Fighter Sweeps

[Zeta16]

For all the games I have played I still don't get how this works. How can I shoot up planes on the ground with fighters. I tried 100 feet and nothing happened. Any help please.

[rogueusmc]

Fighter sweeps are to draw fighters off the ground and shoot 'em up. This is usually a pre-runner to your other air attacks.

[pasternakski]

This is one of the weakest UV design elements. After trying this and trying that, I would prefer that the whole "fighter sweep" idea be swept into the sh1tcan.

[Zeta16]

So there is no way for fighters to kill planes on the ground. But didn't this happen a lot in the war?

[rogueusmc]

It doesn't work as well in the game as it did in the war. In the game, it's intended to take out CAP prior to bombing missions.

In the war, those Corsairs with those six .50's could punch serious holes in planes and anything else on the ground. They might not destroy them but they will need patching up.

[pasternakski]

ORIGINAL: rogueusmc
In the war, those Corsairs with those six .50's could punch serious holes in planes and anything else on the ground. They might not destroy them but they will need patching up.

Be careful talking out here about how good those six .50s were. Many posters state matter-of-factly that just about anything the Japanese had, including 5 mm mango-saki cocktails, were so superior that tens of thousands of Allied aircraft losses have been hidden, and history neglects to note the surrender of American arms to the triumphant Japanese in Chesapeake (now known as Tokyo-II) Bay.

[DoomedMantis]

If you send fighters in as escorts at 100 ft, they will strafe planes on the ground as part of a bombing mission

[DoomedMantis]

Fighter sweeps in UV are designed to draw off the CAP, not to destroy aircraft on the ground. I tend to send my fighters on sweeps at fairly high alts to try to bring the CAP up to them

[Fallschirmjager]

Ground strafing worked well in 12 O' Clock High What happened?

[afspret]

I'm in scen 17 and playing against the AI as the Allies and recently ran three days worth of fighter sweeps against the Shortlands and had a field day with destroying Jap aircraft on the ground. I sent in 1 USN F4F Sqdrn, 2 USMC F4U Sqdrns, 1 AAF P-39 Sqdrn, 2 AAF P-38 Sqdrns and 2 RNZAF P-40 Sqdrns at 100 ft (with 0 CAP level). Of course I was only able to achieve this after repeatedly pounding the airfields until the damage level was at 100. At the same time I had almost no success with sweeps of 6 AAF P-38 Sqdrns at Rabaul, whose airfield damage was only at 35.

[crsutton]

Send P39s, beaufighters, A20s and B25Js in at 100 feet with fighters as top cover. Its a death cocktail. If there are planes there, you will kill lots. But be advised, it the base is healthy and has lots of AA, you are going to get shot up as well. Best to soften it up with high altitude bombers first.