Air Power

[JasonC]

Air strikes in CM are mixed, with the bombs and rockets typically ineffective, but the strafing extremely overmodeled and typically very effective. The cost of planes do not reflect this - you pay the most for the ones with larger bomb loads. What you really want is as many strafing passes as possible and the most effective guns for those passes. There are two extremes that meet this - the IL-2, and the cheapest fighter bombers.

The IL-2 costs a lot because you are getting both a bomb and a rocket pass, before the strafing starts. The bombs tend to be too inaccurate to hurt heavy stuff, but often cause collateral damage to nearby infantry. Not enough to justify the price, though. You can get better infantry killing from a 120mm mortar FO. The rockets are somewhat more accurate, and a near miss can destroy light armor. But full tanks will usually survive being bracketed, and this is the most common result of a rocket pass.

Then they start the strafing runs and the IL-2 begins to pay for itself. It gets 6 if there are enemy targets for it and no enemy Flak to interfer. And it will fire twice at the same target on each pass! Which most planes will not. The guns are 23mm, highly accurate, and have excellent penetration and damage. Tigers only have to worry about immobilizing track hits, but everything lighter can be killed outright. A single unmolested IL-2 typically accounts for 2-3 enemy armored vehicles, either fully killed or immobilized. Which fully repays its cost.

The cheaper fighter bombers are the other effective choice. These cost only what light artillery modules do, for the ones that do have one bomb, down to half of that for e.g. the German Me-109, strafing only type. Types with 4 or more passes and cannon main armament can be expected to KO light armor or guns readily. Full tank kills are harder with just 20mm. The Germans get some types with 30mm main armament, and that is highly effective. Both sides can get 37mm guns, which are much less accurate but effective armor killers if they hit.

An important point for attackers is that air strikes will readily spot enemy guns and can neutralize them easily. You can also get intel about the enemy this way. Enemy vehicles will be the highest priority targets, however, even if they are tougher to kill due to armor protection that may overmatch your plane's guns.

Other than the IL-2, which I recommend only if you expect to face large numbers of enemy vehicles (but not Tigers specifically), and with some gamble involved as to whether the Germans will have decent Flak, focus on the cheap stuff.

Comparisons of the effectiveness of one typical fighter bomber to one tank are not to the point, because tanks are usually maxed out to armor point limits anyway. They typically have less effect against enemy infantry than the same points spent on artillery, but more effect against enemy vehicles and guns.

Think of them as way of spending artillery screen points on the armor war...