• Why buy fighters? I can buy two ARM for the same price as 1 FTR, and have the same attack stats x2, in addition to that they aren’t subject to AA fire this way if they are taken out of the game at least they get to have a chance of taking something with them. FTR’s do have the advantage of moving 4 spaces but only kinda honestly they can only move 3 b/c they need the forth to land.  If you move the two ARM they can still occupy the newly taken location.

    I don’t rule out FTR’s 100% they are awesome to set on carriers, and attack island hopping.

    Can any one see a flaw in my logic? thanks,

    -LT04

  • 2007 AAR League

    fighters are extremely useful for trading territories, particularly when you are trying to take a territory but leave a minimum number of units there because you know whatever you leave there will just be slaughtered when your opponent counter attacks.  If you traded these territory using arm instead of fighters, the arm would be lost.  Using fighters allows you to only leave 1 or 2 inf in the newly captured territory instead of the more expensive arm.

    Also fighters are incredibly mobile, allowing you to attack land or sea, as well as being able to attack in Europe one turn, and attack in Asia/Africa the next.  Fighters can also fight behind enemy lines, while arm can only move 2 territories if the first doesn’t have enemy units in it (otherwise it must stop in the first territory and fight).  Arm just don’t have the same mobility as fighters.

    That being said, for a siege on a capital, arm are better for the reasons you list.


  • OK that being said would you consider buying Bombers?

    -LT04


  • The only time I got big into bombers was when I was playing classic and we had the variation rule about paratroopers. I would retake Midway and Hawaii from WUS when Japan would leave those spaces free for the taking. Then I could have the BMR land in the WUS out of the way of Japan.  :mrgreen:

    -LT04


  • ive played with buying 2 bombers every turn with britain and pounding germany into the ground with industrial bombing….thought?


  • I guess I’ve done that from time to time. Mostly I have Russia buy two per turn and pound Japan into the stone age with strategic bombing. But this doesn’t happen until Germany has fallen.

    -LT04

  • 2007 AAR League

    Germany dont fall  :mrgreen:


  • it will if it can’t build anything……


  • Ouch! Thats cold.  :evil:


  • @losttribe04:

    Ouch! Thats cold.  :evil:

    colder then a witche’s somthing…

  • Moderator

    I like fighters a lot, and will buy them with all nations, although I’ve yet to do so with Russia.  With Russia I think it may make more sense to just focus on land units.

    But with the other 4 nations they can serve a dual land/sea purpose that other units can’t.  They are cheaper than DD’s and just as effective in attack, while 2 tanks can’t threaten any ships.
    Also their range is great, esp if you have carriers in certain spots, for example a ftr that is placed in Sz 60 can make it to Sz 34 in one turn, then to Europe to help defend Germany.  Or for the US sz 55 to sz 12 in one shot.

    Again with the exception of Russia, I think the other nations should always try to have at least 4-6 ftrs minimum on the board.  With the US I’ll hit double digits in ftrs easy, UK maybe 6-8 although they take the brunt when sinking Germany ships so I usually end up with about 4-6.  With Germany, I’d like to get 7-8 ftrs depending on if Ukr was attacked Rus 1, but 5 and 1 bom is certainly good enough if you want to concentrate on land only.  And Japan is sort of a wild card, they start with 6, so pending on how Germany is doing I’ll mainly stay between 6-10.  If Germany is in real trouble and I have Japan earning over 40, I’ll try and go 1 ftr per turn, so I can keep a steady stream of J ftrs to Europe if the ftrs are needed there.


  • I guess I answered my own question. I tried using the German Baltic navy scenario with my A&A CD-ROM didn’t work the 5 times I tried it. I bought only FTRs on G1 and G2 they would shred the Allied Navy every turn and return to the German front line for defense.

    None the less thats for all your input,

    -LT04

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    DM pointed out some really good reasons.

    However, Fighters are better on defense then tanks as well, and they can defend territories farther from the front allowing you to put more tanks on the front lines.

    My personal rule of thumb is that no nation I have should have less then 3 fighters and none should have more then 8 fighters.  (4 or 5 seem to be optimal, enough mobile punch to take moderately strong defensive positions without risking too many high value targets, diverse enough to hit multiple terroritories with redundnacy.)

    As for Bombers, I’ll buy them with Japan, America and sometimes England if I lost mine somewhere.  The sheer range of the unit is nice to have.

  • 2007 AAR League

    Actually, Jen makes a really good point about fighters defending further from the front lines.  As Germany, you can have half of your fighters defending Ukraine and half of them defending Germany, and use them all to attack/strafe Caucasus before landing 1/2 back in Ukraine and the other 1/2 back in Germany.  Much more mobile than tanks in that scenario.  Of course alternatively you could have used all of them to strafe an allied fleet in the baltic and land them back in the territories they came from (whatever’s left of them).

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    6 Fighters, 1 Bomber is a major deterrant to lightly defended fleets, yes.

    Personally, I like my fighters in W. Europe and my bombers in E. Europe.  That gives me all my armor on the front lines and most of my infantry, at least until later in the game.  As the game presses on, I’ll move the fighters to E. Europe because they still hit all the northern sea zones well, but they can also drive deeper into Russia if I want them too.


  • Well that’s true, they definitely have a unique attack and return to defend talent.

    -LT04


  • Fighters don’t need to be committed to trade territories.  If you attack with 2 inf 1 tank, you probably sent those 2 inf 1 tank to their death at very little cost in enemy units. If you attack with 2 inf 1 fighter, the infantry die, but you don’t care, because your costly fighter is safe, and your cheap infantry have either forced the enemy to commit infantry, or to lose more expensive units.

    Fighters are good against navy.

    Let’s put it this way.  You have a tank.  Now you double its movement, and let it fly, and increase its defense, and give it depth charges to blow up subs and other naval units.

    Flying tanks.  COOOOLLLL.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    Uhm, dunno about fighters are good against navy.  I think the navy is better against fighters. :)

    I’ll trade Germany American transports for German Fighters all day long!


  • Two American transports per German fighter?  It’s a deal.

  • '18 '17 '16 '11 Moderator

    No, 1 American Transport for 1 German Fighter, dear.  Trade.  1 for 1.

    Remember, that fighter has a 50/50 shot at hitting.  Any reasonable defense is going to have a destroyer, aircraft carrier, battleship and/or fighter for each attacking fighter negating and surprassing their hit ratio.

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