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Airfileds


Avwriter

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Are airfields positioned on any of the actual game maps? Does the proximity of airfields to the battle affect how long it takes to call in an airstrike? Can you see enemy/friendly planes taking off and landing? Can you capture enemy airfields and take the planes under your command or at least put them out of business while they are still on the ground?

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I understand the airstrikes in ToW are (simplified!) considered planes approaching the battlefield radioing in that they would be able to attack a target, pointed out by the player. So the time needed for flying from the airfield to the battlefield is no consideration in calling in an airstrike.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I never heard of any WW2 accounts were ground troops attacked an airfield that was actually still operating. Maybe it happened in Russia or Poland but I would consider it highly unlikely and unrealistic. I read quite a few reports of air units evacuating an airfield in danger of being overrun. But e.g. tanks rolling onto an opposing operating airfield???? Therefore all the time spent programming airfields, their building, their infrastructure, the AI behind it and the "waste" of limited map space would be lost programming resources in my eyes.

I hope the developers look more into other open aspects of the game: Entering buildings, on map mortars, smoke screens, a map builder and maybe an ingame vcr function........

Uwe

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Originally posted by Reichenberg:

Please correct me if I am wrong, but I never heard of any WW2 accounts were ground troops attacked an airfield that was actually still operating. Maybe it happened in Russia or Poland but I would consider it highly unlikely and unrealistic.

Rick Atkinson's excellent An Army at Dawn about North Africa from 1942-1943 describes an attack on an operating German Airfield near Tunis by 17 Stuart Tanks (see pages 189-191).

Seventeen Stuarts surged up and over the crest of the hill, tracks churning the wheat stubble as they barreled down the front slope from the northwest. Tank commanders craned for a better view from the open turret hatches and spurred their drivers forward. Several dozen Messerschmitts, Stukas, and Junkerses crowded around the dirt airstrip, reminding one American officer of "fat geese on a small pond." Some were taking gas at a makeshift fuel dump; others were being rearmed with bombs and belts of machine-gun bullets.

...

[The Stuart's 37mm main guns] proved lethal to aircraft sheet metal. Planes blew up, planes disintegrated, planes collided with other planes making for the end of the runway. A Messerschmitt gained enough speed to lift off, only to be raked by machine-gun bullets and cartwheel burning, to earth. Mud slowed the taxiing Junkerses long enough for American gunners to take languid aim and machine-gun the fuselages from propeller to vertical stabilizer.

...

In half an hour the fight was over. Barlow [Major in command] pulled his whopping tankers back up the hill. The raid had cost him one tank destroyed, several damaged, and two men killed by strafing, including a platoon leader. He paused for a final look at the carnage below. Wreckage from more than twenty German planes lay scattered in a burning swath longer than a mile. Spikes of flame from detonating fuel and ammunition flared the length of the runway, illuminating scattered propellers, wheels, and fuselages.

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Very interesting PSY. Can you post more info about it? What airfield, date.... I could not find any according info on the net and I would like to read more about that incident.

But nevertheless I think there are more important issues with ToW than airfields included on maps.

Uwe

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I know in North Africa, there was an attack on an operating airfield during the early war years. I think the scenario I made was put on the CD, I don't remember.

Also another scenario I made was basically the same, a British parachute drop gone wrong when they attacked an operating airfield, led by none other the Col. Frost.

Rune

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Originally posted by Reichenberg:

Very interesting PSY. Can you post more info about it? What airfield, date.... I could not find any according info on the net and I would like to read more about that incident.

Date is November 25, 1942. Tanks were from 1st Battalion of the 1st Armored Regiment under John Knight Waters (who was Patton's son-in-law). Location is near the village of Djedeida on the banks of the Medjerda river near Bizerte.

Originally posted by Reichenberg:

But nevertheless I think there are more important issues with ToW than airfields included on maps.

I agree, definitely not a priority.
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