How to AA?

[N]

I had 3 ships landed, 2 of them AA ships with about 12 sprint missiles between them. All of them destroyed by missiles! I tried to fire multiple sprints but I could only fire once per mission. What made AA more difficult was that the missiles were never targeting the ship I was controlling, so shooting them with guns would require extreme deflection shooting. Even though the AA ships had 37mm guns, in addition to the sprints, shooting the missiles with guns failed. The other ship had 100mm guns which I bought proximity fuses for, which apparently did nothing. So now my campaign is probably over since those ships also served as tankers...so now I am low on both fuel and AA...but in any case, I am powerless to stop the missiles even when I have AA, so no matter what happens my ships will always be nuked by missiles.

What am I doing wrong? Every campaign I invest all my money in AA, I specifically design AA ships and bring all the missiles...are you supposed to just expect to lose a lot of ships to missiles? Or are you supposed to have god tier aiming that can gun down missiles that are flying over your head?

[Dwang Zhongson]

The game chooses a ship with a highest cost or with a best AA-value (didn't figure it out yet, but generally the biggest one) to git a control over.

Sprints are not self-sufficient versus missiles, a pair of them should be coupled by some additional damage. If you're unlucky, a missile can eat 4-5 Sprints and still strike.

57mm is MUCH better vs missiles, 37mm sucks. It typically requires only 1-3 hits.

PFs are needed to be stocked for all calibers you have. They are OP in arcade combat also.

Generally, don't get hit while on the ground. Track potential directions from which a missile may come from with radars in sector mode and have an AA-ship takeoff-ready.

[N]

I see, I don't use the radar very often, but I suppose if I'm expecting a missile I can turn the radar on in the hopes of sending the AA ship to intercept any missile that is detected. Good idea.

[N]

Surprised that 57mm are the better munitions, 37mm would seem like the natural AA weapon.

[Dwang Zhongson]

Originally posted by Lewis Nixon III:

Surprised that 57mm are the better munitions, 37mm would seem like the natural AA weapon.

That's one of the many balance weirdnesses. OTOH 37mm are much better at shooting down heatseekers and enemy shells in arcade combat, so they are useful also, but not in AA-defence.

Originally posted by Lewis Nixon III:

I see, I don't use the radar very often, but I suppose if I'm expecting a missile I can turn the radar on in the hopes of sending the AA ship to intercept any missile that is detected. Good idea.

You can park your ship at some distance and use the sector mode to scan across a potential strike direction. You will detect missiles with a beam directed away from enemy. The trick also works with IRST, and IR detection distance won't reduce while landed.

[Rocket Witch]

Originally posted by Lewis Nixon III:

I tried to fire multiple sprints but I could only fire once per mission.

The number of Sprints you can have in flight at a time depends on how many fire control radars you have. The GUIDANCE stat in shipworks and campaign ship selection shows how many missiles you can fire at once. The big FCR can support 2 missiles, the small one can support 1, and they stack (eg. 6 small FCRs on the same ship will support 6 Sprints). IRST can also be useful to have on AA ships since the powerful engines of missiles have massive thermal signatures.

One thing to bear in mind is the travel time of missiles. The most common threat (Kh-15) is jet powered and 'only' as fast as an aircraft. If you anticipate a missile strike in response to something (eg. you got detected by a garrison) you can simply fly sideways relative to the missile's probable approach vector and evade it entirely.

A reference you might find useful is the the survivabiltiy onion:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2610590218

[N]

Originally posted by Millhiore F. Biscotti:

The number of Sprints you can have in flight at a time depends on how many fire control radars you have.

Ah, that makes sense, thank you! I still wish you could fire from multiple ships.

I have seen this onion graphic before, it's very well designed! I always intend to build my fleet into this large armada that has many scouts and AA ships spread across the map-- as the graphic suggests-- but in hard mode I can never get enough resources to make it happen. Half my ships are usually in repair and the others are needed for raiding garrisons or chasing convoys. So far I haven't had the luxury of building some sprawling AA network, besides having an AA ship that follows the gunships on their missions.

[N]

I also find it interesting that the graphic gives the 37mm gun as the AA weapon of choice. The AA stock designs are also furnished with 37mm guns. It is indeed my experience that the 57mm gun is superior for shooting down missiles, but perhaps the 37mm is better for combating aircraft?

[Dwang Zhongson]

Originally posted by Lewis Nixon III:

I also find it interesting that the graphic gives the 37mm gun as the AA weapon of choice. The AA stock designs are also furnished with 37mm guns. It is indeed my experience that the 57mm gun is superior for shooting down missiles, but perhaps the 37mm is better for combating aircraft?

No. 57mm requires the same 1-3 hits to kill an aircraft, since they also got 30HP.

As I've already said, 37mm is good at killing heatseekers and intercepting enemy shells, where damage doesn't matter much. But its spread and a very small single-shot damage won't allow it to intercept large missiles properly. OTOH if we give it a proper sustain damage, it will turn into an impenetrable projectile shield in arcade combat.

[N]

Originally posted by Radiant Dawn:

57mm requires the same 1-3 hits to kill an aircraft, since they also got 30HP.

So if I understand you correctly, the 37mm requires more than 3 hits to kill aircraft or missiles, while the 57mm does the job in 3 hits or less.

Originally posted by Radiant Dawn:

... if we give it a proper sustain damage, it will turn into an impenetrable projectile shield in arcade combat.

I think I understand what you are saying here, but why does the hp of shells in arcade influence the hp of planes and missiles? Are they not two different things completely?

[Dwang Zhongson]

So if I understand you correctly, the 37mm requires more than 3 hits to kill aircraft or missiles, while the 57mm does the job in 3 hits or less.

The number of shots seems to be random, but I generally find 37mm requiring significantly more of them than 57mm.

I think I understand what you are saying here, but why does the hp of shells in arcade influence the hp of planes and missiles? Are they not two different things completely?

By default, 37mm is bad at shooting tactical missiles but good at shooting heatseekers an enemy shells. Its defensive capabilities in arcade combat are being balanced out by a very long reload speed.

I've tried to rebalance 37mm by playing with its RoF/reload, and at the moment when it starts to decently counter Kh-15s it becomes a shredder gun for anything unarmored on the screen in arcade fights, as a bonus giving an ability to shoot down any incoming shell at any moment.

Good arcade combat balance vs bad anti-missile capabilities
Good anti-missile capabilities vs absolutely ♥♥♥♥♥♥ arcade combat balance

37mm also sucks due to the absence of locking mechanic during the missile defence scenario --> guns shifted from ship center miss a lot.

[N]

Ok, thanks for the info!

[Publius]

I use Google Translate.
The best means to intercept cruise missiles is an aircraft carrier. This is not a joke. An aircraft carrier equipped with heavy interceptors shoots down missiles very well. All you need is two interceptors (a single interceptor is unreliable, but on the other hand it is cheaper), each with two missiles they are almost guaranteed to fight a cruise missile. Five interceptors fight a nuclear missile at the cost of their lives. Having adopted the tactics of using aircraft carriers, I completely abandoned specialized air defense ships. An accidentally missed missile can very well be shot down by your Sevastopol, but if you do everything right (and you have enough planes to shoot down everything) even its help will not be needed. The main thing is that your interceptors do not meet the enemy ones.