and i doubt you will be able to air-drop Tiger II tanks for example.

In Berlin, 2.2 Mio. people were supplied - that's much more than just an army. Most of these items you mention can be delivered easily via air, even spare parts for tanks - only whole vehicles could be a problem at that time.

The real problem in reality would be something different. It's extremely expensive to supply a whole army only via air. And you need a lot of planes for it - planes which you could need at other fronts. And these planes need a lot of fuel which is normally sparce in times of war.