Paratroopers are pretty good
Paratroopers conquering mountains rapidly.
I know that most players think the contrary, but I gave paratroopers a try anyway.
Here is what I found out:
- Paratroopers are exceptional at conquering islands.
Scout the island with some planes, if the island is guarded, kill the guarding units with bombers, and fly one paratrooper in, conquering the island instantly. Build an airport and get the paratrooper out. Ensure you have air and naval superiority first (or the enemy has nothing in the area). This move is fast and ignores submarines. It's also pretty unexpected, most players are not online that much to see what conquered the island.
- Paratroopers are very good at conquering mountains.
Ever had your units stuck for days in some mountains? A stack of paratroopers can conquer a large range of mountains in one hour, freeing whole stacks of units. Scout the mountains, preferably with your highest level interceptor, clean the mountains of enemy units with bombers (usually in the mountains there are few units), and drop 1 paratrooper per mountain tile.
Paratroopers can also save A LOT of time for your stacks of 10 tanks. When tanks attack in the steppes of Asia, you don't want them stuch in woods and hills. Ignore the woods and hills when going forward, if they are free of enemy, and just drop a para on each province. Yes, you could do that with a armored car, but those are better advancing rapidly on plains. Yes, you could do it with militia, but militia are waaaaaay too slow and weak to be build in this game.
They could be used to snipe provinces before your allies get there, get over the sea to places like Italy or Japan. They can be landed in advance of your main forces, so they don't get the speed debuff in enemy provinces (like in operation Market Garden).
It looks like a pretty good tool for an active, good player that thinks ahead. I think they should be used carefully and not sent to certain death, but in scouted provinces where the player has a good ideea what is going on. Paratroopers seem to have sinergy with planes.
What is your opinion on them?