하츠 오브 아이언 IV – How Does Paradropping Work?

소개

The version 1.12 update in late September 2022 introduced a few changes to how transport planes interact with paradrop orders and it appears many players are struggling to understand these changes. This guide is intended for players of various levels, but feel free to skip to the Transport Plane Requirements section if you just want to understand the changes in version 1.12.

In overview:

Creating a paradrop order requires the following.

• Paratroops researched.
• At least one paradrop-capable division is trained and in an army.
• Minimum of 50 transport planes at the originating air field.

Executing a paradrop order requires the following additional requirements.

• Sufficient transport planes for the number of divisions assigned to the order.
• 70% or better air superiority in the required regions.
• A state of war exists with another country.

Paratroops Research

The paratrooper technology is researched in the Infantry tab of the Research window. Completing this research enables paratrooper battalions in the Division Designer, provides a basic paratrooper division template, and enables the paradrop order for paradrop-capable divisions.

Subsequent paratrooper research levels improve the soft attack and/or organization stats of your paratrooper battalions.

Paradrop-Capable Divisions Trained

In order to be paradrop-capable, a division must contain only paradrop-capable battalions among its line battalions. Paradrop-capable battalions are indicated by a parachute symbol in their unit icons. 현재, only the paratrooper battalion is paradrop-capable as a line battalion. All support battalions are paradrop-capable.

Paratrooper battalions are considered special forces (SF) category units, so adding paratrooper battalions to a division template will limit the number of divisions you can train, depending on your current SF cap. The special forces cap is set to 5% of the total non-SF battalions in your armies. 따라서, 예를 들어, if you have two armies containing 24 divisions, with each division containing 10 infantry divisions, your SF cap is 24 * 10 * 0.05 = 12. If your paratrooper divisions have 4 paratrooper battalions, this cap will allow you to train three paratrooper divisions.

Paradrop orders are part of the army Battle Plans system, so paratrooper divisions must be placed in an army in order to have the paradrop order available.

Transport Plane Requirements

Prior to version 1.12, the division weight was factored into the transports required for paradrop orders. With version 1.12, division weight is irrelevant, and instead transport requirements follow two basic rules:

• Each paradrop order requires a minimum of 50 transport planes at the originating air field in order to create the order. The airfield will be highlighted during paradrop order creation when this requirement is met.
• If the order is assigned to more than one division, there must be 45 transport planes per division at the air field in order to execute the order. These planes must be free of any other assignments.

If the general commanding your paratroopers has the trait ‘Paratroopers’, he will have access to a special ability, Glider Planes, which increases the airlift capacity of your transports by 100% ~을 위한 7 days at the expense of 0.1 command power per battalion. 메모: This does not override the 50 plane minimum for a given paradrop order, but it discounts the planes required for 2 divisions and up.

The below table summarizes the transport planes required to execute an order based on divisions assigned to the order and whether the Glider Planes ability is active.

Paradropping in Waves

If launching multiple orders from the same air field, the same transport planes can be used multiple times for different orders in waves. This occurs automatically if there are enough planes for each individual order but not enough for all orders to go simultaneously.

These orders will launch in waves automatically and in the sequence that you created them, and will continue to the last order unless the requirements for the later paradrop orders are no longer met (예를 들어, you no longer have air superiority in the required regions or you no longer have enough planes for sufficient orders due to them being shot down). Each order takes about 4 에게 8 완료하는 데 몇 시간, so the biggest disadvantage of executing in waves with fewer planes is the extended time of the overall paradrop effort.

It is theoretically possible to launch multiple single-battalion divisions with multiple orders in waves using as little as 50 transport planes, since that is the minimum required for divisions with just one battalion. 하지만, if just one of those transport planes is shot down on an earlier wave, leaving you with just 49 transports, subsequent waves will not launch until you replace the plane.

Air Superiority

You must have at least 70% air superiority in the origin, en route, and target regions of your paradrop orders. If you have multiple paradrop orders planned, those that have sufficient air superiority in their applicable regions will launch, while those that do not have air superiority will not launch.

It is possible to have momentary air superiority in some waves but lose it in later waves. When air superiority is regained in the required regions, the pending waves will automatically launch.

