Battleground Italy Big Wing

[Smirfy]

Your comparing Apples and Oranges Im on turn *3* there your on turn *6*. There may not be a problem in turn *6* but there is in turn 1,2 and 3 I have posted up my AD's. This Air directive is one of three over the area it has the finest Naval Interdiction and Patrol aircraft the Allies could throw at any problem and is much more concentrated. This Directive alone I should be getting the historical interference which was *nuisance*

[Smirfy]

As you can see by turn 4 whilst the Axis interdiction has abated somewhat the Allies for all their effort they are doing little. As I said in the design notes the philosophy of both the Air War Mod and the Big Wing Mod was to Free your Tactical and Strategic Airforces with Patrol aircraft from an abstract foe and let them get on with what they did historically ie the fun stuff. I think my views on Naval interdiction will diverge from Match Play players, but that is as I said why I had to make the mod in the first place. Notwithstanding the Naval Interdiction I believe grouping the RAF and USAAF squadron aircraft is a good thing to do. Turn One is no longer a chore and playability has improved and it does not feel any less historical. That is more the purpose of the AAR see if there is any pitfalls for the Big Wings.

[Smirfy]

There is definitely a neater feel.

[Smirfy]

The Naval patrol wings are paying a heavy price. The wings are getting decimated. We could certainly use those Walrus ASR aicraft Pavel

[Smirfy]

Turn 6 and the fun stuff can start. Operation Sylvia is launched the ariel preperation for the invaision of Mainland Europe. The Bombers of the USAAF Strategic Airforce are sent to the Port of Taranto, the RAF Strategic Bombers to the Port of Crotone and Tactical Air Bombers to the Port of Reggio Calabria.

[Smirfy]

Losses minimal results positive

[Smirfy]

Unfortunately the imaginary U-Boat aces of the deep, the EBoats despite bombed out ports and the non existant Axis airforce destroy 13 *troop* transports which equates to 13,000 men or a division. Naval interdiction in this patch is a total nonsense and ruins another wise very enjoyable game

[Smirfy]

Messina for the chop but still the defenders cling on

[Seminole]

ORIGINAL: Smirfy

Your comparing Apples and Oranges

I'm trying to figure out how you're slicing the fruit.
Aside from me assigning the aircraft myself I also assign Tactical an Air Superiority box over the American beaches. I wonder if the size, and distance from staging, of your Tactical AS AD is hurting efficacy.
After turn 1 I move several squadrons of Spits to Sicily and stage Tacticals AS AD from the landing area to maximize loiter time.
I just haven't had a problem maintaining naval superiority with these tactics, by the second week it seems Tactical's AS turns back most German efforts.

Im on turn *3* there your on turn *6*. There may not be a problem in turn *6* but there is in turn 1,2 and 3 I have posted up my AD's.

It appears you're relying on auto aircraft selection. What does it actually select to send? Are you making available 4k and it using 100?
If you want to post a save after your ADs have run on turn 1-3 I'd like to see how's it's using the assets you've made available.

I'm on turn 11 now in BGI, I'll check and see what the troop ship losses look like.

I'm doing my best to figure out how to make how it works work for me, but I still lean toward thinking the game would benefit if that aspect was abstracted entirely into auto naval air patrol for both sides. Let the player base aircraft to influence the auto naval patrol number crunching like they do now, and just drop player selected naval patrol ADs. I don't think the player created ones enhance the realism, they just allow the Axis to do some gamey things with ahistorical concentrations of force.

[Smirfy]

Naval Interdiction is totally broken in this patch you lose Transports in an arbitrary manner as a matchplay game balance tool. Its a nonsense mechanic that sucks the fun clean out of the game. The Royal Navy and USN existed In 1943 the Allies simply did not lose troop transports! Convoys, I believe with escort carriers and ASW groups or so Ive read! No I dont rely on auto aircraft selection, I am doing what I have always been doing except with more and getting worse results!. The problem with the mechanic is its totally abstract for one side which is leading naval interdiction to be used to solve every single problem. Too many Allied invaisions. Solution More Naval interdiction. Allies have too much Supply in the beachhead. Solution More Naval Interdiction. This is simply the wrong way to go about it. German Naval inderdiction post 43 was hopelessly overmatched and did absolutely nothing to stop or interfere with invaisions. The two bottlenecks were one; each landing required X amount of shipping for Y amount of troops and two: Landing Craft. Both were finite! Naval interdiction had bugger all to do with it! Infact it was the Allies who were interdictiing the Axis coastal traffic!


Anyway like I said it is trying its best to spoil an otherwise good game Im having, the Wings are a joy to use compared to Squadrons.

[Smirfy]

With the Airforce establish for the next phase of the campaign we are good to go. decent weather would be nice

[Seminole]

No I dont rely on auto aircraft selection, I am doing what I have always been doing except with more and getting worse results!.

I ask because in the picture you provided above it doesn't show any aircraft assigned to the example naval patrol mission:



From a before and after save it would be easier to dissect your doctrine/directive choices, and see if you're trying to account for problems there with sheer mass.

Here are the results from turn 11 in my current server BGI.
You can see the groups I have assigned, the difference between those values and what you saw earlier is that by now there are no enemy fighters to worry about:

[Smirfy]

I appreciate the help Seminole. Turn 22 Beginning of my air phase have been flying this Air directive for previous three turns. Same location. Half my large coastal Airforce flies 1,3,5,7 the other half flies 2,4,6. My Coastal Airforce now contains all my Patrol aircraft and NF. 510 aircraft in total.

[Smirfy]

The other half,

[Smirfy]

As you can see my airforce does zip

[Smirfy]

One functional side effect Im noticing in having wings rather than squadrons is its much easier to catch when a type is running out of planes and does not destroy their utility if you overlook that a couple of turns.