Air Strength and Organization

     My typical air organizations tend to be fairly simple.  I like my groups to be composed of single unit types.  Bombers I tend to stack 8-10 per group, while fighters, which take more damage and need to be rotated more frequently, I usually use in groups of 4 or 5.  I prefer leaders with superior air tactician, spotter and night flyer for fighter groups; fleet destroyer, spotter and tactician for carrier air groups (CAGs); and tank buster and carpet bomber for tactical groups.  I use large numbers of transports (sometimes half of my air force), but other than that, I like focusing on fighters and tactical bombers.  I will sometimes use close air support (CAS) groups, in particular in situations when I’m going up against large numbers of armor or fleets.  I have found that naval bombers are generally not worth the time to build; CASs and CAGs work nearly as well, and are useful for other missions, while naval bombers are pretty useless against land targets.  I don’t much care for strategic bombers, but occasionally use a group or two for runway cratering.  Rocket interceptors are obsolete nearly as soon as you build them, and I never bother.  Multi-purpose are a mediocre substitute for air superiority, and I don’t waste time on them either.

     The Japanese start out with 4 fighter units, 5 tactical bomber units, and 2 naval bomber units, as well as CAGs.  I have organized them fairly simply, with 1 group for the tactical bombers under Tojo, the fighters in another group under Watanabe, and the naval bombers in a third group under Takahashi.