Strafing?

[doulos05]

How do you designate a strafing attack in Megamek? How do I target a high level bombing run? What about dive bombing? I've figured out how the basic strike attacks work, now I want to branch out.

[JenniferinaMAD]

Strafing: If you're at the correct altitude (1-3), one of the buttons for the ASF's firing will highlight ('Strafe'). By clicking this, you can then designate hexes to strafe (1-5 of them, in a straight line, must have flown over them). Once you've done that, you need to select your energy weapons and fire them (only energy weapons with infinite ammo can fire strafe).
Note that the interface will not tell you any of your to-hit numbers, so you'll need to use your own judgement as to whether strafing is worth it (usually it isn't).

Bombing: First make sure the ASF is actually carrying bombs (in the lobby before the game starts right click on the unit -> equipment-> go through the tabs and set up the bomb load). Then, in the firing phase, the different bombing options should be listed as weapons in the weapon list. Again, make sure to be at a correct altitude or it won't work (I'm not 100% on those so I can't list them, sorry).

[elf25s]

Strafing: If you're at the correct altitude (1-3), one of the buttons for the ASF's firing will highlight ('Strafe'). By clicking this, you can then designate hexes to strafe (1-5 of them, in a straight line, must have flown over them). Once you've done that, you need to select your energy weapons and fire them (only energy weapons with infinite ammo can fire strafe).
Note that the interface will not tell you any of your to-hit numbers, so you'll need to use your own judgement as to whether strafing is worth it (usually it isn't).

Bombing: First make sure the ASF is actually carrying bombs (in the lobby before the game starts right click on the unit -> equipment-> go through the tabs and set up the bomb load). Then, in the firing phase, the different bombing options should be listed as weapons in the weapon list. Again, make sure to be at a correct altitude or it won't work (I'm not 100% on those so I can't list them, sorry).

ok i figured out strifing a while back what about bombing height? same or higher?

[pheonixstorm]

Strafing can be done at altitude 1 but shouldn't. There is a +4? hit penalty doing so

Bombing... Not sure on the max altitude for dive bombing but I know for altitude bombing there is no real restriction. The issue with altitude bombing is that the higher up you are the harder it is to hit anything as each altitude adds +1 to you hit number.

All of the rules are in Total Warfare.

[BlueThing]

Strafing can be done at altitude 1 but shouldn't. There is a +4? hit penalty doing so

Bombing... Not sure on the max altitude for dive bombing but I know for altitude bombing there is no real restriction. The issue with altitude bombing is that the higher up you are the harder it is to hit anything as each altitude adds +1 to you hit number.

All of the rules are in Total Warfare.

I think that bombing is altitude 1-5. I tend to stay at 5 as my default altitude, and I think that 6 is too high for bombing (but now that I think about it, I can't remember for sure why I do that).

[BlueThing]

I think that bombing is altitude 1-5. I tend to stay at 5 as my default altitude, and I think that 6 is too high for bombing (but now that I think about it, I can't remember for sure why I do that).

OK, I looked it up because it was bugging me to not remember why I like altitude 5. TW page 243-246 for air to ground rules and TW 107 for ground to air rules.

Altitude bombing is penalized by higher altitudes (+1 per altitude).

Dive bombing is limited to altitude 5 or less.

Strafing is limited to altitude 3 or less.

Striking is limited to altitude 5 or less.


Return fire from the ground gets 2 hexes of range added to it per altitude, so a fighter at altitude 5 cannot be hit by range 9 weapons (though, oddly enough that fighter can ground strike with the exact same weapons and be in range).

Based on the above, my preferred altitude is 5. I normally play in the 3025 tech era, and a lot of weapons have a range of 9 or less. :)

[pheonixstorm]

Check the latest errata, I think the ground to air strikes use the altitude of the unit *AFTER* their attack. I know there was a change in MM regarding something to this affect but I can't recall the details. Could be wrong about the attack bit...

[BlueThing]

Check the latest errata, I think the ground to air strikes use the altitude of the unit *AFTER* their attack. I know there was a change in MM regarding something to this affect but I can't recall the details. Could be wrong about the attack bit...

I think it does work that way. I started doing my air strikes first in turns to not abuse Princess too much when I realized it may work that way.

