Aircraft hit but no damage given

[Karagin]

Not sure where to ask this, so here goes, Red Vs France 1970. French Mirage 5F starts its strafing attack on a Red AML 90, the fighter is engaged by Red AA units, namely two ZU-23 AA-Gun, the fighter is hit, BUT no damage is recorded after the first hit, then the second ZU-23 engages, hits again, again no damage. Fighter strafes the AML, kills it, and flys off.

So next turn, I am playing as France, go to setup bombing etc...and no 5F. So off to the HQ menu I go, it shows no damage but is listed as destroyed.

My question is was it damaged or was it "hurt" and crashed AFTER leaving the area?

[DRG]

I have seen aircraft hit that crash off map and that sounds like what happened here

[jivemi]

Bizarre. It's not unusual for aircraft to be hit but not damaged, but NOT to be damaged and then crash hasn't happened in my experience. It's as if the AI has decided to factor in pilot error (panic?) or something. But then how could the 5F kill the AML after being hit by the second ZSU? Doesn't make sense.

[FASTBOAT TOUGH]

All I will offer is I've never played vs. RED or GREEN(?) but, I always play against the AI in generated campaigns within the games confines (In other words with no "mods" etc.).

I can't say I've seen the main issue being asked about, I can confirm what Don says about planes/jets crashing off map. That being said, I normally would see it crash on the edge of the "board" like when troops etc. exit off it.

Regards,
Pat


EDIT: I forgot to add for the first time playing this game I found a "downed pilot" this while playing "The Walking Dead" scenario. It was toward the end of the game (I took it to the full 60 turns.) and was looking to the center North of the map for targets of opportunity for my air to expend their ammo on, when I noticed a U.S. flag on the board, I clicked on it and sure a enough it was a USAF pilot from a jet shot down earlier in the game. If I had a turn 61 he would've been rescued as I had a helo standing by landed at his location.

I thought that was AWESOME, as I also felt air crews should have a chance at "escape and maneuver" with hope of rescue for a very longtime.

[zovs66]

I have played both games a lot, once damaged enough I have seen planes crash on the the map and seen them exit the map and the game reports that they crashed. I have never seen a plane that was not damaged crash, but have seen where sometimes slight damage will cause the to not return (aborting the mission). All of these cases seen realistically plausible to me.

[Suhiir]

Same here.
Off map crashes, not uncommon.
Being permanently aborted due to less then fatal damage, very common.
Crashes having taken zero damage, never seen it.

[Mobhack]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

Same here.
Off map crashes, not uncommon.
Being permanently aborted due to less then fatal damage, very common.
Crashes having taken zero damage, never seen it.

Only crashes with no damage I have ever seen is if the OOB designer forgot to give the plane a crew.

Crew=0 is instantly dead. That is why drones have a crewman (assume him to be in a shed in the home country!).

So I would check the OOB and see if that is the case here.

[DRG]

That would not be the case here as the aircraft was reported making a strafing attack......that ain't gonna happen without a pilot. The report says "the fighter is hit" but no damage was shown at the time which means nothing really as these things are happening quickly. It was hit, damaged and crashed off map. The fact that is shows no damage but is destroyed is only a minor issue for me and since we don't have a save game we cannot look at it in replay

[Karagin]

Sorry, I didn't save, it was a short run fight, 20 turns and not really thing more than me just picking two countries and running a battle.