Effectiveness of Night Bombing (as Axis) vs Daylight

[VonCurry]

Gonna stop my lurkin' and start my....twerkin'...

So I'm playing against the AI as the Axis, and my thought process is to use the entire bomber force I have to pound the Allied beaches/ports with night raids in an attempt to minimize casualties but also still hamper supply and potentially slow the allied advance on sicily.

My question...Is Night Bombing as Axis a worthwhile investment? Would I save my bomber force or should I just YOLO and do daylight raids?
(I have done some of the tips in regards to Axis air strategy from the various Axis air guides/posts... so my bombers are on restricted)

Thanks for any response, I look forward to more posts.

[loki100]

its not a bad idea. I've tried odd stunts like night raids on the bases in the UK where their transport planes are likely to be deployed.

I doubt you'll do much damage but at the same time you won't take heavy losses (from combat but there may be quite a few operational losses).

In general its hard to use the axis bombers effectively. When you really need them, its most likely the allies will also put up a lot of airpower (say around major naval invasions), so its a case of looking for situations where you think you can gain from using up your bombers and that hopefully the allies can't cover with substantial fighter cover.

Looking for this, and judging when to gamble, is part of the fun of playing the axis. Done right you can catch them out and force a redeployment of effort to deal with your actions.

[Helpless]

Axis night bombing is lacking bonuses provided by more advance navigation systems Allies have (Gee/N2S). It is still may be worth considering to have some LW night raids, just to make WA player to use their NF fleet protecting mainland assets, rather then sweeping LW NFs.

[HMSWarspite]

I second this. Without a credible threat to the UK, any sensible player takes all the Mossies and immediately puts them on night intruder work. In RL, the NI force was only about 6 sqds IIRC in 1943, and there are 2-3 times that many you could use. there is a similar issue with day fighters but tends not to be so severe (they were used to escort 8AF etc in RL.

[Searry]

Interesting ideas in this thread.

[Lovenought]

ORIGINAL: HMSWarspite

I second this. Without a credible threat to the UK, any sensible player takes all the Mossies and immediately puts them on night intruder work. In RL, the NI force was only about 6 sqds IIRC in 1943, and there are 2-3 times that many you could use. there is a similar issue with day fighters but tends not to be so severe (they were used to escort 8AF etc in RL.

I use my Night Fighters mostly for escorting Bomber Command...Is that not how you are supposed to use them?

[EddyBear81]

Night Intruder missions is a better investment, especially to destroy LW Night Fighters...
...however :

- Night Intruder Missions are limited in size : usually only 1 aircraft missions (you can manually push to 12, but not with a tremendous effect, so I don't do it)
- Escorting Bomber Command is significantly reducing losses in Level Bombers.

So : do both !

[VonCurry]

For those curious, the conclusions I've come to so far doing this...

I use raid of roughly 20-50 bombers... 3 times a week (targeting 3 harbors) roughly 10 operational losses a week.. and the damage ranges from nothing to 5-10 points of port damage.

I don't know if that is a viable strategy.. but It's something I'm going to continue. Hopefully one of you min/max-ers can determine if its better than an escorted daylight raid...

I think night bombing is the way to go since I don't have to use my fighters for escort duty.

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: VonCurry

For those curious, the conclusions I've come to so far doing this...

I use raid of roughly 20-50 bombers... 3 times a week (targeting 3 harbors) roughly 10 operational losses a week.. and the damage ranges from nothing to 5-10 points of port damage.

I don't know if that is a viable strategy.. but It's something I'm going to continue. Hopefully one of you min/max-ers can determine if its better than an escorted daylight raid...

I think night bombing is the way to go since I don't have to use my fighters for escort duty.

are you doing recon for the same target? If not you can't trust the results and they maybe overstated. If its an AI game, suggest open the AI turn and have a quick look just to double check.

Also worth remembering that level 1 and 2 ports can be quickly repaired just by having a TF in an adjacent hex at the end of the turn. Ok that TF is then not prepping for another invasion but if the port is vital (say the early stages of the Sicily battles) its a worthwhile investment for the Allies

[VonCurry]

Ah good points, I think you're probably right.