Quick question

Yes.

Defending on a 4 for starters…

In WWII most fighters did not carry a large quantity of bombs, so their damage was from rocket pods or strafing with machine guns and cannon.  A soldier with a sub-machine gun or mounted 50 cal. could shoot down a low flying plane on a strafing run.

wow, then what is the real power of aircraft if a solders and tanks can take pop shots at them?

• Their range (4 for Fighters, 6 for Bombers) far exceeds that of any land or sea unit, which means that your enemy must be much more careful when postioning his defense forces.  This range allows you to use planes as support to your frontline attacks, so you can commit combined Infantry & aircraft forces without risking your more-expensive land-units.

• Their ability to fly over enemy-occupied areas greatly increases the flexibility of your attacking forces.

• They can fight in sea-zones as well as on land territories, which puts lone enemy ships at risk even when you don’t have a navy in the area.

•  They don’t occupy an area after they fight in it, but must fly to a safe landing-spot.  This means that they are usually not resting on the frontlines, vulnerable to enemy ground attacks.  Fewer of your planes killed = more of your IPCs to spend on adding forces instead of replacing them.

•  Fighter’s overall punch (offesne + defense) is 7, exceeded only by the Battleship.  They are tied for best defensive punch (4) on the board.  Bombers are tied for best offensive punch (4) on the board.

•  Air units have a number of dedicated Tech options that you can research to improve them.  Long-Range Aircraft gives you incredible reach.  Jet Fighters puts your Fighters up to an unmatched 5 defense.  Heavy Bombers deal out massive damage to enemy forces.

There are many more subtle aspects of the aircraft that make them incredibly valuable.  If you are worried about enemy land units picking off your air units, well, you should be.  Aircraft are expensive.  So, don’t put your planes in a position where an enemy can easily hit them.  Support your air units’ attacks with less-expensive land units (“fodder”) that you can use to absorb enemy hits.  Make smart decisions about when to retreat your attacking forces if a combat is going badly.  Make sure the risk/reward balance of your combats make sense.  Attacking, say, a lone Infantry with a lone Bomber is very risky, since you stand a 1-in-3 chance of losing the Bomber even if you hit the Infantry with your first shot.  Protect those planes, my friend!

~Josh

@Juggernaut78:

I see what you saying, I just cant make sence of soilders being able to attack fast flying planes

Use your imagination.
It’s not like a small platoon of soldiers looking up at a fighter squadron and saying “hey - i bet we can shoot these down”.  Think of it more as a division attacking an otherwise-poorly defended airfield with anti-air etc.  Sure some of the planes can scramble and defend, but you are rolling the dice to see if you managed to get them before they do scramble.  If you roll a 5, and the defender rolls a 2, then clearly you did not have the element of surprise, and the defender managed to scramble his fighters and gun your inept division down.  If you roll a 1 and they roll a 6, then you surprised them, torched all of the fighers, killing their pilots.  If you roll a 2 and they roll a 3 then you guys shot each other as the planes were taking off - they mowed you down and as the explosives were going off, i suppose . . . .

@Juggernaut78:

wow, then what is the real power of aircraft if a solders and tanks can take pop shots at them?

Integral AA did not just get invented with the Stinger missile.
Remember that the famed ‘88’ gun in the German Panzer started out it’s life as an anti-aircraft gun design.  Every major military had some degree of AA as part of their ground units and the good commanders would have the sense to put that AA to good use in defending against attacks by aircraft.  Perhaps you have heard of the “Bofors” gun?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8.8_cm_FlaK_18

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bofors_40_mm_gun

The other side of the equation, aircraft defending against ground attack is equally interesting.  The low defense rating of the bombers is easily attributed to the length of time it takes to plan and coordinate a bombing attack.  When attempting to be responsive, the time delay kills.  For the fighter/bomber aircraft, their greater agility in actual performance on the battlefield and their more timely response to a threat justifies a better roll.

All this aside, I suspect the game designers picked numbers based more on playability than specification sheets.  With a “tactical” scale that makes all of France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg just one space, what we really see is game designer elements intended to give feels to the game.  Otherwise, I would make the arguement that Transports should have a defense of “1”.  They almost always travelled with convoy escort.  They almost always had some form of integral AA mounted on board.  The real key is they “play better” as they are.

Otherwise, I would make the arguement that Transports should have a defense of “1”.

Transports do have a defense of “1”.

~Josh

@OutsideLime:

Otherwise, I would make the arguement that Transports should have a defense of “1”.

Transports do have a defense of “1”.

~Josh

I assume he means offense…

My apologies.  I meant offense.

Never try to write in a forum and write software at the same time.