Air-war for dummies

[Kuniworth]

Ok the air-war always cost me the game. Mostly because I do stupid suicide attacks without knowing the odds or don't know what to do as Russia against 10 axis level 4 airfleets.

Can the top nod give us an extensive lesson on this subject?

[Avatar]

IMO, he should never get to 10 airfleets, but assuming he does, the easiest solution as Russia is to buy {with bid) around 5-6 extra air, and then put a couple extra chits in Jets. I like to have at least 3 chits in Jets if.

Wait til you catch up, or even surpass, and then group your air together and attack axis corps, so his jets will intercept and get weaker. Instead of buying armies+tanks, buy cheap corps to fill the gaps, and retreat when necessary.

[Terif]

Ok, here some lessons :

- read the manual and the tables at the end (especially the terrain value table):

Then you will see which terrains provide defence bonuses against airstrikes. E.g. fortresses have a defence bonus of 4, mountains 2, cities 1 etc...

- defence bonuses and entrenchment reduces the damage of the defender when attacked directly (when HQ supported you can say roughly: every point reduces the damage by 1). So it is seldomly a good idea to attack an entrenched unit in a city, mountain or fortress.

- Anti-air (UK starts with Lv1) does not reduce the damage for the defender, it only increases the damage for the attacker/interceptor

- so at the start with Jets lv 0 (i.e. average damage of 3 when HQ supported), simply forget it to attack an enemy AF in a city, you will make nearly no damage. Only if you know it is below str 5 and you have 3-4 AFs in striking range this is an option...still a very expensive one

- when Jet levels increase, this changes. With Jets lv 2 (better 3 or higher) it becomes possible to kill AFs in cities (damage reduction is still the same, but the attacker makes more damage - so damage is e.g. not 0-1 any more, but 2-3/attack).

- More important: with these jet levels an enemy airfleet will be killed after 2 airfights (good chance at lv 2, nearly for sure with lv 3+). So e.g. Germany entrenches its airfleets in Paris + Bordeaux to defend France against D-day and to use the AA bonus by forcing interceptions. Allies can kill them easily if the german airfleets really attack: they get intercepted, but with jets lv 3+ they stay usually above str 5 - so in the counterattack Allies only need to force the AFs in Paris/Bordeaux to intercept and they will be destroyed.

In case the first fight reduced them below 5 so they dont intercept: attack them directly. With higher jet levels allied AFs do enough damage to kill it with 1-2 airstrikes even when entrenched (Paris 2-3 strikes). But first make sure no other enemy AFs will intercept or your own AFs will not return from the mission

(until lv 2/3 it is possible to survive this attack even when beeing intercepted, cause the defender in the city has already been weakened and will not do so much damage any more, but at higher Jet levels only attack when no enemy air can intercept any more)

BTW: 10 axis airfleets in Russia means he has nothing in the west - so invade and conquer France/LC/Spain etc.

Never buy russian airfleets in such a situation, thats just pointless, they will get slaughtered. Buy ground units and delay his advances. If Axis shifts its AFs west, build up as Russia and go in the offensive while preparing for defence in the west.

It´s the old game: one front is offensive and the other one defensive. By moving its units, usually Axis decides if the offensive part is in the east or west.

If one side can be offensive at both fronts - then they are in the advantage and most likely the other side has already lost the war (except it is because they just build up or set a trap )

[ August 03, 2004, 09:04 AM: Message edited by: Terif ]