? about calling in air support

[budd]

Hello,
Taking a break from CSME and finally giving Panzer Battles the time it deserves. The last 3 turns ive tried to call in some air strikes, is this something you have to do at turn start? The planes are available at turn start and then go gray when i check later in the turn. The hex contains an enemy unit and is spotted, what am i doing wrong? Recon has worked just fine. I send the recon out to spot ahead and try to target the nasties waiting for me, also tried calling in air strikes on enemy units spotted by land units but the selection is grayed out. I'm sure its probably something simple i've missed.

Really enjoying the game while learning it. I own Normandy but currently playing the demo pbem. the demo is great, well done.

[phoenix]

At start, in effect, Budd, yes. The targets must be spotted and the spotters cant have done anything else before they spot for you, that is, before you call in the actual strikes for which they spot. The strike still comes in after everything else though, when you've finished the turn.

Peter

[Strela]

Ah, Budd from Grogheads - welcome sir!

Phoenix is right. Spotting for artillery/airstrikes can only be done by units that have not expended movement points.

It's a good discipline to do as much of both at the beginning of your turn to ensure you don't waste them. If you want to reserve it for units that may appear later in the turn, then it's important to keep a unit 'watching' in the general area.

Also recons using recon spotting is very useful for spotting hidden units.

The tutorial will help with the basic concepts.

David

[budd]

Thank you gentlemen, kinda figure it was something like that through my process of elimination. Couple of follow up questions so i'm clear. So i cant call in an airstrike on a unit that is identified[not a question mark] by recon flight but not in LOS of one of my units? Once a unit expends ANY movement points it cant call air strikes or artillery? Any thoughts to having a fixed point cost for calling in arty/airstikes? So no striking suspected enemy locations[cities,towns] without an identified enemy unit and LOS, same for bombers? Makes it difficult when your advancing to use effectively or maybe my tactics are wrong. Advance to contact, order airstrike for beginning of next turn to soften up the target, so I'd have to move to contact on one turn, leave a unit in place the next turn with LOS and call in airstrike for following turn, that'll slow your advance or am i missing something?

[Ricky B]

As David hinted, the solution in this case is have a unit with good overwatch of large areas that move last, so any friendlies that expose enemy positions through recon spotting, movement, drawing fire can potentially have air called in, if the unit not moved can see the area. But there is always a good chance that air can't be called in on units you hadn't spotted as of the start of the turn.

Rick

[ComradeP]

Calling in air support is a bit of a guessing game currently, particularly when you want to hit mobile units.

The system can't represent the effect of loitering aircraft or missions called in to halt an advance from a certain direction currently, which is a big downside of the PB system over PzC.

The PzC system, where you could call in air strikes on any target in sight of units that were eligible to call in air strikes from a certain air group, was a bit too flexible. The PB system is on the other end of the spectrum and is fairly rigid.

The more open terrain there is on a map, the more you'll notice it. Stopping Soviet tank assaults with Stuka's or those awesome Hs 129's is an unlikely event if the Soviet player keeps moving.

As line of sight distances are usually quite substantial, units in an overwatch position become very important as has been mentioned. This can make attacking stationary targets easier than in PzC, because you can spot them earlier.

Note that you call in an air strike on a hex, not a unit, so if you expect there to be a unit in or adjacent to the hex you're targeting next turn, you can target the hex in advance. This also means that if there's a target 1 hex beyond current LOS, you can plot an air strike in the last hex you cán see, and it will strike the hex with the enemy unit in it next turn provided you then have LOS to the target hex and there are no other targets in adjacent hexes (target acquisition is randomized for targets in adjacent hexes).

This comes down to the air system being more suitable for Normandy than Kursk at the moment, due to the less dynamic nature of the Normandy battles. Air units do tend to be smaller in Normandy (and the PB demo) compared to Kursk, though.

[budd]

Thx for the replies. I'm going to uncheck the optional rule" limited air recon" so at least i can send airstrikes against units i've uncovered with air recon. I'll also check" indirect fire and air strikes by map" , i don't think i'll use arty in this regard as the penalty of quarter strength attack value is too steep.

[ComradeP]

Note that heavy bombers (basically any non-tactical or fighter bomber unit in the game currently) can be used to target hexes out of LOS, like recon aircraft. There is a scatter chance, though.