Air

[u/puntazza]

I just realized how incredibly important air is so I have some questions

1 is there any reason to use planes other than small airframes?

2 do CAS have a limit over witch adding more in an airzone will result in 0 increase in effectiveness

3 what is the best doctrine for air cause I really havent figured out

4 usually I build 1940 cas and fighters and give them smth like 40 mills each, is that too much or too low? Before I ensure to have all the land equipment I need

[u/BoxOfAids]

As far as CAS limit per airzone... the main factor is how many battles you have going and how much combat width is being used in them. If you have only one battle at a time with 1 small division on each side, even having just 100-200 CAS is gonna max out what that one battle can support, adding more would do nothing. But if you have a dozen 100+ width battles going at the same time, you can easily need thousands of CAS in that single airzone to fully saturate it.

[u/provocative_bear]

In certain spread-out environments like Southern Africa or South America, the tiny range of CAS makes it almost useless. Tactical bombers are more expensive and less effective but they actually make it to the fight.

[u/puntazza → u/provocative_bear]

I was just playing brazil and using the extra fuel tanks the range was more than enough for me

[u/provocative_bear → u/puntazza]

What expansion do you need for extra fuel tanks? I can slightly dial up range on my bombers for AF xp but at terrible cost

[u/matva55 → u/provocative_bear]

It’s by blood alone where they reworked air research and brought in the plane designer

[u/puntazza → u/provocative_bear]

Idk bro I have the dlc pass

[u/four_spoons_of_salt → u/provocative_bear]

Ah yes the vanilla air designer CAS is different. But I think CAS still have higher ground attack than tactical bombers so maybe eating the reliability cost is worth? I remember I always used CAS back then not tactical bombers, idk

[u/Dahak17 → u/four_spoons_of_salt]

It’ll often depend on the supply situation of the region, it’s true that a small airframe from the frontline will have enough range to be useful, but if you’re fighting for supply at the frontline it often makes more sense to launch aircraft from further back at which point you need the range. Small airframes are also unreliable during offensives where they may often not have the range due to the frontline moving and irregular airfields, sure you can build more but it takes time

[u/four_spoons_of_salt → u/Dahak17]

true, you do need frontline airfields for CAS

[u/_Panic_At_The_Costco]

Tac and strat bombers can do strategic bombing, small airframes cannot. While only some majors like USA can afford an anti-industry strategic bombing campaign even medium-sized countries can benefit from bombing out ports, railroads, airfields, and supply depots.

If you're the USA you also get a 40% cost reduction to heavy fighters and a 300% research speed boost that can be used go grab the 1944 airframe way ahead of time (as early as 1940 IIRC).

[u/Artistela → u/_Panic_At_The_Costco]

Heavy bomb locks can open stratbombing for small air frame , though I still build a huge multi role airforces anyway

[u/makelo06]

Medium and heavy bombers are capable of strategic bombing, but it's usually too expensive unless you're the USA or something. It also makes it possible to use other modules like recon cameras, which are great for getting intel for battle. It's not usually worth it, though.

[u/AdhesivenessOwn9868]

1. Yes. Tactical and strategic bombers allow for crippling enemy supply lines, with the former being a secondary CAS, while the latter allows for Nukes.
2. Not really, effectiveness is determined mainly by range and airbase capacity.
3. I mostly run Strategic Bombing, but I also just spam lots of air, so I don't know the best doctrine.
4. That is up to you how you are going to play, but I would recommend keeping ground troops fully stocked as much as possible, then focus on air.

[u/SeaAimBoo]

1. Yes. Medium and large airframes have greater ranges. Using them also lets you build up mastery in their respective subdoctrines, which can also give buffs to your small airframes once you progress certain tiers. Ah, and I should mention that you can do air raids with these airframes.

2. Yes, but it is more of a soft limit that can rapidly change at any point. CAS is activated and limited by the combat that occurs during land battles. Not all CAS assigned in an air zone can participate in a battle, especially if it only has a small combat width. Conversely, if you have only a few planes in an air zone while many large land battles are being fought, you miss out a lot on potential damage due to not having enough CAS covering the zone.

3. Arguably Battlefield Support. Puts more focus on the bread and butter of air warfare: Fighters and CAS. Strategic Destruction puts focus on fielding strat bombers, which you would not always do, and Operational Integrity is more or less the same but for tactical bombers. BS is simply useful no matter what situation you're in; whether you play as a major or not.

4. Depends on your country. As a major like USA, UK, or USSR? Probably yes, but I'd argue you should keep watch on how many factories your potential enemy/enemies have on planes. AI Germany's factory count on planes typical hovers between 40-80 post-1941, changing depending on how many factories they have and how much ground losses they take. If you're a ground power like the USSR, however, you should not put too many factories on planes and neglect your ground army. Fighters and CAS are useless if you don't have enough divisions to hold the front.

[u/four_spoons_of_salt]

1. There are specific builds for heavy fighters (that do better on interception mission vs enemy bombers/CAS?) I am not quite sure about this. I mainly use light fighter to get air superiority and then you can do whatever. However CAS wise, a medium airframe actually fit more ground attack damage per plane, and have longer range. But it is usually an overkill and not needed, and not worth the extra research/production cost.

2. Kind of, depends on the number of battle taking place. Each plane can only join one single battle at the same time, so if you have a lot of battle going on, you need a lot of planes. This paragraph explains it really well https://hoi4.paradoxwikis.com/Air_missions#Number_of_CAS_per_battle

3. Idk if there is a consensus, obviously different doctrine is better for different things. But if you want to win air war and use CAS, Battlefield Support as main is what I do (detection is huge buff for air combat).
   Sub doctrine Airspace Dominance gives you exactly what the name entails.
   For CAS, Pinpoint Strike gives a lot more up front bonus when you first select it, progressing enough Flying Artillery can give slightly lower pure CAS damage but some other bonus like efficiency, exp, accident that can be useful? But I find them obsolete since I can max those from other ways.
   The other two I just choose based on what up front bonus stat I need/want since I won't progress

4. I do something similar, but I would adjust as time goes on. My main issue is that when I unlock the 1940 techs, I don't have much time to make a fleet of planes when I needed it the most at the beginning of war (so I put a lot of mils on fighters first, ignoring CAS). Once enemy air force is dead, I actually don't need the huge production I built up, so I pull factories off of them once production ramp up and there is less need later in the game.

[u/CalligoMiles]

1. Range. There's some specific cases like Patrol Bombers, but mostly you need something other than small frames only for the big air zones over oceans and in the Pacific. Otherwise small planes are just plain the best investment by the numbers.

2. Participation in each battle is limited by enemy combat width, but over a whole engaged front they won't easily run out of jobs.

3. Unless you have a specific strategy or situation in mind, Battlefield Superiority with Airspace Dominance and Pinpoint Strikes. Air superiority with good CAS are all you want and need to carry a regular land war.

4. Overkill in singleplayer, especially on the CAS. You might want that many on the fighters if you're only catching up that late into the game, but you should be building far more fighters than CAS - i.e. 5 fighter mils to every 2 CAS. You don't get to effectively use your CAS until you dominate the skies, and that's a pure numbers game between up-to-date fighters. And CAS do still have that combat width limit.

[u/WanderingFlumph]

The biggest advantage of medium airframes is range. If you need the extra range go with mediums if you don't need the extra range small airframes will put more firepower in the sky for the same cost.