1943 Long Game as Allies: How'm I doing?

[Cripes A Mighty]

The current date is 11-4-43, 80 turns deep into the game.

My general philosophies:
1. Do not get the 8th AF chewed up by bombing targets with a lot of AAA. I try to make sure that both fighters and bombers get sufficient rest. If this means sacrificing strategic bombing points at present, so be it. Instead, I try to bomb softer targets within escort range, especially day fighter airfields, with formations of heavy bombers that are fat enough to draw LW attention and let my escorts engage them. KILL GERMAN PILOTS!

2. Unless a German airfield has been reconned by a 100-foot altitude flyby and been found to be mostly low-level AAA free, then it doesn't get sweeped, even if it is fat with targets. Losses are prohibitive otherwise. Any suggestions here would be especially welcomed.

3. Bomber Command hits as hard and as often as possible, but only under conditions of total darkness with rested, high morale units against recently reconned targets. Results so far seem to be good. A recent raid on Hannover resulted in 583 bombers finding the target, with 24 bombers hitting open areas. I lost 8 aircraft, only two to LW night fighters. The LW night fighters are not particularly good at engaging targets, even when they aren't radar-jammed. I usually launch a nuisance Mosquito raid about 45 minutes before the big raid. This raid gets a lot of fruitless LW night fighter attention. My NI aircraft are active and productive at knocking down German night fighters by hoovering over their airfields and ambushing them upon landing. Flying intruders along with the bomber stream to try and pick off Germans is a waste of resources.

4. The Mediterranean, especially under Avalanche restrictions, is a waste of resources. My philosophy there for both American and British forces is similar to the one for the 8th AF expressed above. Most of my bombing is done from Corsica, escorted, and limited to airfields and such.

Here is my Campaign Summary:

[Cripes A Mighty]

Here are the aircraft losses:

[Cripes A Mighty]

Replacements:

[Cripes A Mighty]

Thought it might be helpful to display the stats for a few specific aircraft types. Here's one:

[Cripes A Mighty]

And another:

[Cripes A Mighty]

My most critical escorts:

[Cripes A Mighty]

And a quick look at Bomber Command. Other air units have experience, morale, and fatigue similar to these Lancasters:

[wernerpruckner]

There are many nice and easy industrial targets in the Low Countries and around Paris. (a few large CHEM, the big Ford ARM and many other nice targets)
The escorts of the 8th AF have enough range to protect such raids....this will give you a good starting ID score.

[wernerpruckner]

You are doing an excellent job with hunting the LW! [&o]

4. The Mediterranean, especially under Avalanche restrictions, is a waste of resources. My philosophy there for both American and British forces is similar to the one for the 8th AF expressed above. Most of my bombing is done from Corsica, escorted, and limited to airfields and such.

Here also are a few nice targets (even if you go for full political "mandatory" targeting). Hitting the RR will slow down some of the supply and often limit the amount of fuel that is getting to the A/Fs. Also with hitting many of the tactical targets (including the RR) the reaction time of the Germans will go up!

[Cripes A Mighty]

Thanks for the suggestions, swift. I'll have to take a closer look at France.

As for slowing the reaction times of the LW in Italy... do I really want to do that? I want to fight them. I want to smash them up.

Bomber Command will have to start taking some down time pretty soon. The full moon period is fast approaching.

[Cripes A Mighty]

Just thought I'd check in with a brief update. My points totals haven't changed much, but I am killing Luftwaffe pilots. I am hopeful this will pay dividends later on. It's a long game and I know I'm not going to win it in one turn.

Anyhow, here's my Campaign Summary after 100 turns: