Shannon V. OKeets
Posts: 22095
Joined: 5/19/2005
From: Honolulu, Hawaii
Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Incy
I think number of bombers/ftr's in an area of operation is best kept as a couple of general background status variables, i.e. a couple of "how good/deep is each sides bomber coverage", and "how good/deep is each sides FTR coverage"
These variables should be an aide to actual combat decitions, which should be made hex by hex, based on all air units that can fly to each hex.
Each hex should be assigned a priority, and there are different tasks that can be prioritized for each hex:
-refuse enemy air to clear through
-allow friendly air to clear through
-risk to aircraft in contested hex (is there a ground strike or attack vs hex with air in it, this air should have a higher priority for flying)
In addition, there should be some general priorities:
-achieve favourable attrition
-reduce enemy ftr/bomber coverage (by drawing enemy units to battle)
-maintain friendly ftr/bomber coverage (by holding units back from battle)
The AI should evaluate all these priorities for each battle.
Example 1: A Para attack should have a really high priority to clear friendly air
Example 2: When attacking an enemy land unit with very few combat factors refusing enemy air should be a very high priority
Example 3: Achiving favourable attrition should be a general goal at all times, sort of a "background" priority
Example 4: When my enemy has 2 and I have 5 FTR, drawing enemy FTR to the battle is a high priority, because this will further increase my superiority. Maintaining my own FTR coverage is not so much a priority (but would increase if the enemy still maintained many bombers in theathre)
Example 5: when on the offence, fronts are mobile, and it's early in the turn, drawing out enemy FTR/bombers is a high priority, because it's a good chance they can later be overrun
Then, based on priorities, each hex should be eveluated for recieving escorts, bombers, and intercepts. Make a list of possible planes for each mission type. Also, make the same list for the enemy, to help the decition making.
For each decition, cycle through the relevant list to find the best match (es).
Some rules that should be implemented (no time for an extensive list this evening..):
-in big air battles (or battles where "refusing enemy air to clear" is a high priority), always try to include one low-quality "expendable" bomber. The bomber is mainly there to soak off DA and DX results
-try avoid situations where air odds become excedingly bad. For example, try not to send an unescorted weak bomber if it can be intercepted, but can't be counterintercepted. And the oposite, seek exceedingly good odds if possible
-if enemy bombers are in the air, and drawing out enemy FTR coverage is a priority, intercepting is a good idea
-if drawing out enemy ftr is a priority, sending out bombers solo (with or without possible counterintercept) might be a good idea.
-if drawing out enemy bombers is a priority, or if enemy has very weak bomber coverage, consider attacking hexes without proper FTR intercept cover to draw out the last remaining bombers
-consider aborting air battles if odds turn sour and there are no very high priorities pushing you to continue
One thing not mentioned this far is that air cover is important when choosing sites for land attack (and thus sites for possible ground strikes). When picking attack hexes, air cover should be considered first. So some air calculations should be done PRIOR TO planning stuff like land moveent and land attack!!
When doing repositioning of air (RTB or rebase), covering hexes vulnerable to attack with your own air power should always be a priority. For example, proper positioning of russian bombers and FTR (and continous adjustment of what proper positioning is) is quite critical during barbarossa. Key goals for stalin is to position air where it's safe, and where it can reach as many important places possible (an important placeis not neccesarily the most importnt place on the board, but the most important place the air can matter (because enemy air cover is weak enouh that friendly air can get through/enemy air can be denied). Since stalin is weak in FTR power early on, FTR's must be continously repositioned to create local pockets of air superiority (or parity). Preferably FTR's should be moved to cover critical areas, for instance an area of a front that is pulling back to another defencive line and is vulnerable to groundstrike in the process.
Yes. I agree.
I break the use of air power down into separate decisions, with allocation of air units to a Theater of Operations (TOO) as one task and positioning air units within a TOO a second task. The latter is executed when rebasing and returning to base.
The overall allocation of bombers/ATRs/Naval air to mission types is a separate task too, and it takes into consideration many of the points you made. I think of this as after the Air Marshal assigns air units to a TOO, then either the Field Marshal for that TOO or the Admiralty (when dealing with air combat in sea areas) decides what to do with the air units at his disposal. This division of responsibility and use of resources may miss some optimal combination during the course of a game, but the ability to figure out logic and write code if vastly simplified. I believe the trade off is justified.
So, the decision as to when to send a bomber on a mission for ground strike or off/def ground support is up to the Field Marshal and he will base that decision on what he is going to do with his land units (both when attacking/advancing and defending/withdrawing).
Since a lot of the decisions concerning the use of fighters depends on what the enemy does, I believe choosing specific fighters to fly as escorts or interceptors is the hardest decision to make. The decision you make during a ground strike phase is going to have repercussions during subsequent phases. When you are the phasing player, you should know whether you are going to execute a paradrop later in the impulse and to dedicate a fighter to that mission - and it is not to be touched prior to the paradrop phase of the impulse. As the non-phasing player, it is more difficult, since do you want to always have your best fighter sitting on the ground in anticipation of intercepting an enemy paradrop? Perhaps you do, since if it prevents the enemy from doing a paradrop, it is doing good work and earning its keep.
Right now, I am trying to simply get a grasp on all the different things to take into consideration when choosing which fighters to send up. If I can understand all the pieces that are part of this puzzle, then I can start thinking about how to put them together in a structured way that I can program for the AIO.
_____________________________
Steve
Perfection is an elusive goal.
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RE: Artifical Intelligence for World in Flames - 
. This goes for warfare in all times (Israel had quite some problems with the hizbolla milis just a few months ago, all because of bad intelligence). 
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