How to Paradrop in Hearts of Iron IV (Easy Guide)

Hearts of Iron IV is one of the best grand strategy games that you can play right now. The game is exceptionally well-tuned in balance, and the AI or human opponents are tough to combat. A fundamental aspect of combat is the Paradrop in-game which is necessary for effective strategies.

But what is Paradrop in Hearts of Iron IV?

Paradrop refers to the tactic of dropping your Paratroopers into enemy territory. You must meet the following requirements to execute the Paradrop tactic:

You require an Airstrip with a transport Aircraft.
Must ensure Transport Aircraft can accommodate your soldier’s weight
You can only target a region where you command a minimum of 70% of Air-zones surrounding your initial airport and targeted drop location.
Simply execute this tactic for a major strategic advantage, but be wary of issues that might arise as a result.

There are a lot of nuances that go into the Paradrop tactic, and there are many pitfalls that inexperienced players can fall into if they are not careful. Read on to learn more about the Paradrop in Hearts of Iron IV.

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How to Paradrop in Hearts of Iron IV?

If you wish to start a Paradrop then there are certain things that you need to ensure that you have. These include things such as an Airstrip with transport aircraft. These are extremely necessary for even initiating the process of carrying your Paratroopers to different locations on the map.

Moreover, you have to have sufficient transport aircraft that will be able to accommodate the weight of your soldiers. After all, Hearts of Iron IV is a resource management-heavy game, and ensuring you have the right tools to execute your Paratrooping tactic is going to be vital for its success.

Another thing to remember is that you can’t simply send your troops into any region that you want. Instead, you will need to control and exert sufficient command over at least 70% of airzones that surround both your initial launch airport and the area where you wish to drop your soldiers off.

Although to many people the Paradrop tactic might seem quite rudimentary, I can tell you that the strategy can prove to be highly effective if used at the right time, and the right place. This is because once you have control over those airzones to carry out a Paradrop, you can then move soldiers from one location to the next through transport planes.

Nonetheless, it is important to ensure that where you drop off your Paratroopers is a safe location initially. This is because if you’re not careful then you might be sending your soldiers to their deaths.

You Require Air Superiority

At the beginning of this article, I talked in length about how to execute a Paradrop you will need to control a minimum of 70% of the airzones that both surround your initial take-off airport and your targeted drop-off point.

But a question that you might be asking is how to ensure such an advantage in the first place, and how do you handle this situation when it arises. Essentially, it all comes down to having a superior advantage in airborne combat.

The easiest method to achieve this seems to be to use the aerial fighters in your country’s arsenal. This can ensure that you have air superiority if you build your army correctly, and allocate resources appropriately.

Another obvious advantage of having superior aerial fighters will be that all of your air shipments will be much safer, especially when they are guided to the correct zones and areas where you require them to be.

Another good way to clear a particular area and ensure that you can exert sufficient control is by using non-naval bombardment and close air support within areas where you wish to drop off. Often this is a more difficult method to establish air supremacy as opposed to simply obtaining aircraft, but it can act as a measure to ensure the advantage is yours regardless.

Use Transport Planes and Weight Efficiently

Let’s face it, you would not be playing Hearts of Iron IV if you weren’t a huge math fan, I know I am. And fortunately, you will need to use math to figure out how to efficiently use your transport planes, so you can save as many actions as possible in moving your troops from one location to the other.

So let us examine what precisely math in this instance will look like. You see each of your Transport Planes can carry a capacity of 2.0. While, a paratrooper battalion will essentially weigh 0.5, and your paratrooper support companies will weigh 0.1.

With this simple mathematics, you can assess that each transport plane will be able to carry 4 Paratrooper battalions. However, the issue is that you will require their Paratrooper support companies if you wish to make the entire venture as profitable as possible.

In my opinion, sending three paratrooper battalions on one plane is a sound strategy to ensure that both ample support and battalions are sent on each of the transport planes. This is to ensure that your strategy is not slowed down and you can initiate the tactic as quickly as possible.

