Is it just me or does the ground attack page make very little sense, I've discussed this with 3 other players and they all agree with my reading of what it should say. but I'll see what you think.
1) It's says that you must be at height 1 to strafe an enemy position, this of course should be 1 level higher than the enemy ground target as they can be on a hill. But even this is inadequate in the situation that the enemy ground target is on a hill or mesa. So for my improved version (which I think everyone on Tac Command agreed with) which covers a lot of situations.
Target 1. Hive wall, my guess is you need to be any height up to +1 of the top of the wall, so if the wall is height 4 you have to be 1,2,3,4 or 5. If you were coming from the other direction only 5 would do.
Target 2. Target on the top of a wall or on a cliff edge. you would have to be the same height, 1 higher or 1 less.
Target 3. a target which is on a hill or mesa, This is the most common situation, there is no way to deal with LOS between a plane and a target as altitude is just dealt with by the dial, I also feel that the difference in height between 2 levels is a lot. Therefore I would say it is impossible to shoot at the target from below as the mesa gets in the way. In this case I would say from the same height or one higher.
Target 4. A blimp tethered to the ground. This one is easy, deal with is the same way as a plane, 1 higher or lower allowed.
2) Now for the second problem, AA firing back, can AA get the depression to fire level or lower. My general feeling is that if a plane can fire on the AA it should be able to fire back, I know this is not always true in real life, but seeing as they have not given negative values on the AA it keeps things simple.
3) The next problem I see is in the writing of the Strafing and Bombing section, it is really unclear on how fighters deal with bombing, and also whether bombers can drop bombs while straffing. It says that most Bombers don't strafe, but on the stat card of the Marauder Bomber does it say that strafing is not possible. The general feeling amongst people I knew was that any weapon declared as a bomb should only be able to do bombing runs whether it is on a Fighta or a Bomber, and any weapon that is not a bomb or an air attack weapon is able to strafe. I know this is not really what the rules say, but it is the only way to make it make sense.
? I, too, would treat it as a hovering aircraft
They can shoot at Aircraft AND fire as Artillery ? Now ... If so works for me !