Which First?

[stormbringer3]

When you are going to attack a target with both air and artillery, which one is usually better to use first?
Thanks for any opinions.

[goose_2]

When you are going to attack a target with both air and artillery, which one is usually better to use first?
Thanks for any opinions.

Air, always air, as the entrenchment hurts air more than artillery, so if you help remove entrenchment it means artillery has better chance to suppress or even destroy units

[captainjack]

Air, always air,

Air, always air,

of course.

Sound advice except when attacking an AA unit (learnt from experience).

[PoorOldSpike]

When you are going to attack a target with both air and artillery, which one is usually better to use first?

German grenadiers and Brit and American Heavy Weapons infantry (and possibly some other units too) can shoot back at aircraft if they've got an air attack strength (circled below), so unless I've misunderstood the question I'd say it's best for arty to fire first to soften them up so that they'll have less chance of shooting at the aircraft when it comes in.
Remember, units can't fire back at arty, so you've got nothing to lose..
Here's a screenshot from a test I just ran, fresh German Grenadiers fire at a Blenheim that's bombing them and reduce its strength by 2 points for no loss to themselves!
But if they'd been bombarded with arty first, they might have been too suppressed to shoot at the plane.
(The brackets around the number 1 mean they can only shoot at planes purely in self-defence)

[Yrfin]

Nice motto

[PoorOldSpike]

Nice motto

Thanks, and another motto (a bit like yours) that I've used throughout my 35 years of wargaming is-
"Never fear to use insanely overwhelming firepower, let the fear be your enemies"
..

[captainjack]

Passive air attacks only work against fighters and tac bombers (which both also get a -5 low level defence penalty) but you can use strategic bombers to suppress these without risk of damage to yourself. When attacking AA or a unit next to AA, it is best to use artillery or naval fire to suppress the AA first to avoid or minimise damage to your aircraft. Once that's done, pound away in whatever order works best. Don't forget if you are going for surrender prestige you need to reduce entrenchment to 1 or 0 before you attack with ground troops.

[dragos]

When you are going to attack a target with both air and artillery, which one is usually better to use first?
Thanks for any opinions.

As usual, it depends

If the target has 0 entrenchment level, it should not matter, but then again it depends on target's strength and your air/artillery unit's strength. You can guess you can finish it off with the stronger unit, and have the other unit free to use on a different target.

If the target is AA, I usually bring an artillery to fire up on it first to suppress it, then reduce its strength further with a tactical bomber if I can't finish it off with a ground unit.

If the target is a heavily entrenched unit, both air and artillery attacks are usually ineffective, so you can use weak air to ground attacking units such as fighters to reduce entrenchment level first, then attack with tac bombers or artillery.