Is air defense for ships broken?

[elmo3]

Playing the Norway scenario in multiplayer mode. My British ships are getting pounded by JU-88's every turn and not once have they fired any anti-air that I can tell. They all have pretty decent air defense values. After several turns we have not destroyed even one factor of bombers. Am I missing something or is there a chance air defense for ships is broken?

[elmo3]

Played another turn in our game where my ships were bombed by Ju-88's and did not return fire.

[KerenskyLI]

The only units who respond to level bomber attacks are Air Defense units.  Infantry, tanks, or even ships with air attack values are considered to be out of range to shoot high flying level bombers.

[elmo3]

OK thanks.

[AceDuceTrey]

This is not an accurate representation of medium and heavy "level" bombers attacking ships. Although high altitude bombing by B-17s and B-24s were attempted right up to the Battle For Midway (May '42) they proved totally unsuccesful. However, it was these very same type bombers that won the Battle for the Atlantic attacking merchant shiping and submarines with salvos of torpedoes and depth charges AT LOW to VERY LOW altitudes (rather than "string" bombing). Late in the war in the Pacific, newer BBs were used almost exclusively to provide AA PROTECTION to the Aircraft Carriers. The most formidable AA weapon was the Iowa Class BB with 20 X 5"/38 (Dual Purpose) heavy "FlaK". The Japs used 5"/40s and the Germans 5.5". Naval heavy AA hit much harded and was more lethal than Army AA. A way to resolve this would be to give "level" Bombers dual modes ala heavy AA. Normally they would act as currently simulated but with no/1 naval attack value. But in their "low altitude" mode they would have a formidable naval attck but a significantly reduced "ground" defense. Of course, all ships would alwas use their AA againt all attacks.

[elmo3]

I think the level bombers are overpowered right now attacking ships, especially as they are invulnerable to return fire. Both my opponent and I noticed this in the Norway scenario. Not sure if it is even an issue in very many other historical scenarios.

[AceDuceTrey]

This is what I did to fix this in the equipment file: I duplicated all the strategic bombers as "Class 8" (vice 9) tactical bombers and reduced their "ground" Defense by half. I then changed all the strategic bombers listed as class 9 to have a naval attack value of 1.