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Basic Flight; Altitude
Topic Started: May 27 2011, 03:45 AM (32 Views)
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Basic flight covers Altitude, Climbing, and diving rules.

Altitude
There are Five altitude bands. From lowest to highest, they are Nap of the Earth (NoE, also called wavetop over oceans), Low, Medium, High, and very high altitudes. Not all aircraft can operate at very high altitudes- for most, their operational ceiling falls within the high altitude band.

Nap of the Earth (NoE)
Nap of the earth flight Is a special height band. A player must announce he is going to fly at NoE altitude at the beginning of every phase he intends to do so, otherwise, he's assumed to have left the dangerous NoE height band for low altitude. Flying at NoE requires a pilot skill check to avoid crashing- at that altitude, there isn't any forgiveness for a mistake. Note that a pilot will only take one PS check a turn for flying at NoE, regardless if he spends one of both phases of that turn at NoE. However, Flying at this height has advantages. Most ground based radars will be unable to target an aircraft operating here, since it's below their coverage. Similarly, for the most part, because of the relative speed, AA and SAM systems will have trouble attacking an aircraft in this height band, and so suffer a -2 penalty to all rolls made to acquire, lock, and hit an aircraft at NoE. Similarly, terrain masking causes aircraft radars to be less effective- this is represented by adding 1 to the NoEing aircraft's ECM score. Note that each point of speed above 10 causes a -1 penalty to the PS check. Also, any damaged received, other than small arms fire, will cause an immediate PS check, with the amount of damage being applied as a penalty to the roll. While flying at this altitude, no maneuvers other than a Immelman turn is possible- and an Immelman will immediately remove the aircraft from NoE flight.

Hostile fire- Flying at NoE does bring the aircraft in range of small arms. While normally not a threat, in a hostile area with enough opponents, something may hit. To represent this, for every phase over a hostile area at NoE, a D10 will be rolled.
1-3= nothing hits
4-6= One point of damage, nothing critical
7-8= one point of damage, treated as normal
9= 3d6, 4+ hits, treated as normal
10= 3d6, 3+ hits, treated as normal.

This hostile fire represents small arms, light, man portable weapons, and the like. it does not supplant the normal AA or SAM rules.

Low altitude At this altitude, unguided weapons attacks are easier to execute on ground targets, and strafing runs may be made. Unguided weapons, including bombs and Rockets gain a +2 bonus to hit. An aircraft must be at low altitude to strafe a target with guns. note that a Split S may not be executed at this altitude band.

Medium altitude this is the default altitude. no bonuses or penalties apply

High altitude At high altitude, an aircraft is beyond the range for AA guns and some of the smaller SAM systems. However, the aircraft suffers a -2 penalty to acquire all but the largest ground targets at this altitude, and suffers a -3 penalty to hit ground targets with unguided weapons. Guided freefall munitions gain a 1km range, to represent their ability to glide to the target.

Very High This altitude is still inside the atmosphere- barely. Only certain SAM systems can engage a target at this height, although no aircraft operating this high can engage a ground target. Similarly, aircraft at this height can only be engaged by other aircraft at this height.








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Climbing
To climb, an aircraft trades speed for altitude. to climb, a player simply announces what type of climb they intend to use- no checks are needed. A climb may be cancelled any time, but doing so resets the aircraft's altitude- no "partial' height bands are kept. there are three types of climb. a slow climb takes two full turns- four phases, and costs 2" of movement per phase. a Fast climb takes a turn, and costs 4" of movement per phase. a Zoom climb takes a phase, and costs 8" of movement.

Slow climb = 2 turns, -2Mv/phase
Fast climb = 1 turn, -4Mv/phase
Zoom climb= 1 phase, -8Mv
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Diving

An aircraft gains speed during descent phases. Descents work like climbs, but in reverse. no checks are needed- simply announce a dive. It should be noted that any dive during NoE flight will cause a crash- the aircraft is already operating as low as possible. The three kinds of dive are shallow, steep, and Power. A shallow dive takes two turns, and adds 1" of movement per phase. A steep dive takes a turn, and adds 2" of movement a phase, while a Power dive takes one phase, and adds 6" of movement. In addition, a power dive adds a +1 bonus to hit and damage for attacks on ground targets launched this phase.

Shallow dive = 2 turns, +1mv/phase
Steep dive = 1 turn, +2Mv/phase
Power dive = 1 phase, +6Mv, +1 to attacks on ground targets launched this phase.
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