Is airpower useful in WinSPMBT?

[hveldenz]

Are airstrikes ever worth the points? It seems any A-10 worthog or A6E Intruders, either with AP clusters cannot hit the broadside of a barn. Even if they overfly 8-10 tanks in the path, and survive countless SAMs/AAgun/AAmgs they rarely kill or damage anything. In the old SP-II, atleast AP cluster bombs did kill something per flight. Comments? Are there better air missions to purchase. I am playing US 1990 era campaign versus china.

[PlasmaKrab]

First question: how do you plan your strikes?

Better choose an entry path with good visibility, no friendly units along the way, no obstacles... so your aircrafts will have no parasitic signals and spot the targets without worries.
Pilot experience plays a big part though.

Admittedly cluster weapons often seem to be quite useless, though you can have some really good (or tough) surprises, and you cannot turn them into miracle weapons either.

Guided weapons work well against armor, but tend to eat up much loadout and strike time. In your game context you should find some good F15E with GBUs all over.
Against infantry, napalm/FAE is a must.

[desh44]

I have noticed this also ...the cluster munitions are not as effective as in the last version. I also noticed that the aircraft guns are not nearly as effective as they should be. Aircraft guns in the game do not seem to do much damage to either soft or hard targets. The gatling guns on most jets are quite capable of destroy most armored vehicles but in the game the usually don't even immobilize the vehicles. And all to many times I have called in an airstrike against infantry targets and have the aircraft fire at least 3 times at an infantry target and only pin the infantry unit. It seems that the AA and SAM units in the game have gotten a lot deadlier also

[PlasmaKrab]

Consider the size of the target in a hex and the targetting abilities of your aircrafts.
An aircraft can very well shower a 2000m² circle with slugs without getting any close from the ten pinheads spread on it.

Cannons are a very, very secondary weapon on an aircraft; the only exception being the A-10 and its (rare) likes.

[Busko]

For me, the only real use of aircrafts are in anti-personnel and anti light targets, with CBUs and such area weapons. Direct hits with Mavericks and similar are simply not worth the cost, too many errors.
Instead i prefer using the flight spot for an UAV, or even better an attack helo.

One thing i found REALLY good, and a total surprise to me, was the power of level bombers armed with heavy bombs like the 2000 lbs of the B52.
One thing i found out with the heavier bomb loads is that they do damage also in adjacent hexs, covering in fact a 3 hexes path of death and destruction.
They can really obliterate entire companies of enemies, it's such an insane pleasure to see an enemy attack route turned into a bloody grave

[JPYBasser]

I never considered cluster munitions sufficiently effective in SPMBT. So I increased their effectiveness using mobhack. I increased the AP kill and penetration alot and the HE some. I also always thought that AA weapons were too effective, especially guns. Nothing I could do about that.

[Beeg]

I'd like to also add the inaccuracy of "smart bombs" like JDAM...they get close but more often than not don't get a direct hit. IMHO, a B-2 capable of firing 4 1000lb JDAMs at a stationary target, like an AA emplacement in the clear, should score one direct hit most of the time.

[Siddhi]

in the german scenario (shandeloh?) i added A-10s to the tornados already in place and flew repeated strikes (i.e. testing) against a fairly bunched up column of t-72s and some APCs. despite repeated tries, and what visually looked like a perfect spread by both the BLU and CB (a-10s and tornados)i hardly scored any kills (usually 1 or none). give that they were really bunched up (say 10-20 vehicles in IPA) and in open ground i don't get it, i should have scored many more hits as well as kills.

also, the warthog's cannon seems to be next to useless. on the same tests the warthog never scored more then 1 kill, and that was the exception rather than the rule (t72MV i believe). forget multipule engagmements.

given that 2 A-10s supposedly wiped out an entire IRG tank bn in 1991/92 i think something might not be quite right.

[Flyboy]

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.

[Pepper]

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 ...