Let's Discuss "Piercing the AA Bubble" Again

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    • Kalrakh wrote:

      Not entirely sure, attacking empty province often does not even get a combat notice, so might not get registered as an attack
      I think this is right. I often attack empty regions with missiles or heavy bombers if I'm trying to destroy infrastructure. Mostly this is cities, but if there's a rural province with an airbase, that might be a target as well.

      I think the planes/missiles get away without suffering the ranged point-defence thing ("defensive attack"!) from AA if there is no actual unit being attacked. But they do suffer damage from SAMs/TDS that are in range of the target if the province has any sort of garrison. For this reason, I think it's worth putting an NG unit in all provinces surrounding your main cities so that TDS will kick in if someone tries to splash-damage your cities with nukes.

    • It's simple.

      You have offensive point defense, point defense offensive rounds, and projected offensive defensive point defense.

      (it's a troll, of course)
      Running an online alliance is pretty much like running a small company, except you need to find other way than money to keep your employees productive. May they play or work, they are humans.

    • AA is not really that difficult. However, there are too many names for everything, as Playbabe says. Mainly it is the AA attack which causes reload and a missed swipe that is referred to by several names. Of course, some would say it is the AA ranged defense which causes reload and a missed swipe that is referred to by several names. :D

      Kalrakh said, "Missiles should always trigger TDS, even more the point defense if the TDS is in AoE range." Very interesting. I hope it works this way. I have read about avoiding point defense by targeting adjacent provinces with nukes. If this tactic works, there is no good defense against an experienced player with nukes that I can think of.

    • WalterChang's post above is interesting. By putting the NG in provinces adjacent to the city, he's getting the "AA attack that triggers reload and a missed swipe" to activate if that adjacent province is targeted. If you don't garrison the adjacent provinces, and point defense doesn't work, and it's the second missile within ten minutes, targeting an adjacent province lets your second missile through without a scratch. I really hope TDS point defense is triggered if the TDS is within the area of effect.

    • Just in case someone reads this who doesn't already know: It is possible for a strike fighter (speed 12) to enter the range circle of a level 2+ SAM (range 100), bomb the SAM, and get safely out of the SAMs range before the 10 minute scheduled offensive fire. You can get in and out in less than 10 minutes. The planes get hit only by the point defense of the SAM. This might not be possible if you attack from a direction that is quite different from the direction of your airfield.

    • For those who think it is a good idea to put a huge stack of AA within splash range of their huge MRLS stack in order to make it very difficult to hit ONLY the MRLS with a patrol attack by aircraft, here's how you die:

      1) Determine AA tick
      2) With sacrifice plane, execute DIRECT attack on arty, crossing AA range immediately after AA tick. This direct attack will trigger the AA fire that causes reload and a missed swipe.
      3) One minute after sacrifice plane enters AA range, main force crosses AA range with a DIRECT attack on your arty. By the time the main force is over the target, your AA will be in reload, and your AA point defense won't fire because your AA stack isn't the target.

      What happens? Undamaged during the approach, the main strike force hits your MRLS at full strength. Your AA takes splash damage, and the planes escape AA completely due to missed AA swipe.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Blitzkrieger64 ().

    • There are a few options when it comes to piercing the AA bubble.

      First and foremost is sending in say a fighterjet, you circle the target to trigger the AA.
      As soon as it triggers, you unleash a bunch of cruise missiles.

      Because cruise missiles can have just 3 HP, a basic AA with 2 defence will have 4 defence.
      So every missle will take 2 trigger damage and 2 point damage.

      You trigger the AA, and then fire a missile, this way your missile takes 2 point defence damage but strikes the target while the trigger AA is down, resulting in 1hp of damage.


      Second example is when you have multiple stacks of say strike fighters, if you have 15 strike fighters, three groups of five.
      In this example you patrol just out of AA range, you fire a single cruise missile, the movement the AA triggers you launch an attack by the 15 strike aircraft. Hopefully you can get in and out before the target can trigger the active AA. You still take point defence damage, but each successive strike dramatically reduces the damage and your losses.
      Of course you can use a single stack of 5 to trigger the AA instead of a cruise missile, but its all about reducing casualties.


      There is another option, and that is patrol, the most basic AA has such limited range that if you patrol strike a target, you will never get into range of its trigger AA.
      This is also a good method for the above two settings, so you are not caught on the retreat.


      You have to keep inmind what a bad strike looks like, you fly in, your trigger AA, you attack and take point defence, you fly away and trigger AA again.
      For a single attack you took 3x damage, its a bit like a professional pilot vs a rookie.


      Ideally, you want to have the option of having helicopters aswell as aircraft. So you have options, frigates for example deal 1 damage to a helicopter, so these are great option to trigger AA and then fly in with cruise missiles. Everything has its strengths and weaknesses, there is a real art to deploying your units. It gets a whole lot more fun when you start dealing with splash damage from nuclear strikes and trying to trigger AA with conventional decoys.
      Sort of CON version of a concentrated attacked on AA.

    • Here's one for ya....It appears, over a matter of days...or maybe weeks, that the scheduled AA "tick" moves backward. If you check the tick on, say Day 3, then again some lengthy time later (undetermined), the tick will have moved back a minute. Interesting. Edit: the AA tick will regress one minute within 14 days.

      The post was edited 1 time, last by Blitzkrieger64 ().