State of War

While you can plan paradrop orders into another country during peace time, the orders will not execute until you are war with that country.

It is possible to plan and execute paradrop orders into friendly or allied territory, but here again you must be at war for the order to execute successfully.

메모: If you execute a paradrop order to friendly territory without being at war, the order will abort but your transport planes will still be tied up in the order (this seems to be a bug). To free up these transport planes, delete the air wing that they are in and then reassign them to the air field.

Creating and Managing Paradrop Orders

Assuming you have a paradrop-capable division in an army, and the minimum required transports positioned at an airfield, create a paradrop order as follows:

1. Select the army containing the paratrooper division(에스)
2. In the army’s division list, select the division(에스) that you want to assign to the paradrop order.
3. Select the Paradrop Order button in the Battleplans toolbar.
4. Left-click the airfield where the transports are positioned (if the minimum 50 planes are there, it will be highlighted teal).
5. Right click the target province in enemy territory.
6. Hit the ENTER or RETURN key to confirm the order.
7. Repeat steps 2 ~을 통해 6 to create additional orders with other divisions in the selected army.

If you want to assign a division to an existing order:

1. Select the army containing the paratrooper division(에스).
2. In the army’s division list, select the division(에스) you want to reassign.
3. Holding the CTRL button, left-click the order you want to reassign to.

If you want to unassign a division from an existing order:

1. Select the army containing the paratrooper division(에스).
2. In the army’s division list, select the division(에스) you want to unassign. 메모: if you want to select all divisions assigned to a particular order, hold CTRL and then right-click the order.
3. Select the Unassign divisions button from in the Battleplans toolbar.

Paratrooper Combat

Once a paradrop order is executed, the paratroopers will either appear in the target province if there is no enemy already positioned there, or will be engaged in battle in the province immediately if the province is occupied by the enemy.

Provinces that contain victory points, ports, supply hubs, or borders are more likely to be occupied, while surrounding provinces with none of these features will more likely be unoccupied.

Paratroopers will often take a hit to organization upon landing, and this may compound rapidly with combat hits to organization and division strength when landing in an occupied province. The more battalions a paratrooper division has, the more it will be able to survive these penalties. Paratrooper divisions generally cannot hold out more than a few days or weeks without other divisions relieving them from an advancing front line.

Recommended Tactics and Techniques

Paratroopers can be used in several ways that can provide significant advantages to your overall strategy. They are generally best thought of as a finesse weapon, rather than the blunt instrument of normal infantry and mechanized divisions. Following are three general concepts of operations for paratroopers:

Diversion: Particularly against the AI, paratroopers can be dispersed deep in enemy territory as a way to draw the enemy’s forces away from its front lines or coasts (예를 들어, French interior). Small paratrooper divisions (even as small as 1 battalion), are sufficient for this, and landing them in provinces with no features will ensure they land safely and give the enemy a target to attack.

Encirclement: Paratroopers can be dropped in force behind an enemy’s front line with the goal of cutting off the enemy from their main supply lines. This can be effective in naval invasion scenarios in combination with naval superiority to reduce the organization of coastal defense forces on peninsular geography (예를 들어, Cherbourg or Italy).

Strategic Capture:Dropping paratroopers around significant victory points, bridgeheads, or supply areas with the goal of taking these features may hasten enemy capitulation or at least significantly curtail their operations in an area for some time due to the major hit to enemy supply (예를 들어, Soviet major cities). This generally requires fairly strong paratrooper divisions in significant numbers. Capturing an enemy airfield in the area can significantly help with holding the area, as transport planes can then be used to supply the paratroopers.

Paradrop division templates can be customized and adapted any way that you think fits best for a given tactic. I have personally found 10 width (5 battalion) divisions equipped with engineers, artillery, and anti-air support battalions, to be particularly versatile. It is possible to field a 24-division paratrooper army of this division template if you have 2,400 non-SF battalions in your other armies, which is achievable with major powers.

Air superiority is probably the biggest challenge to making paradrops possible, so either invest in a significant aviation industry or call in allies that can help chip in on air superiority.