Are AA guns worthless?

[General_Jah]

I just had 5 pts of naval damage done to me in pearl harbor in one bombing run!

Here is a screenshot of my setup

I have 3 AA guns, one on three of the islands in Pearl Harbor chain. I also have 1 figher and 1 interceptor flying air superiority over Hawaii. They didn't seem to do much to stop this bombing run on me. I'm assuming it was strategic bombers that did this? A bit frustrated I don't know what happened.

What do you guys suggest I do? Must I have interceptors flying constantly over this island chain to prevent bombing? Are the AA guns going to do anything?

5 pts seems a whole lot for 1 run... My port will be reducing to almost 0 in no time.

 

[unmerged(105596)]

I'd say it was a port strike by enemy carriers. They can (and will) attack ships in ports, and at first sight it looks like a regular aerial bombing in the combat screen.

IMO the best way to defend against port striking CV's is to keep interceptors on ground in the same province as your ships are. They will take part in the combat if carriers attack, at least in Arma 1.2 they do.

Btw, port strike reduces the org of attacking carriers very quickly to zero. That's a good time to sail your ships out of the port to engage the CV's in a naval battle...

Edit: off-topic, I thought first that this thread was another Emu study of tactics...

 

[xtfoster]

I just had 5 pts of naval damage done to me in pearl harbor in one bombing run!

Here is a screenshot of my setup

I have 3 AA guns, one on three of the islands in Pearl Harbor chain. I also have 1 figher and 1 interceptor flying air superiority over Hawaii. They didn't seem to do much to stop this bombing run on me. I'm assuming it was strategic bombers that did this? A bit frustrated I don't know what happened.

What do you guys suggest I do? Must I have interceptors flying constantly over this island chain to prevent bombing? Are the AA guns going to do anything?

5 pts seems a whole lot for 1 run... My port will be reducing to almost 0 in no time.

AA guns themselves won't stop the Bombing runs (if that is what they are). What AA guns do is attack ANY enemy planes overhead that are on a Bombing Mission. Depending on the number of AA guns and your level of AA research, they can be very destructive, resulting in the Enemy squadron being grounded until repaired/reorged.

A single Fighter/Interceptor also won't have very much effect on a typical AI controlled stack of bombers, you really need to group your aircraft in maximum sized stacks.

As said elsewhere, this is probably not an airstrike, but instead a "carrier strike on port" and can be defended by basing aircraft (preferably with a navalattack value) at a naval base with AA. When the strike starts move your surface fleet to attack, the initial target will be locked in port you can move other fleets out during the first hour of attack, but after an hour they will be locked also.

 

[unmerged(84270)]

On the topic of AA guns, is it better to have a lot in a few provinces (like the German-French border pre war) so the enemy has to fly over 5-6 guns at once, or space them throughout the country side to maximize the amount of time the enemy is under fire?

 

[unmerged(27576)]

The port strike is very effective and will reduce your naval base to zero quickly, however the danger is actually losing ships (and ship org) in the port being bombed. This is from an air perspective (not CV port strikes).

On a side note... does anyone know how the static AA guns work? I know the tech increases the effectiveness (but how?) Is like 1 AA gun the same as 1 air attack per hour, modified by effectiveness?

 

[CSABadass]

I can't load your screenshot here at work, so I can't tell if you're playing DD or ARM. With that in mind, I can tell you based on my experiences that AA seemed kind of a waste in DD, but is staggeringly deadly and totally worth it in ARM.

 

[Zenra]

Edit: off-topic, I thought first that this thread was another Emu study of tactics...

Exactly - I thought the subject said it all, too

 

[unmerged(74053)]

I always build 10 AA to every major portprovince I have as a major, as a minor only 1 portprovince is my "goldport"
10 AA`s tend to keep atleast bombers away from damaging your ships in port...

 

[unmerged(113954)]

I prefer to have interceptors over AA guns. Then again the AI rarely does lots of strategic bombing anyway.

 

[Thurak]

10 AA`s tend to keep at least bombers away from damaging your ships in port...

Exactly my experience. Planes at the airfield are better, but why should I ground expensive planes when 10 AA´s prevent the AI from attacking?!?

With many AA guns the org of attacking carriers is reduced to zero in no time and that´s some sort of protection, I guess, even before the 10 AA´s are installed.

 

[Kanitatlan]

From the image it is clear this was a port strike by a carrier fleet and quite a decent sized fleet. My experience with port strikes is that they are extremely vulnerable to numbers. When a port strike attacks a port it is automatically opposed by any aircraft located in the same province (whether airborne or at base). If you have a few squadrons simply located there then the carriers will suffer rather badly and won't come back for another go. Also, if you have a fairly large fleet in port damage tends to be rather moderate.

 

[I am.]

IMO the best way to defend against port striking CV's is to keep interceptors on ground in the same province as your ships are. They will take part in the combat if carriers attack, at least in Arma 1.2 they do.

So what you are saying - not sure if I do not understand as we are both not native-english speakers...
You are suggesting that he grounds his interceptors on an airfield?
Or you ment to have interceptors on air superiority over the province in question?

 

[Thurak]

As Kanitatlan already said: Grounded or airborne planes work. But if you use air superiority mission for the region planes are only at the base at night or randomly while they fly their patrol, so if you expect a carrier strike ground your planes at the airbase, that's a great defence.
But only because that's best is does not mean AA are worthless. OK, 1 or 2 AA's are pretty much useless against a carrier strike and even AA-10 won't prevent your ships from taking damage, but AA 10 reduces the enemy org in no time, so they abort the carrier strike and most likely return home.

 

[Crilloan]

So what you are saying - not sure if I do not understand as we are both not native-english speakers...
You are suggesting that he grounds his interceptors on an airfield?
Or you ment to have interceptors on air superiority over the province in question?

example, Sovjet has its precious fleet at Vladivostok.
If they have a group of interceptors at the airbase in Vladivostok, sitting on the ground, they will partake automatically in the defence of Vladivostok harbour facilities and ships therein when the wicked American carrier taskforce comes knocking.

/C

 

[I am.]

example, Sovjet has its precious fleet at Vladivostok.
If they have a group of interceptors at the airbase in Vladivostok, sitting on the ground, they will partake automatically in the defence of Vladivostok harbour facilities and ships therein when the wicked American carrier taskforce comes knocking.

/C

Who knows how many games I`ve played, and I still did not know this o
You learn something new every day on the forums

 

[Kanitatlan]

Try reading my Fatherland AAR. It has a scattering of failed and disasterous port strikes scattered through it with the key problem being that more forces (on both sides) acts very badly against port strikes.

 

[unmerged(105596)]

So what you are saying - not sure if I do not understand as we are both not native-english speakers...
You are suggesting that he grounds his interceptors on an airfield?

Heh, yeah, not native-english me too also am, correct! Still you got this right, luckily other people explained it better than me... I just like to have the planes in the province all the time to counter possible CV attacks, which means that they need to be grounded. I think I'll give the AA's a try some day, I've never had much faith in those things.

 

[ForzaA]

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