Air-/Antiair balancing

[[DAY]Topspin2005]

Let's discuss about Air- and Antiair!
Actually i have the feeling that most anti-air is not strong enough. So using Dogfight planes is the much better choice.
I would love to see more differences in the strength of anti-air. Especially the expencive AA needs more power!

So what are your experiences yet?

[Desty]

AA is only good to support your planes at the moment...but they can keep enemy fighters away from your retreating bombers.
The "problem" is, most AAs are so soft skinned that the rocket planes can just attack them and kill them 9 out of 10 times.

[[EUG]MadMat]

Regarding AA:
- 20mm are mostly a "repellant", forcing the enemy plane to back off more than killing it (although 4x 20mm start being nasty)
- 37-40mm also act as a shield but start dealing some proper damages
- 88mm deals both damages & suppression.

To sum up: AA is a shield, fighters are the blade.

Also, keep in mind that most AA units turn out to be excellent fire support vehicles, and can even double as light (37mm & Bofors) or heavy (FlaK 88mm) AT guns.

[[DAY]Topspin2005]

The discuss should also be about what AA should be ... if it should block/stunn planes, it has to stunn them faster! Because actually even with 400 points AA you mostly don't stop a plane before it drops the bombs or fire the rockets.

[Desty]

I would agree on the shield / blade idea...but most 20mm, 37mm and 40mm should suppress faster...i don't think any pilot would dive into an AA firing at him

[KattiValk]

20mm cannons just seem laughably useless at the moment.

[HrcAk47]

20mm cannons just seem laughably useless at the moment.

Back in the closed beta, I had good success by using it as a heavy machinegun - i had zero hopes of it being AA.

It stuns ground units and shreds infantry quite nicely.

[[DAY]Topspin2005]

20mm cannons just seem laughably useless at the moment.

Ok, so i am not the only one thinking this

[Operation Ivy]

Regarding AA:
- 37-40mm also act as a shield but start dealing some proper damages
- 88mm deals both damages & suppression.

To sum up: AA is a shield, fighters are the blade.

Sorry but i used 3x8.8 and they weren't able to shoot down a single plane (all shooting at the same plane). The suppression is good but you won't do shit with them damage wise, i was actually wondering if they were doing any damage at all. Also remember that 8.8mm can't hide in bushes/forests which makes it an easy target for artillery.

[FLX]

Let me correct my colleague : every AA are repellent, with veterancy they gain in killing power but that's never their intended role so a fighter with some AA to protect its fall back is always a better investment.

If you still want to kill planes with AA take it with veterancy if possible, put a leader nearby to increase veterancy even more, place them near a juicy target and wait for a plan to attack it. The plane should not come back home.
Number of shots and distance are the major factor in air lethality so flak vierling and tri polsen at short range are the most lethal AA weapon.
Veterancy also increase planes dodging power so don't expect to shoot down an elite fighter any time soon.

The discuss should also be about what AA should be ... if it should block/stunn planes, it has to stunn them faster! Because actually even with 400 points AA you mostly don't stop a plane before it drops the bombs or fire the rockets.

That shouldn't happen, 2x75pts 37mm repel any fighter-bomber targeting their position. Heavy bomber are more difficult to fend off but they cost much more so they are juicy targets for fighters.
One possible explanation would be that you have put your AA behind hedgerows where their line of sight is obstructed.