Knowing how little y'all respect opinion and how greatly you respect statistics here's a nice example for that everyone should be able to understand comparing Battleships and Bombers.

What the factors mean:
Cost is unit cost

• Effective Range is the most distant target a unit can attack in its turn.  It is the sum of mobility and range.
• Average Attack is the sum of attack values against other units divided by 7 - the number of different targets in the game.
• Rate of Fire is how often a unit can attack in 8 turns.  The bomber's slow rate of fire is based on its need to return to base to repair. (2 attacks+2 moves to base+2 turns repair+2 turns redeploy).  The BB on the other hand repairs in place.
• AverageAttackAgainst is the sum of attack values versus the unit's type divided by 18 (the total number of unit types)
• Defense is the base defensive value of the unit divided by the average attack value against it.

• Unit        BB        Bmr
• Cost        2000    1200
• EffRng        7        7
•     (2+5)    (6+1)
• AveAtt        6.57    5
•     (46/7)    (35/7)
• RoF        16        2
• AAA        7.11    2.44
• 128/18    44/18
• BaseD       16        10
• Def            2.25    4.1

Though the Bmr appears to have some advantage in defense note that the three ranged units that can attack a BB, LtArty, HvyArty & AssArt, are all likely to be destroyed, or severely damaged, by the BB's counterBattery fire.  Factoring this in the BB's Def is closer to 3 than 2.25.
So let's create a UnitValueFactor equal to EffRng^2*AveAtt * RoF * Def.

EffRng is squared because its effect is over an area.  Rate of Fire is certainly multiplicative over range and the other factors make more sense to me if they are multiplicative than if they are additive.

Here are  the UnitValueFactors for battleship & bomber.  I haven't tried it against the outer units yet.
BB            Bmr
UnitValueFactor    11,589        2,009

In the game a BB is 5.77 times as effective as a Bmr with a cost only ⅔ greater.
Now some real world facts.
The cost of the North American B-25 Mitchell (a WubWub2 medium bomber) was around $85,000 and they were cranked out at the rate of a several dozen per week.  The cost of a WubWub2 BB (the last war in which BBs were built)) was in the neighborhood of $45,000,000.  It took two to three years to build a BB.
That's a cost ratio of 530 to 1.  Even if a BB represents a single ship and a Bomber represents a squadron of 10 aircraft the ratio is still 53 to 1, not the 1⅔ to 1 we find in WeeWee.
And finally, in the real world, bombers sink battleships amazingly easily.   Yamato, the Japanese super  BB was sunk by, I believe, less than a dozen aircraft.

A compelling argument.  As usual, I agree with your statements and conclusions, even though perhaps your function for UnitValueFactor may be a bit arbitrary (but still agreeable).  The huge difference is the Rate of Fire [per 8 turns].

And thanks for bringing [even more] real world perspectives to bear.  Hopefully we can get some results: either some name changes, or some spec changes.

And, as I have shared with you in-game, another significant factor is that too many units can return fire on aircraft or exert ZOC on them.  I find it laughable that LInf with machine guns can in any fashion impede jets or bombers.  Jets can cruise at 10000m to 15000m above sea level.  The range of a sniper rifle might be as much as 2300m.  M16 variants have an effective range of 550m.  The FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-mounted anti-air missile launcher has a maximum range of 4800m, and can reach aircraft at altitudes up to 3800m.

Most air-to-ground missiles have ranges measured in kilometers (3-11 or so).

I built a bomber just now.

1- spend $1200

2- next turn, he flies out

3- moves in, attacks, hurts a speedboat by 8 points, receiving itself 3 points in damage.

4- moves back toward base to heal

5- land on base

6- heal

7- ready for another mission! yeah!

So my $1200 so far did 8 points of damage... $150 a point! Although in fact the speedboat is healed by the time I get back there... hmmm... wow! A great unit!

hehe

You're forgetting that battleships are restricted to only water and bombers have zero penalties nor any restriction of movement. I do agree that it is silly that light infantry can impede aircraft movement however the game would be a little unfair if aircrafts were able to zip around the place and ignore all but other aircrafts.

Suggestion: How about making the bomber similar to the sub where it can only be attacked by a limited number of other units and can ignore most zoc. Limited units would be restricted to jets, helicopters, and AA-gun like how subs can only be attacked by destroyers, subs, and battleships. Real life reasoning would be because bombers fly at higher altitudes.

I'd feel better if the jets were renamed to planes.  I'm thinking the propellor-driven variety.

The sort which only have machine guns, no missiles, etc.

@MoJoe:  I realize that BBs are restricted to water but on the maps available that restriction is trivial at best.

@π:  Renaming Jet to Fighter would be more in keeping with the game as we play it.

My choice of factors may not be as arbitrary as it seems at first glance.

When considering the effectiveness of a unit I took into account, how far it can move (mobility), how hard it can hit (AverageAttack), how far it can shoot (range), where it can shoot (AreaOfAttack) and how well it resists the attacks of other units.  I ignored cost, of course, since EUV is a sort of a reflection of cost.

I ignored terrain because terrain is map dependent.  I ignored multiple attack effect because that is attack order (player) dependent.

