ineffective air strikes in v2.3

[Ed James]

Is it just me, or are the air strikes still as useless and ineffective in v2.3 as in v1.0?

I have 6 P-38's with rockets against the Germans in 1944. Germans have a moderate assortment of mobile AA's. After six passes, I have one halftrack kill, many rockets and MG fire missing targets, one P-38 shot down and two others heavily damaged. No other damage to German tanks.

This seems unrealistic, given how effective US airstrikes were in 1944. Is this the designed outcome in v2.3? Am I wrong in this?

Thanks for the help.

Ed James

[Larry Holt]

I was concerned about this in earlier versions of SPWAW also. Paul Vebber explained that historically only one in five sorties got a kill so your battle is about right. US airpower was a big factor in isolating the battlefield, in killing soft fuel trucks, etc. not so much in killing tanks that are in direct fire range of US forces.

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An old soldier but not yet a faded one.
OK, maybe just a bit faded.

[Voriax]

I just ended playing the Steel Shield as Americans. In that scenario there is..6 ac available, two P-38 and 4 P-47's

At the end 3 aircraft were shot down, but they all finished at least 1 strafe, one P-47 doing about 5-6 attacks until it ran out of ammo. So perhaps 14-15 strafes total.

the result was: 2 destroyed mortar halftracks, one flame HT, one flametank, 1 or two additional vehicles (can't remember what they were) and couple non-lethal rocket hits at a Pz-IV.

And because I was stupid when ordering the flight paths I got those 3 downed planes, with a bit better planning i'd gotten few additional runs.

Overall not bad result or what? And this was with Arty vs Tanks preference at 70%

Voriax

[Nikademus]

sounds about right for the # of sorties. Personally i'm glad that aircraft are not the all-powerful engines of destruction that they were in SP:1, (along with any AA units being virtually useless in driving them off much less bringing them down)

cant remember how many frustrating PBEM's i'd set up late-war period as the German only see my expensive premium units (like a platoon of Panthers, or a section of King Tigers) disabled or destroyed by one or two aircraft runs by my opponent!!!!!

[Charles22]

Sort of on a related subject, I've been screwing around a little with playing as the Soviets in a 1500 pt. WWII campaign against Germany. I have like maybe 7 KVIs and like 6 T34s (the rest are those dreadful 10 point amphibious tanks [for numbers sake]). Gerry has been shelling me with a lot of 81mm mortars and I believe some form of 150mm artillery. I must've seen at least a couple of optics destroyed and one who had his engine damaged twice, so that he moves very little. I thought that was fairly fascinating. It seems those large tanks get hit an awful lot by any artillery, which makes me wonder just how effective the PZVIE will be in firing.

Playing the USSR has made me privy to some fairly odd things. I have played Gerry a great deal against the Poles so forgive me if everyone has already noticed this of the USSR. I make a reservation about what I noticed, however, because I may had seen it in a battle I generated instead of this campaign, but it is weird.

What I've noticed, is that some of the tanks cost aren't the same in the field. For example, the KVI is 75 pts., however in the field it was shown as 49 pts. There are more units like this, as I believe that dreadful ampibious 10 pt. tank was only 7 pt. Do the Soviets have an advantage when they lose equipment to the enemy, such that the KVI only cost them 49 lost points, instead of 75?

[This message has been edited by Charles22 (edited 07-12-2000).]

[Paul Vebber]

This is because experience discounts the base price. A good tank with a rotten crew is cheap.