Britsh Always Having Air Superiority

[WAAAAAA]

Am the only one finding that Great Britain ALWAYS without fail has air superiority over Germany even in 1939? Super unrealistic especially in the early stages of the war. Even if I max out fighter production I always lag behind Great Britain and find myself without air superiority in key regions (low countries, western Germany). This of course can really screw over a campaign It is just so annoying and so unrealistic. Is there any way to counteract Great Britains apparent insane plane production? Am I doing something wrong?

[antiism]

yes ive found this alot as well but it makes perfect sence why. britain sitting on an island as it is has almost no need for there factorys used for tanks, moterized and so on. So all there factorys endup going strait to planes. you can easily outpace them in planes if you go strait infentree and forget about tanks. but who wants to play germany with no panzers.

[Grey Warrior]

Are you putting a lot of research into maxing out production efficiency and production efficiency cap so you can produce more with less? And how are your air theories looking? I tend to wait until 41 to start knocking heads (Unless Italy declares war on Yugoslavia before I can research that focus tree) By then I tend to have enough fighters to have a stack of 500 in each of Germany's regions + Czechoslovakia.

What you can do is start justifying war against the Netherlands and Czechoslovakia right out of the gate. By doing so you gain mountains of rubber and a significant amount of oil for the early game. Czechoslovakia grants you a significant boost in factories and territory. Just make sure you are ready to declair war on both and do so at the same time. You need about 30+ divisions to win, I like to stack 24 infantry divisions to an army, surround one and conquer the other. By declairing war on both the allies cannot guarentee the other.

This should add sufficient resources and factories to bump up your aircraft production. Granted Britain still had 2000+ aircraft over the channel while I was invading France.

[WAAAAAA]

I'm a huge believer in the engineering technologies so that's not a problem. And that's a good point. G.B. has no need for anything really other then aircraft. Them having that many planes in the early stages though is historicaly unrealistic though. G.B.'s airforce wasn't able to really go on a major offensive until after the Blitz for Britain was over. Game is young still, hopefully they fix that somehow maybe.

[MaGicBush]

I had air dominance in 1939 pretty easily as Germany. As soon as the game starts I used production to pump out fighters filling the line half-full with factories. After a year or so I bumped it up to full production. I was still able to field tanks as well. You just have to split up your factories smart. Granted I didn't go on the offensive for GB or anything and kept all my fighters over areas I was fighting in, and GB stayed away in the early war with their planes.

[Exarch_Alpha]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von WAAAAAA:

I'm a huge believer in the engineering technologies so that's not a problem. And that's a good point. G.B. has no need for anything really other then aircraft. Them having that many planes in the early stages though is historicaly unrealistic though. G.B.'s airforce wasn't able to really go on a major offensive until after the Blitz for Britain was over.

You´re wrong. It totally was. The problem is, the game doesn´t put into the equation that flying over enemy territory means loss of pilots and thus the RAF can fly over Germany with impunity.
Also, how troublesome it was to keep planes mantained and moving air wings around.

As time passed if France didn´t fell like it did the balance in the war would be TOTALLY in favour of the allies.

The Luftwaffe suffered massive losses in the battle of France that only weren´t humiliating because the Spitfires remained in UK.

[MLPMargeth]

I don't have a lot of problems getting early air superiority against Great Britain when playing as Germany, even if I go to war early.
They usually have around 1500-1700 planes (to my ~1300-1500) when I go to war, while my production vastly outstrips theirs, so even going into a war of attrition I manage to get air superiority in under a year, usually just a couple of months.

Paratroopers are still my favourite way to invade Great Britain, so I usually somewhat aim for it from game start.
I usually start with one line of Fighters initially and ramp that up as the game goes, at the minimum three lines by the time I've taken France.
Depends a lot on wether you take the Netherlands early on, as otherwise I can't aquire enough rubber (without building refinerys) for more lines.
Getting the Light Aircraft Manufactorer early on helps, as the boost to fighter agility does seem to reduce my losses quite a bit.

[WAAAAAA]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Exarch_Alpha:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von WAAAAAA:

I'm a huge believer in the engineering technologies so that's not a problem. And that's a good point. G.B. has no need for anything really other then aircraft. Them having that many planes in the early stages though is historicaly unrealistic though. G.B.'s airforce wasn't able to really go on a major offensive until after the Blitz for Britain was over.

