Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: Mad Russian

When the scenario is over would you check to see what experience level they are?

As in real life, the experience level of the pilot makes a difference in PCO.

Good Hunting.

MR

8.1. AIR STRIKES
Some scenarios may allow you to purchase one or more ground-attack planes for air support.
These planes are not under your control, but they’ve been assigned to your section of the
battle to support as they can. If purchased, they will arrive over the battlefield at a random
turn, weighted towards the beginning. When the air strike will arrive and what the planes will
attack is based on a number of factors. The experience of the pilot determines entry phase,
accuracy of fire, and how good it is at detecting nearby friendlies, with a chance for friendly fire
as follows: Elite = 5%, Veteran = 10%, and Green = 20%. Units in cover or special terrain are
shielded from LOS. Pilots attempt to pick clumps of enemies for maximum effect. The target
priority for air strikes, in order, is first guns, then tanks, then infantry.
Note that in cases where both sides can buy air support, the side with more purchased planes
is assumed to have air superiority and thus has a higher chance each turn of an air strike
arriving on the battlefield.
Check the Specs for each air strike on the scenario purchase
screen if you want to know the weaponry and firepower that it
can bring to bear, as air units are not under your control and do
not show up on your HUD once the battle begins.

ORIGINAL: Mad Russian

ORIGINAL: Keke

ORIGINAL: Mad Russian

I don't read any of the studies done by the Allied ground forces about how poorly the Allied Airforces did in ground attack.

See what the Germans had to say. Look at the pictures of German vehicles in Normandy covered from top to bottom in camouflage. Read their accounts of fighter bomber attacks knocking out tanks all over France and how their battlefield effectiveness was continually eroded by the Jabos.

The Germans HATED Allied fighter bombers. That alone tells the real truth. Allied ground commanders hated them as well. The reasons are two fold.

1) They didn't have enough control over where they attacked and often they hit the wrong target or even friendly units. Sound familiar.

2) They couldn't give a lot of credit to the CAS. They had to downplay their part of the actions.

Good Hunting.

MR

So instead of quality research, the tank killing abilities are based on poor secondary sources? That is pretty unfortunate.

You think the German archives are poor secondary sources? That's pretty unfortunate.

I think you'll find as you play scenarios with CAS in them that it's pretty spot on in PCO as well.

I'm not taking anything away from the studies that were done after the fact. They were trying to get answers to the questions of how effective CAS is.

But looking at the results from the Allied side is putting a set of answers to a question where they have both the question and their own answers.

The ones to answer the question of how effective Allied airpower is/was are the Germans. They are the ones that were effected by it.

The studies I've seen are anything but conclusive. You have something 60% knocked out by AT weaponry, 15% knocked out by air weaponry and 25% knocked out to unknown causes. The deduction of the study is that CAS doesn't work.

When in fact that 25% for unknown causes could go in the CAS results. In many cases the studies were done by ground forces. They have a vested interest in those studies coming out with an anti-airforce bias.

The difference is the Allies have the end result and they think they know what happened. The Germans also have the end result and they know what happened. It's easy to choose which report to believe.

If you want to know how well the enemies airforces did ask the guys that were on the receiving end of them. If the IL-2 wasn't effective why did it have the German nickname of the "Butcher Bird"?

There has been a big effort by anti-airforce elements to down play the effects of CAS both during and after the war. The reality of the situation is that CAS in WWII was in it's infancy. There were lots of times it wasn't effective. There were equally as many times when it was.

Patton refused to allow the 2nd Allied Tactical Airforce to operate in his area for awhile. He called them the 2nd Luftwaffe Tactical Airforce. That's because of the number of mistaken ID attacks on his own forces. There was a British forward attack that was completely stopped by Typhoons.

If air attacks were so ineffective why did the Allies worry about friendly attacks from them? Because they weren't ineffective all the time. At times they could be devastating. The problem with CAS is how to make it work for you and not against you. In WWII that was a tough assignment.

What we've tried to do in PCO is separate the fact from the fiction. I personally think we've done a pretty good job. CAS can be your best friend or your worst enemy. As in real life, you just never know which is going to show up.

In regards to the studies done by the Allies to determine the effect of their airpower they asked the wrong questions. They found that for the most part there were more German tanks killed by means other than airpower. Do you think so? There were thousands of Allied tanks and a few hundred airplanes. I agree German tanks were usually knocked out by something other than an airplane.

What they should have done studies on was for each of those air attacks what was the results of those? And only those attacks. Then you'd have gotten a much more objective study.

Good Hunting.

MR

ORIGINAL: vonRocko

Thanks J2D, So, if I understand this correctly, the aircrew experience is random per battle, and not linked to the date of the war? Also, if you are purchasing units, can you choose to pay extra for experienced crews?

EXPERIENCE: Click to cycle between “Green”, ”Veteran” and “Elite” forces. This option can also be
individually randomised with a right click if desired. An explanation of the difference between unit
experience levels can be found in the main game manual. This option doesn’t 100% ensure all your force
will be comprised of units with the selected experience, but rather changes the odds that they will be.
This was done so as to better reflect the realty of likely force composition.

ORIGINAL: Keke
So instead of quality research, the tank killing abilities are based on poor secondary sources? That is pretty unfortunate.