How do you tell which aircraft weapons are most effective?

Gary Grigsby’s War in the West 1943-45 is the most ambitious and detailed computer wargame on the Western Front of World War II ever made. Starting with the Summer 1943 invasions of Sicily and Italy and proceeding through the invasions of France and the drive into Germany, War in the West brings you all the Allied campaigns in Western Europe and the capability to re-fight the Western Front according to your plan.

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Lovenought
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How do you tell which aircraft weapons are most effective?

Post by Lovenought »

Specifically, on the Hurricane Mk IV. The one that can carry either 8 rockets, or two 40mm cannons.

I've been using them with the cannons, but I have no idea whether I should or not. As far as I can tell, the actual stats of aircraft ground-attack armaments are not listed anywhere at all in the game or manual. Are they actually available somewhere obscure, and I just haven't noticed?

Grateful for the help. I'm falling in love with this game. Up to turn 41 of a grand campaign PBEM!
Searry
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RE: How do you tell which aircraft weapons are most effective?

Post by Searry »

As the allies you don't need anything but drop tanks for escorting bombers really because you have air superiority by sheer numbers and extra guns would just drag them down and make them even more susceptible to axis fighters in the rear.
For FB the case is different. Put max amount of arms and fight at 4-5k feet in overlapping GA directives. Maybe put both rockets and 40mm cannons. Switch them out each turn and study the results.
Just my emprirical studies on the subject. I hope someone more experienced can answer as well and refute me.
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loki100
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RE: How do you tell which aircraft weapons are most effective?

Post by loki100 »

ORIGINAL: Lovenought

Specifically, on the Hurricane Mk IV. The one that can carry either 8 rockets, or two 40mm cannons.

I've been using them with the cannons, but I have no idea whether I should or not. As far as I can tell, the actual stats of aircraft ground-attack armaments are not listed anywhere at all in the game or manual. Are they actually available somewhere obscure, and I just haven't noticed?

Grateful for the help. I'm falling in love with this game. Up to turn 41 of a grand campaign PBEM!

For GA, essentially it depends (well ... what did you expect as an answer?). Essentially if your target is going to be mobile use rockets, if static, then bombs. So if your GA mission is interdiction = rockets, if your GA mission is bomb units = bombs (think of the bomb as better for dealing damage to a dug in target). With the Hurricanes this is where I'd opt for the cannon option.

If you are doing GS, well if you are defending (v unlikely), rockets, if attacking its a matter of judgement. If you feel its very likely there will be Pzrs on reserve reaction, maybe rockets (but this situation is better defended against with a GA-interdiction mission).

You can find the details on the unit detail and in the Commanders Report. The compare planes screen is good for this.

Does it really matter? Well as Searry says, you will usually have so many planes over the battlefield that its a matter of getting small gains rather than being the key difference.

More generally for the ground attack missions I use a logic of if its static (rail yard/unit) bombs and this is where I'll allocate my 2 Engined bombers as well as any FBs (even the 4 engined bombers are good here). If its moving, (interdiction/rail ways), FB and rockets if I have them.

edit: you can test by setting the combat report detail to 5+, at that point you'll start to see the impact of individual weapon systems, you can always hit the 'esc' key if its all taking too long. You usually don't need to see many missions to get a feel for this.

But ... interdiction missions may appear to be ineffective at this point in resolution. They start to extract their real toll when the axis move (attack/retreat/normal or of supply).

A worthwhile experiment is to set up the Breakout and Pursuit scenario as left hand-right hand. Generate some 7* interdiction and move a Pzr division into those hexes. You'll quickly appreciate how deadly the interdiction misssion can be.
Lovenought
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RE: How do you tell which aircraft weapons are most effective?

Post by Lovenought »

Rockets and cannons for targets of opportunity in mobile battles, big bombs for breaking dug-in units during an assault? That actually is very intuitive and makes sense.

It's a good rule of thumb, i'll keep it in mind from now on!
HMSWarspite
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RE: How do you tell which aircraft weapons are most effective?

Post by HMSWarspite »

To find the characteristics of the weapons, use the commander's report screen, ->equipment->weapons. Sort on type and scroll to aircraft cannon, etc
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