Effective AA units/buildings?

[Alo]

Hi, I just played my first few skirmish games and everytime the AI used VTOLs to swamp my base. and its not like I didn't have AA defences.

I had 8 x Hurricane AA sites and 12 enemy VTOLs just strolled in, dropped their payloads, turned back and not even one was shot down!!! They came back a few seconds later and this time one was shot down. just one!

Are Hurricane AA sites THAT ineffective or am I missing a trick here?

how do players generally defend against VTOLs?

[PkK]

Hurricane is the very first dedicated AA turret und thus the least effective. It's okay againt early VTOLs, but as VTOLs get better you need better AA to counter them. Cyclone AA has some more punch and is easy to research once you got hurricane and an AA shell upgrade. Whrilwind should be enough against the AI. BAsically get Cyclone, another AA shell upgrade and lots of machinegun upgrades.
Later AA like, the missile and laser ones are far better, but take far longer to research and are rarely necessary when playing against the AI.

Philipp

[WarTux]

In addition to what PkK said above, I'll also add that Hurricane is pretty weak without upgrades.

[kracker]

Yeah... I agree. The first AA is not so powerful unless you have a lot of upgrades, I like the Whirlwind AA, it's good.
Also, even for Ai, you may need more than 8 of them

[Zarel]

Actually, Hurricanes are pretty decent as long as you have upgrades. But yeah, in Warzone, using a weapon without upgrading it generally leads to a pretty weak weapon. You'd be better off using MGs, minipods, or HPVs if you don't want to upgrade your AA.

Edit: Kringled is right - lancer cyborgs are the second best midgame AA weapon except for dedicated AA.

[kringled]

In a skirmish game where one AI was a long ways away on the map and was able to take me by surprise with a large # of VTOLs, I was able to defend my base with a combination of a small # of hurricanes and a large # of lancer cyborgs at the base. The hurricanes weren't very upgraded, but the lancers were, and they were able to make a good dent in the AI VTOL force until I got my main battle group to their base. (Catching several viper-lancer VTOLS on their pads simultaneously with a HEAP bomb...that was nice).

Keith

[Alo]

Yeah... I agree. The first AA is not so powerful unless you have a lot of upgrades, I like the Whirlwind AA, it's good.
Also, even for Ai, you may need more than 8 of them

more than 8 for 12 VTOLs?! then its not much of a 'anti' unit

anyway....i'll give it a shot with upgraded AA shells.

also, is there any weapon that can fire air-to-air? i am thinking if there is a way to make a air superiority VTOL.

[WarTux]

more than 8 for 12 VTOLs?! then its not much of a 'anti' unit

Well, be honest, you are doing something wrong if you are letting the AI build and maintain THAT many VTOLs. Be sure to claim as much land and oil as you can and harass the AI like the jumble of algorithms it is.

also, is there any weapon that can fire air-to-air? i am thinking if there is a way to make a air superiority VTOL.

Zarel is working on it. It will be present in Warzone 3.0! In the meantime, stick with AT rockets.

One last tip: put your AA as far away from your base as possible. That way they'll have the most optimal distance to shoot down VTOLs. Building some dedicated "AA outposts" is not a bad idea.

[CptFireFox]

also, is there any weapon that can fire air-to-air? i am thinking if there is a way to make a air superiority VTOL.

Zarel is working on it. It will be present in Warzone 3.0! In the meantime, stick with AT rockets.

Speaking of that, is there a way now, or will there be a way, to intercept air units like the vtol strike tower does for ground units?

[WarTux]

Speaking of that, is there a way now, or will there be a way, to intercept air units like the vtol strike tower does for ground units?

The VTOL strike tower works for both air and ground units. However, you must place them at a distance away from your base, since your VTOLs will need time to liftoff.

[CptFireFox]

Thanks, that makes sense. I've always kept my towers at the edge my base, rarely using outposts. Guess that's why my VTOLs never attacked. I only recently found this site, is that a new feature? I don't remember them ever doing that in the retail version.

[Lancefighter]

if you set, say, lancer vtols to patrol (put them somewhere, then hold 'alt' and give a move order. they will patrol between the two points, and pull back to reload if empty, and go back to patrol when reloaded).
Lancer vtols murder other vtols..

I really wish there was some vtol weapon that only shot vtols.. (hinthint, we already have aa guns.. they just dont mount to vtol)

[Zarel]

I really wish there was some vtol weapon that only shot vtols.. (hinthint, we already have aa guns.. they just dont mount to vtol)

Dude. Read the thread before posting. Specifically, this post:

also, is there any weapon that can fire air-to-air? i am thinking if there is a way to make a air superiority VTOL.

Zarel is working on it. It will be present in Warzone 3.0! In the meantime, stick with AT rockets.

[Lancefighter]

*sigh* yesyes, i read that. I was just connecting a few dots, for instance patrol in the place of vtol strike towers along with current weapons.
The hint part was more 'wait we already have the guns, why not just use them on vtols?'. the assumption was that its not that hard to use a model already in the game with stats that are already in the game, so it should be something easy to mod.. hell /me putters off to the modding section to do it himself.
Gimme 20 minutes to figure out how to get the gun to flip over and mount on vtols, and ill put a simple mod out..hopefully. It might even work if your lucky.

[Verin]

Statistically speaking.

Your whirlwind AA turret (dual blue mini guns) with have the best damage rate. (fully upgraded of course)