Air Assault vs. Ferry

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    • Air Assault vs. Ferry

      Did a search and couldn't find a solid posting. I just wanted to get some opinions before I started looking at some numbers myself. If I have some Infantry, a recon, an AFV, and some mobile artillery, all of which are leveled up for air assault. Which is better for moving that stack from owned airport to owned airport, Air Assault or Ferry? Now, I know the advantages of air assault over ferry (ie some units can attack while in air assault mode or that air assault can land most anywhere). My question is from owned airfield to owned airfield and I am curious about 2 aspects. Which is faster (from embark to ready to shoot) and which is safer (from air or AA attack)?

    • I would imagine it depends on the distance and I'm sure if you really wanted to you could do the math equation or test it. Air assault has short range compared to ferry. Long distances you would have to do multiple air assaults which adds up time with the disembarking time to the total time. Whereas ferry, you can do 1 ferry to half way across the map

    • Even if air assault within range of target airbase moving too. first part (flight to airbase) will be ferry and after land/disembark; etc. will then be ready to air assault.

      So I guess using air assault would avoid manual delays. no different than attacking with aircraft (Ferry to new AB; refuel, take off; attack) but units need to ferry to new AB prior to engaging in targets.
      "And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him "

      aka ...The killer formerly known as BuckeyeChamp

    • Of those units you listed only the recon can air assault...that might already answer your question.


      Airfield to airfield is faster in travel but has the embark/disembark times which I think are both 40 min (with airbases/airfields at 100%)... so that's 1h 20 no matter what.

      Air assault is a 1 minute embark time... and one hour disembark time.... So 1H and one minute no matter what.

      So you have a 19 minute difference.

      Air assault helicopters travel at 3... airlifts at 5 (I think)... so the speed difference isn't that great.

      Air assaults have a range limit of 400-500 ... I didn't do the math but it seems like there isn't enough flight time within that range to make up the 19 minutes by airlifting. (at least not enough to really make it worth it... airlifting might be faster at 400 by 6min or so)


      Tactically, I prefer to get my units moving ASAP and usually opt for air assault.
      SAM can't hit air assaulting heli... and the HP seems less reduced in heli than in airlift (not sure if that's true)... generally I'd say air assaulting is less vulnerable to AA and more resilient to damage

    • Not correct @Smallsword:

      Air transport:
      30 min embarking
      60 min disembarking

      Air assault:
      90 s embarking
      60 min disembarking


      Air assault travel speed depends on the tier of the units, same goes for air assault range (400 > 400 > 500)
      I do not know the speed numbers

      If your airports are close enough to each other you can sometimes jump accross them, enlargening the basic jump range

      You can also jump to an airfield and then queue air transport from that field with a waypoint

    • Alright... so airlift is 1 hour and 30 min no matter what.... air assault embarkment is 1min and 30 sec.... oops

      Also, air assault speed is actually 3.5 (at least at first)

      If your airfields are within the 400 radius of one another you can launch a continuous air assault across.... if the airfields are outside of that parameter but their respective 400 ranges overlap at some point, you can air assault into the next range-bubble and then order another air assault

    • Taz Xanth wrote:

      Smallsword wrote:

      Of those units you listed only the recon can air assault...that might already answer your question.
      OK, if I have a level 3 Combat Recon, a level 4 Towed Artillery, a level 5 Mobile Anti Air and a level 5 tank destroyer... all capable of Air Assault... back to original question.
      In that case, the previous posts should have answered your question... air assault is faster and less vulnerable