Air ASW Works!

[Sid]

I have seen it written in this forum, and heard from other members of Metro Seattle Gamers, that they have never seen air ASW work. But it does work. Not only that, but the game credits the pilot individually! Recommendation: if you want Air ASW to work well, be sure to patrol at low altitude! In WWII, the main way it worked was visual. From over a mile in the sky, you cannot see a submerged submarine! From 1,000 feet, you can, in many light conditions. Also, I assume it works better with radar equipped planes, available later in the war.

[AlvinS]

Thats good to know. I'm still fishing. Does it show the attack as it occurs or do you just get it in the battle report?

[Sid]

The battle was a standard sub vs surface ship battle. But during the battle the sub was shown as sunk and at the end "Ltjg Kono" [I don't remember the name so I picked a Japanese surname] "has been credited with a submarine kill." Actually, the wording was slightly different - but that is the gist.

[daft]

Originally posted by Sid
The battle was a standard sub vs surface ship battle. But during the battle the sub was shown as sunk and at the end "Ltjg Kono" [I don't remember the name so I picked a Japanese surname] "has been credited with a submarine kill." Actually, the wording was slightly different - but that is the gist.

Are you sure that it didn't say "Ltjg Kono credited with kill number xx"?? Because if it did I'm fairly certain that it is a glitch in the game and that the message has nothing to do with the battle you watched. It seems to pop up from time to time in the After Action reports even if there were no a/c participating.


~Henric Edwards

[Hartmann]

I also wonder whether flying very low should not rather decrease chances of actually finding a sub. Don't you trade too much scope for the gain of accurracy in your field of vision?
I mean if you fly directly over the surface, you will not miss any subs below you, but then again, you will cover a much smaller area in your search.

Hartmann

[von Murrin]

Currently, the exact opposite is the case. Flying low gets you better intelligence, but exposes your a/c to more damaging and probable retaliation.

[Avenger]

Do you have any specific plane recommendations for ASW? I tried some level bombers at 1000 feet with no luck. Numeo is surrounded by those Jap subs. (Of course, fighter planes and fighter/bombers seem a natural for ASW. Next time I load the game I'll give Airacobras a try.) What were you using when it worked?

--Avenger

[Supervisor]

Fighters & fighter-bombers don't have ASW mission (and transport planes, of course ). Other than that, who can say? I'm still playing with the altitudes to see what I get. I did get B-17's to see and (from what I understand) attack subs from 3000 feet, and many sightings/attacks from 1000 feet with medium bombers, but no hits so far. All that I have gotten is "Ship sighted" or "Sub sighted" and such-like messages. A few times the sub was identified by name.

I have been hit from the air, but it was by Vals. All I got at that point was the scrolling message saying something like ":::::Vals hit submarine S-xx" (it's been a few days since that happened, so that is an extreme paraphrase :p ). No record of it showed up in the combat report, but the sub did show up as damaged at the beginning of the next turn.

FYI