Howdy!

[Misconduct]

I am taking a break from a PBEM AE game right now, my opponents moving and I figured I have a week or more to spare to learn something, and I decided to shell out for Eagle Day.

So far its Interesting, I can see I have my work cut out on the learning process, hopefully nothing as complex as AE is.

[ravincravin]

Welcome.

I'm in the same boat as you, also taking a break from WitPAE. I have always wanted the original 8 0'Clock High but never found a copy at the local stores when it first came out. So I baught GG EDtBtR just this last holiday sale.

I've been muddling through the tutorial and some easier senarios. The interface is not as hard as WitPAE. I would say I'm about 20% into the learning curve and looking forward getting into the other 80%.

Maybe some of the forum oldsters could give the n00bies some pointers and advice.

[Dobey455]

Hi Guys,

The most important thing to get to grips with, IMHO is the germany industry. If you play the axis, then obviously you'll need to work out how to produce what you want....but as the allies it is just as important to understant how each industry relates the the overall Germany economy. For example bombing steel mills will also reduce the output from U-Boat factories. Bombing chemical factories should impact rubber and, to a lesser extent, synthetic fuel etc, etc.
There is a good thread on this in the War room by "Kaybayray" who has made some great flow charts of germany industries and their inter-relations.

The game can basically be as in-depth or simple as you like. You can play by just aiming to assemble airial "Death-stars" and bulldoze the enemy, which will probably work ok against the AI. Or you can use all sorts of tactics (layered escorts, starburst or criss-cross raids etc.) and follow a long term plan (Destroying the luftwaffe's fuel supplies for example.)

Edit - Basically things that worked in RL tend to work here. IF you have in-depth knowledge or interest in air warfare that would definately be an advantage.

[Misconduct]

Great, yeah I just did a few one day turns, seems I play alright as the Luftwaffe over BoB but fail miserably as the RAF. Going to try a few Italian campaigns now and get some learning going.

[ravincravin]

OOPS-I meant "12 O'Clock High". Brain Fart on my part.

Thanks for the info Dobey. Checking out the threads now.

[Misconduct]

I do have a couple of questions, it seems when I have a raid of for example 64 B-17F's and put high escorts, 5,000 ft above the bombers, it seems the escorts never engage the enemy. I pretty much always get chewed to hell, I have been trying to do a fighter sweep at the same time of a raid and so far haven't gotten the timing down (Like later in the war, fighters would sweep ahead of the bombers to nearby waiting german fighters forming over a field).

And one more thing, when I am fighter sweeping, how can I have them loiter instead of ground attack? Made a huge mistake when two dozen P-38s decided to attack a Flak Battery when I asked them to fighter sweep.

[Dobey455]

Close escort will put themselves between the bombers and the enemy but will themselves be vulnerable to being bounced. Also at start the US fighter swuadrons will be hugely ineffictive until the start to gain experience.

Also there is an altitude difference at which fighters can immediately engage. From memory if your are more than 2,000 ft above or below the enemy your fighters need to take time to re-position before they can attack. So you might want to drop your high escorts to 3 or 4 thousand above the bombers till they get some missions under their belt.

It is a bit different to WITP AE where aircraft can just go ahead and "bounce" enemy 25,000 ft below them.

With fighter sweeps, keeps the waypoints and patrol points away from any ground target. Unless you want them to strafe. I personally believe that there is a positive effect from strafing, "under the hood", but there are times you don't want a sweep to strafe.

[Misconduct]

ORIGINAL: Dobey

Close escort will put themselves between the bombers and the enemy but will themselves be vulnerable to being bounced. Also at start the US fighter swuadrons will be hugely ineffictive until the start to gain experience.

Also there is an altitude difference at which fighters can immediately engage. From memory if your are more than 2,000 ft above or below the enemy your fighters need to take time to re-position before they can attack. So you might want to drop your high escorts to 3 or 4 thousand above the bombers till they get some missions under their belt.

It is a bit different to WITP AE where aircraft can just go ahead and "bounce" enemy 25,000 ft below them.

With fighter sweeps, keeps the waypoints and patrol points away from any ground target. Unless you want them to strafe. I personally believe that there is a positive effect from strafing, "under the hood", but there are times you don't want a sweep to strafe.

Yeah I have some bad habits formed from AE, naturally running fighter sweeps at 30k doesn't work that well, I don't mind the fighters strafing the problem is I am playing avalanche and I don't want to run the risk of losing to many fighters early on when I can use them later on for the job.