Are planes worth their points?

[Crinius]

Is it worth spending money on planes in a PBEM?

So far I hadnt bought one as Iam not sure if theyre worth a dime and theyre very costy. What if I buy a, lets say, IL2. Will it have tanks as priority targets? Can planes turn an almost lost game?

[Shmavis]

I had a Heinkel tank buster turn the game around for me when I was playing "Borisovka Station". The enemy infantry had almost reached my infantry's positions and I had lost most of my AT assets. The Soviets still had plenty of armor left. So, I was in dire straits. That plane(planes?) came and knocked out 9 tanks, if I remember correctly. Then again, that wasn't a PBEM scenario.

[Sanok]

Originally posted by Crinius:

Is it worth spending money on planes in a PBEM?

So far I hadnt bought one as Iam not sure if theyre worth a dime and theyre very costy. What if I buy a, lets say, IL2. Will it have tanks as priority targets? Can planes turn an almost lost game?

In a recent pbem game in a CMBO scenario, I had a plane show up four turns later than it was supposed to arrive. It then proceeded to drop its bombs on two men fleeing from an enemy tank a bazooka killed. About a hundred meters to its right, was a nice 88mm ATG and a concrete bunker the pilot decided to ignore.

[JasonC]

Yes they are often worth it, but they are high variance. The IL-2s are great, particularly their strafing vs. vehicles. (Way beyond realistic, but that is another story). Look for types with large numbers of strafing passes. It helps if they have any sort of cannon.

[Panzer_M]

JU 87 ausf B/D are nice with the bomb loads and high ammo counts.

Bf-109s are good in low defense areas, since they are cheap and pack a punch.

[Brent Pollock]

They can be grand fun in large point games if you buy several flights worth.

[dieseltaylor]

I suggest some look at the Flak gun thread I started last month! Only idiots play without buying some flak when planes are available.

[michael_wittman44]

"I had a Heinkel tank buster turn the game around for me when I was playing "Borisovka Station". The enemy infantry had almost reached my infantry's positions and I had lost most of my AT assets. The Soviets still had plenty of armor left. So, I was in dire straits. That plane(planes?) came and knocked out 9 tanks, if I remember correctly. Then again, that wasn't a PBEM scenario." Originally posted by Shmavis, I love the scenario "Borisovka Station". It's the only scenario out of 226 that I have played that I have shot down an aircraft.