Question regarding advanced air options

[Torben23]

Mates, more detailed questions:

1) In advanced air options - Is it OK to leave it on AUTO - Or do you have too many strikes per day? For example, with RAF Bomber Command on AUTO I have 8 strikes.

2) How many days per week do you set the schedule?

Do you enter minimum aircraft and required aircraft? Or do you leave it to AUTO?

Thank you once again!

[loki100]

1) depends, usually leave on auto. But lets say I'm committing 8 AAF to hit tank factories. I'll work out how many factories are in the AD and then divide my aircraft/200, those 2 numbers will incluence my strikes. Especially when days are included. So say there are 6 factories, I have 600 B-17s and I'll bomb on 3 days. 3 strikes will mean each gets hit once (potentially) and the jucier ones twice

2) 2 or 3, don't go over this as you pick up fatigue, also if you misjudge it can be a grim process as your bombers get chewed up. 2 is often good as it means you can just bomb steadily and in large numbers.

3) be careful with these settings, you can end up not flying due to a gap - remember that planes get damaged & repair over the week. Unless you really want to achieve something, leave them on auto.

[Torben23]

Thank you loki! Very very helpful! Does your answer number 2 also refer to tac bombers, fighter bombers etc. in ground attacks? Or are you referring to strat bombing only?

[loki100]

strat only, I tend to be less fussed about fatigue as such for ground attack formations. Mainly as their constraint is usually morale loss (they tend to pick up a lot of AA hits by the nature of their mission).

also you usually want high intensity, to hit a target/area this week. With the strat bombers you are aiming to reduce the Ruhr to rubble and leave it that way for some time - so its a slow steady escalation of damage best done steadily.

[Torben23]

OK, got it - thank you! Fatigue and morale is a little bit of concern - When do you put airgroups to rest - when their morale goes below 50?

[GloriousRuse]

1) I think Loki already covered strat, though it’s worth noting that sometimes before you’ve cowed the LW you might want to go for a single big strike just to keep everyone nice and safe. There are also some critical tactical points; interdiction on top of a single hex and penetration style naval patrols (as opposed to blankets) often benefit from bumping up the aircraft per strike. Also, there may come a point where you want to fly an absolute eraser mission - at that point you might make sure the 1500-2000 aircraft arrive in one strike to avoid re-disrupting elements; the cost is you’ll have some possible wasted miles and you might be running on empty by the end of the week.

2) As always, Loki is right. You might find that there are times in the bad weather months where it is worth taking 3 days of strategic bombing because you’ll be closing down again next week when the storms roll back in...

Morale below 50 is a recipe for aborts after losses...but remember you fly all week, so if it starts at 50, it probably won’t be there long.

[Torben23]

Cheers!!

[cfulbright]

For once I'll disagree with Loki on some of his recommendations.

1. I micro-manage every air directive, and don't use Auto for anything except Min AC. This is what a typical Strategic Bombing AD looks like for me:
- I'm bombing Ruhr Fuel targets and there are 16, so I set Strike Number to 16
- I have 821 bombers available and I divide that by 16 and assign 51 Requested AC bombers
- The AI tends to attack the earlier strikes, so rather than divide the 727 escorts by 16 for the Requested AC bombers, I set it to 200, knowing that will cover the first four strikes and leaving the other 12 on their own
- I set three days of bombing. I have another AD going that's flying days 1/2/3, so this main AD will come after that first AD attrits the LW interceptors
- I set Altitude to 24K to both avoid most flak and also put the LW interceptors at an altitude disadvantage
- I pick waypoints to avoid the worst flak on the way in and out, though each strike can't avoid it over its particular target

2. I do max 3 days per week. That way most of my air groups still have at least 55 morale at the start of turn. In fact, this is what I do at the beginning of every turn:
a. Add Pilots, Trained Pilots only
b. In Air Group tab of CR, set all Air Groups to Mission Day/Night
c. I then filter to National Reserve only and set them to Rest and Upgrade to Trained Pilots (TPI)
d. I then filter to Transports only and set them to Rest
e. I then filter to Morale = 0 to 50 and set them all to Rest
f. I then filter to Morale = 51 to 54 and set them all to Rest, but reset some to D/N if they have 75+ Exp and 53 or 54 because I want them leading AD's
g. Then I go about building my AD's and tweaking the individual number of strikes and AC per strike

I hope that helps.

Cary