Hi. I need some clarification about using air units to conduct long-range attacks on territories containing only ground units (no aircraft or AAA).
In a recent game, we were using fighter and tacical bomber pairs, and strategic bombers, to weaken or clear territories which held only 2-3 ground pieces. This proved to be very one-sided. Italy pretty much cleared all French and British troops from North Africa this way at the cost of very few planes, which led me to wonder if we are doing it right.
Are there any limitations when using planes to attack ground forces? Can you simply keep on rolling until you decide to stop? Even AAA proved ineffective - the only solution looks like stationing fighters with the ground troops for protection.
Some advice please…
Welcome to the forum Reaumur.
Yes - in any battle (except two exceptions I can think of - see below) you keep rolling until the attacker wins or decides to retreat.
So planes vs ground units are exactly the same.
The two exceptions that come to mind are:
1. AAA only throw once against air. But the battle goes on until the attacker wins or retreats, so it is not really an exception.
2. Subs can submerge if no enemy destroyer present, which may leave the attacker or defender with no-one to fight. Again it is not really an exception as the side with surface warships or air in the SZ that the submerged subs are in has won that battle.
Lastly, unsupported air against ground troops is risky. A lucky hit from those ground troops kills a high cost unit. Generally both attack and defence are best undertaken with cannon fodder (infantry!) alongside the high value units, if possible. Two defending infantry will on average beat 1 fighter or 1 bomber, but those planes cost a lot more than the two infantry. Of course the greater the air power in the battle (or the lower the ground unit power) the less the risk.
The air units can attack indefinitely, but depending on the ultimate strategic goal trading air units for infantry can be costly (especially for Italy!).
Thanks for the quick clarification!
I guess we just had a lot of lucky rolling for these attacks in our first game. I don’t think we ever lost a plane, which made me question whether this was allowed. But I can see that the probabillity makes it a risky strategy in the long term.
