Problem: fighters not intercepting from carrier

[BomberEscort]

What about a fighter relocated to a carrier via a rally point. Since fighters that are relocated via rally points can attack the same turn and do recon, maybe AS would kick in the same turn. I use rally points for fighters and bombers to get them into the fight one turn earlier.

 

[sleepsy]

NP. I am not sure if thats a good thing having to wait that turn. I guess with carriers you can put the fighters on AS ahead of time before you get into enemy territory. If the fighters are on the cities though and the enemy declares war and you have not set your fighters on AS earlier, you could be in trouble. When all of those bombers catch your fighters on the ground it could be the end of your air support...

...Exactly. One turn is simply too much because in the age of flight everybody (and especially AI) can usually afford to build lots of units. Thus, bombers comings in packs the first turn do a lot of damage. I believe we're on the same boat, concerning our opinions on this.

By the way, what does the NP mean?

What about a fighter relocated to a carrier via a rally point. Since fighters that are relocated via rally points can attack the same turn and do recon, maybe AS would kick in the same turn. I use rally points for fighters and bombers to get them into the fight one turn earlier.

Well, this is realy very interesting. Frankly, I did not know you can attack the same turn if you move using rally points. Will have to try...

 

[Roland Johansen]

I am not sure if thats a good thing having to wait that turn. I guess with carriers you can put the fighters on AS ahead of time before you get into enemy territory. If the fighters are on the cities though and the enemy declares war and you have not set your fighters on AS earlier, you could be in trouble. When all of those bombers catch your fighters on the ground it could be the end of your air support.

I agree that it is strange that fighters take a turn to activate their AS (bureaucracy? ). But why should you not have your fighters on AS before a war? Are you moving around all your fighters each turn? Still it is strange.

There are some good things about it though. For one, it makes anti-air units more valuable as they can fire directly. So if you want to protect a certain city against bombardment, that isn't being protected at the moment, then it's best to sent some AA guns first. Fighters lose a turn to move there and a turn to activate their AS.

Eventually it is again a concept that helps the human against the AI as the AI won't realise the vulnerability of the fighters and is not smart enough to think of a strategy where you first sent some AA guns to protect against the bombardments.

 

[Charles 22]

Here's a question for everyone, and it's designed to see just what the AI can/or will do. I'm leaning towards the AI actually being able to use AS the very first time it's enterable (IOW, the turn after the transfer, if there was one) or barring that that it has a one turn AS while we have two.

Have you ever had an AI city that had multiple fighters and destroyed them all? Next did you lay off the turn after and bomb them again on turn three? Because if this two turn AS is true for the AI, he shouldn't be able to put up AS when you bomb it again, though there will likely be planes there. IOW, you bomb turns 1 and 3, and there shouldn't be any resistance turn 3. I have encountered AS in this situation before, but one thing can make determing the AI AS activation time difficult, and that's if he rushes a plane on turn 2.

Note, if the AS activation is the same as ours, then in this scenario you should NEVER have more then 1 plane doing AS on turn 3. If this rally point idea is true though, he could have unlimited AS there should he choose. The point isn't so much whether the rally point works or not, but whether the AI will use it for air.

Also, come to think of it, this rally thing makes sense anyway, though I've never used it. It in effect, with instant travel units, makes it as though the unit were produced at the new location. It's my guess that the AS takes just as long to become active, but that it gets up a turn quicker:

Typical Way
Turn one: fighter produced in city A, then transferred to city B.
Turn two: fighter switched to AS.
Turn three: fighter now AS'ing.

Rally Point Way
Turn one: fighter produced in city A and transferred to city B without human intervention. Fighter in city B is given AS mission.
Turn two: fighter now AS'ing.

Does this sound right? Anyone have more than 1 AI fighter on AS on turn 3? Remember, all the enemy AS was destroyed on turn 1, absolutely.