Survival Guide - Dust Settles: Air Raids

Table of Contents:

Purpose:

During air battle the defending camp's infrastructure, primarily military related, is the main target. Though you will gain no victory score from an air battle, it could help to soften a target before sending in an army or ops strike. A severe air strike can be particularly devastating to a defending camp, but a defender can keep their camp from suffering much, if any damage with the proper defenses. You will only be able to attack or be attacked by camps within your range. Air range is equal to army range, which is smaller than ops, but overall, this will help limit who can be attacked by whom. Camps within the same alliance cannot attack one another, nor can a camp in anonymity or cool down attack or be attacked.

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Attack Order:

When a player sets up a bombing run against another camp through the Air Force page, he or she will set the number of bombers and fighters to be sent and who is being attacked. Once the player has ended one turn, the battle will occur.

An air battle can last up to 5 rounds and firing is simultaneous. The defender's AAs, SAMs, and fighters will begin shooting at and bringing down as many attacking fighters and bombers as possible, while the attacker's fighters attempt to fend off attacks on the bombers so they can effectively drop their payloads. During each round, the planes and structures will fire at each other, occasionally missing, though the bombers will tend to miss more than the others. Bombers will be targeting the defender's armories, barracks, factories, fuel refineries, guard posts, hangars, lots, antitank cannons, pillboxes, antiaircraft guns, and SAM sites. Defensive army and militia units in fighters, barracks, and defensive structures that are destroyed will be lost as will any attacking army units in planes that are shot down. Any weapons, vehicles, or aircraft that are in storage (not assigned to defense) will be destroyed along with the buildings. Once all bombers have been destroyed or all five rounds have occurred, the remaining planes will begin to return to their respective camps. After the attacker ends one more turn, the remaining planes and army will be back in their hangars and barracks ready for their next go.

If the attacker is able to complete all 5 bombing runs with some bombers left, he/she will be declared the winner. If the defender is able to take out all of the bombers (not necessarily all of the planes) before they can go home, then that camp will be declared the winner.

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Modifiers:

During an air battle, there are a few things that will modify how well each side does. From controllable things like research to uncontrollable things like weather, your attack or defense will vary from battle to battle.

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Research:

The primary things you should research to improve both your attack and defense during an air battle are Weapon Design and Military Tactics. Among other things, the primary benefit provided by the time invested in this research will be the accuracy of your offensive and defensive weapons. Increasing these topics will give you better accuracy for taking out your opponent's forces.

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Aircraft and Defensive Structures:

Obviously one of the main ways to have a better attack or defense is to have better weapons. Heavy bombers hit harder than light bombers and SAM sites are more effective than Antiaircraft guns. Open, build, and buy whatever weapons and defenses that you feel are useful to help make your attacks or defenses more powerful. Your militia will man your defensive structures in order from best to worst, so if there aren't quite enough militia to man all of your AA and SAMs, the SAMs will be filled up first.

One other important thing that will modify the way a battle goes is the accuracy of these aircraft and defensive structures. The defender will gain an increase in accuracy with larger numbers of attacking aircraft in the air. Increasing your research in Weapon Design and Military Tactics will also improve accuracy, whether you are the attacker or defender.

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Army Competency and Morale:

As with any other battle, army competency and morale will have a major effect on air battle. Having a higher army competency will give your pilots an edge. Lower competency will hurt your effectiveness in battle. Morale will be primarily a modifier for the defender. This will help increase or decrease the defending militia's effectiveness accordingly.

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Other Modifiers:

One modifier that you will have to keep in mind when setting up an attack or preparing your defenses is terrain. Certain terrains will give you bonuses or deficits on your ability to attack or defend a camp during air battles.

Weather will also play a role in any air battle as both sides will need better visibility to achieve their desired results.

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Limitations:

The primary limitations for air battle are range and a limit on the number of attacks that can be sent against any given camp. Your attack range for air battle is equal to your attack range for army battle. You will be limited to 3 air attacks on a single camp during any 24 hour period, 10 total air attacks, or 15 total attacks (air, army, or ops) on any camp, whichever comes first. If a camp has met one of these limits, they will be listed in the drop-down box for target selection on the Air Force page, but will have (unable) next to their name. Those camps who have been hit hard enough to be dropped in Cool Down will not even appear in that drop-down box. Focus level ops missions will not count towards the 15 attack/day limit.

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