Hello Everyone,
I had a curious thought about how TAC bombers work. Now, I already understand that if a TAC is paired up with either a tank or a fighter, TACs hit at 4 on attack instead of their usual 3. This ability is noted in the rulebook when paired with a tank as representing greater strength of “combined arms” and when paired with a fighter as representing “air superiority”. My question is should each TAC bomber in any given attack be made to choose which unit, tank or fighter, they are paired with and when that particular unit is lost in battle, should the TAC lose it’s hit-on-4 status?
EXAMPLE: This is fairly simplistic but say you attack a territory with 1 mech inf, 1 tank, 1 fighter and 1 TAC and that territory is defended by 3 infantry. Now, the mech inf rolls at 1, the tank and fighter both roll at 3 and the TAC rolls at 4. Let’s say your attack scores 2 hits killing 2 of the 3 defending infantry. However, the 3 infantry ALSO gets 2 hits. Of course, you waste the mech and now have to choose between your tank, fighter and TAC. You need the tank to capture the territory so you have to keep it. So, you would probably choose the fighter since it hits at 3 and the TAC currently hits at 4.
Okay, for the sake of argument, let’s say you originally paired the TAC with the fighter. Currently you can simply say that the TAC is now paired with the tank in order to keep its “4” status. I am just wondering if that is right. In a way, it almost seems like cheating, even though by the rules it is technically legal. “Air Superiority” and “Combined Arms” are technically two different concepts. It just seems to me like perhaps we should be designating TACs to either fighters or tanks and once each particular unit is lost, the matching TAC has to move down to “3” status. For example, say you have 4 TACs, 2 fighters and 5 tanks in a battle and match up 2 TACs with fighters and 2 TACs with tanks. Then if you lose a fighter to AA Guns, 1 TAC has to move down to “3”. If, during the battle, you lose 4 of the 5 tanks, then 1 of those TACs has to move down to “3”.
So, what are your thoughts on this? Should we specifically designate TACs or continue to allow them to simply switch between tanks and fighters in a battle?
By the way, I am aware that in my example above, you could have simply paired the TAC with the tank so losing the fighter wouldn’t affect it.
Well, it’s a KISS rule, as opposed to realism. So no, you shouldn’t need to choose, you just need a matching unit each round, tank or fighter. Otherwise you need to keep track of several pairings and that’s just unpleasent.
But in my opinion, it shouldn’t be a bonus for combined arms. Rather it should be a reflection of air superiority.
Tacs should hit at 4 if:
The enemy has no fighters (or perhaps as long as you have MORE fighters than the enemy)
Otherwise, tacs hit at 3, and it should apply to attack and defense, so that you absolutely need to have fighters when battling Tacs, and you don’t want to face off against alot of fighters with Tacs.
And I would have loved to see this applied to Strategic bombers as well. 3/1 boosted to 4/2 if no enemy fighters were present.
In my opinion. which isn’t worth much.
Yeah, I DO agree that it would be a pain remembering which TACs were paired with which tanks or fighters. Small battles wouldn’t be so bad but any of the really big battles, like the final German push on Moscow, you could really have a lot of tanks, fighters and TACs.
You have some interesting ideas about TACs and Strat bombers’ hitting ability being dependant on the presence of enemy fighters. You could even expand that to require the attacker to also send fighters to counter the defending fighters if you want your bombers to hit at the higher level.
By the way, what does “KISS” stand for?
Keep It Simple Stupid. Lol I heard it alot in the Navy!!
You have some interesting ideas about TACs and Strat bombers’ hitting ability being dependant on the presence of enemy fighters. You could even expand that to require the attacker to also send fighters to counter the defending fighters if you want your bombers to hit at the higher level.
Yup yup, but I figured that was implied in the thought of
Tacs should hit at 4 if:
The enemy has no fighters (or perhaps as long as you have MORE fighters than the enemy)
I just didn’t feel like being too repetitive when mentioning application to strat bombers.
Keep It Simple Stupid. Lol I heard it alot in the Navy!!
AAAAAH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAaaaaaa!!! Okay, got it! I had seen it in a number of posts but just hadn’t heard what it meant. I thought it was something directly related to the game.
By the way Tigerman, is that map in your little picture of Sicily?
