Matrix Games Forums

Thanks for your comments on my ARD thread...now to artillery...I have a group of about four Japanese units (1x Inf Div, 2x Inf Rgt, 1x Engineer) surrounded in north Malaysia(across from the Burma border). They are very strong and the units are not deprived yet of their own supply. My question is: would it be better to send in artillery regiments into the hex and constantly bombard, or send in the infantry on constant deliberate attacks to wear him down?

I am trying to limit my casualties but I want to reduce his original supply in the hex so I can eliminate the hex units later. I am patient as it is only May '43.

If you put arty only in the hex and the Japs choose to counterattack with infantry, you will lose tons of guns.

So, how about putting a British inf brigade in the hex to protect the three arty regiments...would that work?

ORIGINAL: 101Man

So, how about putting a British inf brigade in the hex to protect the three arty regiments...would that work?

You said the IJA units were very strong and still had supply. Unless the terrain is very favourable (Jungle Rough or Mountain or Heavy Urban) a brigade is not going to stand up to Japanese divisions until you wear them down. Bomb them first - for weeks. Or bring up a superior force and move in on them.

Do you mean aerial bombardment? Does that weaken them?

Do you mean aerial bombardment? Does that weaken them?

answer is absolutely freaking yes. You're the allies and its '43... Bring in the knights of the sky, the RAF, USAAF, and pound the crap out of them. If you think they don't have AA batteries, send in low level close air support aircraft and rain Hades on your enemy!![&o]

If they have artillery guns, the CAS planes will shred them and I'm speaking from experience (happens to me all the time[:D])

ORIGINAL: SheperdN7

Do you mean aerial bombardment? Does that weaken them?

answer is absolutely freaking yes. You're the allies and its '43... Bring in the knights of the sky, the RAF, USAAF, and pound the crap out of them. If you think they don't have AA batteries, send in low level close air support aircraft and rain Hades on your enemy!![&o]

If they have artillery guns, the CAS planes will shred them and I'm speaking from experience (happens to me all the time[:D])

So, you are saying low-level CAS weakens units better than carpet-bombing B-17s + B-24s? Like is there a secret player guide someone created that addresses this? I have the one on ship repair 101.

More so its a combination of delivering ordnance AND strafing with guns. Higher accuracy from bombing low-level too.

Like is there a secret player guide someone created that addresses this?

As far as I know, not really.. There are aircraft mission coordination guides but I've never read one so I have zero clue on what they contain.

You should bomb them, regardless of whether it does any observable damage, because of the intangibles:

-Disruption
-Fatigue
-Morale
-Supply use (especially if they fire back at your planes)

Early on in the game system artillery was way overpowered. Now that has been fixed and they are just what they should be-support units. A surrounded unit depending on its strength and supply should be taken out using all your assets available. Look to use an equal number of infantry "supported" by artillery units. If the unit (s) are too strong then yes bombardment and air attacks will disrupt them and eat up supply. Once you suspect supply is low then use deliberate attacks to take them out. The deliberate attacks will use up more of their supply thus taking them out quicker and letting you go on to other things.

Like is there a secret player guide someone created that addresses this?

Look in the AAR section. There are a ton of secrets buried in there. I do not know how much witpqs is documenting in his AAR (Rumble in the Southwest) since I am on the other side but I can tell you he bombs and strafes and bombs and strafes some more all the time. Anything in an open ground hex gets pummeled. Hard targets get pummeled a lot more.

Wa

Agree with the "bomb and strafe" idea, but the fighters should first train to level 70 in Air skill (the primary mission) and by training at low level get at least 60 in Defensive skill (helps dodge flak and enemy fighters). Only then would I train them in LowG (at 1000' for the bombing) and Strafe (must be trained at 100 feet). Fighters with lots of MGs seem to do better against soft targets than those with big, slow firing cannons (like the Airacobra).

Strafe (must be trained at 100 feet).

I do it at 1k all the time and it works.

ORIGINAL: rustysi

Strafe (must be trained at 100 feet).

I do it at 1k all the time and it works.

Strange, when I train at 1K I get gains in LowNav or LowGrnd not strafe.
In fact, this is the only elevation at which Low skills will increase.

I have to train at 100 ft to get gains in strafe

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

ORIGINAL: rustysi

Strafe (must be trained at 100 feet).

I do it at 1k all the time and it works.

Strange, when I train at 1K I get gains in LowNav or LowGrnd not strafe.
In fact, this is the only elevation at which Low skills will increase.

I have to train at 100 ft to get gains in strafe

For fighters? Yeah, 1k always works for me. The other setting I use is sweep, don't know if that makes a difference.

Strafe is pretty much a wasted skill to train in. Under powered and the costs of attacking at low level is harsh even for strafers. It is the bomb that matters and does the killing-so train in bombing skills.

ORIGINAL: crsutton

Strafe is pretty much a wasted skill to train in. Under powered and the costs of attacking at low level is harsh even for strafers. It is the bomb that matters and does the killing-so train in bombing skills.

To me its like a place holder... Something to do while I'm waiting for my guys who are training to get their defensive skills to rise, as def seems to take longer to develop than air skills. Notice I didn't say to get their defensive skills up I need to train in strafe. I just believe it takes longer to train defensive levels. For fighter pilots in the service of his Imperial Majesty I will not waste them on any other mission than opposing enemy air forces.[:D]

ORIGINAL: rustysi

For fighter pilots in the service of his Imperial Majesty I will not waste them on any other mission than opposing enemy air forces.[:D]

+1

Hard to find any IJ ac with DUR high enough survive strafing ... there are a couple, but only a couple models. Then it is hard to allocate air groups to those models and that role when you can use 2E's more effectively at 1000 ... so, for the IJ, I rarely use fighters. 2E's get low ground ... wish they had AB's to avoid the huge penalty, but no luck there ...

For Japs it is either fighters or fighter/bombers. All level bomber get morale/bombload penalties when bombing from 100-1000 feet. The bombload penalty is obvious, but the morale penalty is often overlooked. Just run three missions with each aircraft type and you will see bombers morale melt with each starfing mission while F/FB morale drops gradually.

The best time to use artillery units is during sieges as the attacker.
Anytime you use artillery units, if they are forced to retreat, they will leave their guns behind and you will need to send that unit to the rear and place them on "rest" in order to acquire new guns.
As stated above...never but NEVER leave an artillery unit in a combat hex without grunts to protect them.