Disproportionate losses for LW

Gary Grigsby’s War in the West 1943-45 is the most ambitious and detailed computer wargame on the Western Front of World War II ever made. Starting with the Summer 1943 invasions of Sicily and Italy and proceeding through the invasions of France and the drive into Germany, War in the West brings you all the Allied campaigns in Western Europe and the capability to re-fight the Western Front according to your plan.

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Metalist
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Disproportionate losses for LW

Post by Metalist »

Hi all.

In some air battles above the Reich, the Luftwaffe just suffers very disproportionate losses, like losing 45 while destroying 0! Or 78 against just 8. Is this normal? Is there anything I can do to improve the situation?

Thanks in advance.
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821Bobo
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Re: Disproportionate losses for LW

Post by 821Bobo »

AFAIK flying day fighters in night against specialized night figters is not good idea
set all day fighters to fly only during day

also British NFs are superior to most of Axis NF models
Denniss
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Re: Disproportionate losses for LW

Post by Denniss »

I was also thinking about day/night issue but top bar say Day 2 and not Night 2.
Is the time of battle mentioned somewhere?
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Metalist
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Re: Disproportionate losses for LW

Post by Metalist »

Sorry, but I did not get what you mean by time of the battle. It is the end of may 1944, but that can be seen from the screenshot. What else can I check?

Some more examples are attached. Low experience seems to be always an issue, but even squadrons with above average experience suffer greatly.
Denniss wrote: Mon Nov 25, 2024 2:53 pm I was also thinking about day/night issue but top bar say Day 2 and not Night 2.
Is the time of battle mentioned somewhere?
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Denniss
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Re: Disproportionate losses for LW

Post by Denniss »

as said above set your day fighters to operated in day-only mode. Operating at night they suffer massive penalties and enemy night fighters will also take a toll on them as seen in your screens.
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loki100
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Re: Disproportionate losses for LW

Post by loki100 »

Metalist wrote: Sun Nov 24, 2024 8:57 pm Hi all.

In some air battles above the Reich, the Luftwaffe just suffers very disproportionate losses, like losing 45 while destroying 0! Or 78 against just 8. Is this normal? Is there anything I can do to improve the situation?

Thanks in advance.
at the core you are flying low experience pilots against high experience pilots, that alone is a recipe for a disaster

so as the axis player you have to manage this with care, start to disband night fighter formations as they become less valuable from mid-44, keep the fighter formations as TPI for replacements, when you scrap a NF formation manually allocate the best pilots to the best fighter units

if you look at the AARs there are a lot of discussions of how to manage the LW into 1944, its all about trying to ensure that you win small even when you are losing the wider strategic battle
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Metalist
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Re: Disproportionate losses for LW

Post by Metalist »

Denniss wrote: Wed Nov 27, 2024 1:11 am as said above set your day fighters to operated in day-only mode. Operating at night they suffer massive penalties and enemy night fighters will also take a toll on them as seen in your screens.
But these huge losses are happening at days and not at nights, as the screenshot indicates.
loki100 wrote: Wed Nov 27, 2024 7:01 am
Thanks for the tips.
Denniss
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Re: Disproportionate losses for LW

Post by Denniss »

It may be some day patrols blended over into the night and tried to confront british night bombers. Composition of enemy bombers is typical for a night attack + you also had some nightfighters on your side (Ju 88G-1)
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Metalist
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Re: Disproportionate losses for LW

Post by Metalist »

I make night fighters fly both day & night, that may explain their participation but do not know anything about patrols blending day and night.
Denniss
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Re: Disproportionate losses for LW

Post by Denniss »

JHust make day fighter day-only and night fighters night-only. Operating in opposing day times is bad. You don't wanna loose night specialist in day intercepts and standard pilots are not trained/equipped to navigate at night so suffering high ops losses
matchwood
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Re: Disproportionate losses for LW

Post by matchwood »

There does seem to be something baked in for P47-D and P51-D aircraft to cause disproportionate losses against the LW. I tried setting up a test scenario using similar experience and morale with the TA152 vs both. Sometimes results came out with a slight edge for the TA152, other times the TA152 got slaughtered. For some reason, automatic ground support missions seem to cause huge losses for the LW, even when in better planes (eg TA152) and with exp + morale parity.

There are a few ways I found to reduce losses:
1) Have all your squadrons assigned to a mission. Squadrons assigned to missions don't auto reinforce ground support (unless that's what the mission is).
2) Fly air super missions at high alt as this reduces the chance of an interception at a height disadvantage where your squadrons get slaughtered.

My 5c
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