Beta 1.03.03 and Air Superiority Mission in General

[Zemke]

I usually play with Air AI on, but my opponent wanted to not have it on, so my experience in the use of air effectively as the Russians was pretty slim, I generally figured it out, but wondering if Air Superiority really works or not.

In my last game playing the Soviets vs a human, I was trying to use Air Superiority to stop the naval interdiction of the ports in Crimea. Not sure if this is a useful technique to counter naval interdiction, but it made sense at the time. I also was trying to use it to stop Axis recon missions, but again could not really tell if it was effective or not.

Any thoughts.....

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Short answer, yes. Long answer, no in 41. I won't get into the details. Now having said that AS was slaughtered as a thing to do with the air patch in March 23' time frame. This has pretty much made any aircraft in decent rest to now intercept "further" reducing the Soviets ability to dominate parts of the map. With "auto-interception" taking place anywhere and by any plane it is nearly "IMPOSSIBLE" to preserve the airforce since they will scramble for a chicken crossing the road all because of the added tasks of setting up AS's was "too hard" for many to do. Now the air war has gotten worse, of course in my opinion, than where it was before, especially for the Soviets and IF you don't know what you are doing you WILL lose aircraft in huge amounts. Anyway off my soapbox. I liked the old AS over what we have now, glorified mass interception.

[PeteJC]

Short answer, yes. Long answer, no in 41. I won't get into the details. Now having said that AS was slaughtered as a thing to do with the air patch in March 23' time frame. This has pretty much made any aircraft in decent rest to now intercept "further" reducing the Soviets ability to dominate parts of the map. With "auto-interception" taking place anywhere and by any plane it is nearly "IMPOSSIBLE" to preserve the airforce since they will scramble for a chicken crossing the road all because of the added tasks of setting up AS's was "too hard" for many to do. Now the air war has gotten worse, of course in my opinion, than where it was before, especially for the Soviets and IF you don't know what you are doing you WILL lose aircraft in huge amounts. Anyway off my soapbox. I liked the old AS over what we have now, glorified mass interception.

All things being equal, wouldn't AS still be useful as it adds another layer of protection on top of the "new" auto intercept mechanism/programming or are you saying it is utterly redundant because all you need to do is have your air rested and they will automatically intercept everything on their own with no orders?

[HardLuckYetAgain]

Short answer, yes. Long answer, no in 41. I won't get into the details. Now having said that AS was slaughtered as a thing to do with the air patch in March 23' time frame. This has pretty much made any aircraft in decent rest to now intercept "further" reducing the Soviets ability to dominate parts of the map. With "auto-interception" taking place anywhere and by any plane it is nearly "IMPOSSIBLE" to preserve the airforce since they will scramble for a chicken crossing the road all because of the added tasks of setting up AS's was "too hard" for many to do. Now the air war has gotten worse, of course in my opinion, than where it was before, especially for the Soviets and IF you don't know what you are doing you WILL lose aircraft in huge amounts. Anyway off my soapbox. I liked the old AS over what we have now, glorified mass interception.

All things being equal, wouldn't AS still be useful as it adds another layer of protection on top of the "new" auto intercept mechanism/programming or are you saying it is utterly redundant because all you need to do is have your air rested and they will automatically intercept everything on their own with no orders?

The latter pretty much. Although if you want to "ensure" interception, because of bad rng's, then by all means set-up AS. But I have stopped doing it since I am running the air groups in the ground

[PeteJC]

Short answer, yes. Long answer, no in 41. I won't get into the details. Now having said that AS was slaughtered as a thing to do with the air patch in March 23' time frame. This has pretty much made any aircraft in decent rest to now intercept "further" reducing the Soviets ability to dominate parts of the map. With "auto-interception" taking place anywhere and by any plane it is nearly "IMPOSSIBLE" to preserve the airforce since they will scramble for a chicken crossing the road all because of the added tasks of setting up AS's was "too hard" for many to do. Now the air war has gotten worse, of course in my opinion, than where it was before, especially for the Soviets and IF you don't know what you are doing you WILL lose aircraft in huge amounts. Anyway off my soapbox. I liked the old AS over what we have now, glorified mass interception.

All things being equal, wouldn't AS still be useful as it adds another layer of protection on top of the "new" auto intercept mechanism/programming or are you saying it is utterly redundant because all you need to do is have your air rested and they will automatically intercept everything on their own with no orders?

The latter pretty much. Although if you want to "ensure" interception, because of bad rng's, then by all means set-up AS. But I have stopped doing it since I am running the air groups in the ground

Not to belabor this to too fine a point but, does the AI prioritize a AS mission over chasing every little chicken that crosses the road. For example, I put unit X on AS for everyday of the week (the default setting) doesn't that take up all its movement capability so therefore it doesn't venture out on unwanted intercepts. I am guessing the answer is just an outright no or depends on how far away the AS mission is from the units base.

One last thought. So, assuming the answer is that the AI will not prioritize a manual AS mission over auto intercepts it seems the Soviet player does not have to do anything to protect Sevastopol other than have a group of fighters in Yalta or in the city itself.

I agree with you that I would rather have to set up my AS missions manually then just have this more automatic intercept programming. Dumbs this wonderful game down a bit.

[HardLuckYetAgain]

I agree with you that I would rather have to set up my AS missions manually then just have this more automatic intercept programming. Dumbs this wonderful game down a bit.

I can't emphasize this part enough, "Dumbs this wonderful game down".

[Wild]

Personally I like the auto intercept. If it dumbs things down a bit I don't mind. There is already plenty to tinker with.
But I'm an AI player so I can understand that people who take things a bit more seriously with playing against a human might not like it as much.