Do air superiority fighters (F-14/F-15) engage enemy aircraft automatically?

[Devil Dog 4]

Noob question: If I have an air superiority fighter -- say an F14 Tomcat -- fly around in a particular area (initially with no specific target to engage), will it automatically engage enemy aircraft that comes flying within range of its Phoenix missiles? Or will I have to order it to do so?

[Ðëprávèd•Mïšçréånt]

Any plane that has Air to Air missiles will fire at an enemy plane within range providing it is facing towards them.

Planes will not fly after or pursue planes unless told to do so (by your command given to the unit/plane) but the missiles work independently of that and as long as the plane is facing the right way as the enemy comes into range they will be fired.

The Vulcan cannons on planes (or the guns, machine guns etc...) will not fire on the enemy automatically, you have to tell your plane to target the enemy plane for it to work this way.

Best option is the F-14 in the rear circling with your close interceptors at the front.

If you Hold Shift and right click a move order for a plane while flying it sets a patrol path between the original location you told it to move to and the new right clicked shift location.
So basically a big loop.

I hope I explained that correctly.

[Devil Dog 4]

Originalmente postado por Deus_Drone:

Any plane that has Air to Air missiles will fire at an enemy plane within range providing it is facing towards them.

Planes will not fly after or pursue planes unless told to do so (by your command given to the unit/plane) but the missiles work independently of that and as long as the plane is facing the right way as the enemy comes into range they will be fired.

The Vulcan cannons on planes (or the guns, machine guns etc...) will not fire on the enemy automatically, you have to tell your plane to target the enemy plane for it to work this way.

Best option is the F-14 in the rear circling with your close interceptors at the front.

If you Hold Shift and right click a move order for a plane while flying it sets a patrol path between the original location you told it to move to and the new right clicked shift location.
So basically a big loop.

I hope I explained that correctly.

Thanks for the tips Deus! I'll try that trick out in-game.

[Ðëprávèd•Mïšçréånt]

NP enjoy :)

another good one is that strategy I said above however while that is happening send out all of your bombers at the same time (when you click on a plane you can hold CTRL and select all planes of that type at the same time)

So send out your bombers and bomb something back to the stone age :)

[HerbNHops]

Just to add to Deus-Drone, if you click on an enemy plane, then hold Shift and press the Evac button, your plane will evac immediatly after the target plane is destroyed. I find this very usefull as it eliminates extra loitering time around enemy AA rather than manually pressing the evac button or hotkey.

I also hold shift and click on other enemy planes to queue multiple attack orders. Go for the killer combo - attack one plane, shift attack the 2nd or 3rd, and finally shift evac!

[Devil Dog 4]

Originalmente postado por HerbNHops:

Just to add to Deus-Drone, if you click on an enemy plane, then hold Shift and press the Evac button, your plane will evac immediatly after the target plane is destroyed. I find this very usefull as it eliminates extra loitering time around enemy AA rather than manually pressing the evac button or hotkey.

I also hold shift and click on other enemy planes to queue multiple attack orders. Go for the killer combo - attack one plane, shift attack the 2nd or 3rd, and finally shift evac!

I was wondering about that too, thanks for the tip!

[Ðëprávèd•Mïšçréånt]

damn I didn't even know the shift + evac, thanks :)