Fighter Flood

In-depth tactical discussion on how to lose the least

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Feud
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Fighter Flood

Postby Feud » Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:42 pm

Just tried out a new tactic (new for me at least) in a 1v1 on the public dedcon, figured I'd put it up here for peer review.

He was Europe and I was Asia, so I set up my airfields in a line stretching across Saudi Arabia and into Iran. My carriers were set up in groups of four in the gulf behind them (the grouping isn't that important). Once defcon 3 hit I started flooding his space with fighters from the airfields, and assigned two carriers to send all their fighters to each airfield.

By the time defcon one hit I had reconed most of what I could, but my fighter flood (those sent to the airfields being ordered out once they landed) continued at full speed. Meanwhile, bombers from the carriers were now flying a beam attack at what I had seen. Once the carrier bombers were off, the remaining fighters were sent from the carriers to the airfields to continue the flood.

The idea was that I would not only gain recon info through the fighters, but that I would effectively suppress any fighters and/or bombers that attempted to take off from his airfields. This would allow my bombers to make their run on military targets, with little to no fear of retaliation from fighters since at no time would there be a gap in the friendly fighter coverage.

It worked like gang busters, and I managed to decimate his silos and airfield in the opening volley. There are, of course, several obvious gambles and downsides to this, and limitations on when and how it could best be implemented, but I think it is a worthy tactic to add to the play book. :D
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tllotpfkamvpe
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Postby tllotpfkamvpe » Sat Sep 06, 2008 7:16 pm

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Last edited by tllotpfkamvpe on Thu Feb 23, 2023 11:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby rus|Mike » Sun Sep 07, 2008 3:11 pm

Yes, this tactic is kinda old, and no, mvpe, it's not fighter defence- it's fighter offence.
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Postby Synapse » Sun Sep 07, 2008 3:50 pm

What is lulzier is bomber rush, where you send all your bombers with nukes and as soon as you see a unit (sub, aircraft, ship) you nuke it about 5 times. Even better is when 2 bomber waves collide and noone is quite sure whether to start dropping nukes on the other bombers or to ride it through.
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Postby rus|Mike » Sun Sep 07, 2008 4:21 pm

Synapse wrote:What is lulzier is bomber rush, where you send all your bombers with nukes and as soon as you see a unit (sub, aircraft, ship) you nuke it about 5 times. Even better is when 2 bomber waves collide and noone is quite sure whether to start dropping nukes on the other bombers or to ride it through.

Wut?
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Postby Blackbeard » Sun Sep 07, 2008 5:26 pm

Synapse wrote:What is lulzier is bomber rush, where you send all your bombers with nukes and as soon as you see a unit (sub, aircraft, ship) you nuke it about 5 times. Even better is when 2 bomber waves collide and noone is quite sure whether to start dropping nukes on the other bombers or to ride it through.


I'm guilty of that. If I see a ship, I target it with all available bombers, as though it's the only thing in the world :roll: .
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Postby tllotpfkamvpe » Sun Sep 07, 2008 5:28 pm

.
Last edited by tllotpfkamvpe on Thu Feb 23, 2023 11:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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rus|Mike
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Postby rus|Mike » Sun Sep 07, 2008 6:16 pm

lol, they are good for recon :lol: which is surely much more offence than defence.
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Postby sfericz » Sun Sep 07, 2008 6:22 pm

I've started using a group of fighters for offense right at defcon 3. It has worked so far. The group kills at least one Unit Group, and then provides good radar of land/sea till their predicted death soon after.

I think fighters can be used for a great deal in any game. They just have the right time and the wrong time to be used. Recon and bomber defense is of course among the top ways of use. But I still think fighters can be used for good offensive strikes.
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Postby palehorse864 » Tue Sep 09, 2008 8:48 am

It sounds pretty cool, though I usually get nailed in a sea assault and lose quite a bit before I get close. It would be great for an immediate neighbor though.
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Postby Pater » Thu Sep 11, 2008 1:28 pm

Hmm.. what is the possible upside of this?

Basically it could only work against EU, where the airfields are certainly concentrated in your fighter range from both land and sea targets.. But:

Stopping enemy bombers from leaving the fields is indeed a big victory. And as for your own bombers, this still leaves his navy, which could (should) be spread out along his flanks. Beam attacks therefore would be inferior to sending your bombers through your fighter rush attack vector, after hovering them to nuke launch mode near your (guessing here) India AA cover + fleet.
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Postby Why? » Fri Sep 12, 2008 1:05 pm

Some times I do that as Russia, against Asia. Put carriers north and you can flood asia with fighters. The ones coming from carriers don't go quite as far, but they serve as a good distraction so you can sneak the airbase fighters past ABM fire. Even when your airbases are on the northern coast, you can reach half way into India. You can recon every inch if you place correctly. Get your bombers in formation prior to all this and you can do some serious damage.

However, most good players keep their silos below bombay/hong kong and keep their bomber lines out of reach. The fighters still serve as a distraction for ABM fire, tho. I was initially surprised how much it can help nukes land.

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