interpreting bombing results

[Shellshock]

Hi all.

Sorry if this has been covered before, but I was wondering if I am reading the results of strategic bombing correctly. I assume the white percentage numbers over the orange numbers indicate previous bombing damage. I also figure that all these numbers are subject to the vagaries of the fog of war as well.

[cfulbright]

Shellshock,

The white numbers indicate the cumulative damage including from the current attack.

Damage results definitely are fogged if you have that turned on.

Cary

[Shellshock]

ORIGINAL: cfulbright

Shellshock,

The white numbers indicate the cumulative damage including from the current attack.

Damage results definitely are fogged if you have that turned on.

Cary

Okay, thanks for the confirmation.

BTW is it common to get completely skunked on bombing missions? I sent the Eighth Air Force in a one raid swarm of 4-engined bombers over Hamburg in excellent weather at 25,000 feet and got no orange numbers. Twice. Makes me wanna sack General Ira Eaker.

[cfulbright]

How many planes? What industries did you target? Did you recon those industries in prior turns and/or days of the week (e.g., recon days 1&2, bomb on days 3&5)? What was weather like?

Cary

[Shellshock]

Let's see...I allocated all the US 8th Air Force 4-engine bomb groups there were in East Anglia, plus a P-38 squadron to boot. It was July 1943 and morale was still good so I threw in everybody. I went after the U-Boat yards on high priority with a low emphasis on heavy industry. I did high level camera recon at 36,000 feet the day both before and after a bombing day which were on days two and five. It had the same target priorities as the bombing mission. Weather was excellent. Losses seemed low, but then I am new to this game. Maybe they're significant.

However, not every bombardment group allocated flew though on either raid. That might have something to do with it.

[cfulbright]

Hi Shellshock,

I'd have to look at the SAV file from before the air phase. Can you upload it as an attachment in a ZIP file?

Cary

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: Shellshock

...

However, not every bombardment group allocated flew though on either raid. That might have something to do with it.

...

One suggestion is to double check the min required to fly numbers. These are under the advanced options for the mission. It tends to set itself fairly high (150 or so) and you can often lower it a lot (50-75) quite safely. In the main I tend to find sustained smaller raids do more damage - the cost though is in terms of fatigue and possibly lower morale (so then need to rest).

I certainly set this variable very low if I am running a small (4 airgroups or so) specialist mission aimed at a particular target which I do as part of a wider bombing campaign (say I really want to hit a particular truck factory or similar)

[Shellshock]

Thanks gentleman but I seem to have discovered the rather embarrassing rookie reason for my non productive bombing raid.


Apparently, from some misunderstanding of the load-out menu I applied the worst possible load-out to the entire air directive. If your gonna bomb Germany you might wanna actually load...bombs.

I don't what it was my crews actually dropped over Hamburg; propaganda leaflets, cotton balls, wadded-up Kleenex? But it wasn't ordinance.

[cfulbright]

Please rerun the air phase with bombs and let us know if you do some damage.

Cary

[Shellshock]

ORIGINAL: cfulbright

Please rerun the air phase with bombs and let us know if you do some damage.

Cary

Oh yeah...stuff actually impacted the ground this time.

[cfulbright]

OK, good to see. Now what were you targeting: 1) Uboats, 2) Heavy Industry, or 3) something else? Your heaviest damage should be against what your primary (or only) target is.

Cary

[Shellshock]

ORIGINAL: cfulbright

OK, good to see. Now what were you targeting: 1) Uboats, 2) Heavy Industry, or 3) something else? Your heaviest damage should be against what your primary (or only) target is.

Cary

I had U-boats set to high, Heavy Industry to low. U-Boats definitely got the lion's share of the bomber swarm.

[cfulbright]

Your results highlight a problem/feature of the game. If you target two industries, even if you set one to High priority and one to Low, you're likely to have heaviest bombing against the lower priority. I always target only one industry, and set it to high. If you want to hit UBoats, don't also set Heavy Industry to any priority at all.

Cary