Suggestion regarding airplanes from Barbara Tuchman

[Philo32b]

Reading through the forum and from personal experience, there is not too much point worrying about airplanes in the game currently. Then I read something today that could make them more useful.

In Barbara Tuchman's The Guns of August, she quotes the French Grand Quartier General as saying, after the Battle of the Frontiers in 1914, "Finally, we must copy the enemy in using airplanes to prepare artillery attacks" (p. 261). Brilliant! Why not give artillery a +10% bonus from available airplanes? This would be similar to the +10% bonus infantry gets from tanks.

Adding the reasonable idea that airplanes can reach two regions away, here is the idea fleshed out a bit. If artillery is involved in a battle within two regions of an airbase, airplanes will attempt to help the artillery with recon of the enemy positions in that battle before the battle occurs. If enemy planes are around, there may be an aerial battle to prevent this assistance. If not, or if the friendly side wins the aerial battle, the friendly artillery gets the 10% bonus in the battle. This would make airplanes something to care about and much, much more useful than the little bombing they sometimes do currently.

In addition to this I would also combine a couple of forum suggestions already given: have airplanes give +1 detect all the time to all regions within two regions away. That would also help make them more valuable.

[ERISS]

http://www.ageod.net/agewiki/Davai_MOD#012.29

[lodilefty]

and from the Wiki:
http://www.ageod.net/agewiki/Attributes_on_Models

*AirSpotter* // can give a bonus to artillery if there is a battle in the region where it spots

The attribute is already there for Baloons, Air Fighters, and the WHI Air Recon Squadrons

[andatiep]

and from the Wiki:
http://www.ageod.net/agewiki/Attributes_on_Models
The attribute is already there for Baloons, Air Fighters, and the WHI Air Recon Squadrons

OK.

Before the new aircraft system, i planed to use artillery ability to give a 25% bonus to the stack with an airplane unit ...BUT only in defensive fight :

Because if not, player will use the airplane units inside corps devoted to the attacks. This will not be the purpose of such units which are supose to be in "defensive" or remote use (e.g. with an Army unit)...

Does the new attribute system allow such a difference beween attack and defense bonus, or it is applying only for the both ?

[andatiep]

OK, maybe the answer was obvious :
*AirSpotter* // can give a bonus to artillery if there is a battle in the region where it spots

i supposed then that the bonus arrive only after a successfull air mission, which means that it is useless to use the airplane unit inside a attacking force.

But then an other question comes for the balloon unit. Does this unit really do air mission like the *airbase* units in order to performe this attribute ?

[Philo32b]

Because if not, player will use the airplane units inside corps devoted to the attacks. This will not be the purpose of such units which are supose to be in "defensive" or remote use (e.g. with an Army unit)...

Actually, according to the source quoted by Tuchman in the OP, airplanes were also used by the attacker (the Germans, in this case) to spot for artillery.

But for purposes of the game unless the range is increased, it will be mainly a defensive bonus, because (if I remember correctly) you need to operate them from a region with a structure.