Air Battle Algorithm ???? 9 vs 4 Loses ???

There is another possibility. There is a random element (commonly called 'X Factor') to battles. Sometimes your units will get unlucky, and lose a battle you expected them to win. As another example of extremely unlucky battles, someone lost a commando in mountains, to an airplane convoy(!).

(Is it possible the enemy aircraft were researched to a higher level than yours, and so able to do more damage per unit than yours, making the outcome slightly more probable in their favour?)

That is the way it always is, and always has been.

First rule of planes: Planes on patrol defend themselves. So check the "defend" column of a Tac bomber. They actually defend themselves against attack fairly well.

Second rule of planes: Planes on patrol defend anything in their patrol radius that gets attacked. I think this means that the planes defend themselves a second time. They react to something in their zone being attacked from the air by shooting at the attacker. So by direct attacking them once you have allowed them to fire at you twice.

Third rule of planes: Planes on patrol attack things in their patrol zone every 15 minutes. So if you were unfortunate enough to be in their zone during the regularly scheduled "tick" you got hit a third time.

So it is EXTREMELY unwise to direct attack patrolling planes. It is much better to patrol so that your circle overlaps theirs.

Also at play in that case is the SBDE. So no more than 5 of your interceptors fired on the enemy, the other 4 were along for the ride.

VorlonFCW wrote:

Planes on patrol defend anything in their patrol radius that gets attacked. I think this means that the planes defend themselves a second time. They react to something in their zone being attacked from the air by shooting at the attacker. So by direct attacking them once you have allowed them to fire at you twice.

Third rule of planes: Planes on patrol attack things in their patrol zone every 15 minutes. So if you were unfortunate enough to be in their zone during the regularly scheduled "tick" you got hit a third time.

Thanks for the response, something to keep in mind.

All planes had the same ranking, and it was a direct attack while they were flying to another patrol spot. Also, Fighters have the same hit points when attacking or defending.

maroman. Sorry if you have already gathered this, but if a target is attacked that happens to be in the patrol radius of it's own patrolling planes, the attacker will receive 100% damage (not 1/4) from all patrols and will deal no damage back.

DxC wrote:

. . . if a target is attacked that happens to be in the patrol radius of [its] own patrolling planes, the attacker will receive 100% damage (not 1/4) from all patrols and will deal no damage back.

MontanaBB wrote:

fighter squadrons flying over your ground units is the best defense against enemy air attacks.

DxC wrote:

Unless [your] enemy knows what they are doing and they can kill your patrols with minimal losses, due to another balance issue.

* beep, beep! *

Now if I didn't miss anything, the result received by maroman is not yet explained (maybe would have been if the attacked plane stack had been on patrol, but as maroman said that was not the case).

Some other folks reported the attacker always suffers inexplicable, great losses in plain, direct air-to-air-attacks and that fits my own observation (don't have a game running to test it now, though).

Could anyone tell us about their experience with this?

Yes, direct plane-to-plane attacks are suicide UNLESS you have fighters and the enemy is bombers ONLY. Still need at least equal fighters to bombers.

K.Rokossovski wrote:

Yes, direct plane-to-plane attacks are suicide UNLESS you have fighters and the enemy is bombers ONLY. Still need at least equal fighters to bombers.

I might also add that the best time for aircraft-vs-aircraft direct attacks is when the enemy targets are stuck on the ground during their 5 to 30-minute refueling window, they are absolutely defenseless, and their hit points are reduced from 20, 25 or 30 hit points per squadron to only 5 hit points per squadron. Please note, however, that once their refueling cycle is completed, the enemy aircraft squadrons will defend themselves with their full defensive strength even though their icon is shown on the ground. You can check their refueling status by clicking on the icon of the enemy aircraft stack, and the unit spec sheet will show them with only 5 hit points per squadron; hovering your mouse cursor over the stack will show the refueling time remaining.

Good luck.

Good to know, I thought they would still defend at 30 while on the ground refueling because it didn't show the convoy icon.