Soviet Strategic Planning

[larryfulkerson]

The Axis side didn't have any strategic bombers per se and the Soviet did ( IL-4's ). So I'm thinking that the Soviets might be in a better
position to do long range city/industry bombing during the game. Here's a map showing some of the strategic targets that a Soviet
player might want to know about. I've just started this map and it's not all-inclusive by any means but it does show some of the more
important targets.

One of the targets a Soviet player might want to concentrate on is the Panzer's. Berlin is your target in that case because of the heavy
concentration of tank factories in and around Berlin. But Berlin has AAA defenses and might not be your cup of tea. I'm thinking of the
heavy industry as a valid target because of the number of smaller cities that produce HI and most of the smaller cities don't have AAA
like Berlin. It might be a small hassle to try to keep up with which city has a working factory though so a list might have to be kept or
something like that. A spreadsheet maybe.

A good strategic target would be something the Axis is already low on because bombing it would make the situation even worse. The
trouble would be deciding what the Axis is already low on. Maybe fuel production or oil production or resource production.

What do you guys think?

[Klydon]

I don't know how such a campaign would work out, but I think if you go after anything in a strategic sense, armaments seems to be the jugular for both sides and there are some good non-Berlin cities to go bomb for that.

[Flaviusx]

CAP will chew you up if you are playing with 1.05. This is probably a good way to throw away a lot of bombers, imo.

[Aurelian]

I don't think that the Sovs have any fighters that have enough range for escort.

The losses probably would not justify the effort.

[randallw]

There are certainly no Soviet fighters in 1941 that go far beyond about 20 or 22 hexes from their base.

[heliodorus04]

When someone is talking "CAP" are they talking about escort/intercept settings, or is there something new with 1.05 that I have to set?

[Flaviusx]

When I say CAP, I mean interceptions. CAP is seriously brutal now and will butcher unescorted bombers. This goes for both sides. Even the crappy pre war Soviet fighters can shoot down a lot of Luftwaffe bombers if they aren't escorted. If you jack up the interception levels high enough, you'll see a ton of activity in this regard. I go with 200 myself.

[Farfarer61]

Yeah, Larry just eliminated the rumanian bomber force What about a night campaign though?

[Klydon]

I also wonder how well this might work during blizzard with Axis interceptions pretty much worth zip.

[Flaviusx]

Not sure, Klydon, but in blizzard conditions those bombing missions will often, indeed usually, abort.

And there's always AAA, which is pretty beefy now. If you're really worried about a Soviet bombing campaign (I continue to believe this is a not viable proposition) park some flak in the rear area cities.

[Jakerson]

btw. Ploesti in Romania is major source of Axis oil and fuel. I think something like 60% of Axis oil and fuel comes from Ploesti.

What is good Ploesti is closer to Soviet that many of these other targets so Bombing it could be option.

[Klydon]

Normally I agree that bombing Ploesti should provide benefits if it is damaged/bombed, but in WITE terms, I don't think there will be much benefit and results will be very hard to judge. I think the best bet for any strategic bombing campaign the Russians may try is to go for armaments plants.

[Flaviusx]

Once again, CAP and flak will shut down any attempt to bomb the oil.

[Encircled]

In my last game versus Kamil, I used bases in the Crimea to bomb Polesti up to about 54% damage (night bombing)

Once he switched an airbase there, I lost about half my planes and it didn't seem worth it

With the increased CAP and better AA, I suspect it would be suicide in 1.05