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Post by warlock on May 24, 2019 11:10:31 GMT -6
So I am having a hard time fathoming the point of Airships in the game. I mean I know you get them earlier than you do aircraft which is something and they they can be useful for recon. I also know that on one of my play thru's that has advanced to 1953 where I forgot I had a few Airship bases built, they seem to do some bombing and I think I saw a message about parasite fighters (Airship Carrier??) but since they are such a passive feature that have no control over, I am having an understanding of just want advantages they have over just having airplanes to conduct recon and such.
For example, do they loiter over spotted enemies keeping them under observation better than planes? Do they actually become Airship Carriers that launch a dozen torpedo bomber when they spot an enemy? What do they offer than makes it worth it the cost of having Airship bases in additional to Airbases?
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bakara
Junior Member
Posts: 55
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Post by bakara on May 24, 2019 11:20:36 GMT -6
Historically the advantage with airships early on was the fact that they had amazing range compared to aircraft but as time went on and the range of airplanes improved that advantage became less and less interesting and there was also the problem of how vulnerable airships are against attack.
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Post by akosjaccik on May 24, 2019 11:24:12 GMT -6
Personally I like them because coupled with the faster land-based recon I esentially have two consecutive recon sweeps, getting more data points to extrapolate from. They sometimes try to bomb stuff, but of course, they are thrash at that, however, their parasite fighters could still be a nuisance for the enemy even later on. Granted, most of my gameplay experience stems from my A-H game where I operated mainly on the Adriatic. With my current japanese camapign I rely much less on them.
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Post by noshurviverse on May 24, 2019 12:23:55 GMT -6
Early (air)game they make great spotters, something that regular aircraft can't really do. They lose out on alot of their value as time goes on, but in 1942 on my Germany playthrough I did see 9 of them go on a naval strike mission, landing a single hit on a merchant ship
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Post by archelaos on May 24, 2019 14:13:50 GMT -6
I still hope for glider bomb and ASM capability for late airships
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Post by rodentnavy on May 24, 2019 14:18:27 GMT -6
Historically the advantage with airships early on was the fact that they had amazing range compared to aircraft but as time went on and the range of airplanes improved that advantage became less and less interesting and there was also the problem of how vulnerable airships are against attack. This, range is awesome early in game, a sweep by airships from Halifax was my first ever air spot in the demo. Even once they begin to get iffy in the 40s I am loathe to get rid of them because of their awesome range. Also I suspect they are good on ASW, cf US Navy blimps in World War 2
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Post by dorn on May 27, 2019 5:23:14 GMT -6
Does anybody tried only airships, how much ASW it gets?
As helium was rare in WW2, only USA use airships during WW2, they help a lot against submarines. They were not good to sink submarines but much better patrol than aircrafts as they can have 2 days range.
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Post by goodman on May 27, 2019 5:48:39 GMT -6
Airships are cheaper in maintenance, have more range, have good reliability, and are much less likely to get shot down by enemy CAP.
I started building airbases in the 1930s, then by the mid 1940s I was in serious financial debt from paying ~15,000+ per turn in naval aircraft maintenance. It was higher than my ships maintenance cost. So I disbanded most of my planes and scrapped most of my airbases, and switched back to airships.
Airship base costs 45(home territory)/54(foreign territory) in maintenace, including 8 airships + 2 parasitic fighters per airship. This gives you 8 recons lines (~180degrees) up to at least 400nm range. That is incredible value for money compared to aircraft. Airbase costs 48/58 in maintenance, plus ~8.5 per flying boat. So for the same capabilities (squadron of 8 flying boats), you would be paying at least ~125/turn. That's even assuming your flying boat design have good reliability, which mine often doesn't because I prioritize range and toughness or bomb load when designing those.
Another consideration is in the late game when you are much more interested in using your recon to find the enemy carrier group rather than their battleship or cruiser group, your recon aircraft will get shot down a lot by enemy CAP when they try to fly past their battleship group, whereas your airships will lose 2 parasitic fighters and keep going. I've only seen this happen a couple of times, so it is anecdotal. But it has really helped me a lot, and that's why I (GB) love my airships from Plymouth against the French.
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Post by jwsmith26 on May 27, 2019 9:49:57 GMT -6
Actually, airships do not contribute to ASW in RTW2.
Historically, they were used extensively for ASW work in WW1 but that is not simulated in RTW2. The USN abandoned rigid airships in the 30s, when both of their fighter-armed airships went down in storms. By that point pretty much everyone else had already abandoned airships as viable war machines. Nevertheless, the USN made extensive use of non-rigid airships in WW2 that were specifically designed and equipped as ASW platforms. The USN operated over 150 of these vessels. While they weren't great at actually sinking u-boats they were excellent at suppressing them, effectively mission killing any subs within reach by forcing them to seek shelter underwater. As a result they were phenomenal as escort vehicles and prevented almost all submarine attacks on their charges.
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Post by director on May 27, 2019 12:42:57 GMT -6
Also, many airships were hydrogen-filled, as the US maintained a monopoly on helium.
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Post by tordenskjold on Jul 24, 2019 7:32:28 GMT -6
Recently, I've been keeping airship bases along airfields. They still add a lot to recon, and in turn you can keep the number of flying boats on regular airfields smaller, thus allowing for more bombers there.
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Post by tbr on Jul 24, 2019 13:12:48 GMT -6
Up to the 1960's the USN also used airships as "AWACS" radar pickets. The latest version used the envelope also as the radome, enabling far larger antennas than on any heavier than air aircraft based "AWACS". The benefits in range and endurance are obvious and with the addes space/weight the crew had bunks, a galley etc. for multiple shifts on the screens. All things considered the decision to abolish the blimps in the USN seems to have been political not operational/technical. Today tethered blimps are again being used for ISR and for ceratin radar applications and untethered ones have been trialled...
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Post by JagdFlanker on Jul 24, 2019 16:12:56 GMT -6
been experimenting using airships as my primary recon and turning off recon for all airbases to maximize the amount of land based bombers that get launched on strikes - plus it's much too tedious to adjust each airbase's recon sector every battle, and then have to re-adjust the same search pattern for all the same airbases when night hits for the next morning's search
either the game doesn't save the last search pattern i set at the beginning of the battle, or it resets the search pattern if i go in to check what the search pattern was
don't like all that extra maintenance costs for airship bases, but they do a pretty good job so can't complain
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Post by dougphresh on Jul 25, 2019 4:34:22 GMT -6
There is a window from their introduction until 1925-30 where I find them useful. They seem to have longer legs than the early flying boats or medium bombers.
I agree that having an ASW value would be nice, as I seem to remember that being a major British use of them in ww1.
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Post by brygun on Jul 29, 2019 17:34:58 GMT -6
Supporting the idea of Airship ASW. Noticing a sub also means diverting merchants away from it. Possibly also some affect on merchant losses from surface ships.
I also use the idea mentioned of them being another speed/range of scouting.
Some of my minor colonies have Airships plus only Airbase 20, with 12 Flying Boat and 8 Fighters.
The game doesnt even get close to full Airship range in real life as there were cross-Africa and cross-Ocean trips. One way it might simulate this is to stop having them spawn and fly out/in from the base. Instead to deploy them spread out from the airship base possibly 100 kms away. They might appear in spotting range of an enemy ship at turn 1.
In another game, rpg Space 1889, they suggested airships might fly constantly over or scouting around your own fleet. They can stay up for weeks after all. Pre-radar this would be a huge scouting advantage.
Into the radar age they could still have longer radar ranges given their superior line of sight to the horizon, assuming enough electrical power for the transmitter.
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