AA change!

[kondor]

IMO no unit is being produced in so small numbers as AA. Why? Because it has a very little purpose in the game. That should be changed!
Standard play of WA goes something like this...
Heavy research into HB-s, bomb France, Germany... Get to the A-bomb and Japan is out! Level the third Reich, then proceed with bombing SU (west vs east)...

Somebody (I do not recall who) once has a good idea how to change AA to make them more useful... Let them shot before FT-s engage in combat! That way attacking FT-s would have a harder job mainteining air superiority. Or let half of all AA on sight shot before and other half after FT-s combat...
When HB-s are at the low LVL, AA works fine with suppression, but with higher def. they are useless..
Or make them more effective... Upgrade their LA and AA attack to say 6 from the start...

This change would first help England, then SU (IMO players rarely use AA and going straitgh to FT-s, and at the end Japan and Germany...
This would be a change that would affect all aspects of the game, so it should be looked into carefully.
I think that flaks deserve more, and should be used more often! Do you?

[jadam12]

I agree. I always like in a game if every unit has its pros and cons. Having a unit that is needless is not a good idea in a strategic game. Though I always produce AA, but I'm not a hardcore AWD gamer, mostly play against the AI when have time (apart from a PBEM I've just started).
I like this game really, its so well designed.
Too bad there are too few people on these boards nowadays. Apart from the AARs, I can hardly see any new posts/topics.

[WanderingHead]

ORIGINAL: kondor
IMO no unit is being produced in so small numbers as AA. Why? Because it has a very little purpose in the game. That should be changed!

Global Glory (and UV2.0) have fighters costing 3. With the narrows overflight rule, it is easier to get to Europe from England, and vice versa, giving more regions to defend. Meaning you can't concentrate fighters everywhere. With AA still costing 2, the force composition and relative unit costs now feel correct to me. In my current game, my Germans have about 23 flak units (Winter 1945, still trying to defend the coast and the Russian's out of E Poland). I was trying to build a flak unit every turn to ensure coastal defense.

Maybe not the best approach, but it is what I did ...

In stock AWD I always felt that buying flak as Germany was a defeatist prospect, preparing for the defense rather than the offense. I don't feel that anymore.

[kondor]

ORIGINAL: WanderingHead


In stock AWD I always felt that buying flak as Germany was a defeatist prospect, preparing for the defense rather than the offense. I don't feel that anymore.

I do, flak is not a offensive unit (In most cases, I have not yet seen that Barbarossa was conducted with 25 flaks[:D]). If you spend more on flaks you will have less for FT-s, inf., etc. So you will have less in offense, but a little more in defense... I just suggest that flaks should be a little more then just a "little more"[:D]

I have not tried mods yet, maybe they are solution, but here I speak of a stock game.

jadam12- IMO there are lot of activities here, and some players are busy with mods, but you can always find something going on here. And what is sweeter then a good AAR[:D]

[kondor]

ORIGINAL: jadam12

Having a unit that is needless is not a good idea in a strategic game.

I would not go that far.. Flak is far from needless, I just feel it should have a little more punch to it!

[Lebatron]

When I proposed to make fighters cost 3 that in itself made flak better than before. In addition, UV2.0 offers a better suppression method that makes flak do its job a lot better than before. That is, they cause higher amounts of suppression to drive bombers off target. The actual shotting down of aircraft is left up to the defensive fighters. 

[BoerWar]

If you gave them some of the ability of Art units (which in some cases like the German 88mm they were very similar):

1. Allow them to fire during the longer range phases. Maybe instead of firing twice like Art you could only let them fire once.
2. Allow them to op fire. They probably won't shoot anything down, but they may cause added suppression to bombing formations passing through. This would also give them some usefulness for protecting beaches against amphibious assault. Most have such small land attack values that I don't think it would unbalance the game.

[christian brown]

I tend to favor playtesting UV2.0 and see how that works out..........then maybe incorporate some of those changes into stock AWD.............the only thing I'd be totally comfortable changing without a whole bunch of playtests would be to bump up the LA value of flak by a point or two, with corresponding raises to the associated WS.

Just my 2 cents......