Static AA question...

[Beeg]

I'm playing the Maleme scenario and I found that the ANZAC Static AA units do not fire on aircraft. Their unit class is a fortification and the 3in. AA gun is listed as a medium gun, not AA/Flak capable.

Am I missing something? Shouldn't this unit be AA capable? I've changed the gun to AA/Flak in MobHack but haven't noticed any change in regard to firing on aircraft. Changing the unit class makes the icon unusable.

Any help?

Beeg

[Mobhack]

if the gun was not an AA gun, it probably would not fire at air targets.

It was probably meant as a bunker for firing at landed troops in the scenario in direct fire mode. (We don't do large calibre AA guns, which were for salvo flak-curtain fire at high level bombers, only those up to about 57mm auto cannon which fire individually at individual plane targets).

Cheers
Andy

[DRG]

The gun is indeed weapon class 6 ( Medium guns <101mm ) so it will act as an artillery piece even though it is labeled "AA". I have NO idea is this is an error or intentional but I will look into it over the summer. For now treat these as guns not flak

HOWEVER........ seeing as the " 3in Vickers AA " has full set of stats for AP, sabot and HEAT penetrations and that is NOT standard for "AA" guns but *IS* for ground target engaging guns AND is is armed with both HE and AP ammo that includes 30 AP shells ( 5 AP rounds or so is standard for "AA" guns that may be dual purpose ) I would say it's supposed to represent an AA gun pressed into a ground role.

Don

[Cameronius]

Beeg,
I made this scenario. The 3inch guns are there for historical accuracy. The fact that they will not shoot at air targets fits the historic facts quite well. These guns were sighted to hit high flying targets approaching from the sea. On May 20th the guns could not depress enough to fire on the low flying targets because of their positions on the hillside.
I think heavy calibre AA guns are explained in the Manual somewhere. I remember it's a long spiel about the dual purpose 88 and why it no longer fires at air targets.

Hope you enjoy the scenario. It will be included in the upcoming ANZAC Campaign.

[Beeg]

Thanks all for the helpful info. Cam, great job with this scenario! It plays well from both sides, which is no easy task.

I now understand the rationale behind these units only firing at land targets, but just for my information, I fitted the Static AA units with an AA gun less than 57mm and it fired on air targets like a "regular" AA unit.

This game just gets better and better. Thanks again.

Beeg

[Captain_G]

Hi

Whether 88 class AA gun should fire at aircraft has been debated since SP1...

I made some tests this morning and here are the results if you want to make such guns AA capable.

- First you have to know that level bomber class aircraft never get anything shot at them. This is likely to represent the fact that such bombers were flying too high for anything smaller than a 150 mm Flak to hit them... So if you want to test anything only buy fighter bomber class planes, or change all level bombers to fighter bomber

- Second changing the gun class to flak is not enough to have your big boys fire at aircraft. First as big guns get a shot penalty they must be quite experienced (elite or more) if you want to see more than a rare shot from them. Second, i noticed that whenever the gun is given a Sabot range, it become very difficult to have it fire at aircraft. Mainly, i believe that such guns will fire at aircraft only between their max sabot range and their max range. If they have to choose between normal and sabot ammo, the crew get confused and let the plane fly away before they can reach an agreement between them

So for instance a 88 flak with a sabot range of 70 and a weapon range of 90 would only fire at aircraft between 71 and 90 hex. You can replace that with 'never' as usually aircraft shots occur below 30 hexes.

If you want to have some AA 88s/3 inch/whatever i suggest you clone the gun, make it flak and remove its sabot stats.
Then clone the unit and replace the gun with your AA one.
Or you could edit directly the gun but would lose the special ammo.

BTW i didn't have any good success controlling the aircraft entry and out directions that seem to be random whatever you choose in the bombard planning... anyone noticed such thing ?

[Mobhack]

Sabot range is also min range for SAMS, and it could spill over to AAA units.

If your planes are coming in under AI control in a test scenario - the AI has always randomly decided the entry and exit directions for any scenario strikes plotted by the designer.

Cheers
Andy