To order aircraft to make their contribution to the execution phase of the game you need to switch to the Air Support toolbar during the planning stage. To do this, you must select the Air Support menu item from the Toolbar menu.
Once you have switched to the Air Support toolbar, you will see that there are four aircraft types that you can give orders to (all depending on the scenario and what the scenario designer has allowed). These four aircraft are: Fighter-Bombers, Heavy Bombers, Night Bombers, and Reconnaissance.
Fighter-Bombers, Heavy Bombers and Night Bombers all provide barrage support that you can use either instead of or in combination with artillery barrage. Night Bombers have the lightest barrage contribution, Fighter-Bombers have a moderate contribution, while Heavy Bombers have the largest contribution. Reconnaissance aircraft only help to improve your knowledge of enemy units but are given orders in exactly the same way as the bombers. Fighter-Bombers, Heavy Bombers and Reconnaissance aircraft can only fly during the day, while Night Bombers can only fly at night. If the weather is too bad for flight, then no aircraft will be able to receive orders.
An example of the Air Support toolbar appears in the following graphic. Notice that since this image was taking during a daylight turn that the Night Bomber title is light blue, and the Night Bomber section is otherwise empty, whereas the other aircraft are both available and contain more detail. If this was a night turn and there were Night Bombers were available, then situcation would be reversed with all aircraft, except the Night Bombers, having minimal information, while the Night Bombers would have all the detail.
The toolbar is divided into 4 sections corresponding to one per aircraft type. The divisions occur as we go from left to right with the section titled in yellow for aircraft that are available, or light blue for aircraft that are not available. If an aircraft type is available, then next to its yellow title containing the aircraft type will be two scroll arrows, and then below the yellow title and scroll arrows are details concerning the aircraft and their availability.
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There's no real limit to the number of aircraft that can be made available in a scenario, but for each aircraft only a maximum of 5 can be displayed at a time. Each aircraft, within a particular type, is given a unique number from 1 upwards. This number is displayed to the left of the particular aircraft section. Notice in the image to the left (where we are looking at the Fighter-Bomber section), that the numbers range from 1 to 5. If more aircraft are available we can find out by moving the cursor over one of the scroll arrows and clicking to bring up the next page of five aircraft. In the image to the left, the cursor is over the down arrow as we want to see if there are aircraft who are numbered greater than 5. |
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Clicking in the down scroll arrow will bring up the next page of available Fighter-Bombers. Sonce there are only 6 Fighter-Bombers available for this scenario then only one aircraft will appear as shown in the image to the left. Notice that since 6 is the maximum number of Fighter-Bombers for this scenario that clicking the down arrow again will not move onto another page - only if there are any aircraft in the relevant direction will a click on one of the scroll buttons actually result in a change of page. Notice that the scroll arrow buttons for all of the aircraft will function in the same way as the Fighter-Bombers so there is no need for me to cover their function. |
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To aim an aircraft, you first need to select the aircraft that you wish to fire. You do this by moving the cursor over the blue rectangle corresponding to the aircraft that you want to give orders to as I have done in the image to the left where I want to select the first Fighter-Bomber. Notice that I am selecting an aircraft that is termed "ready", which means that this aircraft is ready to recieve orders for the next execution phase. |
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Clicking within that blue rectangle will cause the word "ready" to change into a red colour as is shown in the image to the left. When the text within a blue rectangle turns red this way then this shows that this aircraft is selected. Even if I were to scroll through the various aircraft lists, the aircraft that I have selected will still be the one that will recieve whatever orders that I give, even if that aircraft item has been scrolled out of sight. |
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You then move the cursor over the hex map, where the cursor will change into a bulleye as shown in the image to the left. It is important to notice that you can fire onto every hex in the hex map, including the graphics representing your own units - but though you can target your own units, such deliberate targeting of your own units is ignored during the execution phase (although during the execution phase such orders to fire on your own units will be ignored at the cost of using up one order for that aircraft). |
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Once you have moved the cursor over the hex in which you want your aircraft to appear, you then click the mouse. I have done exactly this in the picture to the left, although I have moved the cursor just slightly so that you might now see how the map graphic has changed. Notice how a red disk has appeared centered over the hex that I wanted the aircraft to appear. If I used a Fighter-Bomber then a FIG would appear written on the disk. If I used a Heavy Bomber then a BOM would appear written on the disk. If I used a Night Bomber then a NIG would appear written on the disk. If I used a Reconnaissance then a REC would appear written on the disk. |
Notice that once you have have given the order to fire upon the target hex, that in the Air Support toolbar that the red selected "ready" has now changed into a red selected "aimed". Whenever you see the text "aimed" this means that that aircraft has been given orders for the next execution phase. You can then either leave that order as it stands, or you can undo or change it.