Of course, the other reason to like Altitude 5 is lowering your chance of becoming a lawn dart. The higher you are, the better. :)

[JenniferinaMAD]

Of course, the other reason to like Altitude 5 is lowering your chance of becoming a lawn dart. The higher you are, the better. :)

On that note: don't drop below Velocity 2 when near enemy ground units. If you lose control from being shot and drop the d6 altitudes, you'll also not be able to spend thrust the next turn. That means if you were at velocity 1 you'd stall and lose another altitude. Losing d6 is bad (especially since apart from altitude bombing any ground attack will leave you at 3 or 4 or most), but losing d6+1 is worlds worse.

Aside: never overheat your ASF past heat 4 in an atmosphere. The control roll failure effects are not worth the risk.

[mchapman1970]

Dive bombing is fun...you can drop your whole payload on one mech (hex I mean)  hehe

[bluedragon7]

Use cluster bombs, even if you miss there is a chance of hitting and if your enemy ist slow to disperse, you can kill most of his forces in 1-3 rounds

[pheonixstorm]

Or altitude bomb from 6 or 7, just start 2-3 hexes before the target so even if it scatters there is still a good chance of landing a hit.

[Demon55]

Use cluster bombs, even if you miss there is a chance of hitting and if your enemy ist slow to disperse, you can kill most of his forces in 1-3 rounds

I will have to try that!

[Death by Lasers]

Check the latest errata, I think the ground to air strikes use the altitude of the unit *AFTER* their attack. I know there was a change in MM regarding something to this affect but I can't recall the details. Could be wrong about the attack bit...

  Yes.  I asked a rules question about a year back to this effect in the rules question forum and got this confirmed.  Any Ground to Air fire uses the the altitude of the fighter after subtracting for Dive Bombing or Striking.  So a Dive Bombing fighter is at altitude 3 and a Striking fighter is at altitude 4 when resolving fire for the turn.  The rules logic being the fighter immediately looses altitude in the fire declaration phase so that it is at the lower altitude during at the fire resolution phase.

[JenniferinaMAD]

While cluster bombs are certainly good and have their uses, I would caution against expecting them to brutally kill targets.
They  only deal 5 points of damage to any given target, compared to a HE bomb's 10. So you're going to need twice as many to tackle mechs and heavier tanks.
Cluster bombs shine when the enemy is clustered and light, but they are pretty much worse against spread out tougher targets, which your average mech lance is likely to be.

[bluedragon7]

You are more likely to hit with cluster bombs, that offsets some of the reduced damage, as soon as more than one target is available within 2 hex distance it surpasses normal bombs in damage.

Similar thought for strafing:
You loose accuracy, but potentially multiply the damage output significantly depending the number of targets in the path.
Use pulse lasers to offset the inaccuracies and only use strafing if multiple targets are possible.

I tend to rush in, drop all bombs in one or two drops. This disperses the surviving enemies, so then I switch to strike attack unless i have good conditions for strafing: Two shutdown mechs in line are ideal.

[BlueThing]

I prefer cluster bombs as my default. Partly this is because I'm playing versus AtB, where the typical opponent has 10+ units (and Princess will keep them more clustered than I would versus air strikes). I also mostly use ASF assets only in large battles, so it wouldn't surprise me if my typical battle with ASF usage had more like 16 or 20 units.

Also, I tend toward heavy fighters. My preference is the Transgressor if I can get it, which can carry 15 bombs. 10+ 5 point hits won't usually kill a Heavy or Assault, but it will strip enough armor to be a quick kill by someone.

My favorite cluster target is a clump of vehicles. Either I dive the biggest thing I can, or I drop from altitude and go for a big spread. With a little luck, this can make a Chase battle much more doable by immobilizing the vehicles.

[JenniferinaMAD]

In AtB scenarios, yes, cluster bombs are great. Plenty of targets, a bot too dumb to spread out and no opposing ASFs to pounce on your sluggish bombers.

Against human players, do not expect them to hand you their units on a silver platter the way the bot does.

As for Strafing: the big, BIG drawback is that you need to be altitude 3 or less, rather than 4 (5-1) for strike attacks. That is one less altitude you can lose without crashing if you fail a control roll for damage (and you're exposing yourself to more targets to shoot back at you). In my opinion, strafing is not worth the added risk unless there are no enemies around that can hit you (infantry, units with no range 6+ weapons).

[BlueThing]

I have felt a lot more comfortable doing the occasional strafe run since enabling the optional rule where your ASF only have to make control rolls in atmosphere from big hits (I think more than 10% of max armor for a location, but I'd have to look it up).

Way less lawn darts that way. I had some really bad luck on control rolls for a while. It was a bad experience.