altitude

[Rexor]

Altitude in air assignments is only for the journey to and from, yes? If my Betties are going to drop torpedoes on a TF, I don't have to tell them to drop to 200 feet--they'll still go to the TF at 15,000 if that's what I have?

I ask because some of the altitudes of the planes on KB at the beginning of the GC confuse me. Zeros with an altitude assignment of 100 ft? Granted, they're on airfield attack, but are they going to fly at 100 feet all the way to Pearl?

[tigercub]

They drop to the required height and attack and return to the height you set them too.

Tiger!

[Scott_USN]

No not really it matters on cap too. Cap changes if the fighters are at 100 feet they are most likely strafing ground targets.
 
I look at my fighters and cap them at the alt where they start losing agility. For exampe the p40e losing most of its agility at 16k feet so I set it to 13000 to 15000 so it can dive on bombers and escort fighters. Works for me the early war Allied planes have to be given the ability to counter the nimble Japanese fighters and alititude is about all I have. The Betties come in at 13k and drop for torpedo runs and my fighters have plenty of altitude to drop on them and scatter them hopefully.

[Rexor]

ORIGINAL: tigercub

They drop to the required height and attack and return to the height you set them too.

Tiger!

Thanks tiger. Also, do escorts fly at the altitude you assign them or do they fly at the altitude of the bombers they're escorting? If the latter, why bother assigning an altitude to an escort fighter squadron?

[Rexor]

ORIGINAL: Scott_USN

No not really it matters on cap too. Cap changes if the fighters are at 100 feet they are most likely strafing ground targets.

I look at my fighters and cap them at the alt where they start losing agility. For exampe the p40e losing most of its agility at 16k feet so I set it to 13000 to 15000 so it can dive on bombers and escort fighters. Works for me the early war Allied planes have to be given the ability to counter the nimble Japanese fighters and alititude is about all I have. The Betties come in at 13k and drop for torpedo runs and my fighters have plenty of altitude to drop on them and scatter them hopefully.

But that's what confuses me. I'm playing as the Japanese versus an allied AI, and I have been looking at altitudes set during the historical first turn to try to learn a thing or two (newb here). All the Betties that dived on ships, including the Repulse/Prince of Wales, were set at high altitudes, like 15k. But obviously they dropped to 200 feet once they got to the hex to drop their torps. By contrast, the Zeros slated for airfield attack on Pearl were preset to 100 feet. In other words, why am I not required to set my TF-attacking Betties at 200 feet for a torpedo attack while I AM required to set my AF-attacking Zeros to 100 feet? Is it me, or is there an inconsistency there? Am I setting altitudes for the journey or the attack itself?

[rogueusmc]

In WitP, escorts usually fly about 3000 above the bombers...

[Rexor]

ORIGINAL: rogueusmc

In WitP, escorts usually fly about 3000 above the bombers...

Cool. Do you bother setting altitudes for your escorts then?

[Scott_USN]

Ok if I remember right and I don't remember everything. In WITP you set your fighters at 100 feet if you wanted them to strafe the enemy troops, they would pop up to 1000 feet and shoot their guns and run away at 100 feet. I think that is what is happening at Pearl since enemy fighters were nonexistant for the most part.

The Betties will attack on their own, it just doesn't tell you step by step, once the betties drop their torps they climb to whatever alititude you set. Think of it like this you give the general orders "Fly 15000 feet to target engage target" when the betty reaches the target the AI or AI Pilot takes over and makes his run and then he goes back to your order of 15000 feet to run away.

You set the general rules the AI pilot makes the critical tactical choices. Think large scale over view.\

What USMC stated was to put your escorts at 15000 feet and your bombers at 12000 feet that gives your escort fighters extra energy to engage the enemy.

[TheElf]

Remember, RAID COORDINATION is set by the player by setting ESCORTS to the SAME ALTITUDE. If you want to tell the code to TRY to COORDINATE different Air units in the same raid set them ALL to the SAME altitude. The code will do the rest.

[rogueusmc]

Cool...that works for me...

[Dili]

In WITP since there was not a strafing missing to be selected you put the fighters at 100ft. This was(is?) because a silly rule that fighters needed to be put 100ft to straf barges and other things.

[Rexor]

ORIGINAL: TheElf

Remember, RAID COORDINATION is set by the player by setting ESCORTS to the SAME ALTITUDE. If you want to tell the code to TRY to COORDINATE different Air units in the same raid set them ALL to the SAME altitude. The code will do the rest.

Ahhh. Thanks for that, Elf. I think I understand now. But the 100 ft assignment for KB's Zeros still seems strange to me. Is it because they're fighters and the low level commands them to strafe rather than drop bombs?

[TheElf]

ORIGINAL: Rexor

ORIGINAL: TheElf

Remember, RAID COORDINATION is set by the player by setting ESCORTS to the SAME ALTITUDE. If you want to tell the code to TRY to COORDINATE different Air units in the same raid set them ALL to the SAME altitude. The code will do the rest.

Ahhh. Thanks for that, Elf. I think I understand now. But the 100 ft assignment for KB's Zeros still seems strange to me. Is it because they're fighters and the low level commands them to strafe rather than drop bombs?

Correct. If set to SWEEP at 100' they will strafe. If set to AF attack they will strafe and Drop bombs.