There are three main types of warfare that you will need to master in Hearts of Iron 4 to completely dominate the Second World War: Land, Naval, and Air.
Air warfare is often ignored by many players who know they won’t have a chance to defeat the German air force, but it is still an incredibly important aspect of the game that can help you defeat your enemies more easily and destroy their whole industry with the right bombers.
Recommended Read: Which Country Is the Easiest to Play in HOI4?
To get the most of the advantages that come from a powerful air force, you will first need Air Superiority in the region you are trying to conquer.
To get Air Supremacy in Hearts of Iron 4, you just need to have more planes than your enemy in the air region and have enough range on them to fully encompass the whole area.
Table of Contents
- How Air Superiority Works in HOI4
- Why You Need Air Superiority
- How to Get Air Superiority in HOI4
- How to Get Air Superiority Attack and Defense Bonus for Troops
How Air Superiority Works in HOI4
If you click F3 or the airplane button in the bottom right corner of the screen, you can open the Strategic Air map mode. This will allow you to see air regions where you can send your planes on various missions.
As both you and your enemies send planes to various regions, you will see that they will turn either green, yellow, or red.
Green means that you have more than 60% Air Superiority, yellow means you have between 40% to 60% and red means you have less than 40%.
Air Superiority just represents who has more planes over an air region and who has control over the skies of that area.
In general, if you have Air Superiority over a region, you can successfully complete the related air missions you give your planes in those regions.
Bombers can successfully destroy industry and infrastructure, CAS can support the troops in land battles, and fighters can defeat enemy planes with ease.
Why You Need Air Superiority
You will generally need Air Superiority in HOI4 in the regions where your army is fighting because you would otherwise get debuffs on your fighting stats.
Attack, Defense, and Breakthrough are all influenced by the CAS that has Air Superiority.
This means that the faction that has Air Superiority in an air region also gains buffs and bonuses in land battles, allowing them to defeat divisions that they couldn’t have under normal circumstances.
Bombers also can’t properly help the troops or destroy enemy infrastructure if you don’t have Air Superiority since they will be too preoccupied with avoiding enemy Fighter Planes.
There are also three things in HOI4 that you can’t do unless you have a minimum percentage of Air Superiority in an air region:
- Port Strike – destroy enemy fleet stationary in a port (at least 30% Air Superiority)
- Paradrop – paradrop troops behind enemy lines (at least 70% Air Superiority)
- Drop a Nuclear Bomb – drop a nuke on province (at least 75% Air Superiority)
If you want to do any of the things we listed above, then you will need to increase your Air Superiority in the various regions you are fighting.
How to Get Air Superiority in HOI4
All planes in HOI4 have a set Air Superiority power that is used to calculate who has Air Superiority in an air region. As opposed to Navies, all you need to get Air Superiority in a region in HOI4 is quantity, not quality.
The more planes you have, the more Air Superiority you get.
Here is the exact amount of Air Superiority you get from any plane in HOI4, based on their type:
- +1.25 Air Superiority Power – Heavy Fighters
- +1 Air Superiority Power – Fighters, CAS, Bombers
- +0.01 Air Superiority Power – Strategic Bombers
This means that even old Fighters can be useful in getting Air Superiority since they get the same Air Superiority power as newer models.
The only difference is that they will likely lose battles more often, resulting in their destruction.
When you have a lot of high-quality Heavy Fighters, you can sometimes get Air Superiority just by waiting for them to intercept and destroy all the weaker Fighters enemies use.
Since Heavy Fighters can be extremely powerful if done right, and they also have the best Air Superiority stat, you might try to build a lot of them to help you get Air Superiority in any air region.
Another thing that really influences your Air Superiority is the range of the planes. Planes have a set range they can reach from an Air Base based on their Airframe.
If the planes can’t reach the whole borders of an air region, you won’t get their full Air Superiority power.
This is why you will need to often move your planes closer to the frontlines and often inside the air region, to get the most out of their Air Superiority power.
How to Get Air Superiority Attack and Defense Bonus for Troops
If you’ve ever looked closely at battles in HOI4, you might have noticed that your enemies often get bonuses to their Attack and Defense stats from Air Superiority.
However, just getting Air Superiority in a region isn’t enough to get this bonus.
To get Air Superiority positive modifiers in land battles, you will need to also build and deploy CAS (Close Air Support) planes to help your troops.
If you get Air Superiority from your Fighters and then use the CAS to help your troops, you will get huge bonuses in your battles.
That’s everything you need to know about how to get Air Superiority in Hearts of Iron 4!
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