Air Divisions versus Air Armies

[Michael the Pole]

Gentlemen, I've just had an idea about aviation units that I have proposed to the development staff on the Beta Testers board, and I must admit that I am so excited about it that I wanted to "run it up the flagpole," as it were and see what ya'll thought about it.

I was concerned by comments from Gary and Chuck as to the survivability and cost of air units, and specifically the seeming disparity in costs of the air division versus the air army. Suffice it to say that IMHO, the new naval/air rules are going to make air divisions much more important then they are now, and the possibility that you could lose an extremely expensive air division in a single turn of defensive sorties was disturbing. We are not allowed to make the decision as to which air unit makes an ordered attack, and we have even less control of which units make defensive intercepts.

Here's the idea that I had. We could allow all air units to survive at 0 strength. (this would simulate the ground assets of an air unit that wouldn't usually have to be replaced to return a destroyed air unit to operational status unless it was overrun by ground units. Thus, an air unit could be put completely out of action by enemy air units, but could only be destroyed by ground assault. Again, IMHO this would be the cool way to handle the problem which we currently have of extremely expensive air units just disappearing. It has a couple of cool effects, as well. An air unit with a strength of 0 wouldn't be able to attack or defend, and since we don't get to choose what air units make attacks or defensive intercepts, this would prevent unpleasant suprises that we have all suffered with aviation units. It certainly would result in air units being much less "brittle" then they are now, and considering how expensive they are, I think this is only fair.

I want to stress that this post was not an attempt to do an end-around on the developers. I'm certain that it would require some pretty exstensive programing that would be far beyond my abilities, and even if they wanted to do it, there simply might not be enough time to get it out before the prospective May launch. But it seems to be such a cool and inovative answer to a problem that certainly has been bothering me, that I thought it would be critical to get ya'lls opinions and insights into the ramifications of this proposed fix.[8D]

[BlueMak]

I am a noob on this game, but, wouldn't it make far more sense to be able to choose (either at the time it happens or pre, like with an option for the unit in question, which air unit attacks/defends?


If the above is not going to happen (and I have no idea why not), then I think I like your idea Michael.

[gwgardner]

100% in favor of your idea - hope it gets implemented.  Same for strat bombers, of course.  I lost one in a game - 900 pps down the drain.