Fighters intercepting out of their range?

[xhoel]

Hello all, I am playing a PBEM game and just noticed that in more than one occasion my fighters have intercepted planes out of their range. I know this is something that was also reported by Gunnulf in his AAR. Is this a bug or am I missing something? Pictures below:

Shown here is the interception by the III. and IV. Group of JG 27 over Krefeld:



And here is the location of JG 27, with air range circle showing. Krefeld is circled in red:



Can someone explain this?

Thank you in advance,
Xhoel

[cfulbright]

I think they intercepted on the route to the target.

Cary

[xhoel]

I don't follow? What do you mean?

[cfulbright]

Oops, misread the map.

Cary

[Joel Billings]

Do you have auto load out? Is it possible the unit used dropped tanks to extend its range?

[xhoel]

Hey Joel,
No, the Bf 109G-6s are using the 20mm extras as chosen by me, and they were not using drop tanks in this case. I checked the loadouts before making the post.

[xhoel]

The same thing just happened again. Is this a bug?
When selecting an air base there are two circles, one is kind of green the other one is purple. What does the purple one indicate?

[Searry]

One of the WITW system's downsides is intercept range is pretty much loadout dependent. This means unnecessary fatigue in most cases, lets take the case of '43 for example, you move a bunch of day fighters to the northern German coast to counter US bombers flying the last hexes without escort. You put high range fighters in the west to counter odd routes the allied player might take in coming to the submarine area. As the possible routes get narrower you start putting more day fighters to the bases around this area with shorter range loadouts with eventually no fuel tanks in the major submarine base towns and cities. But then you have the 2 engine fighters which can go long range even with little fuel tanks(they have high value in short range defence). This means they fly farther and take needless fatigue when long range interception is already dealt with. With this aerial defence system, you get a lot of kills but fatigue is still needlessly high because you can't control the radius of hexes an air group can fly.

Doesn't help if it's bugged.

[Helpless]

When selecting an air base there are two circles, one is kind of green the other one is purple. What does the purple one indicate?

Purple is operational range, green is escort range.

Is it possible to get a save before Allied air execution?

[xhoel]

@Searry: Yeah, that is one of the things that the WITW Air Game needs to improve upon. I think the addition of a max range as was recently introduced in WITE would be a good solution but I don't know where the devs stand on that.

@Helpless: Thanks for the clarification. In the case of an Air Base that has only fighters in it, the green circle would be the max range one correct? That one is the same as the range shown on Air Transfers (f10). Or in other words what would operational range mean?

I will have to ask my opponent if he has such a save and get back to you. If he has one should I send it to you per PM or just post it?

Thanks in advance,
Xhoel

[Helpless]

the green circle would be the max range one correct?

Escort (green) range is shorter - 1/4 of transfer range.

Operational range is 1/3 of transfer range.

[Helpless]

Or in other words what would operational range mean?

All kind of air missions except escort and transfer.

[xhoel]

Thanks for clearing that up. So auto intercept would use the escort range correct?

[Helpless]

I've looked into the save and Krefeld appears to be in range.

[xhoel]

I'm confused, I thought intercept uses escort range and not operational range.

[Helpless]

Only escorts have reduced range.

[xhoel]

So for automatic interception the max range would be the purple cirlce? Would it be possible to change that when viewing air units in the air transfer mode? That would make life easier. Like this you have to check every single air base to ensure that they are not flying into areas where the WA have air superiority.

[Helpless]

Don't understand what should be changed. Afaik, there is no difference how air circles are displayed.

In f10 you can filter particular aircraft type to toggle air circle display from all air bases.

[xhoel]

When using f10 the air circle displayed is the the equivalent to the green one or the escort range and not to the operational range (purple). This is shown in the first pic i posted. What I am saying is that if you are viewing your fighter groups in the f10 mode you have a false sense of security because they will be intercepting beyond what the air range circles in f10 show.

[Helpless]

Now I see what you mean, this is indeed misleading. Will fix it.