KILLING PARATROOPERS! Well that woke me up hehehe.
While I might be a real dweeb of a pilot, but this is an area I, as well as a few others, might be able to provide some input.
Actually, I made a very realistic study of all of this under actual combat conditions and the results are in. (yes I've even been shot at by aircraft firing guns and rockets, but it was friendly fire if you can call it that).
The problem here is that this is a simulation trying to account for real life situations. In real life it's easy to kill a newbie green infantryman. He does everything wrong. It's very hard to kill an experience combat soldier. They have an instinct gained only from horrible experiences.
Assuming all AH paratroopers are experience it would be very tough to kill these guys by gun straffing. They wouldn't just run along and let you shoot at them.
Yes most fields would be relatively flat, but the sim can't model every indent, small structure, trench, hole, wrecks, or the numerous other places to hide. It also can't model the mind, and actions, of a realistic soldier seeking to avoid death.
It isn't that easy to shoot an experience infantryman as you might expect from movies. In a real firefight thousand and thousands of rounds can be fired at each other, sometimes for hours, with relatively very few casualties. Most deaths occur in the very first seconds of a fight when one side is surprised, or during the major assault phase which may typically be at night.
My very small unit was once surrounded by a large force and attacked all night long. In the morning, when air support could arrive to drive them off, I checked the men to find not one man even wounded.
Most casualties are taken from artillery which would include bombs and rockets, but even then you would be amazed at how you can survive in a shallow indent in the ground with large 122mm rockets landing right near your position or by calling in your own artillery rather close. Explosives blast in an upward ark. That's why an experience infantryman instantly hits the dirt at the sound of incoming while the newbie runs for the bunker that will probably be an easy target by a hand held rocket if there is a ground attack.
It seems kinda stupid not to be able to strafe troops running along in the open, but in real life they wouldn't do that. We have to also remember that these 10 paratroops really represent a much larger force. Strafing a few wouldn't really do much, but bombs and rockets would be effective.
If we look at it as a simulation then it makes sense to only allow paratroopers to be killed by vehicles, bombs, and rockets. This is how planes killed large numbers of infantrymen and the vehicles represent the ground forces. It also forces the defender to more accurately defend the field from a paratroop attack than by just allowing the planes in the area to stop the attack.
Sorry for the long post, but I really think this option shows how much thought the AH crew gave to this subject. In my opinion they are right on track.
Ranger Bob
