Land Base Strikes

[adarbrauner]

I can't have the land based aircraft ordered to perform strikes (only from the embarked aircraft), and it seems that they are ordered by the AIm only, which is super inefficient (i.e., does not send any strike, while the enemy AI is much more efficient in sending strike against me, it seems)

[thedoctorking]

Yes, in this game you can't control the actions of your land-based air in the same way you can your carriers. This is kind of an odd design decision, given that you are portraying the admiral commanding the navy, and in most navies the land-based naval air is part of the navy and in their chain of command. I guess an exception would be Russia, with Fleet Air Armies being part of VVS, and Germany, with the Luftwaffe controlling all air power during WW2 - in WW1 and after 1952, Germany's naval air arm was/is a part of the navy, but for all the other countries portrayed in the game, naval aviation was/is part of the navy (US naval aviation, British Fleet Air Arm, French Naval Aviation, Japanese IJN air fleets, Italy Aviazione Navale).

I don't think the enemy's land-based air does much either, honestly. Still it would be a nice feature to be able to control land-based air in the same way you control carrier air. Especially since you have to pay for it out of your budget...

[adarbrauner]

Unfortunately, the enemy AI is doing much better, it is capable of sending air strikes from land bases, which I can't have my AI doing, I'd like to know why...

[thedoctorking]

Your guys are going to go out and attack, eventually. Unfortunately, often the attacks are pretty foolish in terms of striking well-defended forces with bombers alone, attacking crippled ships, etcetera. But land based air does attack in this game, it's just a totally random process.

One thing that might be happening is that you don't have enough of or the right types of planes. Have you been keeping up on developing new plane types and keeping your bases stocked with planes?

[adarbrauner]

Thank you for the answer,

yes, bases are flush with many up to date types, they attack sometimes, but the ratio is in the order of 6 to 1, in comparison to the AI attacks

[Pratapon51]

One thing that afflicts LBA effectiveness is that land bases will only order strikes on ships they (!) and only they have spotted. Floatplane or carrier scout spots enemy? Nope, doesn't count!

[Skyros]

The Italian Navy did not have an air arm and constantly struggled with the air force to get timely missions that did not attack its own ships.

[thedoctorking]

In WW2. The air force got control of all fixed-wing assets in 1937 and had to give it back to the navy in 1950. Similar to the Germans. Maybe fascist governments should have a harder time launching naval air strikes from land bases?

[adarbrauner]

The point is that in the manual is expressly written that you can order strikes from land-based as well.

I may well understand that in subsequent patches this has been disabled to reduce the human advatage on the AI, but if so,
I'd expect that my AI would be good enough to produce some strikes...I mean, i think I saw two air strikes only from my side over 3 or 4 wars, while I suffered a good number of them from the AI opponent...

[adarbrauner]

One thing that afflicts LBA effectiveness is that land bases will only order strikes on ships they (!) and only they have spotted. Floatplane or carrier scout spots enemy? Nope, doesn't count!

I suspected this....