Why...10k'

[Phanatikk]

Another 'why' question from a newb.

I notice in AARs that no naval strikes under 10k' seems to be a house rule. What is the story behind that?

Also, it's a little irritating that during night surface actions AKs on fire (at just a few thousand yards) are able to break off from surface combat assets. How hard is it to see the big burning ship lighting up the night? Is this just a code thing?

[EUBanana]

ORIGINAL: Phanatik
I notice in AARs that no naval strikes under 10k' seems to be a house rule. What is the story behind that?

In ye olde WITP something like a B17 flying at 6000' was lethal to shipping. JFBs didnt like this, as it pretty much gave the Allies a "Betty" of their own, albeit one useless against anything bigger than a CL.

Skip bombing in AE when it came out (ie bombing at 100') was amazingly lethal until patched, I saw 3 B17s score over a dozen hits against CV Zuikaku for example. That sort of thing happened in WITP as well.

I think it's a carryover from those days.


It doesn't happen any more. In fact I think level bombing against ships has been nerfed too hard if anything, Dutch bombers at 3000' with naval bombing skill at an average of 40, well over 100 sorties, no hits. I don't think the rule is necessary anymore, in fact I would refuse to play as Allies with it in place, to be honest. Level bombing against ships is difficult enough as it is. It might be a training issue, Allied bombers have very poor naval bombing abilities in general nowadays. In any case, it is a fixed issue far as I'm concerned.

[Sharkosaurus rex]

Some players have a house rule to limit 4-engined bombers from falling below 10kft (or maybe 15K) as it is considered gamey to use them at such low altitudes. Historically they very few moving targets during the war at 15K which was roughly their normal operationg alt. And in the game, the 4EB can do some serious damage if flying lower.

I'm not sure why the battles disengage at night other than the normal suspects of ammo, escorts, daybreak, damage to self, leadership, damage to friendly ships in same TF, mission....

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: EUBanana

ORIGINAL: Phanatik
I notice in AARs that no naval strikes under 10k' seems to be a house rule. What is the story behind that?

In ye olde WITP something like a B17 flying at 6000' was lethal to shipping. JFBs didnt like this, as it pretty much gave the Allies a "Betty" of their own, albeit one useless against anything bigger than a CL.

Skip bombing in AE when it came out (ie bombing at 100') was amazingly lethal until patched, I saw 3 B17s score over a dozen hits against CV Zuikaku for example. That sort of thing happened in WITP as well.

I think it's a carryover from those days.


It doesn't happen any more. In fact I think level bombing against ships has been nerfed too hard if anything, Dutch bombers at 3000' with naval bombing skill at an average of 40, well over 100 sorties, no hits. I don't think the rule is necessary anymore, in fact I would refuse to play as Allies with it in place, to be honest. Level bombing against ships is difficult enough as it is. It might be a training issue, Allied bombers have very poor naval bombing abilities in general nowadays. In any case, it is a fixed issue far as I'm concerned.

Actually the majority of us ask that you only limit the 4E's to 10k' or higher. If you want to bring the smaller 2E's down into a flak trap, be my guest. The 4Es have always been the issue. And many of us have a time limit at which point you can start the skip bombing with 4Es, since the Allies did historically do so in the second half of the war.

You are correct in your assessment, though it has less to do with an Allied Betty than it has to do with the fact that the 4Es have far to great of an effect (or at least did). And even though it has been reduced, my opponents and I still tend to keep the house rule in place.

Basically...

4E's < 10k' = bad
2E's < 10k' = ok

[Streptokok]

Newb adidtion to the thread [:D] :
I think it also has something to do with the bombload of 4E, they carry much more bombs and that affects "scoring hits algoritam" so you get much more hits with 4E flying below 10k that you would ever get realisticly...

Newb

[mariandavid]

A very great deal of this has to do with doctrine. Airforce commanders of WW2 were not as flexible in their thinking as AE players - in game terms visualise virtually no training in naval bombing for non-navy heavy or medium bombers. The situation only changes with the designation of some units as 'attack' aircraft - meaning that their bombing runs were at much lower levels. This institutional change led to intensive training and therefore more effective results. The classic examples are the 'skip-bombers' of the Pacific and 2 Group of the RAF - the latter using Blenheims, Ventura and Mosquito against Channel shipping. Therefore I am very happy with the AE approach - were such restrictions not in place very a-historical results would happen as every gamer (including me) would promptly use everything from B-29's to Wirraways as anti-shipping aircraft!