How do flaks work?

[AznWarlord]

I don't reach flight before I lose (on Monarch, which I have not won yet, strangely, in Regent I don't reach flight before I win, so I've never reached flight unless I start in the modern age.), so the AI's have thousand of planes and I have a bunch of Infantry. I declare war and they attack with planes, rape with tanks. I reload the game. I build flaks as they are AA's (right?). I put like 50 flaks (exaggerated) over like 100 infantry (once again exaggerated), but I have no idea how flaks defend against planes. They bombard my stacks of doom once again and the tanks rape the wounded afterwards. Again.

How can I use flaks to defend against planes (assuming that they do)?

 

[psweetman1590]

Flak do defend against planes. The way it works is:

(AAdefense -(listed in civpedia)- / 10) / ( (AAD/10) + Bomber's defense)

In essense, the number that's listed in the civ pedia is divided by ten. Then it works like normal combat - that strength is applied against the bombers defense. For the purposes of AA, all planes have one hp, so if the odds work in your favor, you shoot the plane down.

For instance, flak has AAD of 2. This means it's actuall AAD is .2. This is applied against the bomber's defense of 2. Thus, you have a .2/2.2 chance of shooting down the bomber.

That's only one flak, however. UP TO 4 flak can simultaneously attempt to shoot down a bomber in a tile. This, naturally, means you'll get many more kills with 4 than with 1... but more than 4 have no effect. So 50 won't give you any more protection than 4 would have, so you're just wasting production.

 

[AznWarlord]

Well seeing that .2/2.2 (around 10% chance, 4 flaks would make about 35%) is a pretty low number, and the RNG for any game in the world hates me (Vet. Knights lose to Reg. Spears), guess I better win my games before the age of flight. Or try my best to get flight so air superiority will save my ass.

 

[psweetman1590]

Indeed, if you're looking for immediate protection, flak is not the answer. But don't underestimate them. Given a fleet of 100 bombers, 4 flak would (on average) shoot down over thirty of them. In the next turn, the AI would only have 60something, and 20 or so would get shot down. The next turn the AI would only have 40 - you've cut his bomber fleet in half in just two turns!

Of course, the bombers that did get through would probably make it difficult to just sit back and wait for the bombers to die, but nonetheless, flak can be very efficient for thinning the AI's air force.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

Flight makes things tough, all right. The AI loves bombers.

Knights will lose to spears reasonably often - if the spear is fortified, the knight wins less than 60% of the rounds.

 

[Quintillus]

Very nice guide on Flak, psweetman. I never knew exactly how they worked. Will definitely have to remember the stack of 4 - 35% thing.