Air effectiveness

[SWHodges22]

Getting the hang of the game but have noticed my air units are practically worthless. Started with Sicily and out of about 30 ordered air to ground assaults never got even 1 defender loss. Playing North Africa now and even units in the wide open and moving, not entrenched, I have simply stopped ordering any attacks to weaken my attack points because they have no effect.

Why is this? Should they all just be left on Full Support and hope that the computer air commander orders the support attacks I need?

[Harrybanana]

Only the first ground strike has a chance of inflicting a defender loss. All other air attacks will only reduce the enemy units effectiveness. So it is generally best to use your air unit with the second highest tactical strength first. The reason why the second is because you want to use the air unit with the highest tactical strength set to auto to add its tactical strength to your combat odds. Only 1 air unit will participate in each ground attack. Note as well that each successive air strike will do less damage to the enemy units effectiveness. So unless you are only attacking one hex or it is a critical attack, you are generally better off only air striking a particular hex once or twice.

I personally have no problem with this system. My only gripe is that air units do not inflict as much effectiveness loss on enemy units as, IMHO, they should. It is for this reason that most players build very few, if any, air units. Well, some players like to build strategic bombers, but of course they are not generally used for ground support.

[SWHodges22]

Yea about where I'm at here in North Africa just letting the air units act in support. Affecting effectiveness, suppression, is what I'm looking for and hoepfully a strength hit. Is there a way to see this? Maybe set the icons to display attack/defense numbers? I was purposely using the air units in ordered direct attacks just to see if I could get a result, still trying things out.

[Harrybanana]

You can tell if your 1st air strike caused an enemy unit to lose 1 or 2 strength points as it is displayed in the combat report. All airstrikes, including the first, will reduce enemy effectiveness. You can't see how much you have reduced the enemy effectiveness by. But if before your airstrike the enemy displayed a strength of say 7, and after the airstrike it displays a strength of 6, then you will know you have done something to it.

You don't get to see how a ground support mission (or maybe it is called ground attack or something else) affected your ground attack. But I am told that in addition to bombing the enemy unit it also adds its tactical strength. So if you are attacking with 12 strength and the enemy has a 4 defense the odds would normally be 3-1. But if you add an air unit with a 4 tactical strength to the attack it will increase the odds to 4-1.

[SWHodges22]

ORIGINAL: Harrybanana

You can tell if your 1st air strike caused an enemy unit to lose 1 or 2 strength points as it is displayed in the combat report. All airstrikes, including the first, will reduce enemy effectiveness. You can't see how much you have reduced the enemy effectiveness by. But if before your airstrike the enemy displayed a strength of say 7, and after the airstrike it displays a strength of 6, then you will know you have done something to it.

You don't get to see how a ground support mission (or maybe it is called ground attack or something else) affected your ground attack. But I am told that in addition to bombing the enemy unit it also adds its tactical strength. So if you are attacking with 12 strength and the enemy has a 4 defense the odds would normally be 3-1. But if you add an air unit with a 4 tactical strength to the attack it will increase the odds to 4-1.

Gotcha!