Transporting only Paratroopers can end up causing them to be in enemy territory without much support, and this can be quite problematic. However, we will say that if you’re attempting to simply add some reinforcements then sending 4 Paratrooper units on a single aircraft is a good idea as well.

Note: If you attempt to transport more people on your planes than they can carry then this will cause your trips to fail as well. This can completely disrupt your strategy and can put your soldiers, as well as your areas, at far greater risk of loss.

Where to Land Your Paratroops?

The next important question that you must be considering is where precisely should your soldiers be landing to gain the maximum advantage. And by this point in the article, you should have a very clear idea of how exactly you need to load up your transport planes and how you can begin a paradrop.

Similar to tactics that are followed during actual wartime, if you want the biggest advantage then you will want to ensure that your paratroopers enter into or land on top of an enemy area full of supplies. If you don’t land on top of them then it’s a good idea to land somewhere close to them.

This is because even after a few turns after you paradrop, you will notice that your soldiers are running low on supplies. To allow them to survive for longer and occupy lands outside of your bounds, it is a good idea to feed them supplies from the areas you are trying to occupy.

So capture supply areas as soon as you possibly can, and ensure that your paratroopers have sufficient supplies to survive in the game for a longer amount of time.

Note: If you have the Waking the Tiger DLC, then you can establish an air supply system for your soldiers that are fighting on the ground.

These can be particularly helpful as they can provide them with the supplies necessary for them to fight for a lot longer and give you a lot more tactical options.

Ground Troop Coordination is Vital

Throughout this entire article, we’ve primarily focused on the interactions that you need to secure regarding the paratroopers themselves. However, perhaps one of the best strategies that I have been able to find in Hearts of Iron IV is to coordinate your paratroopers with the soldiers you have already deployed within a specific area on the ground.

Let us discuss this further through an example. If you place your forces on the border of a country that you are intending to attack, then the enemy will generally respond by sending their forces to the border to oppose your troops.

When this happens, you can drop your paratroopers into key areas that you can seize to claim victory. This tactic is often extremely efficient because your opponent will be otherwise preoccupied in another location i.e. where they sent their soldiers to meet yours.

Note: Some trial and error will necessarily be carried out by you to find out what order of events, play style, and execution best suit your win conditions. You might even want to test this strategy out to see if you like winning in this fashion.

Advanced Strategy To Become A Better Player

I recommend that you keep practicing trying to execute tactics with your paratroopers. And once you have a better understanding of paratroopers and how to execute paradrops, then you might want to consider trying to apply a few more advanced strategies. One of these advanced strategies involves choosing to drop a specific number of your forces in different provinces.

I recommend that rather than trying to load all of your battalions onto one province or attacking just one area, you rather split up your battalion and attack several provinces instead. This will let you grab more areas that are unprotected by your enemy far more quickly.

A combination of frontal ground attacks from your forces and circling attacks with your para drops can be an extremely effective way of securing victory.

Troubleshooting Issues With Paradropping

There are several game bugs, and issues that can be utterly detrimental to how you want to play your game. Usually, this isn’t just brought on by the A.I, but rather by faults within the game itself.

Sometimes, even if you have air superiority, you might have trouble descending into a region. This often occurs when you attempt to arrive in a region whose central node is truly out of range of your transport aircraft.

In this instance, you will not be able to finish your paradrop, no matter how many times you try to attempt. You will need a particular type of fix to make your paradrop work. So what do you need? Well, you need to simply follow these steps:

Select the Paradrop Arrangement on the Air Map.
Left-click the order’s circle symbol
Right Click and reassign the paradrop arrangement through the circle symbol
You can now finish the drop as directed.

And that’s all you need to do to successfully Paradrop.

That’s all you need to know on how to Paradrop in Hearts of Iron IV. If there is anything that we missed or anything you’d like more elaboration on then let us know in the comments.

Till next time! Ciao.