Japanese fighter & Bomber altitudes

[Marshall]

Looking for Japanese players who wants to share hi/hers thoughts with another Japanese player on altitudes?

I have some thoughts on it, and I like to share them with other players, and reflect[:D].

Of course it can be by email or PM.

[Lowpe]

With an eye towards house rules or to just effectiveness?

[Marshall]

effectiveness

[Lowpe]

I like to fly planes at their highest maneuver rating for fighters where possible and stack the altitude coverage with groups low, medium and high for CAP. Pretty basic I fear.

[Marshall]

And in Sweep mode?

And how about the Sally bomber altitudes, best effective alt, vs flak and bomb result against troops

[Encircled]

Think you probably got to stick to your best altitude and maneuver ratings, but the problem is that the Allied player knows this all too well!

Stacking on various levels on CAP

11,000 when bombing anybody but the Chinese, 5,000 when bombing the Chinese

[rustysi]

5,000 when bombing the Chinese

IIRC below 6k in altitude bombers suffer penalities, so maybe 6k?

[Lowpe]

I have bombed at the treetop levels...in an attempt to get the raid thru without triggering massive CAP intervention. Sometimes it works.

I have tried flying low altitude sweeps, they simply get dived on and shot to pieces.

I am becoming a convert to the single engine Japanese bomber, especially in China. They eat much less supply, cost less to make and reinforce, don't crowd the fields.

I never had really good success with night bombing. I would like to...the bombers that seem to do the best are the ones that drop a lot of bombs like Betties. Fly as low as allied flak will let you without hitting balloons.

On bases were there is a lot of AA, but you have to bomb anyhow, I fly as high as 24K.

Every bombing mission can benefit from good recon. I fly recons as high as I can...seems to minimize CAP losses some.

[Leandros]

ORIGINAL: Marshall

And in Sweep mode?

And how about the Sally bomber altitudes, best effective alt, vs flak and bomb result against troops

I don't know what period you are in or how realistic the game is but in the beginning of the war the P-40's ("E" version)
had trouble climbing above 20.000 feet before the bombers were gone. On Dec. 10th 1941 Cavite naval base in Manila was bombed
from a little above 20.000 feet without any fighter interference. Same for Clark Field on Dec. 8th.

Fred

[2ndACR]

Gonna depend on time frame and who your dealing with. My game in June 42 (as Japan), I regularly nuke the Chinese with my Sally bomber force for 3-600 losses per day. My bombers fly at 8000 feet. Using 4 bomber units of roughly 36 each. They do eat up supplies. But I hardly take any losses.

Against the other allies, it gets rougher. I still will fly at 8000 feet or so, for bombers but except for the repeated nuking of Rangoon troops early 42 I have been unable to smash up allied ground forces. Flak hurts more too.

Sweeps I try to come in at 2 altitudes if I sweep with 2 fighter units, one at 15,000 and the other at 20-23,000 feet.

But I am far from expert, as even though I have had AE since release, real life kept me from diving into it, so this is really my first serious foray into her. Lots have changed and is taking getting used to.