Can bombers be escorted?

[lordrune]

In a recent game, I was a bit frustrated using bombers against an enemy city, because the AI's fighters kept intercepting and shooting them down. Is there anyway to set my own fighters to fly some sort of air superiority or escort, to attempt to intercept his fighters as they attack my bombers? Or can fighters only fly defense intercepts?

[Hauptman]

basicly, a fighter or sam can intercept only once per turn, so to "escort" your bombers, attack with the fighters FIRST hoping that they absorb the defensive attacks.

[lordrune]

Pity, I miss 'air superiority' missions.
Can a fighter that's being intercepted shoot down the intercepting craft (assuming it's an enemy fighter and not a SAM)?

[Caligula 37 AD]

Air Superiority Duty

Can a fighter that's being intercepted shoot down the intercepting craft

Yes they can, but mostly they only do damage to the interceptor, like the interceptor mostly only does damage to the attacking aircraft. One can say that the interceptor becomes the interceptee.

Sending the fighters first before the bombers, as Hauptman suggest, is also what I have experienced as a valid strategy.

However there is always a question about whether to send them to bomb cities defense, or attack the cities units. The true mission is still being intercepted, of course.
-For bombing defense a Stealth Bomber takes out 20% of the defense if successful, a Jet Fighter takes out only 10%.
-For attacking units, a Stealth Bomber does collateral damage, a Jet Fighter hurts only one unit each turn.

I don't think there is a general rule to which of the two missions you should send your fighters, when on Air Superiority Duty. I tend to think something like this:
1. Are there strategically resources I want to eliminate? If so, bomb them with the first fighters.
2. Is the city’s cultural defense high (60-100%)? If so, I want my bombers to take it out, and I send fighters to attack units first.
3. Are there several good units defending the city (not counting the obsolete ones), i.e. are there 3-4 SAMs, Mech.Infs etc? And will my ground units reach the city soon? If both Yes, then I want my bombers to do collateral damage, and thus I send my fighters to take out cultural defense.
4. If both 2 and 3 above is true, then I will need another turn anyway, and it doesn't really matter.
5. If I have super superior air strength, meaning my bombers can do all the real work, then I send my Air Superiority Duty fighters to bomb randomly selected tile improvement. This way I suspect I can maximize the chances of being intercepted.

Remember, all of this is Air Superiority Duty. I don't want them to succeed the mission, I only want them to be intercepted.

When all the fighters are used, and hopefully have intercepted some interceptees, then I send in my bombers to do the real work. The mission order for this is somewhat similar, but that is not topic.

In my current game, I have some 30 Jet Fighters and some 30 Stealth Bombers. I plan to take out 5-6 well defended cities in 10+ turns (the game is about to end, and I want a Conquest victory). I will use this to do further case studies of the matter.

- Cal