I've been in the weeds building a spreadsheet to to compare combat performance of models and I've noticed a few topics that lack any existing explanation or relevant details.
How many tries to find a desirable target does each unit get?
Does it vary by individual model, tech, or model group, or some other input? The manual suggests it does vary, but it is inconclusive.
Section 5.10.15.2 p322: Find a target Then (semi)randomly an opponent of the enemy side is chosen. Semi random because the randomness depends on the number of tries the Subunits statistics allow. If it has only 1 try in finding its favourite target, it is purely random. But if it has more tries it will pick the target it likes the most.
Do attacking aircraft vs ground targets feature the Attack start-up modifier?
This seems very similar to the 1st and 2nd round dogfight modifier, however, by the justification of the mechanic in the manual the modifier exists to represent travel time to begin a meaningful attack, and tanks are significantly more capable than other units. To me it would seem that aircraft are even faster and more able to reach their ground targets, and might not have any attacking modifier in this case? (Also there's an extra space typo in the heading quoted. "modif ier")
Section 5.10.15.3 p325: Attack start up modif ier: Some Model Types have limited effectiveness in the first 2 combat round when they belong to the offensive side in the battle. For Tanks this is -37% for the first round and -25% the second round, for the others it is -75% for the first round and -50% the second round. The whole objective of the rule is to model the effect of the fact that it takes the attacker a bit of time to advance towards the enemy positions and to reach a position where they can actually start effectively attacking the enemy. That is also why tanks have less of a start-up penalty than infantry.
Do aircraft weapons have modified penetration when combined?
A 5k bombhatch has 100mm penetration, and all aircraft machineguns have 40mm penetration. How are these combined, if at all? My best guess is an average of penetration per firepower of the installed weapons.
Do aircraft have an armour thickness?
Especially relevant to the above. All units have an Armour Strength value in the blueprint designer, aircraft inclusive, but that does not seem relevant to the thickness based on the values non-aircraft can obtain. Is armour thickness even a relevant input in x vs aircraft combat? I assume they have 0mm and Air Attack is applied fully always.
