Air units can be assigned to mission targetting areas of 3-5 provinces and its up to AI what province they actually target. Apart from nuclear strike, you cannot direct your planes to specific province. This can be pretty annoying as AI desn't seem to always choose what you want them to. What do I mean? Situation I have from MP game I currently play - German-Soviet front is entreched. SU has numerical superiority and time to time, they try to break through. However, they lack airforce to counter Luftwaffe. Bombing entreched (i.e. dug in) units is ineffective, but once enemy is on move, it is another story. But air AI usually doesn't target enemy units on move, but entreched ones within the same area. What's the point of that? I really don't know, but I hope it'll improve in future patches/enhancements.
There is no way how to overcome this AI weakness AFAIK, thus we have to live with it. But sometimes, you can help the situation for your benefit. That's the case of using flying bomb/strategic rocket/ballistic missile/ICBM. Lets assume you have bunch of these in your disposal and you want to make best use of them by strategic bombing enemy. If you send them all at the same time to bomb some area, they'll most likely all end up bombing one single province, thus wasting firepower (unless that province has lots of IC/resources). AI also don't choose province with most IC first, but some other based on other criteria (resources?). So if you have 10 V1/V2 and you send them to strat bomb East England all at the same time, they'll most probably bomb hell out of Norwich (about 5 IC) and bombing is over, with London (20 IC?) and rest of East English provinces intact. There is way how to improve this performance though.
The secret lies in micromanagement. To use V1/V2's more effectively, they have to be sent one at a time. If you have 4, send first at 0:00, second at 5:00, third at 10:00 and fourth at 15:00 (with "anytime" checked if you want them to really depart at said time, otherwise they'll wait until daylight and effect of delay will be cancelled/lowered). That means, that when first rocket bombs her target, second will choose her accoring actual situation. In previous example of bombing East England, when first rocket bombs Norwich and takes away their IC (IC to 0), second rocket would fly to other province within area rather than bombing already levelled Norwich. That way you can achieve pretty good results, compared to mass one-time bombing raid. The difference could be between 100% and more, depending on number of rockets involved and area covered.
To further increase effect of strat bombing, do logistical strike with same timing pattern on bombed area. It lowers infrastructure thus decreases rate at which enemy recovers lost IC.
That's the way it worked for me.
There is no way how to overcome this AI weakness AFAIK, thus we have to live with it. But sometimes, you can help the situation for your benefit. That's the case of using flying bomb/strategic rocket/ballistic missile/ICBM. Lets assume you have bunch of these in your disposal and you want to make best use of them by strategic bombing enemy. If you send them all at the same time to bomb some area, they'll most likely all end up bombing one single province, thus wasting firepower (unless that province has lots of IC/resources). AI also don't choose province with most IC first, but some other based on other criteria (resources?). So if you have 10 V1/V2 and you send them to strat bomb East England all at the same time, they'll most probably bomb hell out of Norwich (about 5 IC) and bombing is over, with London (20 IC?) and rest of East English provinces intact. There is way how to improve this performance though.
The secret lies in micromanagement. To use V1/V2's more effectively, they have to be sent one at a time. If you have 4, send first at 0:00, second at 5:00, third at 10:00 and fourth at 15:00 (with "anytime" checked if you want them to really depart at said time, otherwise they'll wait until daylight and effect of delay will be cancelled/lowered). That means, that when first rocket bombs her target, second will choose her accoring actual situation. In previous example of bombing East England, when first rocket bombs Norwich and takes away their IC (IC to 0), second rocket would fly to other province within area rather than bombing already levelled Norwich. That way you can achieve pretty good results, compared to mass one-time bombing raid. The difference could be between 100% and more, depending on number of rockets involved and area covered.
To further increase effect of strat bombing, do logistical strike with same timing pattern on bombed area. It lowers infrastructure thus decreases rate at which enemy recovers lost IC.
That's the way it worked for me.
Last edited:
