I have a question regarding the intricacies of FFD components for ground forces.
Ground attack fighters which are assigned to support a ground formation with a FFD element have, per Steve's rules posts, the same targeting options as heavy bombardment. It's not completely clear to me, but I assume this means that it has the same targeting options as a HB element which is firing in support of a front-line formation and not just "it can hit anything on the field".
Specifically, per the rules posts:
Once all front line attacks have been concluded, each unit in each element providing supporting bombardment will engage either the hostile formation being targeted by the friendly formation they are supporting, or one of the hostile formation's own supporting elements (counter-battery fire). If the hostile formation is targeted, each unit in the supporting artillery element engages a random element in the hostile formation, with the randomisation based on the relative size of the hostile formation elements (the same as front-line vs front-line). If a hostile supporting element is targeted, all fire is directed against that element. This represents the difference between providing supporting fire in a combined arms front-line battle and targeting specific hostile artillery for counter-battery fire. The decision to target the hostile front-line formation vs hostile support elements is based on the relative sizes.
This means that ground attack fighters supporting a ground formation can only attack (1) the enemy formation which was targeted by the friendly formation being supported, or (2) any enemy formation which is supporting the enemy formation which was targeted by the friendly formation being supported.
For a front-line formation being supported, this is all well and good...now, here is my question: if I assign ground attack fighters to support a
supporting formation which has a FFD element, which is in turn supporting a front-line formation, what target options do the fighters have?
I can imagine two possibilities:
- Because the ground fighters are resolved as part of the supporting bombardment step in a ground combat tick, they have no target option because the formation they are supporting did not, itself, have any target until this step.
- The ground fighters can target the same formation the supporting formation targets.
Essentially this question boils down to: Are FFD elements in support or rear echelon formations useless?