Help with Interdiction

[Chuske]

AD is air directive

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: zakblood

ORIGINAL: Helpless

Interdiction numbers can be quite random, especially on the "easy" terrain hexes in good weather.

Some hints:

- Bump doctrine mission percentage for the ground attacks or set required AC to make it more numerous.
- Assign air groups to AD (use FB/TacB) to avoid LB to be auto assigned.
- Recon hexes prior interdiction. Ex. you can run recon on day 1-7 and start massive interdiction on day 2-3.
- Narrow AD area.

FB = fighter bombers
TacB = tactical bombers
AD = Air Defence
AC = aircraft
LB = light bombers

... and LB is level bomber

In the context of WiTW it does help to mentally sub-divide this group into 4 engined bombers (B-17s/Lancasters) and 2 engined bombers. For the most part only use the 4 engined bombers on something that can't move, so they are great if you want to wreck a rail yard but far less use if you want to interdict rail movement.

edit: point here is to use your air commands to sort out your aircraft if you can. But review the automatic assignment of aircraft to a particular directive. You can use level bombers to directly hit the front line but its best to put them into a difference air directive to your fighter bombers (at least in France in 1944). That way you can pick the height etc that gives the best impact for the lowest losses to flak.

In terms of flak, remember that damaged planes wreck squadron morale. So you'll find yourself having to rest squadrons that maybe only took a few losses if damage is too much. The key with the allies is that over the summer of 1944 you get the highest rate of effective air missions you can.

[zakblood]

no idea how i guessed them 2 wrong tbh either[X(][:D][;)]

as i looked in the book as well[&o]

[Chuske]

Sometimes the acronyms have several meanings for these big wargames! AD being air defence is prob also correct but in this context its air directive

Certainly the case in WITP:AE, where HI can mean heavy industry, Home Islands and Hawaiian Islands!

[zakblood]

no you are right and i'm wrong, been in bed most of the day, not been feeling great, so only half read was i was doing as normal, so it's good to be corrected thanks, it's good i'm keeping my average at 50/50 still regarding answers [:D][;)]

i'll try and do better, but quite often i get some wrong[X(]

[Hofstadter]

Oh my lord theres such a ridiculous amount of things to consider when planning these air directives. Its like a whole new game. So far all I know in regards to them is what each one does and how to plot it. Working through all the tech spechs like the engines and loadouts is so intense.

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: Hofstadter

Oh my lord theres such a ridiculous amount of things to consider when planning these air directives. Its like a whole new game. So far all I know in regards to them is what each one does and how to plot it. Working through all the tech spechs like the engines and loadouts is so intense.

to some extent you can get away with some basic rules of thumb.

If a plane carries rockets and you want to do ground attack/support or interdiction, that is the weapon system of choice. Run an airphase at level 3 or 4 (you can always swap to a quicker mode once you are bored) and see how much more disrupt/kills you get from rocket armed FBs.

otherwise for interdiction, lots of smaller bombs are a better payload than a few heavy bombs. So those Lancaster specials with their single huge bomb are not going to generate any useful interdiction score. But are great if you want to blow up a railway station. So if you are using B-24s/Wellingtons/Halifaxes for interdiction, make sure you pick the bomb load with the highest number of individual bombs for this sort of mission.

Increasingly the AI routine is getting better at matching payload to mission which means less fiddling but its one of those things that makes a difference between 'good enough' and 'as good as it gets' (the importance of this rather depends on if you are playing PBEM or against the AI). It does become a little bit intuitive after a while.

[Hofstadter]

Ok. Tell me if this is wrong

For interdiction, its basically a matter of recon on alternate days to the bombing, using smaller weapons, and saturating the area with aircraft. The best for this task is standsars fighter bombers. If i dont recon and just full on load the area, i raise the fatigue and chances are ill run out of fighter bombers in fatigue for that mission. At this point i could draw out more from the national reserve, or use level bombers and swap the loadouts, but that isnt exactly ideal

[Seminole]

Most of the level bombers aren't going to generate much in interdiction so as Axis commander I'm happy to see B-17s used for interdiction instead of anything else.
Maybe there are some altitudes and other factors to make them more effective, but I haven't experienced it, and as Axis commander I've concentrated my LBs on naval interdiction and occasional airfield raids.
TACB and FB are what drive the numbers. I prefer small, overlapping air directives concentrating the interdiction where I need it over huge boxes with huge aircraft group assignments. I run recon missions daily, with
With respect to helping achieve concentration, consider whether or not you need to be running the interdiction over friendly hexes too.

[Seminole]

Most of the level bombers aren't going to generate much in interdiction so as Axis commander I'm happy to see B-17s used for interdiction instead of anything else.
Maybe there are some altitudes and other factors to make them more effective, but I haven't experienced it, and as Axis commander I've concentrated my LBs on naval interdiction and occasional airfield raids.
TACB and FB are what drive the numbers. I prefer small, overlapping air directives concentrating the interdiction where I need it over huge boxes with huge aircraft group assignments. I run recon missions daily, with
With respect to helping achieve concentration, consider whether or not you need to be running the interdiction over friendly hexes too.

[Helpless]

Oh my lord theres such a ridiculous amount of things to consider when planning these air directives.

It really depends on the games you play. Playing with strong human opponent might need some efforts to maximize the output. On other hand in my last Torch game vs AI I had to change very basic things only - center hex, radius, types of target. That's it.

Don't want to miss opportunity to say that Torch is amazing scenario. [&o]

[bwheatley]

Torch has been a lot of fun so far, it's given me time to help re-master my air planning skill.