How to make anti-aircraft guns shoot at an airplane?

[Олег]

Question: how do I get anti-aircraft guns to shoot at an airplane? They sometimes shoot, once in 3-4 fights. Sometimes they even get caught. Otherwise, they are excellent at shooting at infantry and equipment, but when the plane flies over them, the anti-aircraft guns just follow it with their eyes. Today it made me angry, and I took 10 (!) anti-aircraft guns on defense - three on trucks, six towed medium anti-aircraft guns and one large one. In addition, he delivered two DShK anti-aircraft machine guns, and one T-60 tank, which can also shoot at aircraft.
The bomber flew over them twice. In one direction, circled, and flew in the other, and put the bomb right in these f*cking anti-aircraft guns. None of them fired. Why are they needed if they don't shoot at planes? Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

[shogomad]

That pretty weird. With that many AA guns deployed all you should of been worried about is Falling Debris. I usually only have 4 to 5 AA guns setup and they always shoot down the Bombers.

[Олег]

Either you're lucky, or I'm doing something wrong... )
I usually take two or three anti-aircraft guns, but the only thing that really works is to see where the plane will fly and very quickly remove tanks and guns from its flight path. I have huge infantry losses in every defense, and all because of the planes... Anti-aircraft guns for the most part do not shoot at all.
Advised a mod, I'll try with him. It seems that if the modders have done this, then I'm not the only one with problems with anti-aircraft guns ...))
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2987749866

[torpex]

My experience is different. My AA Guns knock planes out 90% of the time, and Im playing at Hard or Heroic levels. Not bragging this is what I do.

1-Must have AA ammo on HE
2-AA Guns cannot shoot straight up..target needs to be parallel to plane flight path so your gunners can shoot from rear to front of AA Truck in an arc ) about 1-200 feet off the airplanes path.
3-Position your AA truck in a field or road about 1/4 the way up into your map, pointing towards the incoming airplane and then as soon as you see his flight path, begin driving your AA Truck to intercept the path and then again position your truck parallel to the flight path. If the Terrain is difficult and doesn't provide such clear areas, two trucks may be necessary

As your AA Gunners get Kills their skill improves, or if you have a spare ace tank crew-put them in your AA Gun!

[Arkady2000]

Yep, confirming the post before, when I'm directly in the path, AA usually don't shoot...they've probably difficulty to track the plane. AA guns in slightly side position track and fire properly, 20 and 37 mm AA guns on trucks are performing best, as Germans against Il-2

[Олег]

Wow. Seems pretty complicated, but I'll try it, thanks!

As I understand it now, I (or my anti-aircraft guns, heh) have a problem in a narrow "corridor" of firing.
If the anti-aircraft gun is too close, it cannot shoot at the aircraft, as you said. And if she's far away, she just can't reach him
It is not always possible to control the situation manually, I would like the fighters to solve the situation without me ...)

By the way, about the mod that I indicated above. I have just conducted a defense, and the result is excellent. All anti-aircraft guns stopped firing at the infantry and focused on the plane. As soon as it became possible, they opened fire and tore it up. And then they started shooting at the enemy infantry again.

But in order not to depend on mods, I'll try to play the way you wrote here.

[shogomad]

Originally posted by Олег:

Either you're lucky, or I'm doing something wrong... )
I usually take two or three anti-aircraft guns, but the only thing that really works is to see where the plane will fly and very quickly remove tanks and guns from its flight path. I have huge infantry losses in every defense, and all because of the planes... Anti-aircraft guns for the most part do not shoot at all.
Advised a mod, I'll try with him. It seems that if the modders have done this, then I'm not the only one with problems with anti-aircraft guns ...))
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2987749866

I didn't mean to imply you were doing anything wrong. It's just that I always deploy AA guns and with 10 AA guns you should of gotten at the very least 2 of those guns firing at the Bomber. Thanks for the Mod Tip, I'll have to check it out!

[Andy Mil]

AA on german side as far as I know they have a range of 150 which literally airplane have to be at 50 angle on their head else it outside their shooting range and they will never shoot
but your 88mm FLAK can

[tigerkommanderkursk]

another game that has all the things you want and need is steel division 2 it has the same game play mechanics but no fp that i know of

[shogomad]

Originally posted by tigerkommanderkursk:

another game that has all the things you want and need is steel division 2 it has the same game play mechanics but no fp that i know of

That's a Fun Game, but nothing like this Game. Other than their both WW2 RTS games.

[K152]

Sorry for the bump, but how's the mod? good?

I also find the airstrikes infuriating. I ended up spreading my defences and take the L when some of my units got bombed to bits. What the other guy have to say when it comes to HE is legit though, I locked all of my AA to HE and usually it's the small caliber AAs that got the plane.

[Олег]

Originally posted by CARCOVE:

Sorry for the bump, but how's the mod? good?

The mod is very good, I liked it. He's doing his job.)

[Ch53dVet]

Having an Officer (with Binoculars) nearby your AA crews will alert them to any targets he has a lock on that they can't see, yet. Also, replacing the AA crew with a Tank crew will yield better results then the original artillery crew, I always put tank crews on all captured equipment like AT's, FG's and Artillery pieces, they get veterancy ranks quicker than the stock vanilla crews get. Don't take my word for it, it's written in the code that level 4 troops like Tankers and experienced Artillery crews get accuracy advantages over level 3 units and under.

[No h8 plz]

What I do with AA in conquest,

At LEAST three AA guns/trucks and spread out, typically I dig in the (predicted) rear-most zone from where I understand the enemy will spawn from (only really useful with AI defenders researched) and I'll have one centre-rear and the others to the side and otherwise reasonably well protected behind cover.

If you've got AA trucks or other AA vehicles, as in contrast to emplacements, then turn OFF the engines on all of them else the next step won't work.

Group all AA units into the one control group and assign a number (IE: select them all at once and hit "Shift+1/2/3" etc)

As soon as you hear the enemy aircraft or receive the warning message, hit your AA control group button and keep your eyes pealed for that aircraft making use of the minimap and camera control, you'll probably need to tilt the camera something stupid to be able too see it.

Order AA to attack with a right click BEFORE (or at least ASAP) the aircraft is in range, this gives guns time to rotate and begin tracking, they'll open fire as soon as it's within range and eat it alive.

Then you'll learn to hate them crashing into your troops just like me :'D


BONUS STRATEGY; MG34s and MG42s that are belt-fed are effective enough in direct control mode to take out enemy aircraft as soon it can be seen in direct control mode (with max view range settings at least). Other MGs (Russian DPs etc) are also usable but it's the capacity you'll need for sustained-fire to bring them down.