Aircraft recognition

[garry619]

Does anyone else have trouble making out exactly what ECW aircraft you can send against an enemy ship? You get the three fighters + one .... other? I waste so much time configuring, then reconfigure to try and get the right plane, lol.

[spaceboy]

You need 1 EWA craft which will typically be either the S3 Viking, or the A6 Prowler, but also can be the F18S Super Hornet.

Then you'll need however many F18's or F18SH are called for on the mission. The catch is, you can't mix types for the fighters, so they either have to all be F18's or F18SH, and this is where the management comes in and where it gets hard on some missions because people will run out of one type of craft and you can't mix them.

The Prowler and Viking both give longer radar range than the fighters, so on some missions you may want to save them for radar and use F18SH for the EWA craft instead, but make sure you don't run out.

Often what you'll need to do for back to back surface assaults is to use F18's for the fighters on one, and F18SH on the other, but on some missions you will have only one fighter type.

Also, when you're starting out, it can be hard to tell the difference between the Viking and Prowler, but after awhile, you recognize them instantly.

The Viking is "fatter and bulkier", the Prowler is skinny and slim. The Viking wing fronts are straight across, while the Prowler angles back. These are the two easiest ways to spot them, but there are other differences too.

Often, if you have enough radar craft and one extra for EWA, then you can just pre-configure that one for EWA and have it waiting.

[Eagle_of_Fire]

I know you did not ask for Survival Admiral specifically but since it is the last difficulty level of the whole game people end up setting their ultimate designs based on that so here it goes. If you don't want to read this whole wall of text you might want to jump directly to the last paragraph.

There is a fixed amount of crafts you get in a late game of Survival Admiral. What I end up doing is set up my types of craft to mainly do one type of mission. Then use them for other missions when the first type of aircraft has run out on my runway or I have no other choice.

So for example, at the start of the survival I always use F18 almost exclusively for air mission and F18S for naval missions. You always start with 6 F18S but only 2 F18 so this is why I choose the F18S for the early naval missions but eventually you'll get F18 adds and will end up with 6 of those too, eventually. Until I get my VTOLs I also try to keep two of those F18S armed with ground assault since the early game don't push you heavy naval ships which require 5 of the same aircraft (and if it does you have plenty of time to react with usually little else in the naval game at that time). Once I get my first VTOL I use it for those ground missions instead since you can only get a max of 4 of those. Then my F18S return to mainly naval missions.

As for the EW planes, I use the Prowlers for EW almost exclusively and Viking for submarine radar almost exclusively. Again, you're going to get two of those max each and two EW planes and two radars is usually enough since those kind of mission are extremely light on damage. You don't have to repair them as often (but should if you know you have the time). The reason why I choose the Viking for sub spotting is simple: the Prowler can't. The Prowler can also do normal missions like air and naval but in Admiral you'll never use a Prowler on the fly for a naval mission because you'll never see a single one naval ship attacking you. When you start getting heavy naval waves then I'll start using everything I have depending on the size of ships (even using 3-4 VTOLs on it if I have to), including a Vicking or even a F18S for EW. As required.

What really annoy me about the Prowler and the Vicking is that I have learnt the number of clicks I need for every single kind of aircraft a long time ago, to the point that it is pretty much an automatism for me. And those two aircraft, for some strange reason, are the only two in the whole game which switch their place around in the list. It always happen to me at least once a game and it might be related to a time when I have already sent my two Prowlers and want to use a Vicking for a third immediate sortie in a row... But from that time onward instead of the Prowler appearing first on the list then the Vicking they switch around and the Vicking appear first on the list. If I don't pay attention then I send one or two of the primary aircraft before I realise I don't have the EW plane I thought I was sending which result in me having to cancel the mission and take a hit because those planes I sent away need to cycle around and come back to land. This is why you should always be careful when you select your EW plane and make sure you select the right type when setting up your missions.

Edit: man do I wish we could have a preview button...