Air interdiction around Odessa?

[richard.pedersen96@gmail.com]

I’m playing Axis vs Soviets and I’ve run into a problem where I had assumed I had Odessa isolated but when the fortress fell, 90% or so of the surrounded defenders escaped. I have moved on with my game but I wanted to understand why it happened lest I allow the Soviets to escape next time from Sevastopol. I did some re-loading of saves and saw that on the start of turn 9 (the turn in which Odessa fell) before the air phase, the axis interdiction levels around Odessa were 0, despite my naval bombers being committed on a naval interdiction mission (high intensity, all 7 days, both friendly and enemy turns). I thought it might be because Soviets have countervailing air power around Odessa, but I warped into their game, moved their whole air force out of range of Odessa, re-ran the turn, and still saw 0 axis interdiction around Odessa at the start of my turn. The only interdiction that’s present in these hexes seems to be the standard 1 interdiction emanating from the port itself for the Soviets. It’s only after my air turn that interdiction returns (interdiction levels of 6 or 7, so definitely enough to isolate Odessa hypothetically).

Does anyone have an idea of what I’m missing here? Why is it that the air interdiction isn’t sustained through the air phase of the next Soviet turn?

[Zovs]

It should be, but did you set your loads out to use Naval Mines?

[homer82]

In addition to naval mines, maybe automatic counter-interdiction from that port to the NE if you hadn't taken it yet (24.5.2)?

[PeteJC]

I have never swapped out for naval mines and have achieved naval interdiction BUT I have always used Flieger Fuehrer Ostsee. I am assuming I have had good results because they use naval mines by default - correct?

[K62_]

I think you're running the Luftwaffe too hard at 7 days, high intensity. It's possible that you're running out of either air miles or fuel+ammo during the friendly air phase and consequently the mission can't run during the enemy air phase. If you check the participating air groups during the ground phase do any of them say "Traveled (%) 100"?

Airbase fuel+ammo is harder to check but cutting down the intensity would probably help in any case. If the NI is unopposed it' should be more than enough to do 4 days/week.

[richard.pedersen96@gmail.com]

Thanks all for the suggestions. It turns out it was a loadout issue — I had assumed the Ju-88s had mines assigned by default but they were actually using their HE loadouts. I’ve tested it all out and it looks like that was the primary cause. Now onwards to Sevastopol…