Killer Xray Russian Aircraft

[sand digger]

Game is generally playing great with the current patches, thankyou 1C, but someone has tweaked Russian ground attack aircraft effectiveness and changed them into seek and destroy monsters. First battle of the campaign and I lose over one thirds of the infantry before they can reach the enemy, most of which had adopted prone positions and quite a few had been hiding in heavy cover in difficult to get at hollows.

According to the historical records I have read, Western ground attack pilots grossly overestimated the damage they inflicted, this being confirmed by careful battlefield examination after the event. So I don't know on what basis the tweak has been done, it seemed about right originally and no one complained about it did they?

So I'll have to start again, this time with some AA, can't realistically continue the present game after sustaining such pre combat losses.

Any tips as to German AA which can also be used against ground targets?

[sand digger]

Not much choice for German AA, am trying the unarmoured SdKfz 7/1 quad 20mm flak wagon, have positioned it out of enemy ground LOS, should be fun to watch in action with lots of sparkling goodness

[Stimo]

In this battle, I saw ground attack aircrafts turn around hunting my troops as low as 1 meter above the ground.

Around the hill, they acted just like reef sharks !

[sand digger]

Action report: the unarmoured flak wagon did not last long, once it opened fire those green (Sturmoviks?) were right on it, lined it up in a train and literally blew it to pieces for the loss of one aircraft. Spectacular video, it was almost worth losing the wagon to see it

Chose the quad over the similar single 37mm flak wagon because it has a gunshield, errr, yes. Infantry losses were down this time but still significant, the ones on the left flank under trees were not spotted. Noticed one of the light cannon armed tanks firing at the intruders when they were strafing which seems fair enough, no reason why it shouldn't.

[phil stanbridge]

I concur that the Russian aircraft have received some kind of uber enhancement. They are absolutely lethal now. In the first mission I noticed the IL2's picking out individual AAA and infantry guns/mortars that I had hidden purposely in woods. Quite frustrating!

[sand digger]

Yep it been tweaked, Russian>>>>>German. Some German Cessna's came over, buzzing around, dropped a couple of firecrackers, one got shot down, that was it..............

[Stimo]

Shark hunting mad around the reef !

[sand digger]

Great screen shot Stimo, my flak wagon was on that hill too. I viewed the attack from low down behind the wagon so the aircraft flew in line towards me and shot the wagon and all the crew to pieces, will have to learn how to take screen shots, some great ones come up in this game.

[Sneaksie]

Guys, we didn't tweak Russian units to be more aggressive or whatever... Il-2s attacks improved because aircraft AI was improved. If you play Russian campaign, you'll probably say the same about 'monster' Stukas:) The same AI pilots both the Russian and German aircraft, but of course capabilities of these planes and their payload differ.

[phil stanbridge]

On a positive note, they appear to now use the proper ordnance on their targets which could also be why we are seeing more devastation.

[sand digger]

Well I still think that the IL2's are overly effective in a historical sense but of course I'm going on Western Allies historical information. Even the German's overestimated the actual battlefield impact, a lot of it concerned morale and supply etc delay. Actual battlefield damage, as distinct from rear support damage, was quite low compared with that inflicted by artillery.

Which is not the situation here, infantry are vulnerable enough without getting knocked in bulk before you get the chance to send them to their maker human wave style

[Knokke]

I've also noticed the improvement in the choice of proper ordnance, but some aircraft keep attacking the same armored targets with light MG stubornly after having exhausted their main armament instead of choosing a more suited new target. Is the aiming point of aircraft still the same as before, or have it changed? (they seems to be always targeting the lower part of vehicles, always firing in the ground even when the targets are hull down)

A tip I've found usefull about the A/A vehicles: never leave them in the open, hoping for them to have the best field of fire; they'll attract the attention of ennemy airplanes too easily and die quickly. It's more usefull to have them hidden behind something, like a building, or if there is none, in the woods. Position them so that they're on the opposite side of the building, away from the main direction from where the planes are coming. They'll not be spotted by the attacking aircraft initially, and when theses are passing overhead flying away from the scene of their attack, they can have a nasty surprise.

[Stimo]

I played yesterday the first battle of the Russian campaign.

I saw 3 german planes flying so high I'm not sure they were Stukas.

Despite a complete lack of AA weapons they didn't attack my troops, they just crossed the battlefield once.

Maybe they were heading to another player's game ?

PS : I'm experiencing quite too many crashes to desktop, are there any log files I can upload to help improve the game ?

[phil stanbridge]

Thanks Knokke I'll try your strategy. Also, you can remove them from the missions if you feel like cheating.

[Sneaksie]

Stimo

Stukas in first Russian mission fly high and drop bombs on the road on your left flank to clear it of mines then fly away, they don't engage your forces because it's the first mission and player has enough problems with advancing enemy heavy tanks already. For example, in the second scenario Stukas annihilate the first line of defences (player's ally) right away.

When you have these crashes? During loading, in the beginning of the mission, in the middle of mission, etc.?

[Stimo]

Most of the crashes occur when I stop a game and use F6 to reload a save.

Some other happen during long games, 1h30+

[sand digger]

Lost two out of three flak wagons in Cherkasskoe to air attack but yeh, being aware of an air threat does make a difference and you become more careful. Knokke is right, I noticed that if the aircraft can line a flak wagon up and strafe it at ground level then its usually done for. A hidden bonus was that one gunner survived and he later did great work using captured artillery against the former owners.