Air power to the excess...

[Benjaminvallen1]

I have watched Russia do this twice, and I have yet to understand why. Every time I pay attention, the Russian AI is building Aircraft Fabrication facilities like it is going out of style. In my current game I am looking north across the border at their 112 aircraft fabs thinking 'WTF?!' I expect war with them before too long, and despite F22s, F35s, Eurofighter IIs, and various American and Chinese models of aircraft, I think I will get swamped just by numbers. My response has been to build nearly 80 SA-2 Guidelines to protect my groundpounders, but I'm big on airpower, and I'd prefer my swarm of strategic bombers didn't go down under a cloud of Mig-25bs. Why do they do this and what is the best response?

[Ruges]

So basicaly: You want to use bombers, You cannot use bombers becouse enemy as fighter defense, So in order to use bombers you must destroy thier fighters. Your counter has been to put in some ground based AA to destroy. However the enemy is not sending its fighters out while your AA is there. And when you send your bombers in to bomb they get shot up before your AA can engage.

When I first went into russia my last game I exsperienced situations like this too. Your only hope is to destroy thier airforce. However using ground forces todo this is an issue becouse if they are close enough to engage at the airfield, then they are probly close enough tobe engaged by ground foces. So you need to lure thier fighters away from the airfield. The AI loves attacking transport planes, Or defending military complexes. Position your AA halfway between the enemy airfield and a good spot to lure them too. Use long range UAV, Radar, Recon, what ever you got so you can see them early. Send out a transport plane where it will be spoted. The AI should send fighters to destroy it. and your AA that is in the path should destroy the enemies fighters.

[tkobo]

First ,dont let their numbers scare you;
1)its only an AI
2)alot of those numbers are crap units

Ruge is right,draw them out and crush them with qaulity and planning.Biggest challenge here will be the mig-25s,which are high air .Draw them into a trap that has alot o your best damage fighters and your best mid air anti-air.

If you want to go another route,go with missiles.Build alot of anti-facility missiles,get some recon in the area,than use the missiles in large strikes to destroy the enemies airfields.Keep pushing their airforce back this way.
Start at the closest airfield,destroy it, than the next closest,etc...

[Ruges]

If you want to go another route,go with missiles.Build alot of anti-facility missiles,get some recon in the area,than use the missiles in large strikes to destroy the enemies airfields.Keep pushing their airforce back this way.
Start at the closest airfield,destroy it, than the next closest,etc...

Spies and Trident missles do the best job of this.

[Benjaminvallen1]

hm, ya'll have given me something to think about... ok, I will set up some units to do this. When war begins, I will come back and let ya'll know how it went.

[ollobrains]

Just fire some icbm nukes over the border that soon fixes em otherwise Advanced air defense facilities ( ground based SAM ) and lure em on on over, put up fighters and slowly draw em off

[mfisher12]

First ,dont let their numbers scare you;
1)its only an AI
2)alot of those numbers are crap units

This bears repeating. In a couple of my past games, the AI has deployed massive numbers of tanks and/or aircraft which gave me pause. But if you've been building up your tech, you will find that their obsolescent units can't really do much damage to you and the AI doesn't handle airpower any better than it handles amphibious invasions.

In that situation, Ruge's suggestion is a good one. Cruise missiles can cut their feet out from under them by taking out their airfields (although if they have proper AA units deployed, you'll lose a lot of missiles, too). My preferred solution is to have a couple of airfields full of my best fighters and/or multi-role aircraft close to the front, then send in the armor and attack the hexes with their air force. That will invariably bring their aircraft to the skies where your mobile AA and fighters can bring them down easily. Epic air battles rock

[sa_3_d911]

I have watched Russia do this twice, and I have yet to understand why. Every time I pay attention, the Russian AI is building Aircraft Fabrication facilities like it is going out of style. In my current game I am looking north across the border at their 112 aircraft fabs thinking 'WTF?!' I expect war with them before too long, and despite F22s, F35s, Eurofighter IIs, and various American and Chinese models of aircraft, I think I will get swamped just by numbers. My response has been to build nearly 80 SA-2 Guidelines to protect my groundpounders, but I'm big on airpower, and I'd prefer my swarm of strategic bombers didn't go down under a cloud of Mig-25bs. Why do they do this and what is the best response?

i would declare war on them while my bombers are in reserve & then use 3 tank divisions to enter his land that will provoke him to attack you with almost every thing you should before the war entrench alot of AAA & tanks in stratigic positions & couple of radars, AAA building he will most likely attack with all his bombers & tanks then send one transport plane to the front line that always provokes him to send his fighter but be careful to be inside the range of your AAA then hiss fighter will start falling like flies out of the sky then you will have done so much damage to his Air force that what fighters you have will be enough to overwhelm him

[tkobo]

In that situation, Ruge's suggestion is a good one. Cruise missiles can cut their feet out from under them by taking out their airfields (although if they have proper AA units deployed, you'll lose a lot of missiles, too). My preferred solution is to have a couple of airfields full of my best fighters and/or multi-role aircraft close to the front, then send in the armor and attack the hexes with their air force. That will invariably bring their aircraft to the skies where your mobile AA and fighters can bring them down easily. Epic air battles rock

You should learn the use of buzzsaws.
You'll thoroughly crush the AI, have a lot of large air battles, and keep your ground units safe as can be.

[mfisher12]

You should learn the use of buzzsaws.
You'll thoroughly crush the AI, have a lot of large air battles, and keep your ground units safe as can be.

What tech level is the buzzsaw?

[tkobo]

Its a deployment of units.

Take 70 good air units, and give them an escort order for a stack of your ground units on the front line.

buzzsaw.JPG

The Aircraft in each of those three groups have the look of a constantly spinning multi-toothed blade, when in motion.

[George Geczy]

The Aircraft in each of those three groups have the look of a constantly spinning multi-toothed blade, when in motion.

If you've discussed this before I had missed it - quite the interesting strategy. I wonder if the terminology could catch on - maybe players of other games will start saying "I suggest trying a buzzsaw maneuver here..."

Maybe SR2020 should implement an "air traffic control" limitation to avoid allowing so many air units in such a small air space... or maybe have a few planes crash into each other...

[tkobo]

Some kind of adjustment would be welcome.Perhaps you could hire the games helicopter pilots for the jets

Buzzsaws as they stand now, are unstoppable vs the AI.

You could also go at it the other way,get the AI to take alot of those air units sitting mostly unused at airfields and have the AI use them this way.It would surely increase the AIs offensive power.Garrisons which now hold the AI up a bit too much on a regualr basis,would fall rather fast to the AI if it used this.And it would make penetrating the enemies air space alot harder,so it would gimp the air assualt strat at the same time.Which would be a nice one two.
Of course that might swing things too far the other way, And some players may find themselves unable to defeat the AI if it used this.

[dark_warrior]

I would suggest using fighter planes with stealth capabilities to take out the enemy planes.
Then, send a variety of stealth bombers and wipe out their land troops, especially the barracks.

Using bombers such as the B-2 Spirit would be good enough. For fighters, used multi-role fighters such as F-22 Raptor.

Taking out their base would be a good way as it could prevent them from repairing. To prevent them from building any more units, nuke all their fabrication (land, air, sea) and completely destroy it.