fighter (interceptor, escort, fighter bomber) escort

[jjdenver]

One player has mentioned to me that he thinks fighters don't automatically escort when you fly bombers. Instead he thinks you have to fly "air superiority" missions (ground strikes with your fighters) to draw out enemey interceptors and battle them then fly your bombers later. Is this accurate? Or do fighters escort any bomber that executes a ground or naval strike within range?

[Journier]

Fighters will escort bombers any time I thought they had operation points left. But far more effective to run air superiority mission with 2 fighters one escorting the other first then do bombing mission.

Just make sure the fighters have range to escort

[AlvaroSousa]

That's called a fighter sweep

[Michael T]

That's called a fighter sweep

This is a problem with the game ATM. As it makes putting fighters in intercept mode suicidal.

I think if the attacker does a fighter sweep then the defender should be able to intercept such missions with 2 fighters.

[AlvaroSousa]

I'll review it. Might add something in there about fight flying as a bomber.

[gwgardner]

ORIGINAL: Alvaro Sousa

I'll review it. Might add something in there about fight flying as a bomber.

Huh?

I don't see why any change is necessary. What's wrong with doing fighter sweeps? Fighters take damage too, I mean the ones doing the sweeps. If a player is contending with the fighter sweep tactic, then more interceptors are needed. Or more AA.

I don't like to see rules changes just because a player uses a particular tactic. Instead, let the opposing player find a way to counteract it. Or program the AI to handle such tactics, ie not always committing its interceptors against opposing fighter sweeps, ie saving some action points for actually intercepting bombers.

[Michael T]

This problem has been reported by a few people. The Attacker can mission a fighter to bomb. He also allocates Escorts. So 2 fighters flying. The defenders only intercept with 1 fighter.

So effectively its 2 v 1.

It means the defenders always get whipped and it makes putting fighters in intercept mode a dumb idea. It needs a fix.

[Journier]

how you counteract the fighter sweep is to turn your fighters off full support after your turn is over, let the enemy do his damage and hope it was worth the saved production in saved fighter damage and the possible loss of control of the land battle.

Sometimes fighter sweeps hurt severely, but in reality they hurt in a lot of games. but its the cost of doing business,

In war in the pacific you can set up fighter sweeps that sometimes run into heavy enemy resistance and get severely mauled and sometimes they severely maul the enemy. IDK

[Michael T]

Yes but turning fighters off defeats the purpose of interceptors.

[PanzerMike]

Maybe let the friendly AI make a judgment call on how many interceptors should be used to counter any air attack, based on the odds. Much like land battles.

If the enemy player attacks during his turn,the friendly AI checks what interceptors are in range and in support mode. Based on that and the odds it activates 1 or more fighters to intercept.

In land battles you also Ctrl click to select multiple land units if a lone unit would not cut it. Let the friendly AI do the same for air units.

Just my 2 cents

[jjdenver]

ah, i didn't realize it became 2 v 1 if a figher escorts a fighter. in this case only one fighter should "fight" imo - otherwise it's too gamey.

[pzgndr]

Bombers, fighter-bombers, and fighters on bombing missions should all defend against interceptors at a disadvantage. This after any escort combat versus interceptors. Then surviving interceptors fight the bombers. Certainly the fighter-bombers and fighters on bombing missions should not be using their fighter attack values. If that's the case, then that's the problem. Otherwise, this appears to be a fair tactic for players to consider.

[AlbertN]

Main problem though is that atm some bombers are so beefed up that shank fighters on their own.

But I do agree the fighter vs 2 fighters is unfair. Albeit that requires quite some overhaul and rethinking in general as Axis is the air underdog since the start unless they doubledip (and that works only against players that do not know of that)

[Jim D Burns]

Any fighter that flies as a bomber should halve its air to air value (rounded down). The vast majority of the mission time would be with the airframe weighed down by bombs, thus it is far less maneuverable. Most intercepts occurred vs. inbound bombing flights.

Outgoing return flights were attacked but far less frequently than inbound flights as stopping the bombing was the goal of the interceptors, so assuming all bombers are loaded with bombs in the fighting is a reasonable abstraction I think.

Jim

[AlbertN]

Halving makes fighters going as bombers worse than bombers when defending themselves - which is a nonsense.
And makes fighter-bomber even more redundant.

Fighter-Bomber should be a bomber spec I feel (that can also intervene in ground support). That is probably workable with mods though!

[LiquidSky]

Unescorted bombers should use their combat rating in air-air combat...otherwise use the escorting fighters rating.

[battlevonwar]

I have used Fighters/Interceptors extensively. Escorts are sometimes rare to get due to range issues. I find that Bombers take care of themselves.

They could use a buff to the power against Bombers of all kinds... Just an opinion...