Air Farce Follies - Friendly Fire Isn't

[DRG]

Originally Posted by Wdll

runequester, I hope the planes you sent to attack the mortars were not carrying AGMs and that you sent the planes from a side of the map that wasn't the back side of your army.

..........or through smoke. I'm familiar with the scenario in question because when it first came out we had comments like this and I ran the scenario and Andy ran the scenario and like someone else mentioned on one of these forums recently we wondered if we were playing the same game.

I doubt there is a save game of the turn the air strikes were plotted and when they were carried out but I'm betting they would explain a lot. It IS possible to carry out air attacks without ridiculous amounts of blue on blue. Most of the stories people tell like this I've NEVER encountered in all the years I've played and developed these games. I am NOT saying strange things never happen but reading this thread anyone would think this is SOP

I can see we need to explain air attack procedure a bit better in the game guide. ( and hope people read it....)





Don

[runequester]

Im sure it was a one in a billion thing

In the original SP, I once lost a T34 to a stray 81mm mortar shell. Not even a barrage of the things either. Just a single mortar, firing a single shell.

Never seen anything like it since, and that was years ago. I joked that it must have fallen down the hatch or something. i just attract weird luck.


What was maddening about that Korea scenario was that it seemed whenever the planes did shoot up the enemy, they'd insist on only targeting the exact hex they were aimed at, even if that only held 2 infantry guys, with a T34 within a hex or two because it had moved. But when they decided to strafe my guys instead, they'd meticulously pick out the best targets
Maybe they were communist sympathizers.

[Suhiir]

I've tended to notice that myself.
When you get a blue-on-blue the seem to have an uncanny ability to pick the worst place/unit for the player to hit, whereas when they do hit the opposition they'll often pick the least valuable target in the area.

Humm....
Could it be all pilots have been secretly subverted by commies?

[runequester]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

Could it be all pilots have been secretly subverted by commies?

but what when it happens to soviet airstrikes?

[DRG]

[Imp]

I could be mistaken maybe a mod will chime in this to make it clearer

Would say you are bombers target the hex or at least within 2 hexes of it paying no attention to available targets.
Others search for targets around where they are called in when they turn up, placing the strike on a tank has no relevance it does not mark that as a target so guessing where they are going & calling the strike there is the way to do it just like arty.

So call in where expect targets to be & give a decent attack run to improve chances of finding & hitting a good target. By that I mean appearing through smoke with enemy a couple of 100m away gives little time to find or attack & it may well veer off & attack something else it has seen possibly you. The old Catch 22 applies here you want your arty to fire first to suppress AAA but otherwise you want planes to go first so not finding targets in any dust thats kicked up.

[Suhiir]

When you come down to it all aircraft are is airborne artillery.

Perhaps (sometimes) more accurate, perhaps (sometimes) more destructive...but still really nothing more then artillery.

As I've said in other threads, given the point cost/damage done ratio I think aircraft are far to expensive in WinSPMBT...but they're fun to play with !

Given cost/benefit ratio I personally find helo's to be far more effective vs vehicles. Tho I'll freely admit a nice bomb/napalm run will mess up infanty far more effectively then anything else in the game.

And unless you're targeting a fixed target (fortification, most AI artillery, etc.) you target an area with aircraft and let it pick it's target because its impossible select a specific target for an airstrike.

[gila]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

When you come down to it all aircraft are is airborne artillery.

Perhaps (sometimes) more accurate, perhaps (sometimes) more destructive...but still really nothing more then artillery.

As I've said in other threads, given the point cost/damage done ratio I think aircraft are far to expensive in WinSPMBT...but they're fun to play with !

Given cost/benefit ratio I personally find helo's to be far more effective vs vehicles. Tho I'll freely admit a nice bomb/napalm run will mess up infanty far more effectively then anything else in the game.

And unless you're targeting a fixed target (fortification, most AI artillery, etc.) you target an area with aircraft and let it pick it's target because its impossible select a specific target for an airstrike.

I've done airstrikes both ways and found if you pinpoint a target then even if it moves few hexs it will find it.
But that maybe the target didn't move or moved slowly.

Most airstrikes come in 3 turns or less opposed to 6 or more for bombers.

Tried second guessing where it "target" will move and got disaster.

just my 2 cents worth

[gila]

Originally Posted by Imp

Would say you are bombers target the hex or at least within 2 hexes of it paying no attention to available targets.
Others search for targets around where they are called in when they turn up, placing the strike on a tank has no relevance it does not mark that as a target so guessing where they are going & calling the strike there is the way to do it just like arty.

So call in where expect targets to be & give a decent attack run to improve chances of finding & hitting a good target. By that I mean appearing through smoke with enemy a couple of 100m away gives little time to find or attack & it may well veer off & attack something else it has seen possibly you. The old Catch 22 applies here you want your arty to fire first to suppress AAA but otherwise you want planes to go first so not finding targets in any dust thats kicked up.

Dust and smoke will of course obscure the targets you want to hit
That's when you re-adjust or just call the strike off right?

No need for friendly causalties.

You are callin in the shots of course