How to win in 1944 campaign ?

[ledavej]

Hello Forum
I have now been deemed loser 3 times (end of May 1944) in the 1944 Bombing the Reich campaign - just before D-day. I have tried ( I think) several approaches. a) Bombing fuel supplies 15/8th airforce - b) force attrition of german fighterstrengths c) when game limits bombing to Overlord and Avalanche - autoplanned raids and tried to build up bomberstrenghts.

Any hints on how to pass end of May 1944 ?

Hope for some hints as to what to do / Best Poul

[simovitch]

AS score is tough to increase and Terror can easily by maintained by Bomber Command strikes. So you need to concentrate on high-capacity 5-6+ point industry with the HB's whenever possible. Keep a good number of escorts protecting the groups and high enough >18000' to not get clobbered by the LW and FlAK and get disrupted before hitting the target. Disruption reduces accuracy. On the return trip don't concern yourself too much about HB losses.

Use your FB's and MB's to take out all the nearby 1-2 point industries in France and the low countries.

The AI can beat the LW but it get's awful close around June and July 1944 with the mandatory overlord targeting. Sounds like you need to gain at least 4 more industry points than you are currently scoring to get past July. Once the breakout from Normandy happens you pick up captured industry fairly easily and breeze to the finish line. Reducing Normandy front line troops might make the breakout happen a few days earlier.

You will have a tough time getting past July 1944 if you use the auto-planning for anything but night bombing and recon. Once you are nearing the Westwall you can pick an industry and bomb away with auto-planning.

[simovitch]

One Attacker tip that is easy to miss is to List Targets after selecting Bombing Missions and sort the selected industry by capacity. You then set your primary target by clicking "target" to the right of the list. This makes it easy to pick the big pointers without mousing over the entire continent.

[JeffroK]

I assume you mean the 1943 campaign, the 1944 campaign has just started in May 44.

My game has just reached May44 and while I don't think I've done brilliantly I think I have enough points to survive 2-3 months of Overlord requirements.

I use BC to hit cities and Terror is at 14, 205 Group with Liberator VI hit Vienna and similar areas to top up the fires.

8AF is a conundrum, it seems to be harder to keep up morale, so I now try to run at least 3 raids per bombing day, I've started to hit targets close to Berlin, Schwenifurt has been battered and I pick on the bigger targets.
15AF goes to Ploesti or the Vienna area, plus the targets around Turin.

I never send a raid without heavy escort,I find a mix of Close, High 2000+ and High 4-5000+ seems to work, I am just receiving the P51D but not enough to fill more than 2 groups.

I think Industry points are 8 or 9.

AS is at 3, sometimes I get it to 4 during the day but it falls to 3 overnight.

My big plan is to kill Luftwaffe fighters, making it easier to penetrate deeply, the Overlord period is a well earned rest for the Experten but I have a cunning plan.

11 Group Typhoons can carry a load to the Ruhr, set them as a lead and you can access other Typhoons and Mosquito's so I plan to keep the raids ticking over, I'm wondering if I can do similar out of Italy once Diadem gets the front line advanced, I'll have to see what happens.

[ledavej]

Dear Sinovitch and Jeffrok

Thanks for these speedy and valuable input - I definitely was lazy in overusing the autoplanning function - was too focused on air superiority score - and also now saw that the escort component has been too weak to prohibit a slaughter of MB/HB , especially in the 15AF area of operations.

Will start campaign anew - and hope to pass the dreaded June /July!

atb /Poul