Survival Guide - Dust Settles: Bombing

Table of Contents:

Purpose:

If you'd like to do something a little different to attack another player, you can send in a bombing squadron to instill a little "shock and awe" into them. Whether you want to destroy as many guard posts as you can before sending in some ops for a little alliance recon or sabotage work or destroy a few pillboxes and antitank cannons before launching an army assault, air raids can be a major bonus to your strategy.

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Attacking Another Camp:

When you decide that you want to send a bombing run to do some damage to another camp, you will need to first click the Air Force link on the left control panel. Once inside this page, you will be ready to begin making your assignments. You will first need to select who you want to attack, then the aircraft you want to send and finally how many army units you need to fly the planes you're sending. Once you have set an appropriate force to attack someone who is in your attack range, you will click the "Confirm" button to finalize the attack.

When you are assigning army units to fly the planes, be sure to watch how many are actually needed. You will not be able to commit to an attack if you attempt to assign more or less army units than are actually needed to fly the planes you assign. You can use the "+ max" and "0" buttons to assign all of your trained army or none, to quickly adjust things as needed.

After you confirm the attack, the assignment queue will be replaced with a message telling you how many army units and planes were assigned, and who you are attacking. If everything meets your approval, finish anything else you need to do and end your turn. You will then receive the results of the bombing run. Once you end one more turn all of your surviving planes and army units will return to your camp to be used again. If you change your mind or want to adjust these numbers, you can disband the squadron as long as you have not ended a turn. After you end the first turn, the attack will have occurred, leaving you with no option but a correction with your next attack.

While they are out, your bombers will target the defending camp's armories, barracks, factories, fuel refineries, guard posts, hangars, lots, antitank cannons, pillboxes, antiaircraft guns, and SAM sites. Civilian population can also be killed in the blasts or in resulting damage (such as explosions from fuel refineries, etc.). Any armories, barracks, hangars, or lots that are destroyed will also have their contents destroyed.

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Attack Range:

Because it would be foolish to attack a camp much larger than yours or much smaller, your attacks are limited to a specific range. For bombing runs, your range will be equal to your army attack range, which is smaller than your ops range. When you are selecting who you want to attack, you will be limited to those within your range. You can find what camps meet this by looking on the Statistics page for those listed in red rows around you or look in the drop-down box to see which camps are listed. If a camp that should be in your range is not listed in the drop-down box, they may be in Cool Down. You will not be able to set them as your opponent. Also a camp may be listed with "(unable)" beside their name. Camps with this beside their name have either been attacked by you 3 times with air raids in the last 24 real-time hours OR have been attacked 10 total times (with air raids) within the last 24 hours. Your attack range is based on your score.

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Aircraft Assignment:

Just below the target assignment drop-down box are the tools for assigning the bombers and fighters that you want to send along. The first text box is for assigning fighters to send as escorts to give your bombers a better shot at attacking the camp than sending them alone. The next two boxes are for assigning light and heavy bombers. To assign them, just type in the number of fighters and bombers you want to send. As long as you assign enough army units to fly and crew the planes and have enough gas to fuel them (not to mention the obvious restriction of having enough planes in storage) you'll be able to click confirm to send them on their way. Also, because sending an all fighter force is rather pointless, you must send bombers such that they are equal to or greater than 10% of your escort assignment. For example, if you assign 50 fighters to attack a camp, you must send at least 5 bombers along. These bombers can be lights, heavies, or both, as long as you send enough. Watch the stats just below the aircraft assignment tools to see how many total army units are needed to fly the planes and how much fuel will be needed for the attack. You can use the "+ max" and "0" buttons beside each plane's assignment box to automatically assign all or none of that plane type to be sent on the mission. Just make sure if you use the max button, that you have enough trained army and fuel to meet the costs of the planes.

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Improvements:

One of the primary things you can do to improve your aircraft is to research Weapon Design and Military Tactics. Beyond the fact that both will give you an overall boost in the air battle, Weapon Design (when researched above the level needed to open each plane type) will increase each plane type's accuracy to its final, listed value. If you do not do the extra research, they will use a decreased, starting accuracy.

Also army competency will play a major factor in the battle. The higher your competency the better your troops will perform in battle. The lower, the worse they will do.

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Limitations:

Your first limitation for bombing another camp will be your attack range. If a camp is too far above or below you in score, they will not be available for attack. Your air range is equal to your army range.

If a camp has been attacked by you 3 times in the past 24 hours, they will be unavailable for further attacks until 24 hours after the first attack. Also a camp can only be attacked 15 times with any attack type (other than focus level ops) in any 24 hour period or 10 times with air raids specifically, so even if you haven't reached your personal 3 attack limit, a camp could still be listed as unavailable due to other attacks. Obviously camps placed in cool down will not be available for attack until they leave it.

Your final limitations will be standard ones. These are things like fuel requirements, crew requirements, etc. that must be met in order to set an attack. Most requirements will leave the confirm button disabled when you attempt to set an attack. Others will stop the attack from setting and will give you a warning in red above the queue telling you what stopped the queue from working.

Here is a list of reasons that the confirm button may be inactive:

• No target selected
• Fewer than 50 army units assigned
• More army units assigned than needed to crew the planes
• Not enough army units assigned to crew the planes
• Bomber to fighter ratio too low
• Not enough gas to fuel the planes assigned