The seems silly, and pretty gamey. An AC has the potential to deny an AA shot depending on where it exits the table. Given fighters and fighter-bombers are going to be jinking on disengage anyway it seems that much more unnecessary.

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Squats 2019-10-17

I don't know, we've been doing that since we started playing and it hasn't caused any issues. You simply move the aircraft 30cm at a time, and if at any point along the move AA has range and isn't suppressed then it can be shot at.

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Definitely "clunky", though given a tendency for ground AA to gravitate towards the middle of the battlefield for A/c to pass over different parts of the battlefield when approaching and disengaging and to leave by different table edges, in practice it is not always easy to exploit suppression.

As Hena says, it is a mechanic used to simplify the whole exercise, allowing the players to concentrate on the finer points of the ground conflict rather than getting bogged down in the aerial elements (which are completed much faster in reality)

So Tbolts ground attack, on disengage they pass over a 'nid swarm with a Zoanthrope in it and 1 BM. Right before they leave they stop at the table edge and we see who's furthest from them. Let's say it's a Termagant with FF, can I suppress that unit? Can I only suppress that unit if the TBolts were within 15cm of the Termagant?

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So rather than just handling the attack as the plane flies over the units, where measurements can be done easily, we have to remember the entire disengage move, who it flew over and THEN see if those units are suppressed relative to where the airplane is leaving the board edge?

That seems overly convoluted too.

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Squats 2019-10-17

This is where the EA aerospace rules fall over and are clunky and a bit crap. For purposes of "movement" and flak shooting it should have been based on movement segment (30cm) along the flight path. Put the model on the board and move along the attack run. At the end of any segment you check if you've entered AA bubble and check suppression and get shot at/jink as appropriate.

Oh well, that boat has long sailed however =/

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Blimey ! Was expecting a nice neat answer. Look forward to finding out when the dust settles !

Thanks for everyone's input.

The point is that it gets a lot more convoluted to try to work out which units are supressed at different points in mid-move. Consider the situation where the a/c makes a U-turn around the formation, at different points virtually every unit can be suppressed - so who says when the firing takes place etc. And you get to repeat this process for each ground formation, which all takes time.

This way at least you only have to determine which units are 'in range' and therefore eligible for firing / suppression, and resolving the firing becomes a clear cut decision when the a/c finishes its movement.

That said, I suspect that this is another case where people follow 'local conventions', along with Capping-CAP etc. And in the end, to quote L4, "DWWFY"

The benefit of checking suppression while checking range is that it "feels" right, and it's honestly not that hard. You can easily see when your flak would not be suppressed and measure that.

The problem is that, unless the aircraft flies in a straight line at the edge of the flak envelope, suppressing AA units becomes almost impossible (it's often the closest unit at least some of the time).

Man this has confussled me somewhat. If the unit is already suppressed prior to the AC attack, surely it cant fire? Simples??

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A unit is never just suppressed, it's always suppressed in relation to a target enemy formation. Prior to the AC attack the flak unit is not in the back of the formation (as there is no rear or front), so it's not suppressed.

See, simple! haha!

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I've always rolled AA attacks as aircraft became vulnerable during their moves, this includes working out suppression of AA units "dynamically" as the aircraft moves and what's considered the "rear" of the formation rotates relative to the aircraft in question.

The end result is exactly the same as the way the rules say AA attacks should be rolled***, but it's easier to play.

***Perhaps there is some hinkyness with Landing Craft Critical Hits. DWWFY.

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