Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: Apollo11

Hi all,

In our internal BETA there are already few changes regarding interdiction... [:)]


Leo "Apollo11"

Glad to hear it! [:)]

Yes -- good to hear that interdiction effects are being looked at for the next Beta. Interdiction is a nice touch for the game system, but the current effects are out of proportion relative to Operational studies conducted on determining the effectiveness of tactical air interdiction. Moreover, there are a large numbers of studies conducted by the Allies in N.Africa, Italy and France on results of tactical air interdiction attacks on ground units. In addition, the USAF conducted fairly extensive studies on air interdiction effects on ground units during the Korean War. Hopefully these are being studied in order to fine tune current game engine effects. The effects I am seeing during my two PBEM GC game (playing Axis in one and Reds in the 2nd) are currently rather devastating -- and its only 1941. I think if the current effects remain in place, the German army will be wrecked by Soviet air interdiction effects during 43 - 45 portion of the game. I think this to be Ahistorical.

Certainly we can all point to very specific cases of effective tactical air interdiction attacks which occurred when all the planets happened to be properly aligned in time and space. And in a probability based game engine we should see devastating tactical air interdiction attacks -- occasionally. But I seem to be seeing devastating TAC air interdiction attacks by limited numbers of participating aircraft as the norm -- at least in the games I am playing.

My two cents -- If I had my druthers I'd focus tactical air interdiction effects more upon:
A) Turn based reductions in unit morale if hit by “effective" tactical air interdiction attacks.
B) Destruction of unit supply and loss of supply trucks (destruction of a units fuel and supplies – etc). Let the hits on unit supplies trickle down to actual unit effects on movement rates and combat power (or I suppose CV).
C) Given historical results of TAC air interdiction some limited destruction of men and material.

Interdiction has gone from being a somewhat occasionally annoying experince not worthy of too much concern to forefront of all conscious thought now. I pity my Russian opponent, because if I am getting whacked as German he must be getting wholloped big time. I hope this gets fixed soon. I now move my critical units (Panzers etc) incrementally forward and leap frog with an airbase stacked with fighters to avoid the massive losses in MP and troops. Its a bit nuts. Somewhere between the two extremes would be nice [&:]

I am about 8 turns into a campaign game with 1.03, and I have never seen an interdiction attack against a unit using rail movement. Does it ever happen?

It should be possible; it may not happen much because the detection level is low for railed units.

The interdiction is a welcome addition. Of course, it will require some fine-tuning; the more users chime in with their specific experiences of it, the better and the faster the developers can tweak it.

ORIGINAL: randallw

It should be possible; it may not happen much because the detection level is low for railed units.

I think you are right. Probably needs an adjustment, because historically trains were not hard to spot, and were frequent air targets. Seems the trains in game have stealth tech.

By the way, I may have missed it in the manual, but what about air attacks against railyards to reduce rail capacity? Not possible?

I believe rail capacity is inside cities, and bombable....or i'm wrong.

The way the game works you can spot enemy units by recon during your turn, but not during the other side's turn.  It should apply whether units are moved by rail or just marching.