SPWW2 Vulnerable Aircraft

[klanx171]

I find planes to be things to be used with caution and forethought, sending them zooming over the battlefield useally will waste a potentaily powerful asset.

For SP H2H the biggest thing I have learnt is that if your plane takes any hit as its flying it nvere comes back even if its only a minor bit of damage, so saving your planes till you really need them and know where you want them is best.

but here is the following I have learnt.

A. Planes for some mysterious reason see and will target ammo trucks much more than anything esle if they are under their flight path, i do not know why but since ammo trucks will often be around arty areas its best to useally place your AA their for protection.

B. Planes that come in ones will useally suffer but if you have a lot use them in one area in one turn and the majority will make it the first one or two may suck up all the AA but the rest will have easy pickens. so use them in Bulk is the watchword, ceratinly my Opps do that I and I always suffer for it, Eh GenSP?

C.if your arty is near the rear, make sure you have your AA facing towards the rear as its likely that once your Opp spots your smoke he will have a flight hading your way and without protection they will get through and shoot it to bits.

D.Keeping stuff in cover, low ground, trees, buildings behind high ground, or any dead space that limits what they can see means your Opps planes will have less chance of seeing them as they come in and that means they will often miss.

Its all AA guns in H2H n missiles and often mobile AA to boot so they will still be around ater the first pass.


SPMBT

A. Missiles rock but are limited I have found that having small ammo boxes moved up near the position keep the SAM launchers in bussiness, and keep your AA up and running rather than being sucked dry after the first pass or two.

B. Choppers in MBT can pop up and spot things and if they have missiles they will play merry hell with your tanks unless you can provide cover, lots of man portable AA missiles to keep your tanks coverd while static AA guns can provid backup, AA vehicles will oten get targeted first leaving you high and dry, specialy in the 80s and 90s.

C. deciding to take ground attack, SEAD, or coin can really make a diff depending on hat you wann hit, often saving planes for targets like Arty will pay off if you take bombers, but you will need some SEAD if they have static AA, but if its man portable your in trouble, and that when you need ....

D. Attack in mass, same as H2H, bring your first plane in as far away from the main attack point as possible so it targets the edge of the main area and on a line as far away from the potential fire areas as possible, and not over the battle field unless your pilots like their danger pay, the folloing flights get closer and closer and so the first planes will have drawn off a lot of the fire the second will have drawn off more and the rest will have a much easie time, I recently used a mass of 6 SU-27 bombers to give one of my Opps a tought time, basicly wiping out his arty and AA in two waves of massed strikes once i spotted his arty smoke and knew that he hadnt moved.

E. Choppers rock, missile choppers are deadly stuff and its well wort keeping your tanks well back untill you know whats going on as as one chopper will spot up your tanks and make your life unpleasnt, conversely they rock if you have them and with some spotters choppers they are a dynamite duo.

All of this adds up for both games is to be careful and pick your targets well, I have learnt the hard way that planes used in dribs and drabs suffer while bulk attacks and careful choosing of targets pay off, also buying AA is paramount and siting is also very important as If they cant see it they cant shoot it.

I useally set my AA for sector defence as in limited areas, or interdiction zones, Ie around open spaces where its likely planes will pass across, and be likely to be hit and keep my AA in LOS as they tend to get out of contact and stop shooting if they do. Or cluster them around my arty.

despite all this It still get clobberd but at leats they only get one shot now useally per plane as before where they flew laps around me.

[General SP]

[B. Planes that come in ones will useally suffer but if you have a lot use them in one area in one turn and the majority will make it the first one or two may suck up all the AA but the rest will have easy pickens. so use them in Bulk is the watchword, ceratinly my Opps do that I and I always suffer for it, Eh GenSP?
]


LOL in the bulk part :) You were harrassed by a total of 2 B25's which seem to love your tank parking :) Although you hit one early the other did a fine job of decorating your Panthers :)

[klanx171]

God damm those planes rasied merry hell, i had 6 flak Panzers blasting away at them on one turn at the dratted thing still got through, thats a tough bugger and yeah it got my best tanks too, thank god they are not always available, the only good bit was I got so mad thats when i came screaming outa the corn and caught your tanks napping near the state farm, i was so pissed off, and then the damm plane cam back again, Arrrrggghh!:angry:

[Greybeard]

Yep,

B-25's rock.. played a game about a year ago and both sides had 4 air available.. since it was a combined arms game, I took 2 SB2C Helldivers and then 6 B-25's..

The opponent clustered the artillery around ammo boxes.. 1st attack brought the SB2C's in mostly for spotting AA sites.. and they took out an ammo dump with some damage to nearby artillery.

2nd phase had 81mm and 3" mortars pounding the AA sites for 2 turns and tossing smoke to create an approach corridor

Then came the B-25's.. I turned off the rockets so they could be saved later.. but the .50'cals, 75mm and 500lb bombs did the job.. and they spotted a couple of tanks in the process.. 2 b-25's picked up some hits and RTB'd..

Next attack I sent the B-25's into the area where tanks were last seen.. result was 2-3 dead Panthers and Ferdinand's and a couple more B-25's damaged

Still had 2 left with 75mm ammo for later use..

After all was over.. the aircraft had racked up and impressive score of around 35 units KIA.. nearly all was ammo and artillery units.. seems the opponent clustered ammo boxes in one hex, and surrounded the ammo with 2-3 platoons of mortars..

The 500lb bombs KIA'd a huge number of them simply by dropping on the ammo supply hexes..

Needless to say, there was little incoming artillery for the remainder of the game..

Yep - I like B-25's!!

-Greybeard