some ideas

[PatG]

Sorry but I can't see your average battalion commander ringing up the local airbase and saying "Give me 3 flights of fighter bombers and cover them with two flights of fighters".

More like the Battalion CO says to his air force liaison - "We need air support and it has to come through!!!" The liaison talks to his boss who then looks at his list of available AC and orders up two flights of FB and seeing that the ground pounders are desperate, reluctantly pulls a couple of fighters off CAP leaving a hole elsewhere and adds them to the strike force. The grunts never see the fighters, just the FBs rolling in.

If you want a realistic change to air support:

Outside of designed scenarios, the player should only be able to pay for unspecified "air support" with the exact composition left to the AI. Whatever comes through is assumed to have had enough fighter cover to make it to the battle area unmolested - just as it works now.

[iCaMpWiThAWP]

Originally Posted by PatG

Sorry but I can't see your average battalion commander ringing up the local airbase and saying "Give me 3 flights of fighter bombers and cover them with two flights of fighters".

That's not exactly what i meant, but your post has good arguments, btw by 'unspecified' you mean random? is that possible?

[Cross]

Originally Posted by PatG

If you want a realistic change to air support:

Outside of designed scenarios, the player should only be able to pay for unspecified "air support" with the exact composition left to the AI. Whatever comes through is assumed to have had enough fighter cover to make it to the battle area unmolested - just as it works now.

Hi Pat,

Interesting, but I think a Commanding Officer, or FOO, would have at least requested the type of air support he wanted.

For example, if he wanted a stone bridge KO'd, that would be very relevant to the type of aircraft/ordinance requested. No good sending a whole squadron of rocket laden aircraft, it's not going to help.

As for being able to choose specific aircraft in SP, this is consistent with being able to choose specific vehicles and tanks.

I guess we could let the AI choose our battalion AND our aircraft, if we wanted to be more realistic.


cheers,
Cross

[PatG]

Originally Posted by Cross

Hi Pat,

Interesting, but I think a Commanding Officer, or FOO, would have at least requested the type of air support he wanted.

Hi Cross - Yes I was arguing the other edge case to a degree . To build on your point below, the battalion commander would say "I need to kill a bridge/bunker/infantry in the open/tanks" but it would still be up to the flyboys to plot out the mission and ordnance. He would have no control at all over CAP or escort.

For example, if he wanted a stone bridge KO'd, that would be very relevant to the type of aircraft/ordinance requested. No good sending a whole squadron of rocket laden aircraft, it's not going to help.

As for being able to choose specific aircraft in SP, this is consistent with being able to choose specific vehicles and tanks.

I guess we could let the AI choose our battalion AND our aircraft, if we wanted to be more realistic.


cheers,
Cross

Actually - I would love to see a "deplete force by 10%/20%/30%/50%" button. That would be realistic.

[Cross]

Originally Posted by PatG

Hi Cross - Yes I was arguing the other edge case to a degree . To build on your point below, the battalion commander would say "I need to kill a bridge/bunker/infantry in the open/tanks" but it would still be up to the flyboys to plot out the mission and ordnance. He would have no control at all over CAP or escort.


Actually - I would love to see a "deplete force by 10%/20%/30%/50%" button. That would be realistic.

Yes, I'm sure you are right that the battlion would only request a specific type of target, at a map reference, with some sort of timeframe.

But again, this game could be seen to allow a battalion commander micro control over tanks several KM away, so why not aircraft. Personally, I think this is part of the fun of the game, and I really like the aircraft system as is.

I guess you could switch your aircraft to AI control, if you wanted to keep their control more distant. AI control of aircraft could even be an agreement between two human players, but that wouldn't be my preference.

As for depleted forces, I think we are able to replicate that. Take your 5000 point game, reduce to 4500, there you've just depeleted your force by 10%

I know, I know, that's not what you meant...

I guess against another human you could make rules where companies were not complete, or a third party mediated missing elements.

Some selective force choices (like using renamed scouts, or 3 man LMG sections etc) could make units appear to be partial sections/squads, for a scenario.

And then there's always Mobhack


cheers,
Cross