In latest articles on StrateGGames I’ve wrote about paratroops and supply grace and in both articles are important transport planes which depends on air superiority. But this aren’t just two things which you will need.
We will look on air superiority more in general and I have some tips & tricks how you could use this game mechanics for your success. We will look which plane is best and step by step guide how get air superiority.
Air superiority in HOI4 explained
Air superiority metrics show how strong are your air wings which operates in region. There are three statuses in which air superiority could be…
| Color | Superiority | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 🟩 Green | > 60% | You are wining |
| 🟨 Yellow | 40% – 60% | Contested – send more wings |
| 🟥 Red | < 40% | Your are loosing – send more air wings |
… and this could helps you what you need to do. If you loosing then you need send more air wings to region which helps your current air wings which works in this regions.
Is important that you have air superiority in case you are in war. Because this could helps your troops. You certainly don’t want your cities bombed and your production slowed down, or you don’t want bombers attacking your units that are defending themselves.
Conversely, if you have dominance on offense, you can slow down the supply of defenders. Slow down the foreign economy and thus gain an advantage to win faster.
Planes which you have in air wings on missions have different impact on superiority. So if you want to increase superiority you need build fighters or better yet heavy fighters…
| Aircraft Type | Superiority Power |
|---|---|
| Heavy Fighter | 💪 1.25 |
| Fighter, Carrier Fighter, Jet Fighter, CAS Carrier CAS, NAV, Carrier NAV, TAC, Jet TAC | 1.00 |
| Strategic Bomber, Jet Strategic Bomber | 😩 0.01 |
… so if you want be successful in air you need build fighters or heavy fighters. After this you could build bombers. Remember that if you don’t have support in the form of fighters so other aircraft (at least bombers) may not work as well.
And let’s remember…
- for port strike you need 30% air superiority.
- for paratroopers you need 70% air superiority.
- for nuke you need 75% air superiority.
- less air superiority leads to lower success rate on air supply mission.
- if you use scout planes then you could increase air superiority.
… so air superiority and air wings. Are important and you probably know everything important. Bellow you could see more informations about air superiority.
Best plane for air superiority in HOI4?
In mine opinion best plane for increase air superiority are heavy fighters. This isn’t just based from table above. HF cost more on production but they have more power than basic fighters. And what is great in mine opinion is that this fighters could be easy used over long distances…
… so they can be used well as naval invasion support, in sea battles or as support for paratroopers. You could combine this fighters with bombers. So you could destroy enemy infrastructure and factories. For frontal attack I use primarily CAS (close air support) and also fighters. Since I can recover and build them faster.
How to get air superiority step by step?
To increase air superiority you must do this…
- Build enough fighters / heavy fighters.
- If you aren’t in war you could exercises mission to increase experience.
- If you are in war then you could move fighters to defended airport near frontline.
- It’s a good idea to split your units into 2 halves.
- Select the air superiority mission.
- Send air wings to your side of the front and also to the other side.
- Keep adding fighters until you’re in the black everywhere.
… at the same time watch that enemy air units do not attack your rear where you have factories and infrastructure. It can often happen that you concentrate on the front line (and win) and other parts of your empire can be defenseless.
