GAME MANUAL - Steam

HEARTS OF IRON DARKEST HOURhorrendous losses. Be sure toremember that the escorts willreduce the operational rangeof your bombers. Their role isto distract the enemy aircraftand help your bombers reachthe target with the bestorganisation possible, so don’texpect them to inflict too manycasualties of their own.LeadershipOfficers perform a similarfunction for squadrons as theydo for both ground and navalforces, but there is one ratherlarge distinction: a maximumof only four air wings may becombined into a singlesquadron. Since aircombat, like navalcombat, occurs in a singleair zone, the stacking,skill and trait effects arehandled in exactly thesame way as they areused in naval combat.Defending officers’leadership ratings do notstack to allow largernumbers of wings since,for these purposes, thereis no defender. In combat,any force consisting ofmultiple squadrons will becommanded by thehighest-ranked leaderpresent. Depending on rank,your officer pool’s leaders willhave the ability to commandbetween two and sixteenwings without incurring apenalty for overstacking duringcombat. Air officer ranks aresimilar to their land forcecounterparts, with a majorgeneral being able tocommand 2 wings, a lieutenant.generalmay commandup to 4 wings, an air generalmay command up to 8 wings,and an air marshal maycommand as many as 16wings. This is the maximumnumber they can command ina combat, not the number ofwings that can be combinedinto a single squadronunder their directcommand.Leader TraitsAir officers may alsopossess a special trait thatwill improve the combatabilities of the squadronsthey command, althoughthese are forfeited if theleader is overstacked.Tank Buster: This officerexcels at commandingsquadrons that primarilyattack tactical land targetssuch as tanks, mechanisedinfantry and motorisedinfantry.Superior Tactician: Thisofficer is a combat ace,inspiring his squadrons toexceptional performance inair-to-air combat.Spotter: An officer withthis trait can spot a needlein a haystack. He is particularlygood at aerial reconnaissance,reporting enemyforce strengths withremarkable accuracy.Carpet Bomber: Ideallysuited to command squadronsof strategic bombers, thisofficer has a proven record ofeffective attacks against largeprovincial structures such asfactories and infrastructure.Night Flyer: An officer with thisability will negate many of thenormal penalties for flyingnight missions against targetsof all sorts.Fleet Destroyer: The trickytiming of pulling out of a steepattack and releasing atorpedo takes a specialsort of skill, and this officercertainly has it. Naval vessels,beware!Air BasesThe rules governing airmovement and basing arevery similar to those of thenaval bases. Each squadronmust be assigned to an airbase and may only land in aprovince that contains onebelonging to you or an ally.If you station more wings at abase than the size of the baseallows, then you will sufferfrom reduced rates of strengthand organisation recovery,and it will take longer toupgrade your aircraft to thelatest technology.Airfields may be damaged byenemy aerial attacks, withrunways becoming toocratered to accommodate thenormal allotment of aircraft,although this can be repairedover time by allocating IC toreinforcement.You can review the size andoperational status of a base byselecting a province thatcontains a base and then144