 

Continuing:

I thought a bit more about the UnitValueFactor (pulled out another napkin as it were) and come to this: =SQRT(RoF*AoA*EffRng^2*AveAtt*DefVal)

RoF: Rate of Fire is the number of attacks per 8 rounds. (I justified that earlier with support by Hugo)

AoA: Area of Attack is the number of hexes a unit can attack in a turn.

EffRng: EffectiveRange is the sum of a unit's mobility and its maximum range.

AveAtt: AverageAttack is the average amount of damage the unit does to other units.

DefVal: DefensiveValue is the unit's base defense divided by its TargetValue where TargetValue is the average value of attacks by other units.

I calculated averages two ways.

1. Take the average including zero values.
2. Take the average excluding zero values.

The first gives a result versus all other units while the second gives a result versus only units which can attack or be attacked.

• vsAll    EffUnitVal
• AA    218
• AART    455
• BB    1,993
• BZKR    208
• BMR    233
• DFA    328
• DD    347
• HART    236
• HINF    95
• HTNK    189
• HELIO    181
• HVRC    211
• JET    207
• LART    182
• LINF    80
• RDR    188
• SPBT    201
• SS    134
• TNK    161

       vsEff        EffUnitVal

• AA    578
• AART    492
• BB    1,993
• BZKR    246
• BMR    275
• DFA    388
• DD    347
• HART    280
• HINF    102
• HTNK    224
• HELIO    196
• HVRC    228
• JET    223
• LART    215
• LINF    86
• RDR    203
• SPBT    217
• SS    250
• TNK    191

This should be a link to a crossTab comparison of EffUnitVal for all units in pdf.

CrossTab comparison of all units

Let me be clear here.  EffectiveUnitValue is not a measure of how unit A will perform against unit B.  It is instead a measure of their worth.  A BB with an EUV of 1,993 is worth 7¼ Bombers whose EUV is 275 not 1⅔ bombers as represented by their relative cost in the game.
 

however the game would be a little unfair if aircrafts were able to zip around the place and ignore all but other aircrafts.

Firstly, AIRCRAFT  is both singular and plural.

Secondly, aircraft CAN zip around and ignore nearly everything except other aircraft.  That is why they are effective combat weapons in the real world.  In WeeWee they are seriously overpriced, overly vulnerable and underpowered. So, either reduce the cost of aircraft significantly or increase their effectiveness, i.e.  allow them to fly around all over the place ignoring everything except other aircraft, AckAck and destroyers.

 

It seems to me obvious that land units cannot exert a zoc on aircraft. Even AA shouldn't, nor other planes. Ideally, like in some other games, AA would get a slight free attack on planes passing through say 1, 2 or 3 hex close. Damage like 0, 1 or sometimes but rarely 2 damage.

Also Bomber should have some Air Attack. Like, ok, that speedboat wounded my bomber, thanks to Rambo suntanning on the boat's deck, yet my bomber does 0 damage on a jet? Let's pretend they're ww2 bombers with machine-gunners in turrets. Have them make some sort of damage on jets, be it 1 or 2 points.

Also bombers should have higher second impulse movement point - they should bomb and be able to move away 3 hexes.

"Like, ok, that speedboat wounded my bomber, thanks to Rambo suntanning on the boat's deck" LOL 

How about expanding the size of zoc that the AA-gun exerts over air

moJoe: We're trying to make aircraft more appealing, not less. 

well, I was adding onto your idea of removing all zoc that effect air crafts except for jets and AA-guns but give these units a larger zoc. So the only units that can "block" flying units are jets and AA-guns and their zoc size would be 2 or 3 tiles in radius.

I don't know how much of an impediment AA-guns would be to a jet if it was swooshing past. Damaging when it gets shot at, of course, but slowing it down... only as a side-effect of making holes in it.

Although from a game-mechanics front I guess larger ZOC would be needed as a counter to jets just swooshing wherever they want and generally getting everywhere you don't want them to

The Jets range does not necessitate it. They move 7+2. You cannot really get past AA which is funny. AA's effective range is 6 - it moves 3 points and has a shooting range of 3. So like, the AA chase the plane and almost catch up. AA should have a movement of 2. They are very effective at wounding plane.

Also in this game planes are expensive technology. A wounded planed in the middle of enemies is a dead plane. One can only use them in 'hit and run' attacks. I never saw planes going through a frontline to fight in the rear. Which woud be neat!

Being surrounded by enemies is only a problem when those enemies are able to attack you - if the jet could only be attacked by AA or one or 2 other units then it becomes much more possible for them to fly around all over the place unchallenged and bombing the crap out of everything

Which I guess is what planes are used for.. striking out of nowhere and being really hard to hit back at
 

Yes that would be their use... Fly past enemy lines to destroy selected targets... Reinforcement columns, spawning bases. Imagine playing and having 2-3 planes buzzing in the back. Now we'd see some actual network of AA fire (AA belt).

Below is the list of units with their actual Air Attack. I put between (brackets) what I think would be better. I put '3' or '4' as a default value - when some of these units are under attack they have limited return fire. Some, but not much counter attack.

AA: 13

Ass Art: 8 (4)

BB: 12 (4)

Bomber: 0 (4)

Destroyer: 8

HI: 8 (6)

Helicopter: 6

HVC: 8 (3)

INF: 3

Raider: 4 (3)

Speedboat: 6 (3)