ALT impact on air combats

[mssm45]

We noticed that the ALT has a big impact of dogfights results ... fighters flying outside of their best ALT are taking more damages.

So instead of doing auto-intercept, it's best to do an AS and use the most effective fighter ALT is the AS AD.

But now we noticed that bombers flying much lower compared to the enemy fighters could "evade" the interception.

Below is an example.

Is this a correct interpretation of the low interception effectiveness?

[bomccarthy]

Yes - the Spitfires were patrolling 10,000 ft above the German bombers, which likely inhibited the British pilots' ability to even spot the bombers.

AS directives are usually offensive sweep missions aimed at destroying enemy fighters. However, they can be effective as defensive combat air patrols if you are careful about the altitude setting. Since Axis bombers are generally going to fly at lower altitudes, AS directives intended as defense should probably be flown at 15,000 ft or less. Allied offensive AS directives involving high altitude fighters work best at 25,000 ft or higher, drawing intercepting Axis fighters above their best altitude.

If you have enough available air directives and want to thoroughly defend some piece of airspace, such as over an invasion beachhead, you might want consider multiple AS directives: low altitude fighters (Spitfire LF IX, Spitfire XII, or even P-38) at 10,000 ft to catch Axis fighter bombers and high altitude fighters at 15-20,000 ft to catch Axis fighters trying to impose their own AS directive.

[mssm45]

Very interesting thanks.

This situation came as a surprise as earlier in the game we had dogfights between a German AS flying at 21k and US AS with Airacobra flying at 9K ... and they spotted each other.

[Denniss]

may also depend on weather as clouds may obscure/hide them from each other. The larger the alt diff the higher the change they aren't spotted unless their exhaust gases provide a widely visible trail

[mssm45]

Would you have more details (formula?) about how the detection check is made by the game?

[Denniss]

no idea

[Laits]

ORIGINAL: bomccarthy

Yes - the Spitfires were patrolling 10,000 ft above the German bombers, which likely inhibited the British pilots' ability to even spot the bombers.

AS directives are usually offensive sweep missions aimed at destroying enemy fighters. However, they can be effective as defensive combat air patrols if you are careful about the altitude setting. Since Axis bombers are generally going to fly at lower altitudes, AS directives intended as defense should probably be flown at 15,000 ft or less. Allied offensive AS directives involving high altitude fighters work best at 25,000 ft or higher, drawing intercepting Axis fighters above their best altitude.

If you have enough available air directives and want to thoroughly defend some piece of airspace, such as over an invasion beachhead, you might want consider multiple AS directives: low altitude fighters (Spitfire LF IX, Spitfire XII, or even P-38) at 10,000 ft to catch Axis fighter bombers and high altitude fighters at 15-20,000 ft to catch Axis fighters trying to impose their own AS directive.

Very interesting post. Thank.
Can you tell me where I can find this "aircraft best altitude" ?

[loki100]

look in the editor, you can export these values from there.

each plane has a graph that shows its ideal altitude

[Laits]

Thank you!!