Raid Planning Question

[Rekm41]

What does this do?

[Richard III]

Get your bombers killed [&:] , because that green line is as far as the Escorts you picked can reach.
 
FWIW; I might Recce the German AB`s before I go up to Northern Italy/France in 1943 with just 32 P-38`s as escorts. But that`s just me, since I regard them as real men in real planes.[8D]

[Golden Bear]

Hey Rek, Richard has it right. That green line shows how far a given escort mission covers. The Green box is where it joins - you can change that by altering Delay or by Right clicking and dragging - and the Yellow box shows where it turns around and comes home.

At the start of the '43 campaign you need sort of to mark time in the Med. Hit things that are REALLY CLOSE in the tip of Italy. Don't sacrifice your poor bomber pilots, you'll want them with their experience later. "43 is a hard campaign to start because you really cannot do much.

If you are beginning and want a nice long campaign, can I recommend the '44? (not the jet one, not yet[:)]) You get lots of units, you can fly from Italy and you have a lot of chances to experiment. Nothing wrong with trying '43 it just is sort of frustrating until you can fly from Italy and get a couple P51s to throw around.

Carl

[Rekm41]

One more question



poor grammar. I meant what does this do?? [:)]

[Baron von Beer]

When planning your bombing raid, will filter the available bombers list to only display fighter/fighter bomber units.

[Hexagon]

Ummm i have a litte question i read the manual and i understand that green square is the point where scorts join to the raid, green line is the scorts mission, yellow square is the return point for fighters... but in some scorts mission i only see the yellow square, it means that the scort unit can scort the raid???

[Dixie]

ORIGINAL: Hexagon

Ummm i have a litte question i read the manual and i understand that green square is the point where scorts join to the raid, green line is the scorts mission, yellow square is the return point for fighters... but in some scorts mission i only see the yellow square, it means that the scort unit can scort the raid???

Unless there's a green square and a length of green flight path it means the fighters can only cover that single point of the route. It's normally with short range fighters set to a time delay.

[Hexagon]

Ok, thanks, i understand it now 

[Rekm41]

So delays mean that the escorts can cover the bombers for a longer period of time correct?

[Golden Bear]

Actually, for a given escort it means the opposite. It will take off 10 minutes later or whatever but will have burned thatt extra fuel - but it will be over the bombers deeper into their raid. Which is probably what you meant!

Carl

[Richard III]

Carl, that`s a question I have for you. Does that delay work in the Game ?

I`ve tried it with full Sqds. to cover the withdrawl of the Bombers and I never see the fighters box follow up the main Bomb mission box at all even with a 20min. delay. Maybe I misunderstand the the use ?

ORIGINAL: Golden Bear

Actually, for a given escort it means the opposite. It will take off 10 minutes later or whatever but will have burned thatt extra fuel - but it will be over the bombers deeper into their raid. Which is probably what you meant!

Carl

[Golden Bear]

Hey Richard, not sure of your problem from the desciption but will give it a try - and forgive me if I cover ground you already are familiar with!

Plotting escorts, a lot of time I decide close or high, set the altitude (if high) and set the delay to 10. Then I can grab the green box with a left click and slide it around. If I want it to cover the RETURN leg, I've got to make cetain that I get it over to the Red leg of the mission. Sometimes (usually) I intentionally make certain that the bombers' returen leg (red squares) are rather separate from the white lines and boxes.

Then, drag the interceptor box over to the red leg. Does this help? If not, give my/us a little more detail.


Carl

... just reread your post... are you NOT seeing your fighters coming up to your bombers and covering them? ... I mean, like while watching the turn?

[zoul310]

What might help is to separate the inbound and outbound paths. This way you can really see the green and red ranges.

[Kriegsspieler]

ORIGINAL: Richard III

Carl, that`s a question I have for you. Does that delay work in the Game ?

I`ve tried it with full Sqds. to cover the withdrawl of the Bombers and I never see the fighters box follow up the main Bomb mission box at all even with a 20min. delay. Maybe I misunderstand the the use ?

My experience is that the delay has to be set for a longer time than you are inclined at first to believe. Say you have some Spits trailing after some B-17s. The Spits are so much faster than the bombers that even with a 20-minute delay they just chase after the B-17s, which are still lumbering toward the target, or perhaps just turning away after their bomb run, but still too far away to be inside the Spits' effective escort radius. So the fighters just go as far as they can, the fuel gauge hits "E", and they head home w/o doing anything. That's essentially what happens when you detail a fighter group to provide escort to a raid, and all you see is that little yellow box. Increase the delay time, and eventually you'll see a green line showing where the escorts start picking up the bombers on the homeward leg.

[Richard III]

Yes, that`s the issue.

I set 2 Sqds. of high escort to the mission at 20 delay and I never see them following the main strike at any delay, there always inside the strke package. Perhaps I misunderstand how "delay" works ??? I want them to pass through the returning bombers and hopefully cover the stragglers.

Thanks !

ORIGINAL: Golden Bear

Hey Richard, not sure of your problem from the desciption but will give it a try - and forgive me if I cover ground you already are familiar with!

Plotting escorts, a lot of time I decide close or high, set the altitude (if high) and set the delay to 10. Then I can grab the green box with a left click and slide it around. If I want it to cover the RETURN leg, I've got to make cetain that I get it over to the Red leg of the mission. Sometimes (usually) I intentionally make certain that the bombers' returen leg (red squares) are rather separate from the white lines and boxes.

Then, drag the interceptor box over to the red leg. Does this help? If not, give my/us a little more detail.


Carl

... just reread your post... are you NOT seeing your fighters coming up to your bombers and covering them? ... I mean, like while watching the turn?

[Richard III]

Thanks K, didn`t see your reply when I posted to Carl above.

[Golden Bear]

Richard, they'll never pass through the bombers. THey'll go to the ones they are assigned to escort and turn around with them.

It might be possible that you have them delayed until they are out past their range if you only see a single square on the mission line when you plot them. When you see that you can right click and drag it closer to the start point to see if you can get a length of green line.

Basically, the escort will fly quickly to the green box of the escort line, where it should join the bombers. If it encounters enemies on the way it may bounce or attack them. Once there it is supposed to accompany the bombers for the length of the green line and then scoot home. However, they may leave early - possibly because they have been engaged - or if they have been damaged. They will still attack on the way home if they fly into or over the opponent.

Usually the escorts fly up the mission line to the bombers but sometimes it seems that they will cut the corner and beeline to them. When they head for home they ignor the mission line and just run straight to it.


Carl

[Nicholas Bell]

Some of the 8th FC narratives located at this link have actual maps depicting how the escorts were staggered.  The game does a good job of reflecting how it was done - and probably a lot easier for us to figure out than the actual  mission planners [:)]

http://www.lesbutler.ip3.co.uk/tony/tonywood.htm

Lot of other interesting stuff here too!