Advice Needed

[BK6583]

Quick background. My opponent and I are on the 3rd try at playing the D-Day campaign (I'm the Germans). I have read and reread the tutorials on supply for the Germans and have set all of my depot and HQ supply levels accordingly. The first two games we played interdiction was just a nuisance and the tutorial advice seemed to work as well as could be expected. Unfortunately for me my opponent must have also read all of the advice on maximizing Allied air interdiction. For the last several turns (I'm on turn 5) - OMG! There have been 9's all over Normandy. My rail yards are 95% (or more) damaged (in spite of using APs to prioritize repair and assigning construction units. The only positive I guess is that no strategic bombing has yet occurred. My question is this: I have a ton of units in Normandy in orange or red supply status. What the heck can I do to try to alleviate this - air transport supplies in the teeth of Allied fighters? What? Help!

[cfulbright]

I've never played the German side so I have no advice on the logistics side, just some observations on the air side:

1. Do you have flak units assigned to the cities in Normandy like Caen, St. Lo, Bayeux, even perhaps Carentan (though you may lose it the turn he invades)? That should cause him some hurt in his bombers.
2. My experience is that even if I use the entire 8th Air Force at 11K' in interdiction, I won't get 9's. The only way to get 9's is with FB's, which he should be seeing some loses on, particularly if you have flak. Do the Loss reports indicate that?
3. Though perhaps it's too late, you should be flying Air Superiority AD's over the likely invasion targets.

Good luck.

Cary

[EddyBear81]

BK, your last proposition actually worked from me : air transport to resupply the most critical areas is a good tactic.

Just try not to fly over enemy concentrations, otherwise AAA will hurt a lot. And if you have too many losses to fighters, fly at night.

But in general, you do not get many empty depots as the Axis (provided you made some careful allocation beforehand)

[loki100]

There is a trick to reducing interdiction levels.

Put an AS mission - fly in your turn only - over the zone that has high interdiction. The AS will reduce this.

Now in Normandy 1944 this can be incredibly risky if your opponent has kept back an AS mission of their own - set to fly only in your turn (so you have no advanced warning), but it can clear a small corridor. I've used it more in Italy where you create safe retreat corridors (land and naval) this way. Unwary opponents don't expect you to use fighters for this.

More practically, as with the others, flak in your units and corps will inflict steady damage on the allies, damaged planes lose morale, need to be rested etc.