How do fighters intercept?

[Longasc]

I have a problem: My enemy got flight before me, and he sends some pesky bombers every turn.

Well, I will soon have fighters.

BUT how can I deploy them safely in a bombed city?

THEY ARE THE FIRST to be bombed and killed for some reason!

I think of the following: I want to build an airfield besides the city.

The AI hardly targets airfields if there is a city to bomb. There I want to deploy my fighters!!!

But will the fighters intercept Bombers headed for the city? How big is their interception radius??????


Thanks.

 

[danirus]

or you can build flaks...
interception range is half the operational range, that should be 2 if my memory serves me right..

 

[geowhiz1]

Build the airfield one square away from the city. I don't think it affects production. Try to build on the side of the city closest to youre enemy so you could have more range if you put bombers in the airfield.

 

[Jaybe]

Fighter intercept radius (in C3C) is 3 tiles. Put them into an airfield or city within that, stick them onto air superiority and you're there. Put a LOT of fighters within range of the target and you will improve your chances* of intercepting the bombers.

Of course, if you have a lot of fighters, you can put them into the target city and put the survivors on intercept.

*Contrary to my belief of just a couple of weeks ago

 

[Longasc]

Thanks for all the answers. As my game progressed, I had some MAJOR aerial battles, and I must admit the aerial combat concept of Flak and stuff works much better then I expected.

But this is only the case if the AI has flight, too, without it will get pounded without any chance of survival.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

I think of the following: I want to build an airfield besides the city.

Exactly. As you will have noticed by now, you have to mine/irrigate the Airfield again, but that's hardly a problem. The way Flaks work, you never need more than 4 of them on one tile.
Airfields rock.
I ran into a similar situation in a Deity game where the only other remaining power was America; comparable size to me. The only time ever I saw how insanely powerful F-15 can be. And yes, the only time I ever saw them triggering a GA.

Btw, a good exercise on using Airfields is China in WW2.