Quote: (Honda @ Nov. 09 2009, 19:20 )
So having played against the Eldar layered super AA umbrella, a ground specific AA formation was completely unbalanced. It was nearly impossible to crack the AA umbrella because of the synergy of having super Prism AA tanks shielding Nightwing fighters which then protected Phoenix bombers and Vampires. It wasn't that the individual formations/squadrons were so OTT in and of themselves, it was how they worked together to be nearly invincible.
Also keep in mind that just because a list is lacking a unit/formation, does not equate to a lack of capability. For a real life example, consider the US armed forces. With a few exceptions, Air defense is not projected by fielding lots of AA armored vehicles, it enforced by dominating the skies via the Air Force. The US Army hasn't been subject to air attacks in nearly 50 years.
I felt that removing the AA from the Prism was a tough, but smart move. Please do not bring it back.
I don't disagree with the general reasoning here Honda, which was why I suggested a separate stats line for the AA to reduce the AA range and impact etc, and a way to limit the formation to a maximum of 5x units.
The strategy you outline is a standard mechanic that can be adopted by any combination of ground AA and air formations, so allowing FP to have AA is less of an issue per se. Indeed If you wanted to protect an air assault, the Falcon / Firestorms formation has to be a better bet because One firestorm with 2x AA4+ is statistically better than 5x FPs with AA6+, and two unsupressed Firestorms are really formidable.
The point is that having AA makes the FP a bit more attractive than being just a pure long range anti-RA specialist.