Passive Tactical UAV bombers?

[Innocence]

I've got a group of 8 of the most advanced UAV tactical bombers in the game trying to take out an enemy position (no in city) consisting of an Infantry, a Tank and an Artillery (all class 4 or such).

After 5-6 attack turns by all 8 planes the Tank has lost 1 HP and the rest are unharmed. No planes have been harmed either (and yes, I am at war with the AI player in question )

Tried using Default (Aggressive) battleplan and Attack Ground Targets, tried targetting the enemy group (not possible), but no matter what I do there's hardly any combat going on.

Funny thing is, in my last game I had only Tactical Jet Bombers (class 3) and they ware very effective, attacking just about every unit in sight.

Anyone else experiencing this?

[drrowley]

yes and no. just did a sweep of 6 uav tacbombers (attack sea units order) accross an area where i had seen a damage enemy cruiser and a damaged battleship. both were sunk with no losses. then attacked infantry6, dugin, mountain bonus, with uav bomber and 2 uav tacs. bomber was shot down, no damage to infantry. another infantry6 with like group, no losses on both sides. next turn, it died, with no losses for me.

(but nothing like the 6 battleships in one turn)!!!

i've seen alot of variation.

d

[John DiFool the 2nd]

In a naval vein, I most certainly did. An attack by 6 tac bombers merely scratched the paint of a few enemy battlewagons (-1 hit point each)-a few turns later there was a massive surface action which wiped out my entire task force (6 BB's, 7 CA's, 3 DD's) in one turn. I'm not sure but I think you need to "anticipate" where the enemy will be when the bombers arrive, or they won't bomb anything.

[drrowley]

again, yes and no

i have had bombers/tac, as soon as enemy unit in site, change direction and attack.

i have also seen them fly over and do nothing.

in that massive action, what were the losses on the other side?

d

[Deguar]

I've seen strange behaviour with tactical bombers when they are sent against high level tanks. If the bombers are only level 1 or 2 they tend to blithely ignore a tank (or rough equiv) at level 5 and it's only once tac bombers get up to 3 that they will reliably go after 6s. Then it tends to take a Tac bomber 4 to go after a tank 7.

Of course my AIs tend to stress tank technology so I'm rarely in a position where I have advanced air .

[Brit]

I've seen strange behaviour with tactical bombers when they are sent against high level tanks. If the bombers are only level 1 or 2 they tend to blithely ignore a tank (or rough equiv) at level 5 and it's only once tac bombers get up to 3 that they will reliably go after 6s. Then it tends to take a Tac bomber 4 to go after a tank 7.

Of course my AIs tend to stress tank technology so I'm rarely in a position where I have advanced air .

The field-orders system does take into account the combat-power between two units. This means a low-level tactical bomber might go after low-level tanks (which are weaker), but not high-level tanks. Sounds like I should adjust the system that decides whether or not a unit should engage in combat.

[wjm11656]

Either I don't understand grouping or there is something very wrong with grouped aircraft.

I was making repeated attempts to attack a destroyer and a battleship (level 2 I believe) with a group of planes. I had 4 fighters and about 7 tac bombers all of which were about the third or fourth improvement. After repeated attacks where I would see smoke from bombs I was getting no effect on the ships and maybe one hit to one of my planes.

I saved the game and broke them into 1 fighter group and 3 tac bomber groups. Same effect. Then I tried sending each plane in individually. Instant bloodbath both sides. Sunk battleship, crippled destroyer, , 3 lost planes and several wounded.

Are grouped units not working? It is hard to anticipate when to save to test exactly each time with ground units - but - I have seen some unusual results there also. It appears the AI seldom groups units. Is there a good reason to group? What are the benefits? And is everything working the way it should?

I had assumed that on the ground you want combined arms in a group - am I wrong. Should I be attacking with individual units?

[Brit]

Either I don't understand grouping or there is something very wrong with grouped aircraft.

I was making repeated attempts to attack a destroyer and a battleship (level 2 I believe) with a group of planes. I had 4 fighters and about 7 tac bombers all of which were about the third or fourth improvement. After repeated attacks where I would see smoke from bombs I was getting no effect on the ships and maybe one hit to one of my planes.

I saved the game and broke them into 1 fighter group and 3 tac bomber groups. Same effect. Then I tried sending each plane in individually. Instant bloodbath both sides. Sunk battleship, crippled destroyer, , 3 lost planes and several wounded.

Are grouped units not working? It is hard to anticipate when to save to test exactly each time with ground units - but - I have seen some unusual results there also. It appears the AI seldom groups units. Is there a good reason to group? What are the benefits? And is everything working the way it should?

I had assumed that on the ground you want combined arms in a group - am I wrong. Should I be attacking with individual units?

I ran a few tests using grouped and ungrouped tactical bombers against a Battleship. There were some variations in the combat results, but I didn't notice any correlation with whether or not my tactical bombers were grouped together or not.

Is there a good reason to group? What are the benefits? And is everything working the way it should?

Grouping is mainly just for convenience. It doesn't really provide any combat advantages. (I didn't want someone who already has a big group of units to get additional bonuses on top of the units themselves.)

[Innocence]

After repeated attacks where I would see smoke from bombs I was getting no effect on the ships and maybe one hit to one of my planes.

I saved the game and broke them into 1 fighter group and 3 tac bomber groups. Same effect. Then I tried sending each plane in individually. Instant bloodbath both sides.

I'm getting the exact same results. Just tried disbanding the group of 7-8 UAV's into individual units and sending them in - instant bloodbath. Two infantry, one artillery destroyed, 2 UAV's damaged.

I've got a savegame (835Kb compressed). Interresting thing is watching the replay of the previous 7 turns: 6 turns of the UAV group attacking without effect, then this last turn of total carnage.

[Brit]

I'm getting the exact same results. Just tried disbanding the group of 7-8 UAV's into individual units and sending them in - instant bloodbath. Two infantry, one artillery destroyed, 2 UAV's damaged.

I've got a savegame (835Kb compressed). Interresting thing is watching the replay of the previous 7 turns: 6 turns of the UAV group attacking without effect, then this last turn of total carnage.

Hm. I was using class 2 tactical bombers, not UAVs. Don't know if that would've made a difference, but maybe I was running my test with the wrong tactical bombers. I'll put my email in your private messages. I don't remember if I gave it to you earlier.

[Brit]

I'm getting the exact same results. Just tried disbanding the group of 7-8 UAV's into individual units and sending them in - instant bloodbath. Two infantry, one artillery destroyed, 2 UAV's damaged.

I've got a savegame (835Kb compressed). Interresting thing is watching the replay of the previous 7 turns: 6 turns of the UAV group attacking without effect, then this last turn of total carnage.

Thanks. I found and fixed the problem. It turned out to be a problem with the field orders and aircraft unit-groups.

[Innocence]

I found and fixed the problem

Blimey, you're efficient

[drrowley]

you have 'individual' orders and 'group' orders, which one will they exicute in the new update?

[Brit]

you have 'individual' orders and 'group' orders, which one will they exicute in the new update?

Units inside groups should ignore their own individual field orders.