Need some advice on airpower

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Need some advice on airpower - 6/9/2018 11:14:58 AM

Ridcully70

Posts: 46
Joined: 1/26/2007
Status: offline

I've had ample time to experiment with different strategies in ATG but I must confess I'm struggling a bit with how to use airpower efficiently. I do have the manual and I've read most of it but reading complex PDF documents on a screen is a real chore and the manual is written in a strange way which I find hard to grasp sometimes.

So what's the most efficient way of doing an air raid? I understand the basics- "air strikes" attack units, "bombing" missions do structural damage. Dive bombers are good against armour/ artillery. Level bombers are cheap bomb delivery systems but not very effective against armour. etc.

So far so good, but actually doing an air raid can be frustrating, particularly when it comes to the fighters. Very often I find when I attack a town, the AI will either send up a huge fighter force, or no fighters at all. Thus if I send in , say, 8 bombers and 10 fighters (for escort duty) the AI defend with 50+ fighters and completely waste my force with little damage. Or sometimes when I've sent in 10 bombers and up to 70 (!) fighters, I discover that the AI has sent up no fighters at all. So I may have damaged his town, but at the expense of a massive amount of fuel used up for me. A very bad trade.

So what to do? I understand that with air to air there is no stacking penalty for either side, you could throw up as many fighters as you want and if the enemy throws up fighters too for some air to air combat there will be no over stacking penalties for either side. But what if I send up a huge force of fighters as escort and the AI doesn't? Are my fighters then considered part of the force attacking the ground target, and therefore counted as part of the stacking limitation? That strikes me as very inefficient.

I just wish there was an easier to understand way of using fighters as they were primarily meant to be used- as escorts for bombers.

< Message edited by Ridcully70 -- 6/9/2018 11:15:49 AM >

Post #: 1

RE: Need some advice on airpower - 6/9/2018 12:36:42 PM

Twotribes

Posts: 6929
Joined: 2/15/2002
From: Jacksonville NC
Status: offline

I think the response is that air coverage is random. But basically on the first strike into an area with air coverage expect all aircraft to respond. I am currently playing ETO so no fuel is used. But I know what you are talking about.

(in reply to Ridcully70)

Post #: 2

RE: Need some advice on airpower - 6/10/2018 12:12:01 AM

tortugapower

Posts: 264
Joined: 12/17/2015
Status: offline

I'm just spitballing here, but can you send a probe in the area (do a fighter sweep mission) -- maybe changing the retreat percentage -- and see what happens before committing the huge force?

This is an interesting problem.

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(in reply to Twotribes)

Post #: 3

RE: Need some advice on airpower - 6/11/2018 8:09:56 AM

Ridcully70

Posts: 46
Joined: 1/26/2007
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: tortugapower

I'm just spitballing here, but can you send a probe in the area (do a fighter sweep mission) -- maybe changing the retreat percentage -- and see what happens before committing the huge force?

or perhaps send a small recon mission up to see what forces the ai sends up.I did that a few times.

The game I'm playing right now is a 5 player AI map and I have almost no airpower right now so I can't experiment much with different approaches. But when I do I'll give my thoughts on it.

to be honest though deciding on the size of an air raid force is a problem they had in real life too!

(in reply to tortugapower)

Post #: 4