Air Combat - How does it work?

[Emperor Giulio]

Its amazing the havoc you can wreak with fighters and bombers on an economy of a civ that does not have flight !

Like they say, "who ever controls the skys, controls the world."

 

[jeffreyac]

Eh, reference my sig... I'm still looking for in-flight refueling to give my bombers intercontinental range....

 

[HerrDoktor]

I suppose the odds are always to the interceptor, so chances are that the attacking airplane will die most of times, but I've seen the defender taking damage and being shot down even by an airship at times. Also, if you attack a city with a fighter, it will always target other fighters and airships first, and now the odds seem to be turned to the attacker.

 

[Retrospect]

While this thread is up.

How many interceptions can air units make per turn?

 

[jeffreyac]

My understanding is an air unit with intercept orders can intercept until it is destroyed - there is no maximum number of intercepts...

EDIT: although I also seem to remember someone saying that as the intercepting unit takes damage, the chance of interception decreases...

 

[Retrospect]

mmmm interesting

thanks for the swift reply

 

[jeffreyac]

lol... the pleasures of browsing at work while on break - nothing to do but watch the civ boards, and read up on strategy.

I can't find the article now, but I remember it saying the chance of intercept was 100% for an undamaged defender (interceptor), and the % went down as it was damaged, but I don't remember if it was a straight linear decrease (i.e. 50% damaged=50% intercept chance) or how it worked...

 

[Joe Harker]

Yeah, a plane can intercept in BTS until it falls out the sky (in the orginal, it would only intercept once a turn) A good reason to keep two or three fighters in the air, as the strongest one is used.

 

[Retrospect]

So if attacking, best to send all your fighters in first to minimize the chance of their air defence taking out your bombers??

 

[jeffreyac]

That's my understanding - sending a fighter in on a bombing mission (either against units, the city defenses, or defended tiles surrounding the city) will force the defenders to engage your fighters, prompting combat.

 

[Thanny]

So if attacking, best to send all your fighters in first to minimize the chance of their air defence taking out your bombers??

Absolutely. Bombers will essentially never survive an interception by a healthy fighter. Send all your fighters in until they're no longer intercepted. If you pay attention to the numbers, you can estimate how many interceptors there are remaining (i.e. only damaged, with no longer a 100% chance of interception), and send fighters until they're shot down if you want. Or just send the bombers in at that point, and risk them being shot down by a damaged interceptor, which isn't terribly likely (especially Stealth).

 

[Retrospect]

Thanks!!

You learn something new every day

 

[HerrDoktor]

That's my understanding - sending a fighter in on a bombing mission (either against units, the city defenses, or defended tiles surrounding the city) will force the defenders to engage your fighters, prompting combat.

I'm not 100% but almost sure, if you send your fighters to an air attack mission (not the air bomb anti-city-defenses mission), they WILL ALWAYS engage the enemy's fighters, if present, instead of attacking the units in place.

 

[Thanny]

I'm not 100% but almost sure, if you send your fighters to an air attack mission (not the air bomb anti-city-defenses mission), they WILL ALWAYS engage the enemy's fighters, if present, instead of attacking the units in place.

No, they will or will not be intercepted, whether it's a bombing defenses, bombing an improvement, or attacking a unit. They don't go after defending air units.

 

[jeffreyac]

True, but against an undamaged defending air unit (with 100% interception chance) the effect is basically the same thing...

 

[Tephros]

Personally, I haven't seen the AI with flight in many games. At most, my fighters rack up experience shooting down airships. It seems every 2 or 3 airships they kill they take 10% damage. I don't think the AI prioritizes flight enough. It's not like they never have combustion when I win.

 

[Gypsy1220]

In my current game (Hemispheres, Standard, Immortal, Epic), I have been in an extended war with Saladin in the Modern Era. We both have fighters/bombers/tanks. Many planes, both attacking and set to intercept have been shot down [one of my fighters is up to 47 XP]. There are promotions that give a better chance of evasion for attacking aircraft, but I wish there were also some promotions for those defending fighters to increase the odds of them intercepting those attacking me. Also, units should get XP for successfully performing bombing/strike mission.

As for not being able to intercept aircraft doing recon, I wish that there was a reduced chance of interception. It annoys me that I (or the AI) can send many recon planes into their territory even during peace time with no penalties what-so-ever. There should be chances of being shot down (low) or spotted (medium) with some sort of negative modifier to the diplo score.

I also think that there should be a "spy satellite" unit that could do the recon available in the late game.

 

[Bushface]

Surely a damaged fighter has the same chance of making an interception as a full-health one ? But it is weaker, and hence has less chance of winning and will do less damage per combat round against a fresh attacker.

 

[Thanny]

Surely a damaged fighter has the same chance of making an interception as a full-health one ? But it is weaker, and hence has less chance of winning and will do less damage per combat round against a fresh attacker.

No, a damaged fighter's interception probability goes down. It's always been that way in Civ4. It's just that in BtS, it starts at 100%.

 

[Pir Lan Tota]

Surely a damaged fighter has the same chance of making an interception as a full-health one ? But it is weaker, and hence has less chance of winning and will do less damage per combat round against a fresh attacker.

Makes sense, damage to a fighter unit means less planes can leave the ground, so they are more outnumbered against other fighters if they find them...which becomes pretty hard for WW2 style fighters as they didnt have radar and used eye-sight to find them enemy fly-boys