Advice

[Hard Sarge]

Hmmm, so far, so good

I was nasty way back when, guess I have mellowed out some over the years

[Hard Sarge]

ahh, Noon, getting some miss luck, but doing well, Hit Bari, but didn't hit it HARD enough, and paid the price when the Its were able to get up and chase one of my sweeps on the way home

getting lots of damaged, (SAS bug is going to clean up)

[Hard Sarge]

ahh, running into some bad luck, one of my key strikes ran into Gruppen of planes trying to attack something, and I am getting tons of damaged planes instead of kills, but

still all in all, a good day

of course got to wait out the night now

[Hard Sarge]

well, not too shabby, I didn't reach my target losses, but I see where luck kicked in, some good, some bad, but I am in the range of doing what I said it could

when I did this save, the idea was to show the Allies could get 100 kills on the first turn, Harley never believed the numbers I said I was getting during my turns, 100 kills in a day, was a goal of many way back when

and in fact, I didn't really go over board on the pure intruder missions, most are extended path runs

[kaybayray]

Sarge,
Could you talk to me about the missions you built to accomplish this? I am just starting out with this game and I would appreciate some advice from you guys on building good missions for the Allied side.

I have been reading over this board and gathering some good strats and tactics from you all. I think I have a fairly good idea of the overall strats for success but I am not sure how to put a good mission together. [8D]

Thanks for any advice you all are willing to share. [8D]


Later,
KayBay

[Charest]

The only thing with this example HARD, is that on the first day of the game, I would yell: exploit!!! There is no way the luftwaffe player could do anything against an all out assault from the raf and ussaf. And an experienced allied player kinda knows where all the "lucrative" airfields are. The luftwaffe needs time to reshuffle its units.

It does not prove wrong your point, but to have such numbers, even a week later in the war, would be pretty amazing and the feat of a really good allied player versus a very poor luftwaffe player.

[Hard Sarge]

Well, first off, the defender moves first, so in this case, the LW has the first turn, plus I also took out 101 planes in the air

and I think you are missing part of the idea, it was trying to catch the LW in the air, not on the ground, if the timing is just off, they are already down or already up, plus a number of the bomb raids were to AFs, to force the LW to intercept, or get there fields pounded

in the new version of the game, I have been able to add in a number of new AFs, to give both sides better placement of units

to be honest, if there are any complaints, it should be that alot of the losses are coming from the MED, the It losses are going to be gone anyway, and LW losses in the MED are not importent

but again, the idea back then, was to show that the Allies can fight from day one, which going against your statement, that is the idea, because most people do not believe the Allies can force the issue from the start of the game

[Hard Sarge]

KBR
well, one hassle is, what is a good mission ? you can reach the target with no losses, knock down plenty of planes that try to hit you, and then miss the target, or you can get hammered on the way in and on the way out, and blew the target apart

which in those cases, the idea is, what is the target, is it something that "has" to be taken out, no matter what ? or something that is designed with the idea of pulling targets to your fighters

I do tend to set up raids, with the idea that I want the enemy to attack, that is something like what a outrigger raid is designed for, a main raid, with a raid following it about 3 to 5 minutes behind (and if you have numbers another one behind that) then with at least two raids on the flanks (15-30 miles away, alittle behind) with the excourts flying every few minutes, so there is a stream of them all the way to the target

the idea here is, attackers that come in from the front, got to fight, the ones coming in from the sides, run into other units, planes trying to get away, also run into fighters, you want to burn up there gas, and make them break before they can do major damage, and the work them over

great when it works, a pain in the butt when it don't

[Hard Sarge]

KBR

this was a Decoy and bait raid, with a cross over

the idea here is a number small raids to Radar sites, and sneak some fast bombers to some Airfields

the time is winter, so the LW is slow in taking off, so the early morning raids got a good chance to get in and get out, but still draw in fighters

what is different in this one, is the 2nd tac and IXth take off first, but they are the ones on the outside, and doing the crossing over top of the main raid from the VIIIth

which a couple of small outrigger raids would of helped out some here also

this one works, somewhat, as the LW goes after the fast raids, and follows them into the main raid, which they are tired and running low on gas by the time they catch up

when I ran it this time it was around 67 LW for 21 Allied, nothing great, but eoungh to keep the pressure on

a human will tend to not react to the radar attacks, and will also tend to hang back, to get a better feel for what is going on, so vs a human, you got to keep changing plans

