Fighters/Interceptors

[Kharnvor]

I'm having trouble understanding the details of fighter support.

I'm playing Operation Citadel from the German side, and I have 5 fighter calls to use. Most of the time, I can see the IL-2 as soon as they appear well before they've actually reached the playable area, so I place the call for a fighter, and right-click a spot on the map.

My tanks or more often (to much more devastating effect) my half tracks get strafed, the IL-2 fly off the map, then on their return trip, my interceptor shows up, flies a circle around them, and leaves. Once in a while it will shoot down one, but not very often.

So, how can I best use fighters to prevent my vehicles from getting strafed? And what should I expect from them?

Thanks!

[ May 28, 2007, 03:04 PM: Message edited by: Kharnvor ]

[SlapHappy]

That's a very good point. At this stage, it seems like pure luck in timing the call.

[K9crump]

Also, remember if you down the right amount, the AI probably wont have any left to call on you. This is what happened when I played the mission. I guess I shot them all down, and didnt have to call them in again. It sure would have been nice to have some Stukas for me...

Mike

[Kharnvor]

Yep, kinda disappointed that there are no Stukas in game that I've seen.

I seem to remember in the manual I read that air support calls are always the same planes, you just might be able to call them more than once. If this is true, then the one time my fighter did shoot down both Sturmoviks, I shouldn't have had another pair or triplet (it varies) strafing my half tracks to bits a couple of minutes later.

It occurs to me now that the Sturmoviks might be completely scripted, either at specific times or specific force concentrations, so my fighter support is pretty useless because I'll get strafed no matter what. I hope you're right K9! How many times did you get strafed before you shot them down?

Where's my Ostwind or Wirbelwind darnit? :mad:

[K9crump]

Not quite sure if I remember, but it seemed like I had maybe 2 fighter sweeps left in the end of the game, but didnt need them. I would say I knocked them all out by about the half way point. They didnt bother me too much, they didnt seem to hit the broad side of barn...lol. I guess I was just lucky. This scenario was one I sure wish my crew could have fixed the broken track on one of my tigers... Really think they should add that feature. Could have used that tiger later assualting that area.

Later,

Mike

[Kharnvor]

Played again last night (beat it overwhelmingly!), and this is what I watched:

At a given time after the mission started, 2 IL-2 showed up and strafed a Pz IV. No effect. I saw them just as they appeared on the horizon and called for my fighter. It showed up after they had strafed and were heading back, coming on from the opposite corner of the map. My fighter did not engage, then flew home.

After a certain length of time, 2 IL-2 appeared again, this time one of my halftracks had been spotted so they strafed it, and killed the driver. Again, saw them as specks in the distance, called my fighter. This time it got on their tail, fired for a second, missed completely, zipped past them, and went home.

That was it. I don't recall, in all the times I've played this mission, ever getting strafed more than twice. I have noticed that if my fighter by some miracle manages to shoot down one of the IL-2, the next time I get strafed they will have one group of 2 IL-2 and one lone IL-2. Seems like something in the script checks to see if any IL-2 get shot down, and spawns a new pair for the second strafing run instead of using the survivor. But the survivor is still there and strafes too.

In short, AI support calls are scripted, and unlike player aircraft, shooting them down doesn't reduce the air threat. In fact, it seemed to increase it. Bummer. Time to learn scripting.

[BluedogKG200]

Funny thing is, when I played this particular mission, I heard the IL2s coming, paused the game, clicked the fighter interceptor button and then clicked over the spot where i thought the IL2s would attack.

Unpaused the game and watched as the two IL2s started their strafing run.

As they pulled out of their attack run, my 190 showed up, dropped in behind them and shot them both down.......that was the last I saw of the VVS for that mission.

The only complaint I would have about the whole thing is that it is pretty damn unlikely that a FW-190 would down a pair of those flying tanks in the half second it took this guy to do so...but I'm glad he did

Allso find it hard to believe that the LW would have sent a SINGLE 190, wouldn't there be at least two, and most probably four?

[Richtschuetze]

Hello Bluedog,

had a similar experience. I played on "easy" and indeed, two FW-190 showed up. It took them about one second to down the first IL-2 and another minute or so to shoot the other to pieces. The LW wasn't as efficient as in your case but perhaps you had an ace flying there.

Having said that, I must wonder why in all those glorious blitzkrieg scenarios I haven't seen a single Ju-87. Seems like the LW was already used up in the Battle of Britain.

Greetings,

Richtschuetze

[R33GZ]

Hi Bluedog, I havent experienced anything like that yet... although Im still stuck on the dunkirk mission.

I have had successful interceptors on the french campaign though.

I heard the German Fighter bombers coming, called the interceptor to where I thought they were going to hit and he downed a BF 110 immediately. It then stayed around for another couple of minutes and downed the 2nd BF110 as it came back for a 3rd go at my AT guns.

Although the fighers downed both enemy aircraft eventually, their main success was in keeping the 110's away from my AT positions. ie, they would line up an attack and then abort once the fighters got behind them.

My only compaints would be that the 110's were taken down with 1 extremely short burst of fire... and the sound effects are crap at best

[Drawde79]

I had the same experience as R33GZ in the French Dunkirk mission. I called in the fighters as soon as I heard and saw the Bf110s approaching, the 110s made a single strafing run (immobilising a H-35 tank, but not doing any more damage - I'm surprised they didn't target my artillery instead, the manual indicates that planes give tanks a very low targeting priority compared to artillery) then the Morane 406 fighters turned up and downed both Bf110s in quick succession (I wish it was as easy to shoot them down in the Il-2 flight sim series...).

I'm also surprised at the lack of Stukas. It's also odd that attack aircraft always make strafing attacks, never using bombs or rockets.

(edit)

Do any of the German missions allow you to select anti-aircraft vehicles? There are 3 German SP AA vehicles (two halftracks and a Flakpanzer 38(t) ) in ToW's unit selection.

[ June 10, 2007, 03:02 AM: Message edited by: Drawde79 ]

[Kharnvor]

Originally posted by Drawde79:

Do any of the German missions allow you to select anti-aircraft vehicles? There are 3 German SP AA vehicles (two halftracks and a Flakpanzer 38(t) ) in ToW's unit selection.

Not so far that I've seen, up through Operation Citadel. Certainly could have used them.

[SlapHappy]

Originally posted by BluedogKG200:

Funny thing is, when I played this particular mission, I heard the IL2s coming, paused the game, clicked the fighter interceptor button and then clicked over the spot where i thought the IL2s would attack.

Unpaused the game and watched as the two IL2s started their strafing run.

As they pulled out of their attack run, my 190 showed up, dropped in behind them and shot them both down.......that was the last I saw of the VVS for that mission.

The only complaint I would have about the whole thing is that it is pretty damn unlikely that a FW-190 would down a pair of those flying tanks in the half second it took this guy to do so...but I'm glad he did

Allso find it hard to believe that the LW would have sent a SINGLE 190, wouldn't there be at least two, and most probably four?

FOUR 20mm cannons will do that for ya......