You´re wrong. It totally was. The problem is, the game doesn´t put into the equation that flying over enemy territory means loss of pilots and thus the RAF can fly over Germany with impunity.
Also, how troublesome it was to keep planes mantained and moving air wings around.

As time passed if France didn´t fell like it did the balance in the war would be TOTALLY in favour of the allies.

The Luftwaffe suffered massive losses in the battle of France that only weren´t humiliating because the Spitfires remained in UK.

That is fair enough, I am not an expert on the RAF by any means. I guess my problem is I feel it doesn't reflect how the early stages played out. It can be extremely troublesome to take out Netherlands, Belgium, and France because G.B. is able to harass your troops constantly. This is considering that those 3 countries were taken out in a little over a month. However, you are right, it is unfortunate that the game doesn't take in to account losing pilots (which is one huge factor that destroyed the Luftwaffe effectiveness) and what not. I just find it extremely annoying trying to maintain air superiority over about 6 regions whenever I don't have the planes to do so. This makes it impossible to really do anything to England itself or to have fighters when attacking the Soviet Union. Like I said the game is still young and they'll be working out kinks for a while of course. Thanks everyone for the comments!

[Daft]

*historical* UK all but made the german airforce extinct

[Camerons101]

GB starts out with many of it's factories creating airplanes, so it just makes logical sense for them to have a lot of them by the time you attack.

[GOT_NO_SKILLZ]

The UK's air power build-up can get ridiculous, especially if left unchecked.

I'm almost through a Soviet playthrough and finally invaded the UK in 1945. From 43-45 they had something like 20,000-35,000 aircraft. Of those, 2500 support, 2500 bombers, and 2000 fighters were hanging out over the Channel with 100% radar coverage, so I couldn't pull off an amphibious assault.

Finally I said enough is enough, grounded my air force, and dumped 240(!!) factories into Yak-3 (with XP for engines) and MiG-9 jet fighters (also with max engines). When I had about 10,000 combat aircraft of all types I put them over the Channel and over South England, gaining air superiority JUST long enough to do a large airborne assault.

Concentrate your fighters in a small number of provinces whenever possible, so you can overwhelm them locally and cause more casualties. Putting token combat air patrols over every region isn't the way, IMO, unless they are bombing the Hell out of your factories/infrastructure.

[691neil]

Another main issue is the lack of supply mechanics i.e. the planes require no fuel to fly. So the AI will just keep building them as the initial fuel cost is pretty low.

There is a good discussion thread on the sub-reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/hoi4/comments/4q2n2h/the_problem_with_air_warfare_in_hoi4/

[nobletea]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von antiism:

yes ive found this alot as well but it makes perfect sence why. britain sitting on an island as it is has almost no need for there factorys used for tanks, moterized and so on. So all there factorys endup going strait to planes. you can easily outpace them in planes if you go strait infentree and forget about tanks. but who wants to play germany with no panzers.

mak

Ursprünglich geschrieben von WAAAAAA:

Am the only one finding that Great Britain ALWAYS without fail has air superiority over Germany even in 1939? Super unrealistic especially in the early stages of the war. Even if I max out fighter production I always lag behind Great Britain and find myself without air superiority in key regions (low countries, western Germany). This of course can really screw over a campaign It is just so annoying and so unrealistic. Is there any way to counteract Great Britains apparent insane plane production? Am I doing something wrong?

you researching air doctrines? cause i beat the british airforce 3 times

[jackhickman999]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von my name jeff:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von antiism:

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Ursprünglich geschrieben von WAAAAAA:

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Nice necro

[Average AMD neanderthal]

its all about getting air superiority in this game. if you want that against britain tho, do note that the UK has MANY puppets that will supply it with planes. and the nation itself also tends to primarily focus on that as just like in real ww2, it can keep itself from dying by just keeping the german armies away with air, navy and radar technology.

i managed to kick their asses by using good radars, and an easy 4k+ planes around 1939.
i always put 5 factories into them at the start of the game. and once my infantry production is good enough to keep funding itself (depends on whether i go concentrated or diversed industry) i i focus on getting 15 factories on planes right away. additional factories should also be allocated to getting some extra fighters, as well as naval bombers since your navy is never impressive vs the UK or USA. forget about CAS planes. air superiority is what gives the biggest bonuses atm.

[dzantor]

I think global warming is important