Matrix Games Forums

In reading the manual it states that fighters on ESCORT friendly bombers and will intercept enemy "CAP" aircraft at half strength.

As far as CAP aircraft is concerned it states that they are not available for ESCORT but will only intercept enemy aircraft ...I assume at full strength although it does not precisely state that.

However, the following statements seem to be true based upon watching at HIGH detail:

1- CAP fighters will escort a bomging run supporting a ground attack even when there are no enemy planes in the air.

2- ESCORT fighters seem to intercept the enemy at full strength although the formulas behind the scenes might dividing by two but it certainly displays the full strength under high detail as compared to the pictures and quantities displayed at the beginning of the engagement.

3- CAP fighters seem to intercept the enemy at full strength

4- The results of each individual aerial fight under high detail between a fighter group and an enemy fighter or bomber group seems to be funny. ESCORTING fighters seem to do better than CAP fighters in the number of aircraft shot down which according the manual is backwards. I was doing some testing with a saved test game against the AI using the same airgroups on the same turn doing the same action.

Maybe I am not understanding everything correctly or making mistakes in the execution of my test so I wish to get some clarifiaction from all willing participants.

Although I have no data to support my thoughts...I believe everything in the air is done at random. For instance:

one HQ targets two different corps. The HQ has an effective fighter strength of say 100 fighters in one unit, 104 He-111 in another and 96 JU-88's in another.

Mission one: 38 fighters escort 98 he-111's to target 1

Mission two: 88 fighters escort 42 Ju-88's to target 2

I've pretty much given up CAP...choosing it doesn't seem to change anything...except that when I choose CAP, strategic bombers don't get intercepted

THX

Just to be clear, don't you even set the fighters in OKH/OKW, West- and italian front to CAP? Is ESCORT better to intercept allied bombings?

To be honest...I just don't trust CAP with my oilfields. I've played around with it and seen Ploesti get torn up because the fighters were on CAP and not Escort.
As far as OKW and OKH go...I haven't really played around with it that much...just prefer to leave them on Escort

Regular fighters seem, indeed, to fare worse when set on CAP. However, that's not the case with fighter-bombers. To quote the readme.txt that comes with the game, changes in v2.003 include the following:

"Fighter-bombers which have a low dogfighting value (like the Me110) will no
longer intercept unless set to CAP, if dogfight value < 17 + (year-1941)"

I haven't played the Germans much, but the best plane they can throw against US bombers seems to be the FW190F. Because of its huge cannon rating (18!), it punches enormous holes in bomber groups. It fares a little poorer against fighters, but a squadron of FW190D can deal with those. The catch is: unless set on CAP, the FW190F will sit idle, as its dogfighting value is 18<17+3 (1944, of course).

This also applies to the Russian LaGG3 in 1941. I assume it is also true of the other fighter-bombers (I only tested it for these two).

In conclusion, it is best to set regular fighters on Escort and fighter-bombers on CAP.

Hi, I don't post here much, but browse frequently and post when I feel the need.
To answer your question cap or escort, IT is best to leave the fighters and fighter-bombers on CAP as they will intercept in greater numbers than when on escort. Now I was a strong believer in CAP not working and conducted a little experiment on my own. Much to my amazement, and it was, the F and FB's intercepted in greater numbers when on CAP then when on escort. I'm sorry I don't have any numbers to toss around on this experiment but believe me they do. You also have to keep in mind the experience level of the intercepting F and FB's. If it is low , say under 70% then they will not show up in great numbers. As the experience increases, so does the number intercepting. Also, it is best to keep a spare HQ around Ploesti for the bomber intercepts there. Someone mentioned putting your Me 110's there and in the Italian front HQ because fighter escorts don't show up till later and they are right. Try this experiment with cap, escort and experience and you will see a remarkable difference. By the way I'm using the latest WIR download.