What's the deal with Paratroopers?

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    • What's the deal with Paratroopers?

      More precicely: why does everyone hate them? I mean sure, they're not practical to be the unit you primarily base your armies around, but they have decent stats, even with the cost considered, and they are really, really nice to have for those situations where you do need them. They can outmaneuver and pin down literally any unit on the battlefield, can easily cross bodies of water to take undefended areas without the need for naval dominance or waiting for conventional troops to cross, and are handy for catching and killing lone units before they can become a part of a bigger group. To me, those abilities are worth much more than their actual combat ability.
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    • GreatbigHippo wrote:

      More precicely: why does everyone hate them? I mean sure, they're not practical to be the unit you primarily base your armies around, but they have decent stats, even with the cost considered, and they are really, really nice to have for those situations where you do need them. They can outmaneuver and pin down literally any unit on the battlefield, can easily cross bodies of water to take undefended areas without the need for naval dominance or waiting for conventional troops to cross, and are handy for catching and killing lone units before they can become a part of a bigger group. To me, those abilities are worth much more than their actual combat ability.
      The question of why some people dislike skirmishers or light units in strategy games, despite their utility, can be approached from various angles. It's essential to remember that different players have different preferences and strategies, which can lead to varying opinions.

    • Paratroopers have a unique role in military operations, just like how a Functional Medicine doctor in Dubai plays a specialized role in healthcare. Paratroopers are trained for high-impact missions, while Functional Medicine doctors Dubai use a holistic approach to address health issues. Both require precision and expertise, just in different domains. It's fascinating to see the diversity of specialized skills in various fields!

    • JASLOLY wrote:

      Though I like using paratroopers for island hopping. Saves embarking and disembarking time
      In return for converting and mobilization time, which ends up being more time, plus building an airfield.
      "I have not failed, i have just found 10,000 ways that wont work." - Thomas Edison

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    • JASLOLY wrote:

      Upgrading infantry is probably better in terms of defence and motorised infantry or commandos in terms of offence
      For sure, I wouldn’t build my army around them. But if I build a handful in a game, I feel like I get enough utility from them for more niche situations to justify building them
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    • GreatbigHippo wrote:

      More precicely: why does everyone hate them? I mean sure, they're not practical to be the unit you primarily base your armies around

      You just said it yourself. If it's not a primary unit you plan to use regularly or that fills an essential role, it's not worth researching or building.

      In World at War once you're past a few days in, nations expand to the point you can't drop paratroopers into their cores because their cores are far from the front lines and surrounded by non-core territory. Taking random non-core cities is not useful and accomplishes nothing.

      Paratroopers are not units you want to waste on ordinary fighting and they also kind of suck in combat; regular infantry beats them without issue.

      Within the same doctrine:

      -Every unit in the infantry branch beats paratroopers in combat except commandos, which are similarly very niche and useless units, and militia.

      -Every unit from the tank branch beats paratroopers in melee combat. Even tank destroyers can win if they only defend against the paratroopers.

      -Literally every air unit beats commandos, even the ones you don't think should be able to. If you drop paratroopers and the enemy can gather an equal number of interceptors, attack bombers, strategic bombers, and/or naval bombers then they will destroy your paratroopers. Tactical bombers will shred your paratroopers.

      -They are extremely vulnerable to anti-air and interceptors when airborne. No Call of War player worth his neckbeard will leave his artillery, railroad guns, or any other ranged weapons unguarded from air attack. They will all have anti-air in the stack and likely will have interceptors at the ready.



      So what can paratroopers really accomplish at the end of the day? Defeating commandos, militia, and other paratroopers?

    • GreatbigHippo wrote:

      More precicely: why does everyone hate them? I mean sure, they're not practical to be the unit you primarily base your armies around, but they have decent stats, even with the cost considered, and they are really, really nice to have for those situations where you do need them. They can outmaneuver and pin down literally any unit on the battlefield, can easily cross bodies of water to take undefended areas without the need for naval dominance or waiting for conventional troops to cross, and are handy for catching and killing lone units before they can become a part of a bigger group. To me, those abilities are worth much more than their actual combat ability.
      I rarely use them but when I do, it is to serve as a distraction or to take a city behind enemy lines. Their utility is in their ability to bypass territory and be mobile. I used them once in the 1949 roleplay game as Canada. I used them to capture Prague because Czechoslovakia was in the communist team. Carking who was the Soviet Union had a big stack in an adjacent rural. That rural had maxed forts. Because my paratroopers lured away his stack, I was able to send in my main stack to take the rural and then fight in the city which removed the fortification bonus because Prague was not fortified.

    • Fox-Company wrote:

      JASLOLY wrote:

      Though I like using paratroopers for island hopping. Saves embarking and disembarking time
      In return for converting and mobilization time, which ends up being more time, plus building an airfield.
      You can always build just a handful and send one per Island to save converting and mobilisation time.
      But for building airfields, I usually just use boosters to raise the morale before building to save time
      Looking for improvement.
      :tumbleweed:

    • Klusey wrote:

      GreatbigHippo wrote:

      More precicely: why does everyone hate them? I mean sure, they're not practical to be the unit you primarily base your armies around
      ... ...


      So what can paratroopers really accomplish at the end of the day? Defeating commandos, militia, and other paratroopers?
      Well, in the case of my most recent game, I used paratroopers as a kind of quick response force to stop small groups of enemies from taking non-core land that isn't worth having a large army nearby to defend. It's faster to have them on hand than it is to train militia, they're stronger than militia and can easily deal with small groups of individual units that try to sneak into your territory, and because they are attached to aircraft, they can get across my territory much faster than any other unit so I need fewer of them to fulfill this role. It creates the perception that I am stronger than I actually am, and it saves me from having to pull my mainline units away from the actual fighting to deal with these kinds of problems. Paired with bombers they don't even need to do enough damage to kill the enemy unit, they just need to retake provinces.

      This means I have to produce less units to defend far flung provinces, freeing up production time for units that I will use offensively, which means I can expand faster, which makes me more powerful in the long run. Seems worth it to me.
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    • JASLOLY wrote:

      Fox-Company wrote:

      JASLOLY wrote:

      Though I like using paratroopers for island hopping. Saves embarking and disembarking time
      In return for converting and mobilization time, which ends up being more time, plus building an airfield.
      You can always build just a handful and send one per Island to save converting and mobilisation time. But for building airfields, I usually just use boosters to raise the morale before building to save time
      This is not island hopping, thats just sending a bunch of paratroopers to a bunch of islands at the same time, and even then, paratroopers have short range, and unless every single island has no ships near it or if theyre not all undefended youre losing troops for nothing. Still doesn't fix their mobilizaion time, and airfield building to move them again, or embarking them to move them
      "I have not failed, i have just found 10,000 ways that wont work." - Thomas Edison

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    • They are only useful for surprise attacks across the Channel. Or possibly Manchukuo could surprise attack Japan using them, which I've never seen happen.

      They have the potential for surprise because they move fast through the air, compared to a naval invasion which takes way longer. Of course, then they are vulnerable for 6 hours after landing, but you could quickly take undefended cities.

      But, in most situations, I'm not a big fan, since their range is too short and the 6 hours is too long.

    • Emma986 wrote:

      Paratroopers have a unique role in military operations, just like how a Functional Medicine doctor in Dubai plays a specialized role in healthcare. Paratroopers are trained for high-impact missions, while Functional Medicine doctors Dubai use a holistic approach to address health issues. Both require precision and expertise, just in different domains. It's fascinating to see the diversity of specialized skills in various fields!
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