[kaybayray]

Sarge,
Great stuff....[8D]

Could you tell me what the various types of raids were comprised of? What kind of aircraft, how many, alt flown, type of escorts (Close or Top Cover), etc... to what kind of target?

I think I see what you are showing me. Just need some details. I will experiment with these ideas this weekend and see if I can make some leaps. [8D]

Thank you very much for taking time to enlighten a fellow fan of these games. [8D]

Later,
KayBay

[Hard Sarge]

just fast, I leaving for work in a few

the radar attacks would of been Tiffies, the AF raids were A-20s, the cross over raids would be B-25 and B-26s, the main raid would of been B-17s

I tend to stick with High Escourt, and depending on numbers, I like to stack them up a little, say a FG at 4000, and another at 6000 or 7000, then depends on how many you have to work with

for 2nd Tac and IXth, what ever is with in range to fly, but since the idea is getting kills, Spit IXs or better, and P47s, P38s for IXth

the trick is timing

for meds, I like to keep that at 15 or so for RRs or Factories, a little lower for AFs

[Charest]

I was simply telling that I agreed with most of your point but that you had to put the numbers you shown in perspective, since they seem to not really be representative of the cold hard truth of the game: telling that the Allied can indeed take the luftwaffe right on, but with less extent that you are showing in your example.

[kaybayray]

Sarge,
I took what you showed me and ran some on the short Big Week campaign this weekend. Wow, what a difference. [8D]

I was loosing AC to the LW by 2:1 before running with the suggestions you gave me and others I found here. During the missions I ran this weekend I turned that around. The first run put together I matched kills with losses. The second run I went to kills = 2/3 of losses. Then I got to kills = 2X losses. Major improvements for me. [8D] Thank You ..

Keep in mind I dont have a manual so I am still behind the game in figuring how to actually do things. I found how to adjust just where on the bomber mission I can adjust the escorts to. Not sure if I am doing it properly. I did find that it seems the escorts dont seem to intercept and engage enemy AC when the bombers are at or near the target. I kept seeing enemy AC attack my bombers with no escort intervention. I must be either setting something wrong or not at all.

I started the long 1943 campaign, man its tough, I have no AC to work with and many were at bases way far away. Figured out how to move units so I should have more assests to work with. I figured how to setup most of the different types of mission however the Night Intruder missions seem to escape me. Not sure just what to do with these.

A few other things that are escaping me, weather, adjusting AC production, moving units to other commands to name a few. Is there some way to see what the weather forcast is for the next day? Wonder how I can effect production of new models of AC. I am playing the Allied side so maybe you cant do that. Although I did find a window on a screen of a type of AC asking if I wanted to replace that with another type of AC. Not sure what to do with that atm. Yeah a manual would help a lot. Dont seem to be any out there from a reputable vendor atm.

Is there any way to specifically target flak at Airfields? I think I found a way to target a flak unit that is at a target area. Am going to work on that tonight.

Anyway, thanks for all your great advice and suggestions. They are improving my game and reducing my frustration levels significantly. [8D]

Any information on how to perform some of these tasks and others I may not be aware of would be greatly appreciated. I have been searching for a manual but the few I have found were on dated pages and are dead ends. I will be purchasing the Matrix version when it comes out. I know you guys are working out bugs and adding some great new features.

