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JAMiAM -> RE: air superiority (3/31/2007 12:07:37 AM)
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The best way to do it is to draw enemy fighters on AS missions into hotspots of your choosing, where you have local air superiority. You can do this by various methods, and it is somewhat dependent upon how your land campaign is going. Start by massing your fighters in the zone(s) where you can best achieve local superiority, as well as to support your efforts on the ground.
Make sure that your fighters effective combat radii overlap as much as possible, so that during the various bridge attacks, ground combats, interdiction attacks, etc, your fighters will outnumber your opponent's. Keep an eye on the air briefing to spot how much you drive down his AS rating, how many planes are lost (divide his losses by 2 or 3 to get the realistic figure) and reset your AS units from rest back to A so that you can continue to drive the attrition curve in your favor over the course of the turn.
In EA there are still several air units that have a mix of air frames within them, where the longest ranged equipment is non-existent through much of the game, leaving the units liable to operate at ranges where they actually have no air frames that can fight. This region between effective range, and air unit max range is what on several occasions I've called the "Donut of Death" as the units will fight, but at zero effectiveness, usually resulting in the evaporation of the unit. Early war German fighter units have the DoD at ranges from 12-14 hexes, while the Stuka units have a DoD at ranges from 14-25 hexes! Try to not let your air units get drawn into battles within their respective DoD's.
When attacking airfields, your best results are achieved using bombers to attack the fields, but backed indirectly by fighters within range, and on AS missions. Again, local air superiority is the key to success.
Finally, the ultimate weapon against air units is artillery. If your opponent ever leaves his air units on fields within range of your artillery, then pummel him mercilessly, with artillery based airfield attacks. In EA, that is generally not possible due to the hex scale unless the air units are on the coast and exposed to shore bombardment. In fact, this is so effective, that in my EA games, I insist on house rules for naval units having to remain in the hex that they shore bombard, or airfield attack from, through the balance of the turn, so that the bombarded player has a chance to strike back...if they have anything left, that is...[;)]
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