In recent articles on StrateGGames, I’ve written about paratroopers and supply grace, and in both articles, transport planes that depend on air superiority are important. However, these are not the only two things you will need.
First, we will look at air superiority in general and then I have some tips & tricks on how you can use these game mechanics to your success. Then we will look at which aircraft is the best and give you a step-by-step guide on how to gain air superiority.
Air superiority in HOI4 explained
Air superiority metrics show how strong your air wings are when operating in a region. There are three states in which air superiority can be…
| Color | Superiority | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 🟩 Green | > 60% | You are wining |
| 🟨 Yellow | 40% – 60% | Contested – send more wings |
| 🟥 Red | < 40% | You are losing – send more air wings |
This chart can simply help you to orient in air superiority in general. If you are losing, then you need to send more air wings to the region to help your current air wings.
Air superiority is very important in war because it can help your troops. You certainly don’t want your cities bombed and your production slowed down, or bombers attacking your troops who are defending themselves.
Conversely, if you have dominance over offence, you can slow down the flow of defenders, slow down the foreign economy and thus gain the advantage to win faster.
Planes you have in air wings on missions have a different impact on superiority. So if you want to increase superiority, you need to build fighters or even better 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 to be successful in the air, you need to build fighters or heavy fighters. After this, you can build bombers. Remember that if you don’t have fighter support, other aircraft (at least bombers) may not work as well.
And also remember…
- You need 30% air superiority to attack the port.
- You need 70% air superiority for paratroopers.
- You need 75% air superiority for nuke.
- Less air superiority leads to a lower success rate on air supply missions.
- You can increase air superiority by using scout planes.
From the tips above, we can say that air superiority and air wings are important and you already know everything you need. In case you want to know more about air superiority, we prepared additional information below.
The best planes for air superiority in HOI4?
From my perspective, the best planes (if you want to increase air superiority) are heavy fighters and this isn’t just based on the table above. They are more expensive to production but still have more power than basic fighters. In addition, these fighters can easily be used over long distances.
This means that they can be used as naval invasion support, in sea battles or as support for paratroopers. You can also combine these fighters with bombers, so you can destroy enemy infrastructure and factories. For frontal attacks, I mainly use CAS (close air support) and fighters because I can recover and build them faster.
How to gain air superiority step by step?
To increase air superiority, you need to do following…
- Build enough fighters / heavy fighters.
- If you are not at war, you can practice mission to increase experience.
- If you are at war, you can move your fighters to a defended airport near the frontline.
- It’s also 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, make sure that enemy air units do not attack your rear, where you have factories and infrastructure. It can happen that you concentrate on the front line (and winning) and so other parts of your empire are defenseless.
