What to do with Air and Navy?

[wildbillhdmax01]

To be honest with 250 hours in this game, I'm still really bad when it comes to the navy and Airforce. The only time I ever used the Airforce right was when I bomb UK so bad that it made the bombing of Britain look like the Luftwaffe was throwing rocks. I mean it was bad. No Ports, factories, Air bases, AA, very little Infrastructure, etc...

With that in mine should/would it be better If I give control to all of my Navy and Air to the AI?

 

[21oliver]

If you want turn the airforce over to the AI, but keep the navy in port until you want to amphib someone (UK?) or youll lose them.

 

[wildbillhdmax01]

If you want turn the airforce over to the AI, but keep the navy in port until you want to amphib someone (UK?) or youll lose them.

Well I'm talking about all Nations. My Airforce almost never gets used and my Navy spends a lot of time in the port. I was really bad with my navy as Japan.

 

[21oliver]

You cant generalize, each nation you have to approach it differently...

 

[wildbillhdmax01]

You cant generalize, each nation you have to approach it differently...

Yes true, as with germany it might not be the best idea, as for Japan, etc... But as nations like Romania, Greece, Brazil, etc.

 

[21oliver]

Again it depends.... if your a minor in the thick of things like say Romania, as opposed to someone like Brazil who has time to build...

 

[superfrancais]

I found the AI do nothing with airforce, ever.

 

[21oliver]

I almost always let the AI handle my combat (when playing majors) and they use the airforce pretty well most of the time imo, sometimes they can get buggy, but usually i have little issue with the air units, naval is a different story....

 

[szcott69]

Like everyone said, its different for each country. As Germany, I try to invade Yugo early to secure a med port and then ship my entire fleet into the med to help the Italians. Once you secure Gibraltar (which can only be amphibed from the Med side) and the Suez, I move them back to the North Sea to take care of the Sov Navy. For the German Airforce I put up fighters for Interception duty to protect factories (pretty much a must) but Im bad at keeping Tac bombers very busy, just use them pretty much on major fights like cities.

As Japan, which I've been playing a lot lately, you really have to pay attention to your navy, you can almost forget about fighters, but Nav bombers become valuable. One thing I did in the last couple of games was drive deep in the SU with one mot unit and secure some foward airbases, then use a small group of Strat bombers to bomb as many factories as possible. This will make Uncle Joe very mad and he will pull off many divisions from fighting the Germans and send them back at you, thus saving the German AI sometimes ;(. The Sov AI will try to make a front from top to bottom of map, so be prepared, it will take months for the units to start to arrive.

 

[21oliver]

Im pretty sure Gibralter can only be amhibbed from the Atlantic side, thats where i always do it. TBH with a little help (like sealing off Gibralter) the Italians often need little help from Germany in taking the Middle East. Usually they do well and eventually lose in a counter attack if the UK goes unchecked. Close of the Med or start Sea Lion and the Middle East is all Italian.

 

[cl1xor]

As germany i always use the existing light armor and mountain (or make marines) and ship a corp plus some GAR to North Afrika to help the Italians (in TRP this isn't usually possible though, in Vanilla it is).

Sealing of the MED usually traps the bulk of the Royal Navy as well which helps (but is a bit gamey).

As for airforce, the AI has a tendency to only use them when on full ORG. I'm not quite sure but i think the 'aggression' slider has to do something with it.

 

[KyrionMyrthar]

I always leave the air force and navy under my ultimate control. I don't let theaters control them if they're going on the AI - I'll have fronts on that, leaving ultimate retention of air and sea control to me under the theater-level. As a result, my air forces tend to be very effective. As Germany, I beat the snot out of British strategic bombers so badly, some times they only fly two or three times a year by 1941.

If you're looking for effective German air use, look up misterbean's detailed AAR on Germany. It taught me a whole lot about a bunch of things.

 

[21oliver]

sometimes ill build INTs until i have 20, put them in pairs on 10 major IC locations and put them on intercept missions, that works pretty well.

 

[KyrionMyrthar]

sometimes ill build INTs until i have 20, put them in pairs on 10 major IC locations and put them on intercept missions, that works pretty well.

I still go with wings of 4 INTs, and wings of 3 for TAC and CAS (when I use them). NAVs I run as pairs.

 

[ntz]

I complained about that earlier elswhere ... If I manually control my airforce (and not that you do some "big commanding", just assigning forces to mid/long term missions), I can usually crush enemies easily, even with half-sized force. I never experienced that AI uses runway cratering (or logistical bombing) which is pretty crucial in air campaign against opponent strong as you (and I even now tend to not do it also hence it sometimes seems to me like gaming the system if AI does not use it) ..

if you use the mission types correctly and in all the complexity AI just can't resist even when as twice big as you .. I like on this game, that every mission type is useful in certain situations .. I read earlier on this forum many voices telling, that this or that mission type is not useful at all ..

 

[cl1xor]

sometimes ill build INTs until i have 20, put them in pairs on 10 major IC locations and put them on intercept missions, that works pretty well.

IMO that's a waste of INTS. My advice is just to create a 'home defence' theater and, when on AI control, the AI will relocate the ints where needed. So i personally use 2x4 ints for that.

 

[21oliver]

IMO that's a waste of INTS. My advice is just to create a 'home defence' theater and, when on AI control, the AI will relocate the ints where needed. So i personally use 2x4 ints for that.

I agree, but it all depends on how you want to play. In all honesty when i play Germany idc if the UK strat bombs me all day long it makes no difference. between the IC i build and conquer, the small amount of strats they have and the regeneration of the attacked IC it has no impact on my efforts.

If i wanted to be truly cost effective and that was my primary concern, i wouldnt build any INTs and simply Sea Lion the UK straight out which simply removes the problem altogether. Doing so is so easy that it requires little preperation or effort.

I used to take my main Theater HQ rename it Berlin and put my INTs and Subs under its control, i still do so from time to time. However i find that the AI upon occasion will lump them all together or move them to a single airfield etc... typically it does ok, but i can do it more effectively with not much effort. I dont normally micro manage, so when i do this its usually one of those times.

When i use the 20 ints covering 10 IC depots its when i play a more historical approach in that i dont simply let the UK bomb the hell out of me without trying to defend myself. I tend to build a 200 base IC as Germany and as such end up with more good size IC depot/cities then other players which requires more INTs if i intend on making an effort to stop them.

In regards to the navy typically (depending on the nation) ill let the AI handle the existing units and ill use the newly built ones. For example ill make my self an invasion taskforce and keep it in port until i get all the ships i want for it, meanwhile i might let the Ai do what it will with most of the other units.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Easiest way to keep RAF down while not performing Sea Lion (for whatever reason) is to use stacks of 4xINT over all four British airfields in-range from France/Benelux. Norwich is usually where British STR are based, but the AI will switch the around. Once all four airfields are securely "blockaded", UK AI has trouble reaching much of Germany from Liverpool or Scotland and you can basically leave a stack of 2xMR on "intercept" mission over all of Germany.

 

[21oliver]

Sure once you take the low countries and France you move your ints forward. I was talking pre conquest. Good point.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Ah, pre-conquest it seems to me that UK AI usually flies their STR over the North Sea, meaning that one stack over the seazone there can usually intercept and maul them. Perhaps another stack actually protecting the industrial provinces to provide another mauling and you're done.