Large Caliber AA Guns

[MonsterZero]

Air strikes lanuched on my troops really piss me and I like to protect my butt with at least two AA platoons placed in a position where they can repell an air assault.

I have been using small caliber (like .50cal and 20mm) guns that rely on rate of fire rather than punch but I would like to try 75mm and 88mm (and similar calibres) AA guns as well.

I'm not sure what to expect of them in terms of performance though and it's really hard to test them because when playing agains AI an air strike will be launched against you only once in a while.

A few questions:

1) What is the rate of fire of the big AA guns? How many times, on average, can they fire against and incomming aircraft?
2) Are they capable of actually hitting the aircraft with reasonable consistency?
3) Do they feature HE splash damage (as large caliber AA should) that cause damage even without direct hits?

[VikingNo2]

The rates of fire are pretty slow, no I don't believe they cause any splash damage. My try mixing them with the small AA guns you will get better results IMO

[plloyd]

They usually seem to shoot once, rarely twice. They hit about as often, per shot, as MGs and autocannon. When thy hit a plane, it goes down. The only splash damage is from when the plane crashes. Personaly, I would stick with autocannon.

[KG Erwin]

In my games against the Japanese, I do occassionally get blasted by a couple of fighter-bombers, but it is rare. I started buying a .30 cal AAMG Jeep to help protect my HQ, and the light Stuart tanks also have AAMGs. If you're playing as the Germans in a long campaign, by 1943-44 AA protection is a must. It's a process of trial and error, depending on your tactics. By 1944, you fully understand why the Germans chose a bad weather period to launch the Bulge offensive.

As for larger-caliber AA, the US/USMC has those 37 & 40mm Bofors-type guns, which are also useful against ground targets. Personally, I would lean towards upgrading to some of these auto-cannon during the course of a campaign. Same goes for the Germans--the FlakVierlings are a good choice.

Air power is very powerful in this game, and rightfully so. The maddening part is, you never know when the planes may show up. This is realistic as it adds to the tension and uncertainty--depending on who you are playing as, clear skies can mean either "help is on the way" or "death from above may be coming".

[Bladrian]

I find it weird that the large-caliber AA guns are even featured as anti-air weapons in SP. Those guns used fuzed shells to fire at aircraft way, waaayyy up there - like over 15,000 feet up there. They just have no place in a game where the attacking aircraft are low-level strike aircraft.

I ignore them totally - 40mm are the biggest AA assets I buy.

[MonsterZero]

For the purpose of similar questions in the future the rule of thumb is "whatever makes sense in real life makes sense in Steel Panthers".

I tested those large 75mm anti-aircraft guns against P-39 Airacobra air attacks and decided they won't do the job. The rate of fire is too low as it would be in real life-the crews just can't reload such a big gun quickly enough and can't track a low-level fighter with such a massive weapon in the few seconds of time available.

I guess if you are really desperate for a dual purpose weapon against both heavy tanks and aircraft you can get a limited number (one platoon) of big AA guns, otherwise you're wasting time and slots that could be filled by more productive units.

[Marten]

For me they are useful as a multirole weapon: excelent against tanks, very good against infantry and not so useful against planes (but still one hit - one kill AA weapon). Put them in ambush positions in places where your main forces are nonexistant and maybe they'll score a few enemies.

[Danny Boy]

I think the original idea of the 88's etc was as a 'stand off' AA gun, ie, they open fire as soon as the enemy planes enter the map (LOS permitting), working on the basis that the planes would be fired on in real life before they started their strafing runs. Although it has to be said that I find it hard to believe that 88's would ever have been used for anti fighter/LL bombers as I think someone already said the ceiling was way higher!

I agree with the auto cannon, supplemented by a healthy supply of AA machine guns (well you never know!)

What we mustn't lose sight of is the fact that what we have now as a 'simulation' is a far more realistic adaptation of the original 'game'. Not wishing to knock the original, but sooooo much more thinking and research has gone into this latest version...we generally expect more and more realism now!

Cheers!

If you ever want to play test, don't always use the AI, try playing both sides yourself!