How to Sweep with Fighters and not have them commit Suicide ...

[anthonykevinluke]

Well the title says it all. I haven't played allies much and have started a game with the new patch. I understand that the 'allied player experts' talk about following the bombers with a Ftr sweep to nail the Axis ftrs following the bomber trail. However, I plot a tgt point along the bombers path and the ftr sweep dives on any afld/rail centre/city enroute, or even slightly off route, and committ suicide endlessly sweeping these tgts .... So, how do I get a ftr sweep to not dive on on the nearest gnd target and actually do a "Ftr Sweep'. Any help advice is always appreciated.

Cheers,

AKL

[Pete McCullagh]

Be careful not to route sweeps close to airfields and railyards you don't want to hit. Use F/B bombing missions instead. Sweep at 15k to avoid worst light flak.
I love using sweeps but you need good recon, only hit hi value or undefended airfields.

[JeffroK]

AKL,

I have played thousands of turns in this game and have rarely suffered bad losses in a sweep, and I sweep airfields regularly.
Sometimes a squadron may lose 2-3 aircraft but I have often destroyed up to 10 on the ground, I'll take those returns.

Choose your target carefully, 2TAF & 9AF mostly are set to recce airfields. I only sweep bases that are reported to hold aircraft (Sometimes they aren't there [:@]) I sweep at around 25kft and use all types of fighters (not carrying bombs).

I dont sweep any type of industrial target, they will have HAA & LAA.

Reading many histories of the air war reveals that the Allies lost a lot of aircraft to German AA, and I think the game covers this accurately.

PS, dont overfly any targets on the way to your target, plot around them (This may avoid balloons as well.)