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Mid-Air Refueling

Posted: Feb 25 2008
by Mitchell
A long time ago I grew too frustrated and gave up on using mid-air refueling but recently started playing again and want to see if it's of any use. I know that since Update 6 it at least works and I've played around with it enough to see that it does, but it sure seems to ba a lot of work! So, my question is, does anybody use it and if so what tips do you have for minimizing needed micromanagement and maximizing reliability?

Specifically what I would liek to do is this: I like to set up patrols of F-14s along a line several hexes long and parallel to the front but back a few hexes (taking advantage of their excellent air-to-air range). I try posting KC-135s next to the end points of the patrol but have very spotty luck getting the F-14s to actually take on fuel - eventually they run low and RTB rather than go to the tankers. Would I be better off placing the tankers back a bit, between the patrol area and the base? I've tried a few different placements but most of the time the planes RTB rather than refuel in the air. Any ideas for how to raise the likelihood they will opt for the latter?

Posted: Feb 25 2008
by Feltan
Mitchell,

Can't really help you. I used mid-air refuelling once. Like you, just to see if it worked. My experience doing so left me to conclude to never use it again. One of my first actions when starting a 2010 game is to sell every air tanker I have.

Regards,
Feltan

Posted: Feb 25 2008
by Balthagor
We will be looking at improved rules and AI to make this more useful in SR2020

Posted: Feb 27 2008
by Red Dawn
Great I just bought two squadrons of KC135s..... then tried to figure out how to use the damn things... oh well.

I have a question though....

When sending my squadrons on CAP or CAS sorties what I have attempted to do is to split the squadron as I don't think sending 18 interceptors to patrol the same line is a good use of my resources. I select the squadron and then hit the split battalion tab but nothing happens??

I tried splitting one of my ground combat battalions as well and once again nothing happened i.e. the battalion/squadron remain in tact.

Posted: Feb 27 2008
by Balthagor
mid air refueling works by a tanker gives fuel to any units in ZoC that need fuel. Problem is there is a bug in the implementation that makes then not always keep enough fuel to get home. It's also hard to know how many squadrons one tanker can support.

Splitting and merging does work, if you search the forum for "merge' there should be some old threads explaining it.