Bombs Away!
I make no secret of my distaste for air support in ASL. It is far too available at the whim of a company commander and far too destructive against an enemy. This report backs me up:
So the chances of killing a tank with a bomb or rockets is, basically, a critical hit. Let's contrast that with ASL.
In ASL, you need a basic 10 (at ranges 0-6), or 8 or 9 (at ranges 7-12), depending on if you use red or black to hit numbers, to hit the tank. That's before size modifiers and TEM, etc. Rolling less than or equal to the hit number, you've rolled a direct hit and use the full firepower equivalent of the bomb and the aerial armor factor. If you roll more than that, but still enough to hit, you get a near miss and use half the firepower but still the aerial AF (E7.421). A critical hit even doubles this firepower.
Rockets were even more inaccurate and had a smaller payload. The Soviets eventually dropped rocket armament because unless employed by a skilled, veteran pilot, they were virtually worthless in combat used against AFV.
As the video points out, guns increase the chances of a hit essentially by increasing rate of fire. While many ASL resources have added in this bit by including a new Kanonvogel type aircraft, these are also vastly overpowered. Soviet research found that in order to get at the thin turret armor, it was necessary to go into too steep a dive. Usually, these autocannon merely hit the side of the tank.
Further, I would point out that by no means was the Stuka the only plane to wield a 37mm. Most Soviet fighters, by 1943, were optionally equipped with a 37mm autocannon. It was felt that this was necessary to bring down heavy German planes with a minimum of rounds on target.
Rudel was a liar.
One of the way the Soviets got around this was submunitions. Submunitions are smaller bomblets encased within a single bomb unit. These are fairly common today, but were somewhat less common in WWII. The Soviets first developed a bomb with ampules of flammable liquid (like dozens of Molotov cocktails.) While effective, this was somewhat dangerous for the pilot. While the IL2 was a heavily armored aircraft, this was done mainly for pilot protection, not protection of the payload.
A second and more effective submunition was the PTAB, a HEAT bomblet that could be dropped in huge numbers of around 200 in one attack.
Clearly, this dramatically decreased the skill needed to get a hit. Each one of the PTAB's was capable of penetrating 70 millimeters of armor but because it was a HEAT weapon, it needed to hit at a 90 degree angle for maximum effectiveness.
Since the armor on the top of a Panther is only 17mm thick, it didn't take a perfect hit to get a kill. Soviet and German sources say that the effect of submunition weapons often made the crew of AFV's bail out at the mere appearance of an IL2. What is more, it was possible to fit the PTAB pod on to the Yak9 and the Pe2 aircraft.
These aren't some kind of fluke or experimental weapon. Almost 10 MILLION of them were produced starting in 1943. That equates to around 50,000 sorties. But we don't see these anywhere in ASL.
In conclusion, let's just say that the ASL establishment is screwing the Red Army yet again. But I'm not so much an advocate here for greater airpower--but getting rid of air power altogether. There is more of a morale effect than a threat to AFV's. But if you keep air support, let's make things more realistic.
E7.423 PTAB. Red Army aircraft have a special ammo capability of PTAB6 for DB and PTAB4 for FB (with bombs). The PTAB must hit on the Vehicle line but if the ammo is unavailable, the attack is made with a regular bomb instead. Multiple hits (C.38) are allowed. The PTAB has a BTK of 14 and always attacks the aerial AF. All other units in the location are attacked with a 12FP attack with TEM applicable. PTAB are never duds.
Doesn't that seem fair?
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