Airpower (again)

[l3w53r]

please forgive my consytant...umm...err...forgot the word, but please do forgive me for bringing this up again, but how will airpower in CMBB look like?

I've read some more and found that airpower directly took part in battles in the Eastern Front, killing tanks that were commited or short of being commited; in contrast to the Western Front aircraft that mostly only affected the logistics of the Germans, bombing supply trucks and armour that was there just to replace/reinforce, rather than having a specific mission.

I got one here:

http://www.thehistorynet.com/worldwarii/articles/1998/0298_side.htm

Dunno, just thought I'd bring it up again as the nice folks at BTS are replying to the posts.

and another off-topic question, how big will the battles be? I mean will the hundred (thousand) AFV battle on a certain plain (the name escapes me) be represented on the whole in a single battle or just portions of it?ü

[Schrullenhaft]

I'm under the impression that air support in CMBB will be very much like CMBO is currently. There might be some changes, but I'm not sure what they'll be. The air support you see in CMBO is of the 'close air support' variety that is directly affecting the front-line units. The Western Allies in '44-45 had advanced the art of close air support (communications and coordination) a bit better than anything the Germans or Russians ever fielded in the war. Admittedly most close air support assests in the West were attacking logistical support units in the rear areas (where they are probably most effective).

I guess people think of the Blitzkrieg days with swarms of Stukas attacking ground targets. I'd say that this is more of a pre-planned attack against fixed targets. Even Rudel's exploits near the end of the war were something of a rarity for the Germans (as in the effectiveness and availability of close air support).

The Russians certainly fielded numerous Sturmoviks, many of which were tasked with close air support missions. However a difference between the Russian implemantation of close air support and the Western Allies was the level of communication and coordination of the air assests and the ground units that needed them. I believe that the Russians were just starting to experiment with Western-like systems at the end of the war. Hence I'd guess that Russian close air support would be more random than that represented in CMBO. At the same time that these attacks may appear more random its possible that they may be more numerous (the number of sorties in the mission) than that typically experienced in CMBO.

As for the size of the battles - I don't think you'll be able to recreate the entire battle of Kursk at Prokahorovka (sp ?). I believe CMBB will still have a limit in the number of units that can be present in the game, if not an absolute number (which exists now to my knowledge in CMBO - 255/256 per side ?), then at least some sort of memory/performance limitation. I believe that the maps for CMBB can be a bit bigger than CMBO's, but not by such a magnitude to duplicate an entire battle such as this.

[ 11-18-2001: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]</p>

[Andreas]

Apart from the fact that the article is neatly short-ciruiting logic and reason in its final para, I can not find an explicit reference to increased effects of air support in the East, as opposed to the West.

It says explicitly that dust rendered air support useless during Prokhorovka, and the example of the HS-129 sorty is outside CM's scope, since no German ground units were involved at all. Rudel's sorty could have been anywhere too - five miles behind the battlefield or right up there.

I am still not convinced about this request.