Does Anyone Play the BoB?

[geozero]

Seems all the posts (or most) are about Bombing The Reich, but what about the Battle of Britain? Anyone play that?

[AFIntel]

Yes, I am in the middle of the 1940 campaign against the RAF AI. And my brother and I will soon start the 1940 campaign against each other.

[pejsek]

Yes, I have won the 1940 Campaign twice as the Luftwaffe and will start a 1941 Campaign with the new OOB soon.

[wernerpruckner]

I like BoB [8D]

[joey]

I play BOB more that BTR. The game are so much shorter..

[simovitch]

I cut my teeth on this game playing BoB, finally winning the 1940 campaign as Germans before moving on to BtR which I just won the Oil Campaign II as Allies. BoB is a great game, and the BoB/BtR system provides the solitaire gamer one of the best experiences available IMO.

I also like the fact that a whole new experience awaits when I finally take on the defense of Britain and the Reich.

[sprior]

I'm playing a PBEM BoB with Dixie.

[oldspec4]

ORIGINAL: joey

I play BOB more that BTR. The game are so much shorter..

+1

[geozero]

So the BoB OOB is now much more stable...? After reading some additional posts I had the reservation of d/l the game. Some comments seemed to indicate that there where oob and/or game issues that still needed tweaking, which is concerning given tha fact the game was worked on for so long and been released a while. The LW should have a chance at winning BoB which seems possible given some posts here... still, wondering about the overall game experience.

[Derfel]

Wining as the German in BoB is HARDer than winning as the Allied in BtR for a simple reason: pilots.
In BoB almost all squadrons start oversized in personnel and they will get about 10 pilots per turn, as will the Germans.
In BtR almost all Gruppen start understrength and you will get about 50 pilots per turn, while the Allied will get about 100.

So even IF you are able to kill 1:1, then you will have a hard time as a German player, no matter what game you play.

So the German aim in BoB should really be to reduce AS and almost nothing else, except the production capacity as your puny bombers do NOT kill or damage Spits or Canes after the latest patch.
So hit the Airfields to destroy airplanes and hopefully kill the pilots waiting in their seats. Strive to eliminate their eFAC so the British only will get the free 4 Hurricanes and the 1 Night Fighter.
Wear the British down with your Ju 86 as they will scramble the pilots, thereby fatiguing them as they sit in their cockpits and look up on a speck in the sky they can never hope to catch. If you are really devious, then time a Ju 86 recon with a low flying raid as that will have the pilots in their cockpits and you will then not only destroy an airplane but also, hopefully take out a pilot.

As the British in BoB you should withdraw from the primary airfields and find long range raids and turn back their escorting fighters so you can massacre the bombers.
[:-]Never EVER go mano et mano with the Luftwaffe fighters, just use Spits to turn them back and let them go.
Primary aim is to kill bombers and thereby reduce their morale.
If a German air raid seem to aim for one of your bases, take off and do a Brave Sir Robin. (RUN AWAY!) [;)]

Hope you can use my view.

[geozero]

My very short game... I only assigned one LW mission (simply because I don't understand the interface - not as intuitive as I would have expected*) and I won by shooting down 3 aircraft while only losing one. Whoopie. I guess a win is a win. Just would have wanted a bit more really.

* By intuitive I mean you should not have to read pages and pages of rule books to learn some simple mechanics of assigning orders, etc. In most wargames today (most games period) the intuitiveness of the interface is paramount and in many cases very similar thus lowering learning curves and making games that much more absorbing. ONe of my biggest gripes when looking at wargames is the lack of attention to intuitive interface design. Some very good examples exist out there such as TOAW, any Grigsby game, etc. I mean Grigsby gets it. Make a simple and intuitive interface design and some chrome while behind the scenes you can have a robust game engine.

Anyway that's my 2 cents.

Love the game, don't get me wrong. Guess I'll have to read, read, read... instead of play, play, play.

[Nicholas Bell]

as your puny bombers do NOT kill or damage Spits or Canes after the latest patch.

This has been addressed to some extent in the new OOB. Now the numbers are not huge, but the bombers will hit back. Most hits result in damage, but some damaged planes will crash.

I recommend the 1941 scenarios for a real challenge for both sides.

[geozero]

The LW in 1940 was much more effective in RL. Now the 1-day game I play has a lot of cloud cover. Perhaps that's an issue? Seems the LW can barely find a target.

[joey]

I find BOB, as either side, interesting. The Germans were handcuffed by a lack of true intellengence and leadership. And the Britts were handcuffed by constant losses and a lose of morale. Repeatative losses will do that. I think both of these two aspects as represented in the game. It is tough for either side to win. I wonder how the real BOB would have ended had these handcuffs been removed.....

[geozero]

ORIGINAL: joey

I find BOB, as either side, interesting. The Germans were handcuffed by a lack of true intellengence and leadership. And the Britts were handcuffed by constant losses and a lose of morale. Repeatative losses will do that. I think both of these two aspects as represented in the game. It is tough for either side to win. I wonder how the real BOB would have ended had these handcuffs been removed.....

I would disagee... The LW in 1940 was perhaps at its finest. Which is why Churchill claimed "It was their finest hour". It simply was. Intel was not as limited as one would think. There was adequate recon for the era and leadership (while questionable at upper levels) was still very good at squadron/Gruppen levels. As for the Brits, everything I've ever read points that their morale was at an all time high. Okay stress was high too, but the British morale and will to fight was far from crumbling. They also had an advantage that they could parachute from a damaged aircraft and fly again that afternoon in another plane.

I'd say that perhaps in May-September 1940 the British and German air forces were at their finest in terms of really fighting it out. I don't really see that being captured here. Even a one-day turn should have greater outcome than 1-2 aircraft shot down on either side and absolutley not a single German bomb causing any damage.

I will have to play for a longer period. These are my first impressions.

[Hard Sarge]

Geozero

are you playing with the latest patch ? (that cut down the damage done in the BoBs did what it was suppost to on the BTR side, but much more to the BoB side)

did you install the latest OOB, that fixes the changes from the patch

got to disagree with some of your statements

one that was odd, from before the war, one of the Spitfire plants, had Supermarine written across the roof of the factory, and it was on the coast, and the LW flew over it almost every day, and still didn't know where the Spits were being built at (they did end up bombing it)

intell, really was bad during this time, most of the info came from road maps, from before the war

and yes, weather was a issue, Alter Tag was totally screwed up, missions going out with out fighters, fighters returning to base

really, if you get into the battle, so many things that happened, just don't make sense