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It's been said before... but I'll say it again...

Posted: Mon May 20, 2002 1:18 am
by mao
I hate my air units...

So, I'm advancing east along a road, ready for my final assault... my last Me-110 appears from the east, carrying 250lb bombs.

It flys towards a victory hex, where something like 100 Russian infantry are milling around ("Ha!," I think, "bye bye Russkis"), overflys the hex, overflys a couple of BIG Cossack units (20+ men each) and bombs my own men... destroying a 75mm field gun and a StuG in the process :mad: :mad: :mad:

Do aircraft actually ever bomb infantry? :rolleyes:

Posted: Mon May 20, 2002 2:42 am
by Drex
I've never seen aircraft bomb infantry if there is armor or arty around. In fact if there is a non-infantry target, no matter what side, it will go after that instead.

Posted: Mon May 20, 2002 5:11 am
by Bing
Matter of fact, that's an old trick:Buy a cheap truck and park it in the direction of the threat axis (you know where the enemy aircraft will come from usually), then it will go after the cheap truck instead of your prized items.

Do it right and you can lure the unsuspecting enemy CAS right down the barrels of your AA.

Bing

Posted: Thu May 23, 2002 1:22 pm
by Fredde
Sometimes if there is no vehicles present anywhere close to where the aircraft is coming in, they will target a specific hex, which, if you are lucky may contain infantry. I've never seen them really target an infantry unit though.

Posted: Thu May 23, 2002 2:33 pm
by Belisarius
I've only seen my aircraft attack infantry once, and it happened just because the were in the target hex, were a tank used to be. So I'm with Fredde here.

Yes, they will go after any vehicle they can see, if the targeted one has moved out of sight.

Posted: Thu May 23, 2002 6:54 pm
by BruceAZ_MatrixForum
Mao:

This is the most frustrating thing in SPWAW yet I would never change it because it is very real. When I use Tac Aircraft, I always try to...

* Use them early in the battle and always have them attack from my back to the enemy's front.

* If I use them late in the battle, I always have them attack facing my men and always on a angle, never straight.

* If attacking late, I never have the target anywhere near my units (say 6 or 7 hexes) as I am asking for trouble.

I can remember in other Versions like 5.0 where you never trust them at all and they would bomb anybody they felt would be a good target!


5th Recon
Semper Fi

Posted: Thu May 23, 2002 9:56 pm
by learnerever
you target a hex in the middle of the 100 infantry for the
aeroplane to bomb . Then bombard the area with howitzers
and/or mortars . Drive your truck in the middle of the dazed
infantry and your plane comes and kills it along with some
of the enemy soldiers .

cause the stoopid plane always attacks vehicles or mortars
and such , almost never do the strafing attack , firing at
4 hexes in a row , unless maybe if the hexes are empty .

ps. go ahead and try that above thing , never tried ,
just thought it up :)

Re: It's been said before... but I'll say it again...

Posted: Thu May 23, 2002 10:24 pm
by bigtroutz
Originally posted by mao
I hate my air units...

So, I'm advancing east along a road, ready for my final assault... my last Me-110 appears from the east, carrying 250lb bombs.

It flys towards a victory hex, where something like 100 Russian infantry are milling around ("Ha!," I think, "bye bye Russkis"), overflys the hex, overflys a couple of BIG Cossack units (20+ men each) and bombs my own men... destroying a 75mm field gun and a StuG in the process :mad: :mad: :mad:

Do aircraft actually ever bomb infantry? :rolleyes:
i have noticed they WILL dump their loads on mortar units, fortifications, AT/AA guns, IF contained in the target hex, but infantry itself IS problematic...if the plane sees any kind of "non-infantry" target around your non-los/infantry target hex, WATCHOUT.:mad:

Posted: Fri May 24, 2002 6:59 am
by WhiteRook
I too know how frustating Air support can be, but I also agree with Bruce. It is very real like, AC attacked their own troops more than is ever found out by the public! ;)

The tips Bruce listed are also very good ones and I have learned to use them in an almost identical fashion to how he lists them!

My personal preferance is early or late in the battle, never durring the meaty times! :D

Posted: Fri May 24, 2002 6:41 pm
by troopie
As far as attacking mortars or fortifications, aircraft won't do that if there is a vehicle near. I remember ordering three American aircraft to attack a line of Italian infantry and mortars that were under LOS of the FO who called in the strike. Each one came in, targeted the mortars, then veered off to attack, AND MISS, a couple of Eyetie lorries that were busily fleeing the area. Then the AI called in a strike, which decimated my infantry. There were no vehicles near my infantry.

AI aircraft will attack infantry, but yours won't.

troopie