Four Air Combat Questions After Three Campaigns

[Dauntless]

I've played three campaigns to date and have the following questions:

1) As I understand it, German interceptors that are damaged in the first round of air combat always disengage before the second round [9.1.10], so that the second round will only consist of undamaged German interceptors and the remaining damaged and undamaged US escorts. A similar thing happens when the interceptors attack the bombers - only undamaged interceptors attack, and they break off after the first round if they are damaged by the bombers' defensive fire [9.2.8]. The net result is that it's never possible to shoot down a damaged German interceptor because they always disengage once they are damaged. Is that correct?

2) I assume that bombers, like fighters, can only attack once in each round of air combat. Therefore, if an individual bomber is attacked by multiple German interceptors, the bomber must choose a single interceptor to attack with defensive fire and the remaining interceptors are not attacked. I think [9.2.5] isn't quite clear on this point. Is this correct?

3) There is no limit to the number of interceptors that can target an individual bomber, right? And no limit to the number of interceptors that can target an individual element? I've had unlucky B-17s attacked by three interceptors on more than one occasion, and for some reason my Lead element seems to attract more than its share of Luftwaffe attention.
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4) I don't know how to interpret 9.2.4 Interceptor Waves. Is it trying to state that if the bomber formation as a whole is about to be attacked by 5 or more German interceptors, the attack is divided into two waves of 4 interceptors (first wave) and the remaining 1-4 interceptors (second wave)? Or is it trying to address a very rare case in which every individual element in a very small bomber formation has 4 interceptors allocated to attack it?

 

[Jan Horinek]

No answer to a question from 2018?. Wow.
I supposed i should have checked this before i purchased the game.

Is there still a support to this game?

Or has Tony Costa left and nobody else knows how to play the game now?

 

[dwbennett]

I've played three campaigns to date and have the following questions:

1) As I understand it, German interceptors that are damaged in the first round of air combat always disengage before the second round [9.1.10], so that the second round will only consist of undamaged German interceptors and the remaining damaged and undamaged US escorts. A similar thing happens when the interceptors attack the bombers - only undamaged interceptors attack, and they break off after the first round if they are damaged by the bombers' defensive fire [9.2.8]. The net result is that it's never possible to shoot down a damaged German interceptor because they always disengage once they are damaged. Is that correct?

2) I assume that bombers, like fighters, can only attack once in each round of air combat. Therefore, if an individual bomber is attacked by multiple German interceptors, the bomber must choose a single interceptor to attack with defensive fire and the remaining interceptors are not attacked. I think [9.2.5] isn't quite clear on this point. Is this correct?

3) There is no limit to the number of interceptors that can target an individual bomber, right? And no limit to the number of interceptors that can target an individual element? I've had unlucky B-17s attacked by three interceptors on more than one occasion, and for some reason my Lead element seems to attract more than its share of Luftwaffe attention.
​

4) I don't know how to interpret 9.2.4 Interceptor Waves. Is it trying to state that if the bomber formation as a whole is about to be attacked by 5 or more German interceptors, the attack is divided into two waves of 4 interceptors (first wave) and the remaining 1-4 interceptors (second wave)? Or is it trying to address a very rare case in which every individual element in a very small bomber formation has 4 interceptors allocated to attack it?

Well, here's what I'm doing (correct or not):
1. Yes, I beleive you're correct: After they attack in the first round and are damaged, they are removed from the attack. The bomber vs interceptors combat follows the same rule as the escort vs interceptor combat (9.1.10).

2. Oh, hell, no! The bomber fires back at every interceptor that attacks it; at least in my games it does.

3. As I undrstand, no, there is no limit to the number that can attack as single bomber. In the following situation, I had two bombers attacked by two interceptors each.

I had a situation in my previous campaign that had six interceptors vs my six escorts. I rolled one escort as aggressive and didn't add any escorts to the escort vs interceptor combat. The escort shot down the interceptor leaving five interceptors against the bombers. The first wave of four interceptors were assigned via rolls to the various bombers with four escorts paired to the four interceptors. Then the combat happened (bomber vs interceptor and then interceptor vs bomber) for the first wave and then the second wave came in (one interceptor assigned to a specific bomber and paired with the remaining escort available for support (the escort that shot down the interceptor is not available for this combat) and thaencombat happened. Two interceptors were damaged in the first round and were removed. The second round had only three interceptors and were driven off. If I remember correctly, the bombers didn't receive any damage during the combat.

I guess we shouldn't try to over think the whole process but, baring explicit rules to the contray, go with what makes sense.

Take care,