Thanks again,

KayBay

[wernerpruckner]

escorts:
you have two different kind of escorts - close and high escort
 
if you place your escorts too high they will not react all the time ( or even never ), therefor most of us use layered escorts ( I usually use no close escorts - except for F/B missions, because than they also bomb the target )
usual raid - lets say 5 Groups of B-17 plus one pathfinder section
and you have 4 Groups of Thuds and one Spitfire unit for escorts
 
First escorts will meet the bombers close to the enemy coast with 4000 feet above the bombers, next escort will arrive 15 minutes later with 3000, Spitfires will come in 5 minutes after that with 8 to 10k , 10 minutes later the next Thud unit at 6000 and on the way back to the coast the last Group at 4000.
 
But this also depends on the enemy - the German player can change the fighter doctrines:
- bounce
- direct
 
the doctrines are not only against bombers but also against fighters
=>
you can give an A/C type not only their primary target ( fighter  or bomber ) but also the way they attack
 
for bounce the German A/C will use the most successful path for an attack - but this is also often a dangerous one, because the escorts have time to move in. ( bounce means different things for different A/C - I may mean from behind above, from behind below, from the front, etc....)
direct is the faster way to attack the enemy, but it may cause not as much harm as bounce ( the German player can do this for every Luftflotte )
 
So if you use high escorts at 6k+ and the German uses direct bombers => the escorts may not even see the interceptors.
But if you will use close escorts only and the German use a mix of bounce fighters and bounce bombers => raid will be dead meat
 
therefor it is good to use layered escorts.
 
Another point: during an air combat the escorts and interceptors spiral down to lower to very low altitudes.

[wernerpruckner]

A/C production:
 
Allied do not have any human production
you get fixed amounts of A/C every turn ( but some A/C will start to come online at a certain date, others will no longer be produced )
 
for 1943:
 
2 Beaufighter VIF
1 Mosquito II
1 Mosquito XIII
0 Fortress RCM
3 Baltimores
1 Mosquito RCM
0 Liberator RCM
1 Wellington RCM
1 Wellington III
2 Wellington X
0 Sterling RCM
4 Sterling III
0 Halifax RCM
2 Halifax I
2 Halifax III
4 Lancaster I
2 Lancaster III
1 Mossie FB
1 Mossie IV
1 Mossie XVI
1 Spitfire IV
1 Spitfire XI
0 Spit FRXIV
1 Mossie R
2 Mustang I
4 Hurricane II
2 Spit Vb
6 Spit IX
0 Spit XIV
3 Typhoon
0 Tempest
3 P-39
6 P-40
9 P-38G
12 P-38J
1 F5-A
0 F-5C
3 P-47C
12 P-47D
1 A-36
6 P-51B
0 P-51D
1 F-6A
1 P-61A
4 A-20B
0 A-20G
4 B-24D
0 B-24J
6 B-26B
0 B-26G
0 A-26B
9 B-17F
9 B-17G
6 B-24D
6 B-24J

[wernerpruckner]

Night Intruder (NI)
 
you have two ways to use them:
as stream
or as single A/C
 
as stream they may look for the German like another bomber stream and the German side may react against it
 
as single A/C the pilot will stay at the target until he is low on fuel => use this close to known night fighter bases at the right times ( or use zillions of NIs to cover certain bases all the night )
 
but be aware of enemy AA

[wernerpruckner]

moving Allied units
to other commands is a NO NO for the stock version - you may end up with zillions of detachments that could not be recombined
this will eat up many A/C and pilots

[wernerpruckner]

weather:
there is no forcast for the next day [:(]
 
two things are important to remember - you need good weather in England for starting a raid, and you may need good weather above the target area.
 
Clouds can be your friend or your enemy.

[wernerpruckner]

Although I did find a window on a screen of a type of AC asking if I wanted to replace that with another type of AC. Not sure what to do with that atm

 
yes,
you can manually change the A/Cs of a unit to certain other A/Cs ( usually fighters stay fighters and bombers stay bombers - there are some preprogrammed changes that you should know about - like forming of the 15th AF )
 
use this feature to give your best units the best possible A/Cs

[wernerpruckner]

Is there any way to specifically target flak at Airfields? I think I found a way to target a flak unit that is at a target area. Am going to work on that tonight.

 
no Wild Wiesels in the game - you will loose many A/Cs in such attacks for no real gain