Question:
You have mentioned that fighters on ground support missions that jettison their bombs when intercepted do not become escorts. Scorched Earth Rule 24A states the fighter is treated as if it were flying an escort mission. Is this a Second Front rule?
Answer:
Yes this is a SF rule, or more correctly a rule that goes along with the other rules associated with the “new” air rules.
It is an important change. Under the new rules, if the owning player uses the fighter as part of the mission force, then it is stuck as part of the mission force. It can get its regular air combat ratings back by discarding its bomb load, but it can not switch from the mission force to the escort screen by doing so.
One look at the Allied OB and the TB ratings of Allied fighters should illustrate why the change was needed and apporpriate. Without it, Allied players would never bother to fly escort, they would always carry a bomb load and only jettison it if they had to — that is simply wrong and not the way tactical air forces operated, for the most part. Interceptors and dedicated escorts did not routinely carry full loads of bombs.
Older games, like SE, use different rules for dividing up combat and for controlling who is and who isn’t in the escort screen. However, to those who want to use the “new” air rules in old games, this is certainly one nuance it is especially important to remember to incorporate.
Source:
TEM 74
