Effectiveness of Tac Bombers patrolling vs. attacking

The original question was about effectiveness of patrolling vs outright attacking.
That is also a question of time.
If you can strike 4x in 1 hour with 25%, but a direct attack costs your more than an hour, patrolling is time-wise more efficient in terms of dealt damage.

what is important to note is that the aircraft on the ground icon simply means the aircraft is ready at it's airbase. It can scramble to meet any other aircraft attacking it's airbase.

There is no symbol for infantry in their sleeping bags in the field or inside their dormitories in the barracks, just like their isn't a symbol for a submarine tethered to it's pier when at a harbour. Or a vehicle in it's garage. It would look silly.

If you removed the landed aircraft icon and just have the normal flying icon then people would accept that landed aircraft deal the same damage as flying aircraft. It is only when the refueling symbol is up that you know that you have caught them with their pants down, Tally Ho!!!

Lots of good info here ... Thanks guys! ...

Ok so to get it straight:

When i have an airplane patrolling, and multiple enemy unitss are in its patrol range, the damage my plane (or stack of planes) deals on its periodic attack is split over all enemies, so if there are 5 seperate units, they will all recieve 1/5th of my damage output.

When the 5 seperate enemies attack me, they all recieve full damage in retaliation.

Correct ?

Yes, but...

very few units can leap into the sky and attack airplanes. Actually only planes have an attack value against other planes.

So planes will attack everything within the patrol circle at each tick using 25% of the listed damage output.

Each unit that is attacked will return fire using their defensive stats at that time. Since the patrol is at a 25% strength this return fire is also proportioned accordingly.

Yes, i understand that, i am just asking for the basics.
"So planes will attack everything within the patrol circle at each tick using 25% of the listed damage output."

I see people write things like that often, and its what causes the doubt. It sounds as if all targets are attacked for 25% of my damage. But if i understand correctly, when there are 5 targets, they are attacked for 5% each (ignoring the random factor)

So that means the result is equal whether the 5 ground units are in 1 stack or seperate.

As for the leaping in the sky thing.... Suppose my enemy has 5 artillery and at a minimal distance (say 5 or 10km) from those artillery, a stack that includes AA units. My air units can simply target attack the artillery and totally ignore the AA in the process right ? Thats a bit strange it seems to me.

Within 5 km, the AA will be included in a direct attack and subsequently within the fire returned.

On patrols, the edge of the patrol circle is very precise, units are either included or not.



You have one damage output and it is split among everything within the targeted area.