ATTN Greep,
The air combat is the same as in the Vanilla X-Com. You pick what you want to shoot down, see where it's heading and send your Spitfires to get that Bf-109. If it's a civilian - these are yummy and unarmed and thus yummy - anything with a gun will bring it down.
Here, for you - if you want - and for anyone interested, my take on the air combat and stuff that has something to do with it.
NB: RECOMMENDED AS FOR MY CURRENT TECH LEVEL.
For any bigger target you'll want your Menace Class (and something else) to take care of.
Here's how I've been doing it here:
- when all my crafts are in range (have air combat windows), I maximize them all.
- QUICKSAVE!!!
- Then, I send the toughest in first, (I use aggressive attack ONLY, as this brings us in for rapid fire). That's what the X-Com ppl call the Lead Craft. The Craft leading our attack. It will be your Menace Class for some time, I suppose.
- As soon as the 1st craft and the target start firing at each other, I quickly send in the rest, also in aggressive attack mode.
- Enjoy the KABOOMS with a grinning face:)
- If you don't like the outcome (the pig escaped, ya lost a craft, too much damage, blahblah...), quickload and repeat.
- Maybe you are a night cat, but if you're not, then return to ground party during daytime - they ain't gonna be goin' anywhere:)
***
ABOUT YOUR CRAFT AND CREW:
- If your craft is a single-seater, you'll need a pilot that is good at firing, to add to the weapon's accuracy his own accuracy. Man, my Menace Class Metallo has pilots with Firing, Reactions and Bravery over 100, BUT it took a helluva bloody work and hospital days to reach this. Often, it's only the Metallo that I need to bring that caricature down, really. Bottom line, your ground combat SAS are the best pilots.
-Two or multiseater is another setup, of course. Here, you take some guys that are good at Firing (accuracy), Reactions (dodge enemy fire) and Bravery (the speed of your aggressive approach) and make your crew. LOKNARS can be very good at reactions! They're small, but many of them are full of surprises.
What would I recommend:
As an open-hearted and open-minded friendly, I always gladly share what I can.
So, I use my Metallo with 50mm for light and Naval Guns (those 120mm beasts) for heavy weapons. Why all guns? Well, they DO hit hard, have a lot of ammo and the ammo is easy to make. I dumped the 250mm rockets in favor of naval Guns. Well, I wanted to see what's better and armed a Swordfish with both and as soon as I SAW that the gun does better in combat, I sold all of my 250 mms and their ammo. Plus the BOOM BOOM sound that these make... Hmmmm:) I just loooove the smell of cordite in the mornin'.
My fleet: I have some Predators for intercepting of fast targets. One is armed with 50 mms and Lancers and another with 50 mms and Stingrays. These are in my central base in approx western Mongolia (ingame Turan) from where they can fly equally fast to the rest of the world. My 3rd Predator is Armed with 50s and Spikes and is in North American Base. All these Predators are there just in case that a really fast target appears. Then they shadow it until Swordfishes with Naval Guns arrive and, if possible, the Swordfishes attack it first. As for my Lancer and Stingray armed Predators, they
attack with missiles only when necessary (when a big and mean ship appear), because their missiles are not easy nor cheap to make.
The mainstay of my fleet are the Swordfish craft, all armed with the 120s. I find them to be very good in combat, tough, can carry good guns, reasonably fast. Can't carry many ppl, though, so that a Kraken would be better for the secondary assault team. Or a Pachyderm - it can take a tank or other auxiliary. A Kraken IS tough AND can carry 3 120s, but it's so yaaawning S-L-O-W, bah. I had some 4-5 Krakens and replaced them all but one with Swordfishes. That flying rock can come in VERY handy sometimes, and carries my 3rd team (Loknars).
The Bases. Have it as you want, of course. I do, however, find that each base should have 2 combat craft for its own defense against an enemy base assault attempt, Swordfishes being really good at this, as proven so far. Of course, the same craft are to be used for air combat as such.
A Spy Zeppelin. Am serious:) have one parked in a middle of nowhere, the center of Pacific being ideal. When a Pogrom or Help Loknars or another mission of interest spawns, it quite often happens when your best team is returning from action elsewhere, or during night (gah, bah, phew). So, if so, you send your Zeppelin there. It will come there next year, but it's not about that.
AS LONG AS YOUT MISSION TARGET IS BEING APPROACHED BY A CRAFT OF YOURS, IT STAYS ON THE MAP.
So wait until daylight, or until refuel is complete, or whatever, send your attack craft there and your Zeppelin back to the middle of nowhere. It doesn't spend any fuel when stationary and is as slow as a snail, so it makes it perfect for this kind of job. Someone would maybe say send in a Convoy but how do I do that from Asia to South America?
One more thing. If you sent more than one craft to shoot something down and the first one did it, send other home.
Yea, shoot them down above LAND!
Jungle has most covers of all terrain, BUT is scorching hot.
Desert and snowy terrain have least cover, but are scorching hot/freezing cold - and ideal for sniping.
So it's your choice above what terrain you shoot your targets down. But if you can't, then just shoot it down and win the ground battle somehow.
AA defense. Armored vaults make for a good one. They can't be built over, though. But are better than large Vaults, if you don't plan to overbuild one with an Industrial Printer.
The Hunter Killer is not bad, well, it's the first serious craft for us to use, but get the Predators to do its job as soon as you can.
You can also consider using these Snakes. They are quite tough, can carry many ppl...
So, anywayz,
TALLY HO!
