Air Recon

[Devonport]

I am struggling with Air Reconnaissance. All the advice is that recon is essential to good bombing performance, but it is difficult to know whether the poor performance of my bombers is caused by lack of recon or the myriad of other potential issues.

Specifically I am finding a difference between strategic recon and tactical. I don't seem to be able to build any level of strategic recon visibility despite weeks of missions over the same area, even though I am also carrying out bombing missions of the same type over the same area at the same time. Yet tactical recon seems to work much more quickly, with again the same missions and areas.

In all cases I carefully select the right recon planes, with the right altitude and the right loadout (i.e. cameras to suit the altitude). For strategic recon (such as HI or manpower)I use high level cameras and fly at 36000 ft. For tactical recon (such as interdiction) I use low level cameras and fly at 12000 ft. I haven't yet used the mid level cameras. I quickly build visibility according to the recon level hot key on interdiction, but nothing on strategic interdiction.

Where am I going wrong?

[RedLancer]

AFAIK Strat Recon effect doesn't show when you toggle shift-t. Strat recon takes photos of specific facilities which improves bomb city accuracy and lowers FOW. There is an outstanding dev task to show the last time a facility was photographed to help players.

I don't think you are going wrong - bombing FOW is pretty full on. If you are refining your skills play yourself H2H - then if you are doing badly the bonus is your happiness as your own opponent.

[Harrybanana]

ORIGINAL: Red Lancer

Strat recon takes photos of specific facilities which improves bomb city accuracy and lowers FOW.

Does Strat Recon improve bombing accuracy? I thought the sole purpose was just to give you a more accurate assessment of the damage you have caused. For this reason I have only been using Strat Recon after the bombing. If it helps with the bombing than I will do it before as well.

But if Strat Recon does improve bombing accuracy, then what about bombing ports and rail yards which you can do either as a "Bomb City" AD or as a Ground Attack AD? If you're doing it as a Bomb City should you be flying Strat Recon, while if you are doing it as a Ground Attack you should fly regular Recon, or does it matter?

[carlkay58]

Strat Recon does the following:

1) Improves the estimate of existing damage

2) Increases the chances of damage by friendly bombing missions on the same target

3) Is the ONLY way to get recon on Ports and Rail yards (evidently the Tactical Recon level is not figured into those targets even if they are targeted through Ground Attack ADs)

This is the list from the developers. I must admit that Strat Recon is very hard to figure out - there is no report that tells you anything about how good your Strat Recon is. The # photos that are in one section of the AD Planning screen are not dated (but that is on the list as mentioned above) and I don't know if a photo of a city with eight different factories gives you coverage of all of those factories or only some of them.

The above said, it is my opinion that this is an area that still needs work. Dating the photos will help. Better documentation would also help. But it still seems that the amount of feedback is way too low for players to be able to figure anything out about it.

[warshipbuilder]

I don't know if a photo of a city with eight different factories gives you coverage of all of those factories or only some of them.

From the manual 17.3.1.2. "If a city is selected for strategic recon based on the target priority, all factories in that city will be equally photographed." In other words, if your strat recon setting is oil, then all factories in a city with oil will be photographed.

[Joel Billings]

Check the event log report. It should list info on cities and when they were last photographed. I'm away without my computer so I can't give you more info now, but I think this info is the top of the event log which you can access from the info screens tab.

[HMSWarspite]

ORIGINAL: warshipbuilder

I don't know if a photo of a city with eight different factories gives you coverage of all of those factories or only some of them.

From the manual 17.3.1.2. "If a city is selected for strategic recon based on the target priority, all factories in that city will be equally photographed." In other words, if your strat recon setting is oil, then all factories in a city with oil will be photographed.

That isn't how I read it. I think it means that if you set SR target priority on OIL, any city with an OIL factory in it, that falls within the area of the AD, is a candidate for one of the recon flights flown as part of that AD. If the city is reconed successfully, ALL factories in that city (not just the OIL) get photographed. I think it is the hex that has the status of having a photo and that is applied to all factories. At least I hope that is what it means.

[Helpless]

Correct.

[Devonport]

Thanks everyone for the help. It has transformed how I do Recon and seems to be improving my bombing performance. If I play with FOW off (to help judge the success or otherwise of different strategies) is there complete reliability of the various reports?

[carlkay58]

In theory, yes. There is a difference between what the Allied side sees at the end of their turn and what the Axis side sees at the beginning of their turn. The difference is the Axis repairs the damage during their logistics phase.