SPWW2 AA issues

[General SP]

Was talking to Greybeard about this in our game. I cant seem to get most of my armor units to fire at planes. The Brits seem to enjoy shooting at my planes but even though I have had tanks and halftracks parked without shooting and the plane is 4-6 hexes away they refuse to fire. They ar enot suppressed so this cant be the reason why. Bug perhaps or just needs some tweaks?


gary

[Greybeard]

Hello,

kinda strange.. I have a MBT game running againt Beppe42 (Pakistan/India). I'm India in the mid 70's, and my direct fire AA guns refuse to shoot at anything flying - not much smoke to obscure things, and good LOS well within range of where the airdales are hitting..

I think my gunners are confused - Beppe claims his attack squadron commander discovered the 'color of the day' and has repainted all the aircraft in India colors..

Not sure if I believe the propaganda..

Gen SP is correct though, my Brit AA mounts are happily shooting up their ammo at targets that present themselves.. but very little AA fire coming up from the Germans..

Greybeard

[Narwan]

There are several issues that influence firing AA, especially with vehicle aamg's. There's off course suppression but also crew experience, facing, nr of crew in vehicle, speed of aircraft, length/duration of LOS to aircraft, movement of vehicle (if I'm not mistaken that includes movement in the previous turn, not just the actual turn).

Crews have to pass a check to open fire and it may very well be that just one or two of these factors make all the difference. Are the german planes being shot at considerably slower for example (Stuka's v Spits?) or are they (the german armor) 'hiding' in denser terrain (reducing reaction time to fire at planes)?

Narwan

[Copper]

The Germans are still looking for the Luftwaffe to protect them...

[General SP]

I have 4 total SPAA mounts traveling with my 2 main task groups. They are roughly 4-5 hexes behind my main units and when Greybeards dastardly Mosquitos have attacked they were within range but would not fire even though they had not moved for 2 turns. In fact I have had only 1 halftrack take a shot at his planes so far and with something as big as a mosquito they should have no issue shooting at the bugger. All 4 AA units have no suppression and of course were facing properly.


Eventually Greybeards planes will be out of ammo and thus shot down

[Narwan]

More important than the aircrafts size are the duration (measured in nr of hexes) it is in sight and it's speed. If it is in sight for only a short time and it's a fast plane your AA units might not be able to shoot at it. The 'speed' also determines the amount of hexes moved by the aircraft between different shots of one AA unit. Just like any other unit which gets OP fire the aircraft needs to be spotted by the firer first. If that happens they need to get their weapons trained on it (you might want to check the FC/RF ratings for your AA units, higher stats are very important for AA units) and have time left to fire on the target. Being seen/spotted does not equal an immidiate OP-fire opportunity.

If AA units are in restricting terrain (the low ground and/or woods/buildings close by and/or smoke hexes close by, etc) they may not have a LOS long enough to fire at the target. They may have a nr of short LOS's in succession and not one long uninterrupted one. Smoke can be a real pain here.

I've had similar problems myself in a 60's WinSPMBT game with second rate nations. The standard 40mm bofors AA gun of ww2 vintage has a very hard time tracking and firing at jets, even older models, it's tracking is simply not up to it. And for some nations for some periods (easily into the sixties) it's the best AA available. Which means the jets rule the skies....

What AA units are you using?

Narwan