Advice on how to assign escorts for air strike units

[DWReese]

I could use a little advice from the experts who have already dealt with this type of combat issue.

I have set up an air attack with my planes already in the air and heading toward their targets. The strike works fine. Now the planes are returning to their bases and I want to set up a situation where they get bounced by enemy air units. I have managed to "randomly transport" some enemy air attackers (not many) into the area, and they are then assigned to set up in a patrol area. They have all been assigned to a AAW mission. That all works fine. They do successfully attack. No problems here.

My problem is that I did not assign any escorts to my strikers. For what it is worth, all of the strikers are armed with advanced ATA weapons, so I really didn't think that I would need to do that. Since they have expended their strike ordinance, they are now in route home when the enemy planes arrive.

In my playing, the enemy has had a field day shooting at the returning strikers, all of which (for some reason) refuse to shoot at the enemy, regardless of the fact that they are armed with long-ranged ATA missiles, and have the ability to do so. I am not saying that there is anything wrong. I would like to know what settings I can assign to my planes which are already heading home to make them fight back?

On a separate note, I also noticed that you can assign escorts to a each strike group. I have never done that, either. Do the escorts just stay with the group until it delivers its strike ordinance, and then they all fly home together? If so, then maybe that solves my problem. Or, do they break up and fly back on their own once the ground ordinance has been delivered? If so, do they still perform escort duties on the way home? I'm not sure if that would work unless I can add them to the group while it is already in the air and has already delivered their ground ordinance.

Lastly, in practice, I manually placed some "escort units" flying along with the group as it headed home, just to see what would happen. I only gave them movement orders, no mission. They flew and did not engage on their own. I manually made them shoot, and they did so without any problem.

So, the game works fine, I just would like to know what would be the easiest method to assign some units as escorts while the group is already flying back to its base, (or before , if necessary) so that they will shoot back at the enemy when they are being attacked.

Just point me in the right direction, and I'll do the rest. What boxes do I need to check? <G>

Thanks.

Doug

[Rory Noonan]

Could be a few things; first on my list would be WRA for the long range AAMs on your strikers. Also look at 'self defence' range.

Beyond that you could check RoE for air targets is free or tight depending on your scen.

It could be something as simple as the enemy not crossing your strikers field of fire, while they're assigned a plotted course or on RTB.

If you're still having problems post up a save and I'll have a look.