Air interdiction.....

[dgk196]

Should air interdiction be included in the game?

If so, how would it work? What would you consider an air interdiction event to look like in the game?

Dennis

[Arkady]

no, out of game scope

you command individual army platoons...air superiority is not your job within scenario time frame...scenario author should reflect strategic situation with other settings (ammo level, air support etc)

[countblue]

I always thought we have it already.

When I set an airstrike with a fighter aircraft and the enemy sends out either bombers or fighters we will have an air interdiction fight. (I thought) [&:]

I thought I witnessed this once in a game, but maybe memory doesnt sserve me right in that case.

[dgk196]

I'd like to see it. Aircraft should be assigned to this mission type at the start of the game, or have been so designated in the scenario.
Aircraft operating in this mode should operate independently from ground units. The aircraft should be given a target priority, vehicles, guns, other, type choices to reflect the armament that they would be carrying. The area of interdiction should be defined. The aircraft are on station patrolling an area looking for targets. Either the delay or probability of attacking targets should be inversely proportional to the area of interdiction they have been assigned. That is to say, if you have designated a small area for interdiction the more likely it should be that attacks will occur and with less delay, or even in the same turn! By the way, aircraft such as these where sometimes stationed very close behind the front line, some even flew multiple missions within one hour. We used to call this 'hot' rearm and refuel. What made it 'hot' was the engines where still 'turning'! A dangerous undertaking, but do-able!

You would have to make this conditional depending on the army in question and the era of the war that the scenario is being played in. Some forces developed early and some took quite some time to get it! Interdiction also does not have to be against units. These missions where also flown against bridges and so on. Though not a patrol type situation, the act of destroying or damaging a bridge has the effect of interdicting the enemies ability to bring up reinforcements. This, most likely, would probably be for use in the longer scenarios!

Dennis [:)] 

[auHobbes37]

No. Scale is too small for interdiction.

[auHobbes37]

again the scale is too small... the air interdiction is handled abstractly (well more abstractly than the rest of the game) by the reinforcement %'s.... the Germans and Japanese have relatively lower chances of receiving reinforcements on the appointed times in 44 and 45 because of interdiction...

[dgk196]

I guess that air interdiction can occur at distances close to the 'front lines' or a distances more in a 'rear area'. In 'game terms' interdiction missions would be those of aircraft attacking enemy ground units just out of visual range of the supported ground forces to area's several kilometers behind the front lines. Its not so much the distance as the situation of there being targets just beyond the field of view of the supported ground units.

If you can find a copy, get a hold of 'HS 129 Panzerjaeger!, by Martin Pegg'. It has very detailed accounts of the operations flown by the SG's that used the aircraft. It is an enlightening book and one that gives information and situations that could be used in a game at this level.

What is interesting is the deployment and employment of the SG's during the Kursk battle in particular. Accounts of target sightings by aircraft in the air and / or returning to base, calling for additional attacks. The organization and cooperation measures with the SS PzGrd Divisions they where assigned to support and accounts of the actual missions flown on a daily basis. It also gives a look into the communication procedures used by the air units and the ground units which they supported. During one attack, their mission was changed while they where on the way to the target from direct support to that of interdiction of an advancing Russian armored column just a few kilometers behind enemy lines. The order by the way was sent by a Ju 52 'communications aircraft' which was coordinating and designating the targets and which units would be assigned to the attack. That's right gentlemen 'AWACS' without the radar in 1943!

Anyway I'd just like to see more detailed aerial missions, but they can always be made as an optional inclusion by the users, therby not requiring any to use them, like fire by map. No harm, no foul!?[;)]

Dennis [:)]