Support Fire (AT/AA) is it working/not working?

[GrdAdmiral]

Greetings. I’m putting my AT/AA guns behind to support my troops. But it seems hard to get the support medals, as my units are not attacked. The ai planes fly over, see the AA and won’t bomb my troops. Same goes for heavy armor. The tanks roll up infront of my infantry and then don’t attack if my AT is behind them. So my defensive lines hardly get hit and I don’t get any support points. Is this normal?

I’m currently playing AO41 - Stalin Line with my core imported from SCW, 39, and 40.

[Virgil-SKY]

Quite normal, because AI will stop attack you if it would take too much damage from support fire + retaliation. This makes Camouflage hero very important when you want to get support fire medals, because AI won't remember that there is a Camouflaged support unit.

[Breca]

AI bombers will avoid kamikaze tactics. They try to avoid Fighter cover and AA cover and move toward targets that appear unprotected. They also seem to favor bombing expensive artillery and vehicles. "Appears unprotected" are the operative words. If the AI can't see your AA, you can lure them into an AA trap.

+1 to Camo.

But you also don't need Camo (nor Anti-Air Veteran) to crush enemy air power with AA.

Consider the spotting range of your opponent vs the firing range of your AA, and whether your opponent can spot your AA while they are over a tempting target. In cloud cover, air spotting is 1. In addition, your .88's have 3 range. Positioning AA on hilltops grants your AA +1 range. Use all these factors to screen your AA with frontline units so that your AA is out of your enemy's spotting range. If your opponent can't spot your AA, that works just like Camo, and the results can be very satisfying.

For more support opportunities, AA can switch to AT as the situation merits.

[jmorten50]

with camouflage hero I have seen an 88 anti-air take down 4 groups og planes every turn, and if you put it on a heavy tank(tiger) and put it behind your front units , you have a very god defence against everything.

[Accolon]

Lemme give you a Hint where to "farm" Support Medals for AA.
The DLC is 39, the Mission is Saarbrücken. You fight the 3rd and 4th French Army there and your mission is to hold your position. You can easily put 4 1Slot-AA guns on the hills of Saarbrücken and 2 other on the western Part of your Defense Position.

The French send Strategic Bombers. If you chose 1-slot AA they will only surpress and NOT Damage the Bombers which is your goal there..don't touch them.

Let them come each round with 2 Bombers for each Position. In that Mission alone I always get 6 sometimes I do it even with 7 AA Guns 20mm and all of them receive "Skilled Support" Medal.

There you go.

[Malkor2]

Accolon how much time did it take you to figure all this stuff out? Not just this but also all the other medal farming tactics of yours. AA support has been covered more than enough, so let me give my take on AT and Artillery support. AT units and Artillery need to be right behind the unit you want to be supported by them. But often times the enemy sees your AT/Artillery and doesn't attack that one unit. If you want to get that Skilled Support medal you need to make sure the enemy only sees the unit but not the AT/Artillery behind it. The Camouflage Hero has already been mentioned but you can't rely on that.

What you can rely on is abusing the spotting range. Which means bad weather like cloudy but especially rain and snow are your best friends here. Cloudy weather reduces the spotting range of all units by 1 while rain and snow reduce it to 1. Yes, even a recon car or plane will only have a spotting range of 1 during rain or snow. And no, your spotting range cannot be reduced to zero. Artillery has a spotting range of 1, recon cars and cavalry of 3, recon planes of 4 and everything else has a spotting range of 2. Traps are harder to pull off when it's all sunshine and rainbows but when it gets cloudy or it's raining or snowing, that's when the fun begins. Scout ahead, know where your enemy is, place a nice bait (make sure your bait can't be destroyed easily because your bait will take damage), put your support units behind it (make sure the AI cannot see that support) and then cover your support units with other units. This is really important because after the first attack the AI will know that there is a support unit and will attack it if it can. So don't let the AI do that.

And don't forget that not all Artillery is equal. Only 15cm Artillery offers support against infantry and tanks while smaller calibers than that only offer support against infantry and everything with a larger caliber than that only offers support against tanks. So don't make the mistake to cover your bait with a 10,5cm leFH while the AI sends a tank to attack. Your 10,5cm leFH won't fire at all. Put a 15cm, 17cm or 21cm piece there and watch that tank get beaten up. And for infantry reverse it the other way. Everything from 15cm downwards will work while everything above 15cm won't work. And AT units will only fire at tanks no matter how small or large the caliber of their gun is.

There are of course two Heroes that can change that: Artillery and AT support. But those Heroes are more useful on other units. Imagine a Tiger tank in Russia with a Zero Slot, Consolidator and AT support Hero and 20 strength. Park it next to an infantry unit and watch the AI suicide tank after tank. Of course, a Provocator Hero will achieve almost the same thing. There is also this one Hero, Learns from Mistakes, that can be a real game changer for your bait unit. Why? Because your bait unit is about to take some damage and thanks to that Hero it will get 3x the XP from those losses than it normally would. Last but not least, be very careful during bad weather. After all, it's really easy to run into units you can't see. The trick is to make sure the AI runs into yours while you don't run into theirs. And that isn't always as easy as it sounds.

Edit: Cloudy weather does not affect the spotting range of ground units, only of air units. Also, SP Artillery units have a spotting range of 2 instead of 1 like towed Artillery and strat bombers also have a spotting range of 1.

[GrdAdmiral]

Thank you for the updated tips and tricks. I'll have to adjust my play style a little.