if an AA unit is to the rear of the formation and takes one blast marker it would go on that AA unit. if an aircraft then comes on the board within it's range can the AA shoot?

Blast markers are not assigned to units at the time of being shot, they're assigned at the time the formation fires. If the AA unit is still at the back with regards to the incoming planes then yes, it will be supressed.

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Epic: Hive Development Thread

There seems to be two ways of doing this, with some saying supressions and fire are resolved at the end of a move (entry or exit) for any flak that was in range during those moves and others saying it is resolved at the time of the flak controlling players choice (i.e. when in range and unsupressed).

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The AA rules talk about the AA being fired at any point in the plane's path, and therefore AA should be activated the moment it is not surpressed, IMO.

This could, I believe, lead to a situation where an aircraft approaching a flak formation is shot at as it approaches, and is then shot at again after it has passed, as the suppression direction reverses (and another flak gun is then unsuppressed).

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Really? Interesting, I'd not realised it might work like that.

I've played it as E&C states so in some circumstances a unit that was supressed on the way in would be able to shoot on the way out.

This is possible, but since you can do it intentionally I don't have a problem with it.

Personally, if an aircraft is stopping such that the disengage will trigger possible flak fire, I'll withhold one AA unit from firing so it can shoot on the disengage and add another BM.  If it's truly critical to hit the aircraft before it fires I might go ahead and fire everything, but most ground flak is fairly low to-hit value and the guaranteed BM is as valuable as a small chance of a kill on the front end.

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Neal

I'd never considered intentionally withholding some AA shots, I always assumed they were involuntary (as in, if you can fire them, you must fire them).

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I nearly always do on 'tough' targets like thunderhawks if I have batteries of guns handy.

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I was under the same impression as E&C: if you can fire, you must fire or lose the shot.  Although I understand the logic given the strange way aircraft interact with ground forces.

So - to clarify - the units being supressed are determined based on the potential target's position?  I was under the impression that the blast markers were static until the formation moved again.

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Blast markers are always applied and carried by the formation, not specific units. Every time you need to calculate supression you do it from scratch. It may be convenient to assume you are applying BMs to units in this case, but it's not the case.

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Epic: Hive Development Thread

We've always played it that flak could fire at any point in the approach, so suppression had to apply over the entire approach path.

It's not like aircraft don't still have a pretty easy time avoiding flak in most cases.

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Neal

Another way of reading the wording is that while AA are permitted to fire if the A/c passes within range, suppression is only calculated at the end of the approach move.

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