[2023] New Capabilities of Paratroopers displayed in YouTube Video

Fulmen said: So enemy paradrops now deorg all friendly troops in the "area" (whatever that means here) of the paradrop?

I haven't watched that video, but I did a livestream last night where I was abusing paratroopers as the Soviets.

The short version:

If you take the correct path in the special forces doctrine, there is a perk that lets PARA drop the ORG of enemy divisions in the state where they are dropped even if they don't land on the same tile as the enemy divisions. It is not supposed to stack, so multiple drops over a 30 day period shouldn't stack multiple ORG penalties. And the ORG penalty is a % of total possible ORG.

This gives PARA some tactical flexibility to support operations involving other units. Whether it's balanced properly or not is an open question, as I need more time to abuse them.

What is not an open question is that there are multiple bonuses in the special forces tree where PARA can cut their special forces cap usage down a bunch. This allows PARA spam if you have enough air XP to grab all relevant PARA doctrines.

If you don't believe me, I'll share my livestream where I dropped around 84 10w PARA divisions (with light tanks) in a continuous set of tiles from the Baltic to the Black Sea to attempt an encirclement of the entire Axis. I only bagged approximately 2 million enemy troops as the encirlcement did not fully complete instantly thanks to Axis troops being on unexpected tiles. But I would say spamming teleporting space marines is perfectly viable if the enemy has lost control of the skies. You don't even need gliders.  

billcorr said: 2 million casualties.

"It's only a flesh wound."

I was playing the Soviets, so...

"One manpower lost is a tragedy. Two million manpower lost is just a statistic."

(And yes, I know this may not have been said by Stalin, but I'll take the joke any way I can.)  

TheMeInTeam said: paradrop tank is basically just a way to drop armored recon again now that you can't do that anymore, right?

Basically, yes.

TheMeInTeam said: though changes to tank designer made some better light tank designs possible.

This is where the magic happens.

Now, this design is a hybrid meant to be used as both recon on panzers and as an air dropped tank for PARA with enough armor to matter:

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In case it's not clear, here's a 1940 medium tank with the same armor scheme:



You can really push light tanks much further than you used to. While the mediums are better, we're now talking about the possibility of creating air dropped light tanks with armor that is comparable to T-34s if you are willing to research the techs and invest in armor upgrades and pay the chromium cost (which the Soviets can easily do).

You can then create this kind of PARA division:



For the record, Tier 1 AA ain't up to the task of piercing this:



So, what we are really doing with air dropped tanks with higher armor values and plenty of extra fuel is making sure that half the German army has trouble piercing them when trying to escape until the supply grace on the Germans is exhausted. They don't go out of supply instantly. And thanks to the ORG debuff, if you drop on a tile with enemy divisions present, it's not an instant death sentence to the PARA. They can be assisted by other PARA on adjacent tiles and, if they aren't pierced, they will last long enough to defeat what they dropped on.

The armament on the light tanks also provides Tier 2 AA levels of piercing without requiring a support AA to be dropped with it. This may or may not matter depending on the situation.

I don't think this is unbalanced as such, but I do think the changes to tank chassis give air dropped tanks more usefulness than the older air dropped recon tanks prior to AAT.  

Joakim2007 said: Hello guys,

Light tanks can paradrop?????


Thanks in advance

You need the third paratrooper doctrine to unlock air droppable light tank support companies.

My paratrooper template above has that support company in the second slot.

Poopfaust said: What are "fuel drums" and how do you see that in the screen above? Thanks

Each module added increases the amount of fuel a tank battalion/support company with that equipment assigned can store. Thus, it adds more hours of operation before refueling is required. That usually translates into distance traveled, but it also involves combat endurance, so dropping light tanks with extra fuel drums gives those paratroopers more time in combat with full use of their tanks before lack of fuel penalties set in (or they are relieved by friendly forces and put into the supply network again).