airial showdown

[loenatiek]

Hi everyone.

Of warfare in all eras, i feel modern warfare is my weakest part. I just dont have a good feeling how to compose my stacks...
One major factor is air: if you've got bombers, and you're fighting someone who doenst have air defence, then he's history. No matter how much more power he has, if you just delay a ground confrontation untill you've done a couple of turns of bombing, then he's history. The complete opposite is true (for me at least) once he has air defense. Even just 1 or 2 interceptor fighters can render bombing useless, about 2/3 of the bombers are intercepted (at least, so i feel), and the hammer cost just doenst outweight the benefit anymore, so i'll usually stick to artillary in case he has air defense.
But..it should be possible to destroy his airforce, right? Battle of brittain style, like germany attempted to take out the RAF. But, is there someone who knows how airial combat works? I know bombers and fighters both have a strength, but how can i calculate how likelly it is for my bomber to survive? And how likelly is he to do just how much damage to the enemy fighter?
And, when i plan on taking out the enemy airforce first, then what is the strategy to use? Sending fighters first, or try bombing his cities, attack them (units), or pillage his terrain improvements? Anyone that does know how airial combat works?

 

[Ginger_Ale]

Hi loenatiek,

You might want to check out the article "Air Combat in BTS Explained" by Stormreaver. I think it covers a lot of the mechanics of aerial warfare, and it gives a few examples so that you can see the calculations in practice:

For ground units, the interception chance is always the percentage specified (SAM Inf, for example, has a 40% interception chance at full health as well as at 1 HP). For air units, the interception chance is lowered linearly if the unit is damaged. A fighter with an intercept chance of 100% when healthy, has a 30% shot to intercept at 30 HP, and if these two units were the eligible defenders the SAM Inf would be chosen, no matter its health. Ground units who moved the previous turn can not intercept, nor can ground units intercept more than once in a turn (air units on Intercept can intercept 'til they die - note that if a first mission gets them damaged, their interception percentage goes down for further missions).

Intercept combat is pretty well described in the referenced thread if you want an explanation outside this thread, but just like ground combat it is decided in rounds. However, the number of rounds is capped at 5 (set in the global variable INTERCEPTION_MAX_ROUNDS). Before the combat begins the respective combat odds and damage is calculated , just like ground combat, although the formulas differ. The odds for winning a round are calculated using the relative strengths, which for air units is base strength plus modifiers for combat promotions, all multiplied by current health. For ground units it's using the normal strength calculation, including health, fortification and terrain modifiers. The odds of the attacker inflicting damage each round is his strength divided by total strength. The damage inflicted each won round is calculated completely regardless of the strength, it's instead calculated by the inteception percentage only: it's simply the percentage multiplied by the constant MAX_INTERCEPTION_DAMAGE from GlobalDefines.xml (which is 50). There's also a MIN_INTERCEPTION_DAMAGE, set to 10, which is being used for the attacker if it has very low or no interception capability (like Bombers). Since interception percentage is affected by health for air units, also inflicted damage per round is affected. Ground units intercepting never take any damage - the benefit for an attacking plane of winning rounds is merely not getting hit.

There is also an article entitled "Modern Warfare in BTS" by Flying Pig that addresses the "combined-arms" type approach that is necessary in the late game. If the enemy has a lot of fighters and air defenders that make bombing difficult, you may want to try taking advantage of artillery and/or missiles. If you put some units out in the open and have fighters on Intercept, you might be able to force your opponent into making the first move, costing him some fighters.

 

[Emperor Peter]

The complete opposite is true (for me at least) once he has air defense. Even just 1 or 2 interceptor fighters can render bombing useless, about 2/3 of the bombers are intercepted (at least, so i feel), and the hammer cost just doenst outweight the benefit anymore, so i'll usually stick to artillary in case he has air defense.
But..it should be possible to destroy his airforce, right? Battle of brittain style, like germany attempted to take out the RAF. But, is there someone who knows how airial combat works? I know bombers and fighters both have a strength, but how can i calculate how likelly it is for my bomber to survive? And how likelly is he to do just how much damage to the enemy fighter?
And, when i plan on taking out the enemy airforce first, then what is the strategy to use? Sending fighters first, or try bombing his cities, attack them (units), or pillage his terrain improvements? Anyone that does know how airial combat works?

I don't like the way they've made aerial combat but bombers don't become useless once the enemy has fighters. The trick is to send your own fighters on a bombing mission first (i don't think it makes a difference if you attack units, cultural defenses or improvements), so they get intercepted, fighters shoot down interceptors more often then bombers. Send your bombers in after your fighters.

I would prefer if your own fighters that are set to intercept missions could escort your attacking bombers, i tried that but that's not how it works. But playing like suggested above makes it worthwhile to maintain an airforce IMO. Especially in combination with tanks.

 

[JammerUno]

Sending in fighters first works, just swamping the AI with your bombers works fine as well. It's a rare sight to see an AI mass any significant number of them.
The best advice I can give besides that is: keep a team of workers nearby to lay down fortresses on hills, they can hold 4 aircraft, thesame as city without an airport. That increases your capacity for concentrated airpower.
5-6 fighters won't stand up to 30 bombers, and 100% damage when intercepted is rare, so losses are usually low, just heal your bombers when they get damaged. Fighters, on the other hand, just stupidly keep on intercepting until they're dead, so use that. (although SAMs will take over after they get damaged beyond some point, according to GingerA)
Going after resources can be a viable strategy as well, although modern wars are usually fast enough for it not to have much of an impact. Considering the average length of my bomber/tank fueled blitz attacks, the AI won't have time to produce many units between declaring and being wiped out. My wars are usually over before the first captured city comes out of revolt.