How can I defend an air base against 10+ attacks in one turn?

[von Beanie]

In late 1943 I'm trying to defend the Japanese empire against massive Allied forces. In Malaya I have a few size 7 (or so) air bases. I normally keep between 50 and 100 planes on CAP during the day, as well as a smaller force in case of a night attack. The whole Japanese empire doesn't have enough planes to put 300 planes on CAP at each base that is in bomber range.
As my opponent slowly advances into SE Asia, my air bases gradually come within range of the Allied heavy bombers. This is what has happened multiple times: The first air attack on each base occurs on one turn where a large force of about 70 heavy bombers of all types attack the airfield. A fierce battle then occurs. On the same turn a secondary force of perhaps 30 heavy bombers attack the base. There is another battle. This is followed ON THE SAME TURN by perhaps 10 to 15 additional runway attacks by small (<9) bomber groups that are nearly always unopposed that each destroy one or more planes on the runway as well as doing additional runway damage. My CAP doesn't seem to last longer than the first three or four attacks, and so raids 5 through 15 are unopposed. As a result I'm forced to abandon the airfield by railing out my damaged planes. Small raids on subsequent turns keep the air base unusable.
My question is simply how do I keep CAP active for raid numbers 5 through 10+?

[RangerJoe]

Use AAA, shuttle your fighters around as needed, do not have a high CAP percentage, and if the enemy is sweeping high then use a low layered CAP.

But the question is, why protect all of the airbases?

If you can, use night bombing to attack his 4E bases.

[Ian R]

More information please.

What range settings are you assigning your CAP?

Are you layering the CAP (with some, at least, sitting up high)?

Are your settings allowing cross base CAP support?

What are your mission/rest settings?

Do you e.g. have CAP groups set to 70% CAP/30% rest?

Are you running high percentages of LRCAP which have a tendency to fatigue both airframes and pilots?

Have you split groups into three, added 4 reserve airframes to each sub group, and then recombined them to increase your airframe serviceability?

Do you have lots of construction engineers at the bases to fix runway damage more quickly?

Do your base forces have some type of radar warning?

Have you railed in AAA units that are idle elsewhere?

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Without knowing more detail, I can only suggest you get inter-base CAP support flying (not LR CAP) by setting ranges appropriately, and multi-layers by setting altitudes accordingly. Give your CAP groups a significant rest % and reserve pilots and machines. The CAP will fly out to what ever range you set for the group, in smaller and smaller packets. LRCAP is a separate mission that targets one hex but unless you are at about 50 % rest - and not flying extended range - it tends to result in many OPs losses over time.

Someone might be able to chime in and remind me what the range limit on CAP is.

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: Ian R

More information please.

What range settings are you assigning your CAP?

Are you layering the CAP (with some, at least, sitting up high)?

Are your settings allowing cross base CAP support?

What are your mission/rest settings?

Do you e.g. have CAP groups set to 70% CAP/30% rest?

Are you running high percentages of LRCAP which have a tendency to fatigue both airframes and pilots?

Have you split groups into three, added 4 reserve airframes to each sub group, and then recombined them to increase your airframe serviceability?

Do you have lots of construction engineers at the bases to fix runway damage more quickly?

Do your base forces have some type of radar warning?

Have you railed in AAA units that are idle elsewhere?

------------------

Without knowing more detail, I can only suggest you get inter-base CAP support flying (not LR CAP) by setting ranges appropriately, and multi-layers by setting altitudes accordingly. Give your CAP groups a significant rest % and reserve pilots and machines. The CAP will fly out to what ever range you set for the group, in smaller and smaller packets. LRCAP is a separate mission that targets one hex but unless you are at about 50 % rest - and not flying extended range - it tends to result in many OPs losses over time.

Someone might be able to chime in and remind me what the range limit on CAP is.

The range limit on CAP I do believe is what you set the range on the fighter unit. Any missions over two hexes away will lead to increased OPs losses.

[jdsrae]

LRCAP is what you need if you want to put fighters over a damaged airfield.

Try it from a nearby base, target the base you want to support with say 30% LRCAP rest=0%, set range=0 to focus the LRCAP over the target hex.
I’ve not seen much difference in pilot or plane fatigue with that LRCAP setting than CAP range 0.
CAP with a range > 0 seems to cause more fatigue and spread the fighters out over hexes that don’t need cover.

If you leave rest at 0% the pilots not flying might scramble to join the CAP/LRCAP later in the fights.

You can also set LRCAP30% and CAP30% with range =0 to put fighters from one unit over two hexes.

[von Beanie]

My CAP consists of several different fighter units averaging about size 18 flying at a variety of elevations, including the highest available. No matter how much CAP I have, it is generally MIA after the fourth raid in a single turn. Having LRCAP isn't practical because the other bases have to defend themselves, and most of my bases are at least 3 to 7 hexes apart. My question focuses on how can I extend the number of raids that my CAP stays over its base in one turn.
I'll try the 70% active/30% rest setting, but I'll be surprised if my CAP hangs in there for several rounds once the runways are seriously damaged after the first two rounds.

[GetAssista]

Attrition and patience.

