Scouting without balloons ?

[☯ Icy ᚱᛖᛞ ᛊᛟᛞᚨ▲]

What do you do to scout without balloons ?

Sometimes I just can't afford baloons or the baloons just don't have the range.

[MeowThai]

i waste 1 squad to do the observation.
balloons are 40% useless after they have fighters.

[☯ Icy ᚱᛖᛞ ᛊᛟᛞᚨ▲]

Originally posted by MeowThai:

i waste 1 squad to do the observation.
balloons are 40% useless after they have fighters.

thats what I was pondering doing, I was checking to see if anyone came up with anything else.

I was thinking maybe planes when I do have them.
or rushing tanks research and getting a few.

[Shipwrecked]

Originally posted by ☯ Loke ᛁᚾᚲᚨᚱᚾᚨ ▲:

Originally posted by MeowThai:

i waste 1 squad to do the observation.
balloons are 40% useless after they have fighters.

thats what I was pondering doing, I was checking to see if anyone came up with anything else.

I was thinking maybe planes when I do have them.
or rushing tanks research and getting a few.

At the moment planes don't actually scout territory, though there seems to be a bomber bug where the enemy bomber will reveal it's own artillery every so often, that I totally didn't use to my advantage.

[Heretek1914]

AI bombers, from what I've seen, can just sniff out emplacements even without vision.

Balloons still have purpose though, you can draw out the enemy fighters and shoot them down after you pull the balloons down. Costs the enemy a fortune and frees up your own flights to counter bombers.

For spotting though, balloons or sacrificial lambs. You can make the sacrifice less sacrificial with sufficient light artillery barrages.

[Raymond]

if you are attacking just put the balloons right next to the no man land so that you can see where you are attacking. If you are defending build supply post and build your own balloon. There is no such thing as "I can't afford balloon", because it is your #1 prioritized purchase. There is no such thing as "balloon doesn't cover enough", because you can always build more until you cover enough. You can have an entire defense comprised of nothing but t1 and com trench, but balloon is non-negotiable.