Are planes way too effective?

[John O'Reilly]

I have just finished playing "Boroviska (sp?) Station" as the Russians.

***********SPOLIERS***************

In this scenario I lost only one tank to the German army but as many as 8 or 9 to the airforce and this after my AA halftracks took down one of the attacking aircraft in the early going. Every single attack that was made, be it with cannon or bombs killed a tank. That is, not a single miss. Now, I have played other scenarios with airpower and I did not pay close attention but I am not sure that I have seen many misses.

This mostly against fast moving targets by the way. Although they also seem to have no problem hitting those hiding in scattered trees. I am really quite ignorant as to the effectiveness of ground attack in WWII and am throwing this out both as a question and for some enlightenment, grogs, start your engines

John

[meldorian]

I have played three QBs yesterday in which I had to play the Russians. I knew how much my enemy likes cats, so I thought I would be one clever guy and bought lots of planes. A total of 700 points worth of aircraft didn't manage to destroy even one enemy tank in two 2000 pt. QBs. And that in spite of my enemy not buying a single AA gun. He just moved his tanks over an open plane at relativly slow speed (Kingtigers and hunting Panthers). So what do you call effective?

[Lumbergh]

I think Boroskva Station features an Hs129b with some sort of highly nasty cannon on it. You won't see that much in quickbattles since its rarity is quite high. Also, I played it in V.1.0 when the quad 50-calibers had 1/10th of their actual range. So make sure you have 1.01.

Also, keep in mind that airpower is a bit of a gamble. Sometimes planes bomb your own positions; sometimes they do nothing. This scenario is perfect for airpower--your armour is exposed in an open field, clearly separated from the defender's positions. Not much chance for friendly fire.

Oh, and I was going to add, CMBB models well the strengths and weaknesses of air attacks in WWII. I.E., the rockets on an Il-2 are much less useful against tanks, than, say, the big honkin' bomb on a Stuka. I am not sure what the Hs-129b is packing (they were loaded with 20, 30, 37, or 75 mm cannons), but the top armour on a t-34 is going to make easy pickings against a rapid-fire 30mm cannon.

Found an interesting Hs-129 page

Does anyone know if the Hs-129b with the six downward-firing 77mm cannons hooked up to a MAD is in the game?

[ December 02, 2002, 09:02 AM: Message edited by: Lumbergh ]

[Andreas]

Borisovka Station does indeed feature one of the most effective tank killers. It is intentional that the German airpower is ripping your advance to shreds - unless you are fast enough and close with the German positions.

I would not take that to arrive at any conclusions. In the games I have played I have seen various outcomes, over a range of the bell-curve, and it looks alright to me.

[Fieldmarshall]

The tank buster version was used in North Africa quite a bit.

[Le Tondu]

Too effective??? Heck, I'm leaning towards thinking that they're not effective enough. They sure miss a lot. I sure would like the luck that some others are getting.

[Guest Mike]

The standard HS-129 had a 30mm cannon firing special AP rounds I believe, and was very effective against top armour.

Some versions had 50 or even 75mm guns but were few and far between.

I played this game last weekend too & had several tanks hit and not damaged, but yes, it was certainly a pain.

What did seem odd tho was having both sides receive tactical air support during such a short battle. I'd have thought one or other side would've driven their opponents off - Sturmoviks were certainly capable of handling non-fighter axis aircraft.......