Can anyone explain the benefit of CAP?

[Paul2]

Have been playing Second Front, then WIR a long time now. But embarrasingly I still don't know what the benefit of CAP is. When I have my fighters in the West/ Italian/ OKW/ OKH set to Escort they seem to protect my cities OK. Should I have some, or all, set to CAP (and what does it stand for!?)

[RickyB]

Originally posted by Paul2
Have been playing Second Front, then WIR a long time now. But embarrasingly I still don't know what the benefit of CAP is. When I have my fighters in the West/ Italian/ OKW/ OKH set to Escort they seem to protect my cities OK. Should I have some, or all, set to CAP (and what does it stand for!?)

CAP is combat air patrol. Technically, CAP should allow more of the defensive fighters to intercept attackers, but I am not sure it works this way. I know at times there have been versions where the escort setting got more interceptors in the air which made no sense and has been fixed to provide at least equal numbers. Outside of numbers of planes that may fly, fighters on escort will go with bombers that fly defensive bombing missions within range, no matter what, while on CAP the fighters only fly if enemy fighters fly in the same combat. In your turn, only escorts will fly.

[Svar]

Originally posted by Paul2
Have been playing Second Front, then WIR a long time now. But embarrasingly I still don't know what the benefit of CAP is. When I have my fighters in the West/ Italian/ OKW/ OKH set to Escort they seem to protect my cities OK. Should I have some, or all, set to CAP (and what does it stand for!?)

When defending the homeland, Fighter groups on CAP can put up as much as 100% of the ready A/C but on Escort can only put up as much as 80% of the ready A/C.

One problem with CAP in the German homeland was a bug that could roll over when 100% Cap fighters were put up and they exceeded 200 A/C. The game would subtract 200 from the total and only 2 to 9 A/C would actually intercept. This is supposed to be fixed but old Second Front and early WIR players got in the habit of putting homeland defense fighters on Escort instead of CAP to avoid this.

You will not always get 80% of ready A/C to intercept on Escort, sometimes you will get 40% or 20%. On CAP you could get 100%, 50%, or 25%.

If you feel that the CAP problem is fixed use it as more A/C will intercept.

I really don't know , I haven't played in over a year.

[Josans]

Originally posted by Svar
When defending the homeland, Fighter groups on CAP can put up as much as 100% of the ready A/C but on Escort can only put up as much as 80% of the ready A/C.

One problem with CAP in the German homeland was a bug that could roll over when 100% Cap fighters were put up and they exceeded 200 A/C. The game would subtract 200 from the total and only 2 to 9 A/C would actually intercept. This is supposed to be fixed but old Second Front and early WIR players got in the habit of putting homeland defense fighters on Escort instead of CAP to avoid this.

You will not always get 80% of ready A/C to intercept on Escort, sometimes you will get 40% or 20%. On CAP you could get 100%, 50%, or 25%.

If you feel that the CAP problem is fixed use it as more A/C will intercept.

I really don't know , I haven't played in over a year.

I dont know why but always I set my fighters on escort mode in my turn and CAP in the opponent turn;)

[MikeB]

My understanding is that CAP will fly in enemy turn over units that are directly related to that HQ. Range is also critical...but if your corps is NOT connected to an HQ "with" air...tough luck, no air defence(other than Flak).

Escorts assist your bombers to get through the enemy cap to actually do the bomb run. Unescorted bombers are often dog meat otherwise and fail to do any bombing at all.

After doing interdictions, airfield attacks, and strategic bombing...one can usually re-assign escorts to cap. One might also consider air transferring those committed bombers out and moving fresh ones in on Ground support.

Cheers.

[RickyB]

Actually, I just ran a test and fighter units on CAP will intercept any bombers attacking within 7 hexes of the fighters. They don't care who they are supporting. This can be a blessing and a curse, depending on the situation.

[MikeB]

...Cap of Bucharest is different from Cap of Italy ?
ie. air units on cap in Italian HQ near Triest? east top of Italian peninsula.

Bombing of Bucharest...but Italian CAP did not react.
I then put a Rumanian HQ beside Bucharest with CAP. This ties up a supply HQ defending Bucharest with a separate HQ.

Africa HQ ...located in Italy(for convenience sake), should its CAP be able to protect Italian factories from bombardment?

[RickyB]

Originally posted by MikeB
...Cap of Bucharest is different from Cap of Italy ?
ie. air units on cap in Italian HQ near Triest? east top of Italian peninsula.

Bombing of Bucharest...but Italian CAP did not react.
I then put a Rumanian HQ beside Bucharest with CAP. This ties up a supply HQ defending Bucharest with a separate HQ.

Africa HQ ...located in Italy(for convenience sake), should its CAP be able to protect Italian factories from bombardment?

Mike,

Bucharest is a defending fighter range issue. The German HQs OKW, OKH, West Front and Italian front all get special treatment for intercepting (double the fighter range maybe???), but there is still not enough range to cover Bucharest. It requires the use of another HQ to defend that area.

[Denniss]

Italian front should be able to cover all Italian cities with production except Taranto - out of range
You might need Me110 to defend this city - maybe they help with Bucharest too

[Svar]

Originally posted by RickyB
Mike,

Bucharest is a defending fighter range issue. The German HQs OKW, OKH, West Front and Italian front all get special treatment for intercepting (double the fighter range maybe???), but there is still not enough range to cover Bucharest. It requires the use of another HQ to defend that area.

The special range for those HQs is 20 hexes but there is an eastern limit and Bucharest is outside that limit.

[RickyB]

Hey Svar,

Good to see you back some anyway. In the orignal, the range of the special HQs was 20 I think, but I believe that was something Arnaud changed to use the actual plane range, modified. I don't have the various readme's to check right now, but if I remember, I will try to dig through it all and see what he did exactly.

[Svar]

Originally posted by RickyB
Hey Svar,

Good to see you back some anyway. In the orignal, the range of the special HQs was 20 I think, but I believe that was something Arnaud changed to use the actual plane range, modified. I don't have the various readme's to check right now, but if I remember, I will try to dig through it all and see what he did exactly.

Hi Ricky,

If Arnaud changed the range did he also unfreeze the special HQs because it was the 20 hex range that caused him to freeze them in the first place. It would be nice if the player could move those HQs because the intercept range of fighters from those HQs effect the number of fighters that engage the USAAF. The player could position them better to provide better intercepter coverage over Germany.

[RickyB]

Originally posted by Svar
Hi Ricky,

If Arnaud changed the range did he also unfreeze the special HQs because it was the 20 hex range that caused him to freeze them in the first place. It would be nice if the player could move those HQs because the intercept range of fighters from those HQs effect the number of fighters that engage the USAAF. The player could position them better to provide better intercepter coverage over Germany.

I don't know. I thought he froze them so that people could not move them around as mobile air defense bases near the front lines. The fixed 20 hexes was limited in the original to a certain range of hexes I think, so moving a special HQ to the front provided no extra benefit. Either way, I hope I can find the answer in a message or readme or something, although it can probably be tested too.