Artillery/Air Combat

[Yxklyx]

I keep on forgetting to look at the combat overview. How does artillery and air combat work? Does armor help in either case or is it just attack value vs attack value?

[T-hawk]

See the thread "Ultimate Combat Matrix" that I bumped up for you.

[johndmuller]

T-Hawk,
I took it that Yxklyx was referring to Artillery attacking planes (i.e. with the SAM ability) and tried to look that up in your (quite good, btw) matrix and didn't see it. Perhaps it was there, but if not, do you know how it works? I understand SAM Artie is effective against Locusts and I believe I have tried it against regular planes (with no damage IIRC), but I don't know how it is supposed to work. I would think that it wasn't a good use of the only free ability slot, but . . . SAM on other land units is quite effective against planes - perhaps the planes defend with armor ratings in that case (or else this recollection might be based on my high morale rovers against AI minimal moral planes)?

[T-hawk]

Hmm, you're right, I have not tried SAM Artillery ground units against planes. Can a unit even have that pair of special abilities? I'll check it out tonight.

SAM on non-arty units works as you say - planes defend with their armor. The only time an aircraft defends with its weapon is when it has SAM and is being attacked by an air unit (which includes but is not limited to scrambling.)

[Flubber]

SAM artillery is possible and is devastatingly effective against locusts-- One or two Sam arty rovers are usually all you need to kill off those eco-native swarms.

I don't recall ever trying it against conventional airplanes as I would use a regular SAM unit. The plane does defend with its armour rating and is therefore dead against most SAM units. Armouring planes can get VERY expensive and usually adds very little to survivability given the weapon to armour discrepancy that usually exists.

[Lucy In The Sky]

artie/sam is effective against planes, at least in smax it is