The air war

[vinnie71]

How will it work?

I've seen counters which seem to represent airforces on the ground. How will these interact with ground attacks etc?

Will there be withrawals of aircraft to defend the Reich from Western air offensives?

Can a player overrun and possibly destroy/capture enemy air assets?

tnx in advance

[elmo3]

ORIGINAL: Offworlder

How will it work?

Some of the missions that can be flown include recon; bombing of cities, airfields, or ground units; air transport of supplies, fuel, or units; airdrops; and maybe some more I've probably forgotten offhand. Enemy air units can intercept your missions (handled by the AI). You have an air doctrine screen where you can set the minimum % of ready aircraft required for an air unit to participate in a mission or interception. Weather can impact air operations.

Note that there are many more details here, some of which are still a work in progress.

I've seen counters which seem to represent airforces on the ground. How will these interact with ground attacks etc?

Air bases are indeed represented on the map and air units are assigned to them. If a combat unit moves next to an air base it can possibly capture supply and/or fuel and possibly destroy aircraft on the ground. The air base will displace some distance after that.

Will there be withrawals of aircraft to defend the Reich from Western air offensives?

I'll leave unit withdrawals for one of the OOB guys.

Can a player overrun and possibly destroy/capture enemy air assets?

tnx in advance

See my answer above. Hope this helps and remember we're still in alpha so things may change as we move forward.

[Helpless]

Will there be withrawals of aircraft to defend the Reich from Western air offensives?

yes

[vinnie71]

Will there be named or numbered squadrons or wings of aircraft or generic numbers? And can these be upgraded with newer or better machines?

[Helpless]

Will there be named or numbered squadrons or wings of aircraft or generic numbers? And can these be upgraded with newer or better machines?

We try to make them historical as much as possible. It is not always easy with tons of Soviet air regiments.

Airgroups can be upgraded to better (or more available) aircrafts.

[vinnie71]

Why don't you go with air divisions on the Sovier side? If I'm not wrong those tended to stay pretty much constant though numbers tended to fluctuate (especially initially).

[Helpless]

If I'm not wrong those tended to stay pretty much constant though numbers tended to fluctuate (especially initially).

Not exactly correct. The problem that airgroup can't handle more then single type of plane and divisions were far from being uniform. Even making a regiment uniform is an approximation.

[vinnie71]

True enough. Most divisions were made up of fighters and ground attack aircraft in different regiments.

Will lend lease aircraft feature in game? (Hurricane IICs and Aircobras come to mind).

So airbases may actually accomodate multiple wings as well? Can we have a screenie, pleaaaaaase?[:)]

[elmo3]

Here you go.  The air units with 9999 miles flown were just added to the airbase this turn so they can't be used on missions yet.  As of now you can have up to 9 air units attached to an airbase.

[vinnie71]

Tnx but the screenie isn't showing for some reason...[:)]

[Iron Duke]

ORIGINAL: elmo3

Here you go.  The air units with 9999 miles flown were just added to the airbase this turn so they can't be used on missions yet.  As of now you can have up to 9 air units attached to an airbase.

Can you 'click' on the individual air units to access their stats i.e exp,rdy,dam,fat etc. ?

Is there any artwork for the individual aircraft ?

Is the French Group de Chasse in the soviet air OOB ?

[Helpless]

Can you 'click' on the individual air units to access their stats i.e exp,rdy,dam,fat etc. ?

Yep.

Is there any artwork for the individual aircraft ?

AFAIK, there will. Marc can tell more.

Is the French Group de Chasse in the soviet air OOB ?

I was thinking to add Normandie-Niemen squadron, but usually Soviet air groups are of regiment size.

[Iron Duke]

ORIGINAL: Helpless

I was thinking to add Normandie-Niemen squadron, but usually Soviet air groups are of regiment size.

The source i'm using 'French Eagles Soviet Heroes' by J.D.Clarke--

Has them starting out as 2x Escadille's (Squadrons) and increasing to 4x Escadrilles during their time in Russia --approx 40 a/c
In July 1943 they became the 1st Fighter Air Regiment Normandie
Would be nice if they could make it into the OOB [;)]

[vinnie71]

Ok this may seem a strange question but, do these air bases handle a whole airgroup? IE will airwings, divisions, corps etc exist in-game? Or are they abstracted in these air bases?

[jaw]

ORIGINAL: Offworlder

Ok this may seem a strange question but, do these air bases handle a whole airgroup? IE will airwings, divisions, corps etc exist in-game? Or are they abstracted in these air bases?

The air bases contain individual units of aircraft, usually around 40 planes or so per unit maximum, and up to 9 such units per base. Although they have historical names these air units are not organizationally tied to each other and may be mixed and matched at will.

[notenome]

Will it be possible to bomb bridges or railways? IIRC this was done during the opening weeks of barbarrossa and to a lesser extent latter on. Also, and this is OT, but to save me from making another post, how is Rail artillery being handled in the game?

[paullus99]

I believe it has been posted before, but if you are talking about the large German rail artillery guns - they aren't included on this level of play.