HQ's my favorite air raid target.

[jomni]

I would just like to share with you my tactic when playing Soviet against German AI.
Before ending my turn, I do ground attacks on enemy units.
My unit of choice is HQ, this is because if I'm lucky I can kill those German generals.
I am already in end June 1942 and I think I killed 3 Generals by doing this.

Any thoughts regarding this?

[mmarquo]

I use this in PBEM games - what is a more logical target than an HQ fully loaded with SUs? The results are at times quite devastating.
 
Marquo

[jomni]

Ah but if the PBEM opponent realizes the pattern, then he will stock up on AA units.

[mmarquo]

Good...then there are less to parry mvt interdiction and ground attacks... [:)]
 
And I really do not care if I take some losses from flak if I can knock out 10 - 15 artillery pieces in an SU attached to the HQ; acceptable losses.
 
Marquo

[Josh]

Hey why didn't I think of that? It's an old and proven tactic also used in Advanced Tactics. Bomb the HQ's and vulnerable units, ofcourse you can then use it against your opponent, luring him into bombing that unit and deploying massive Flak there. I don't know how effective that is in WitE though, but in AT you could down 30% of the bombergroup with almost no losses on your side.

[Mynok]

I would counter by changing my air doctrine to emphasize interceptions. Flak doesn't seem overly useful, but it is admittedly a bit difficult (as far as I can tell) to know what flak destroys vs enemy air.

[mmarquo]

And I would counter by increasing my escorts...[:)]

[randallw]

I've had two situations where I bombed a hex with an HQ and a lot of leaders died, like a line of men cut in the throat by a running man with a knife. [:D]

[JocMeister]

Flak seems useless in its current state. I was attacked by 6 Soviet bombers and despite being defended by over 600 AA guns none where shot down. This I am told is beeing tweaked in the next patch.

The best way to kill enemy aircraft is to set "interdiction traps". Normal air intercepts during normal groundsupport doesn´t kill many aircraft despite almost a 1000 A/C in the air. But during interdiction attacks they die in droves! I killed 58 bombers in the same interdiction.

[mmarquo]

Randall,
 
I am curious about your experience. Did the losses list the leader? How did you know a leader was klled? Since an HQ only has one leader how did you kill more than one leader? Didthe first one get replaced and then the next one was also killed ? Ho[:)]w did this happen?
 
Thanks,
 
Marquo [:)]

[randallw]

Yes, that's how it happened; an Axis leader died ( message on screen ), a replacement would arrive, immediately dies, replacement #2 arrives, dies, and on and on, a string of uninterrupted messages.

[mmarquo]

Good; Hqs = VVS training ground.

[Mynok]

ORIGINAL: randallw

Yes, that's how it happened; an Axis leader died ( message on screen ), a replacement would arrive, immediately dies, replacement #2 arrives, dies, and on and on, a string of uninterrupted messages.

[X(] How many times did that happen!?!?! That could devastate the Axis if humans can do it.

[randallw]

Just twice so far; I go after frontline combat units so I haven't attacked HQs much.  I suppose this could happen to Soviet HQs and leaders too.

[jomni]

I killed two leaders (the original and it's replacement) in a strike on a single HQ. 
But since turns are one week long, a strike is not a single strike but spread out across the week so it can happen that the replacement got hit as well.
But it should not happen too often.

[randallw]

In my two situations at least 8 German leaders were killed in the first one, and about 6 or 7 Rumanians in the second.