Naval and Air Power talk

[PrinceBimz]

I want to hear everyones ideas on using Naval and Air Power in combination. First off, obviously aircraft are very versatile being useful in many ways and able to do combat on both land and sea. With a sizeable airforce along with some naval ships I can usually wreak havoc on sea and coastal bases. What I do in some situations is build a heavily armored ship with minimal attack strength. I then use my airforce to attack and clear out the bases then finally just move in the defense ship to take it. A ship like that will normally survive and will be hard to sink not to mention able to defend the base pretty well until you can get a garrison in there. So like this you can get a base and have instant defense to hold it for a while. A defense type ship like that can't attack and is practically useless for bombardment but you can use your airforce for the attacking purpose. What about the rest of you? Any interesting ways you use naval/air power to work in combination with each other?

[drewski]

You sum it up pretty nicely. The only variant that I also enjoy is the use of locusts. They can go anywhere without penalty (as opposed to choppers that incur damage if not in a base) and they can take bases themselves (so they can replace the ships if need be).
They fly (shortest path), they've got psi attack (so if you unleash a plague of them, the slowly get stronger and you can utilize SE settings to help them as well), and they can conquer bases. I just love those little buggers.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Successful use of airpower in combo with sea forces Ahh an intrigueing use of two disciplines of power with many successful options.

Actually tho' my preference is somewhat opposite of what is suggested. My preference is to cover sea going vessels with air superiority fighters and use either standard or unarmored vessels for sea base assualt or 2 square distant duels with other sea going vessels.

OTOH, strict use of choppers with an interceptor needlejet unit covering any sea going unit until point of base capture (if a sea base).

Ideally any real tough nuts to crack (i.e. bases with best armor AAA and Aerospace complexes) will employ air covered transports with best weapon marines. The target base is softened up by 2 square arty fire from best weapon standard or unarmored sea vessels.

Lastly I agree with the suggested use of locusts as they offer the most versatile mid game combat unit.

[RedFred]

On naval units I build max armor and max attack into most or all ships. The extra cost is not that great considering the additional benefit for R1. R2 and later the benefits are even more obvious. After I get the maritime control feature I'll load that into my ships too. I either try to travel in packs or have air cover. I'll throw in the odd IoD just to mix up the attacks.

[PrinceBimz]

>>>Ideally any real tough nuts to crack (i.e. bases with best armor AAA and Aerospace complexes) will employ air covered transports with best weapon marines. The target base is softened up by 2 square arty fire from best weapon standard or unarmored sea vessels.<<<

Yes AAA garrisons as well as interceptors do create major problems at times when using that strategy I mention above. The AI does tend to use AAA garrisons and sometimes a good amount of them. So in the mid to late game you can run into problems. You will definitely need a ship with heavy firepower to bombard and soften the base up first and have marines ready to take it. It all depends on your present situation and if the AI has considerable naval power to challenge you which I find it does quite often, especially if it is the Pirates.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

Red, Prince B, et. al.

I guess my thoughts on armor are as follows. Knowing that armor is cheap on sea going vessels it certainly isn't a major expense to armor them to the max (armor costs 1/4 the cost on sea chassis vs. other units). That being said tho' I tend to think in terms of survivability and even best armor on said vessels isn't enough to counter the inherent 2:1 advantage of weapon strength to armor in most cases (exception being AAA mod to provide +100% air defense) asssuming your foe has some decent weapons.

In order to provide survivability in unknown water my first impression is air cover/air cover/ air cover as air superiority needlejets allow defense at weapon strength firstly and prevents direct attack from sea going vessels on any of the units so stacked(unless equipped with SAM and then only on the tactical fighter that defends at weapon strength. Caveat - 2 square distant arty duels still apply). I've always been an advocate of tactical needlejets for their multi-purpose role as escorts for units designated for base capture/probe/etc. either on ground or sea. As long as one uses the air defense model, armor doesn't really gain you anything on the covered units (ground or air) again not that it is a biggie since armor is so cheap on sea vessels.

The game of course changes upon discovery of MMI as choppers then become the prefered method of base assault with followup by the air covered ground or sea units (or as previously mentioned Locusts for dual purpose base capturing roll) intended to capture the base.

OTOH I feel that equiping your naval forces with best weapon is an important part of the strategy b/c it allows:
1) direct assault of sea bases with best chance of success
2) naval duels at 2 square distances at weapon to wepaon ratios
3) base bombardment with greatest likelihood of damage
etc.

Anyway as I indicated before successful integration of naval, ground, and air forces allows a miriad of choices. The real test is whether it works or not. whatever you do have fun.