Re: Is airpower useful in WinSPMBT?
 

Generally, I find that strike aircraft, COIN and SEAD aren't worth the investment. My favourite is actually the UAV armed with a hellfire. It pickles off its missle as soon as it appears on the map, (i.e. before anything can shoot it down) and is usually pretty accurate. Scouts well on its way past too.

Level bombers can be devestating, but are often inaccurate too. I recall a B1 unloading its entire load of 2000 pound bombs in the ocean, before hitting the beach.

Re: Is airpower useful in WinSPMBT?
 

I never purchase strike COIN or SEAD for all the reasons mentioned. Too expensive, ordinance too limited (and cannot be replenished) and they don't do much.

Helis on the other hand are floating platforms of death ...

Re: Is airpower useful in WinSPMBT?
 

From the list of changes in the patch

58] Artillery and aircraft bomb collateral blast damage has been adjusted. Artillery cluster munitions have a minimum blast radius of 1 now and air-dropped cluster bombs have a radius of 2 hexes (speed and height of delivery, larger footprint). Previous versions of the executable had blast damage into surrounding hexes as well but we discovered a bit of code that was reducing this after it had been applied. That bit of code has been commented out and now you will find aircraft weapons and large calibre arty gives blast effects out to , in the case of 2000 lb bombs, a potentially lethal area of 200 yards around the point of impact. As well, there is a new game function that allows you to see the potential blast radius while the artillery barrage or airstrike is going on. Pressing the "R" key while in the bombardment or "Z" key menu will turn on or off the blast radius markers. There are white circles that show the maximum blast radius and there are yellow circles that show when known enemy units that are within the main blast radius are damaged by the blast effects. It is important to remember that even though the blast effect for some weapons like 2000 pound bombs may be quite large this does **NOT** mean that every hex and unit within the blast effect area is affected by the blast. This addition allows players who are interested to see just how the blast area works in the game. Blast effects are reduced by the distance from the impact hex, and the usual effects of dug-in status, being in cover etc. Cluster munitions are more evenly distributed over the blast area than an HE round, so range effect is reduced for them. Armoured vehicles more than 1 hex from the impact will tend to be supressed by blast rather than be destroyed by fragments, except with cluster munitions.

So the bottom line here is airstrikes will be more deadly once the patch is released

Don

Re: Is airpower useful in WinSPMBT?
 

Can't wait for the intensified cries of the blue on blue kill after this patch is released! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Whiner speaking "I called down an airstrike with cluster munitions only 100m from my front line which was covered in smoke and the stupid aircraft obliterated my position!"

ROTFLMAO!

Re: Is airpower useful in WinSPMBT?
 

Yep. I see you've been reading our mail <g>

We've been testing aircraft and aircraft weapons and found that yes, there were more misses than we intended and have made adjustments that should make more people a bit happier with the air routines. The code wasn't processing the weapons accuracy quite as well as it should of

Don

Re: Is airpower useful in WinSPMBT?
 

I think that people sometimes take SPMBT (and wargaming) too seriously...it's probably your (you SPCAMO) fault, you make such fine games that people get carried a bit too much...

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Is airpower useful in WinSPMBT?
 

Airpower is very useful... it's just not as useful if you accidentally use it against itself or an empty area of map...

Re: Is airpower useful in WinSPMBT?
 

I had some weirdness in airstrikes an attached save is included. First of all what does COIN stand for??? If it means something like Clueless Operator Intelligence Negated I could understand. Two COIN airstrikes in this save are shifting about 1 km toward friendly lines and hitting friendlies. Other airstrikes in this save are targetted in the same general area and are working just fine.

Re: Is airpower useful in WinSPMBT?
 

Have a look at

www.shrapnelcommunity.com/threads/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=375755&page=0 &view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

- Thread title "COIN strikes way off target" - it is still on page 1 so should be easy to find, it is only 30 or so threads below this one. A browse through this existing thread should answer your questions.

(If the link does not work - try entering COIN in the search utility found at the top of the page )


Cheers
Andy

Re: Is airpower useful in WinSPMBT?
 

Ahhhhh tyvm Andy. Ummm what does COIN stand for?