Defending against a Strat bombing campaign

[alexvand]

As I mentioned in my other post I'm experimenting with a serious Allied Strat campaign for the first time.

As the Axis I just went about my business. Sending air to the Med to help Italy, air to Greece, then air support into Russia. I pretty much ignored the Strat campaign. (In my defense, I've never run or suffered from a strat campaign before.)

I was a little startled to find that around 1/4 of Germany's production points were being destroyed a turn. This had a major impact on Barbarossa as it was quite weak and barely got past the river line in the south.

Then I reacted by covering Germany in fighters. I probably over-reacted as there are only 5 fighters in Russia 3 in the Med and every other fighter I could build is somewhere in Germany or near a red factory. Plus I've started building the AA guns.

How best do you defend against a strong allied Strat campaign?

[Zorachus99]

It's pretty much un-defendable without 'en-route interception'.

You'll have to scatter too many fighters everywhere defending factories from France to Poland. You will not be able to actually get air superiority anywhere if you defend the factories.

You should try out factory destruction.

[Grotius]

I've been wondering the same thing. I'm using the factory destruction optional rule. How does it help? By destroying my own factories, I avoid strategic bombing damage? That seems a bit paradoxical, but if that's the thing to do, I'll try it...

[brian brian]

1 - give up on Lille first as it is in range of Allied single engine escorts from early on

2 - put pilots even in the old Me-109Bs that you didn't deploy at the start of the war

3 - try a sneak attack on one of their stacks of bombers + HQ with your own Ground Strike mission from a newly built Luftwaffe bomber

[Centuur]

The last one is tricky, since usually the CW should have a lot of FTR's around in Britain. The other two I agree on. Those old Messerschmidts are reasonable planes to be used for this, especially in the far away area's, where even long range FTR's can't reach. Also if one gets shot down, it's usually over friendly territory, so the pilot has a greater chance of surviving.

However: build fighters, fighters and even more fighters. You can't have enough of those around...

[brian brian]

Yes, the Ground Strike trick is difficult. But if you have an escorting FTR set up where it looks like you are just defending Lille, you can instead use it to escort into the UK and take at least a little bit of initiative back from the Allies. Also, some Allies might get pretty slack on having any land units around their big stacks of bombers in Kent … and the Germans might still have their AMPH...

[AlbertN]

I am experiencing quite the same issues and in fact this is why I deem the "En-Route interception" optional rule a must - and one of the priorities to be made.
UK has all factories nicely packed up.
Germany on the other hand is pretty much screwed over as 2 Strat Bombers even will always find a factory to hit at even if you cover with an amount of fighters.
And at worst if you have all fighters scattered around ... heck, they'll just mass their late war bombing power in a sector and overwhelm the single / few fighters deployed in the sector.

[paulderynck]

Once the 8 and 9 range German night fighters deploy, you can cover a lot of factories. Early on there's 3-factor fighter with a range of 5 that will threaten the crummy A2A of unescorted CW bombers and can cover a lot of factories.

[brian brian]

The Italians have a nice night FTR in their Force Pool if I recall correctly...

[gravyhair]

It's a fun tactic for the Allied player. I've done it many times. The Axis player should see it coming via your builds, but I guess they're too preoccupied with their megalomaniacal plans ... Usually, when they realize what you're doing, it's too late.

[Zorachus99]

ORIGINAL: Grotius

I've been wondering the same thing. I'm using the factory destruction optional rule. How does it help? By destroying my own factories, I avoid strategic bombing damage? That seems a bit paradoxical, but if that's the thing to do, I'll try it...

Sorry I was a bit short. The reason you use factory destruction is that you can let the red factory in Lille and Paris be destroyed and stay destroyed. This reduces the area you must defend somewhat. I use the oil rule as well, which is a bit more challenging.

Also, a smart allied player will target your synthetic oil plants because they are destroyed, not damaged, and it really reduces your ability to conduct a war. Place the synthetic plants near the cities you will have the most air defense.

[alexvand]

ORIGINAL: gravyhair

It's a fun tactic for the Allied player. I've done it many times. The Axis player should see it coming via your builds, but I guess they're too preoccupied with their megalomaniacal plans ... Usually, when they realize what you're doing, it's too late.

What's really funny is that this is a solo game. I'm allies and axis. And I didn't see it coming!

I had just never run or experienced a real strat campaign before. So the Germans ignored the growing swarm of planes in England, only to discover it was a real threat!

[alexvand]

Is it worth building the AA guns as Germany and Italy?

[AlbertN]

Clueless but I will probably give it a try.
In my current game the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica are pretty much helpless against the waves of bombers the Allies are sending in.
Actually Italy has lost more fighters than bombers.

So I suspect the AA will be an added complement to the aerial defences which hopefully in '43 will thicken. Germany has litterally almost depleted their fighter pool and cannot cover Germany whole and coasts and soviet front in '42; and in the end of the day has pratically air inferiority anywhere the Allies pick to attack (Number wise inferiority on Soviet front too, albeit German fighters are averagely 1 point better than Soviets).

[paulderynck]

ORIGINAL: alex_van_d

Is it worth building the AA guns as Germany and Italy?

If they are red or pink circled, they are move valuable in the front lines, so IMO I would not build them for that purpose.

[Centuur]

ORIGINAL: Cohen

Clueless but I will probably give it a try.
In my current game the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica are pretty much helpless against the waves of bombers the Allies are sending in.
Actually Italy has lost more fighters than bombers.

So I suspect the AA will be an added complement to the aerial defences which hopefully in '43 will thicken. Germany has litterally almost depleted their fighter pool and cannot cover Germany whole and coasts and soviet front in '42; and in the end of the day has pratically air inferiority anywhere the Allies pick to attack (Number wise inferiority on Soviet front too, albeit German fighters are averagely 1 point better than Soviets).

An AA usually only lowest the attacking factors (normally). However, if located in an area with a lot of factories in the hex and adjacent hexes, it can do some work. But as stated before, they are usually better in defense at the front.

But I agree that the en route interception optional rule is really a must have for the Euroaxis in MWIF.