In the above example I need to be a little more careful than I have been, as when I give an order for an aircraft to attack a particular hex there is a possibility that the air attack will miss the enemy and hit my own units. This form of mistaken air attack can only reach to the hexes neighbouring my own, so if my units are 2 or more hexes away from the target hex then I have nothing to fear about mistaken air attacks.
There are several considerations concerning the success of an aircraft's mission. Aircraft used at night are more prone than aircraft flown at day to either fail to complete the mission or be involved in a mistaken air attack. The worse the weather then the more likely the aircraft is to fail to complete the mission or be involved in a mistaken air attack. If a hex or it neighbours contains an anti-aircraft gun (the effect is strongest with an anti-aircraft unit in the hex being targeted) then the aircraft is more likely to fail to complete its mission or be involved in a mistaken air attack.
Aircraft other than Reconnaissance aircraft all provide a form of barrage attack. On the other hand Reconnaissance aircraft can help change the amount of information that we have about an enemy unit. The effect of a Reconnaissance aircraft is spread out over several hexes. If the Reconnaissance aircraft is targeted on a hex then the information gained from that hex is high. For hexes neighbouring the hex that was targeted by Reconnaissance aircraft then the information gained from that hex is moderate. For hexes neighbouring the hexes that neighbour the hex that was targeted by Reconnaissance aircraft (that is hexes 2 away from the target hex) then the information gained from that hex is mild.
If you feel that way inclined, you can give orders to all of your available aircraft to attack one hex, all that you need to do is repeat the steps that you did above: first selecting the aircraft that you want to give orders to, then clicking on the hex that you want the aircraft to appear. Whether or not a mission is flown is determined individually for each and every aircraft, and the final contribution is a sum of those missions that succeeded.
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After giving an order to an aircraft you can latter undo it. You can either undo an order immediately after giving it, or you can even change toolbars and do something else before returning to undo the aircraft order. The first step that you must do is to go to the Air Support toolbar and select the aircraft who's order you want to undo - doing this will make the relevant red air support disk appear on the map showing you the order that you have given it. Notice that you can tell which aircraft you have already given orders to by the existance of the text "aimed" in the aircraft's blue rectangle, all other aircraft will be either "ready" or "re-arming". Once you have selected your aimed aircraft, you then move the cursor over the hex map and in particular you move the cursor over the hex containing the red disk of your previous order, as I've shown in the image to the left. (In the image to the left I've actually moved the cursor slightly lower than it should be in order to clearly show the existance of the red order disk. |
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I then click the mouse and the order is undone, as is shown in the image to the left. (Again - in order to clearly show the changes involving the red disk I have moved the cursor slightly down from where it was. I this example I moved the cursor directly over the red disk and clicked while it was there.) Notice how the red disk has now disappeared, and in the Air Support toolbar the red selected text "aimed" has changed to a red selected "ready". |
There is another way to undo an air support order, which is especially useful if all that you want to do is not undo the order all together, but to merely change the hex which is targeted. To do this you first make certain that the aimed aircraft is selected in the Air Support toolbar, you then move the bulleyes cursor over the new target hex that you want targeted. Clicking the mouse will then cause the old red order disk to be erased and a new red order disk to appear over the new target hex.
In the Air Support toolbar, for each aircraft, there is typically a series of strings which describe the aircraft that can go something like 1 ready (1/1). The first two parts we have covered, and now we'll discuss the final (1/1) element.
Let's write this piece as (X/Y). In this, Y is the total number of orders that we can give before the particular aircraft must re-arm, whereas X is the number of orders that we have left before this re-arming occurs. Since an aircraft must always re-arm after each use then this means that both X and Y are both 1.
When an aircraft re-arms it is delayed by a certain number of turns, and while an aircraft is re-arming its display in the Air Support toolbar changes. Look at the following example where I have given orders to the first daylight aircraft of each type:
Immediately after we have an execution phase and are again at a planning stage, we can look at the Air Support toolbat and see that it now appears as in the following image:
Notice that how the displays for the two bomber types have changed. They have changed to an unselectable light blue colour. The text describing the aircraft is now "re-arming" and that (1/1) element has change to a simple number within brackets. This number within brackets is the number of turns that you must wait before an aircraft has finished re-arming and is ready to recieve orders again. Note that aircraft can get ready even during the night.
Since Reconnaissance aircraft have no weapons and only require a quick re-fuel, then these have no delay in order to be ready again, which is why we don't see any changes for them. Fighter-Bombers carry only light bombs and can be quickly re-armed and so you only have to wait a single turn before they are ready. Heavy Bombers and Night Bombers require much more work to re-arm so they take 2 turns in order to get ready.