blow56

Sorry, but this 'you need to read more' attitude just irritates me. Clearly - and with no justification in fact - certain contributors dismiss my criticisms of whatever algorithm this game uses re aircraft as simply the witterings of the ill-informed. Wrong. I am considerably well informed re close air support operations in WW2, from Allies and German sides. That's what leads me to believe the usage in this game is flawed and unrepresentative. You would do better to look at that rather than try and shoot the messenger down with the flak of ignorance. I always thought CMx1 air use was a little too precision and looked forward to, say, a compulsory wider circle of operation. But NO restrictions? It would have been better to reflect that the chance of a successful outcome was slim (ie hitting anything of worth) and the loss rate high. Instead we have a situation where you are throwing the equivalent of powerful artillery up in the air, literally, with no idea of where it will land. That's hardly an accurate representation of close-air support in WW2.

The five occasions concerned fictional scenarios. The weather was clear in all of them, my troops were mostly in cover - and none of the strikes seemed to take it into account, one way or another. At no time was the enemy closer than 450m - in fact, in four of the scenarios, the enemy was at 600-700m (I like big maps). In the case of the RAF (Normandy) scenario, the enemy had AA, was at 690-720m away - and the first arriving aircraft bombed my FO, in a six-storey building, in the middle of a village. I agree with YankeeDog almost completely - but it is sad that it has to be that way. As for my 'coming off rude', I thought I was restrained. From the follow-up posts, it is clear there IS a problem and rather, as I said, than shooting the messenger it might be better to focus on what can be done about it. Fixing the mess, in short. And it is a mess - under current parameters, the only thing you can do with air power in CMBN/FI/RT is not use it at all, or throw it in if you are feeling masochistic, as YankeeDog says.