Accept the fact that Allied heavy bombers can plaster any particular airfield when massed. Constant CAP will not suffice, especially with good Allied sweeps.
Your goal is to let them fly into heavy flak, stage concentrated unexpected CAP now and then, or bomb/bombard their staging base. All this to thin out the numbers of heavy bombers, cause those are a limited resource

[mind_messing]

ORIGINAL: von Beanie

My question is simply how do I keep CAP active for raid numbers 5 through 10+?

Concentration of force.

The thing about heavy bombers is that they're big and durable, but they're a nightmare to repair.

You've got the rail network, that's a massive help.

You got large airbases, that helps too.

What you need is more AA to increase the cost of doing business for the Allied bombers.

You also need more engineers to help dig the airbase back up after it's been terraformed to resemble the moon.

What you then need to do is drastically increase the number of fighters you're putting on CAP. 50-100 planes will not cut it against a force of 100+ bombers. A 3:1 or 4:1 ratio is what you're looking for.

Important also to realise that you're not looking for outright kills on bombers. They're nice, but what you really want is to destroy their morale and damage their planes. That keeps them on the ground and not bombing your airbases.

I suggest looking at some of the comments Lowpe has made over the years on this subject.

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: von Beanie

My CAP consists of several different fighter units averaging about size 18 flying at a variety of elevations, including the highest available. No matter how much CAP I have, it is generally MIA after the fourth raid in a single turn. Having LRCAP isn't practical because the other bases have to defend themselves, and most of my bases are at least 3 to 7 hexes apart. My question focuses on how can I extend the number of raids that my CAP stays over its base in one turn.
I'll try the 70% active/30% rest setting, but I'll be surprised if my CAP hangs in there for several rounds once the runways are seriously damaged after the first two rounds.

So does 'several different fighter units averaging about size 18' mean you have about 50-60 fighters?

CAP settings around 50% or higher?

That simply isn't going to cut it if you need to stop 10 or more raids in a given day.

It can be more challenging to stop many small, uncoordinated raids, than it can to stop one or two large raids as CAP gets worn down over the course of many engagements.

My rule of thumb for any base I want to keep from being destroyed by the enemy is a minimum of 100 fighters and preferably 150+ fighters.

Any base with less than that MUST be treated as a temporary facility you are prepared to abandon at need.

[fcooke]

As GA mentioned, large ambushes work well. If he wants to hit some bases to your rear, so be it. Longer range means more ops losses. If you are going to defend something, really defend it, trying to defend everything means not defending anything terribly well - think of all or nothing protection in BBs. Let shells penetrate the bow, but not the engine rooms or magazines. And you did not say whether the 4Es were being escorted. If not, bring every heavily armed Japanese fighter to the party. That means every twin engine fighter you have, as they tend to have greater striking power and better durability. They can hurt 4Es, but you don't want them going up against Allied fighters. And as mentioned before, if you can nail his 4Es on the ground - do it. Night air attacks are OK, but naval bombardment can really hurt. And if you can pull it off, multiple naval bombardments on the same night could close his base, and if he is not on a rail line you can wash, rinse, repeat and kill a bunch of airframes - and as mentioned, they are not an unlimited resource. You can also add in airstrikes to add to the damage depending on AAA, CAP, etc.

IanR - thanks for that splitting air units up to get the extra airframes/pilots. I have also maximized pilots in front line groups (normally that tops out at 50% more than TOE), but obviously anything that increases the numbers allows greater operational tempo without driving up fatigue too much.

[Uncivil Engineer]

ORIGINAL: von Beanie

In late 1943 I'm trying to defend the Japanese empire against massive Allied forces. In Malaya I have a few size 7 (or so) air bases. I normally keep between 50 and 100 planes on CAP during the day, as well as a smaller force in case of a night attack. The whole Japanese empire doesn't have enough planes to put 300 planes on CAP at each base that is in bomber range.
As my opponent slowly advances into SE Asia, my air bases gradually come within range of the Allied heavy bombers. This is what has happened multiple times: The first air attack on each base occurs on one turn where a large force of about 70 heavy bombers of all types attack the airfield. A fierce battle then occurs. On the same turn a secondary force of perhaps 30 heavy bombers attack the base. There is another battle. This is followed ON THE SAME TURN by perhaps 10 to 15 additional runway attacks by small (<9) bomber groups that are nearly always unopposed that each destroy one or more planes on the runway as well as doing additional runway damage. My CAP doesn't seem to last longer than the first three or four attacks, and so raids 5 through 15 are unopposed. As a result I'm forced to abandon the airfield by railing out my damaged planes. Small raids on subsequent turns keep the air base unusable.
My question is simply how do I keep CAP active for raid numbers 5 through 10+?

Why would you expect to be able to defend? Look at the history of WW2. When the Allied MASSIVE reinforcements arrived they could attack any target at will. And did. And you will never have enough engineers to be able to repair the damaged bases, unlike the Allies which can very quickly put together a level 4 airfield starting from nothing.

[LargeSlowTarget]

Have you split groups into three, added 4 reserve airframes to each sub group, and then recombined them to increase your airframe serviceability?

Great, another "dirty trick" I didn't know about - despite all those years!^^ [&o]

[RangerJoe]

Just think of how many extra kamikazes you could have had . . .

[rustysi]

ORIGINAL: LargeSlowTarget

Have you split groups into three, added 4 reserve airframes to each sub group, and then recombined them to increase your airframe serviceability?

Great, another "dirty trick" I didn't know about - despite all those years!^^ [&o]

Great, another HR.[:D]