A tale of some very successful use of Air Superiority

[Hardradi]

I have seen this twice before but never really analysed it in detail.
Hope it helps some people get more into the air game.

DAY 1
STEP 1
This is turn 7 I am worried about ~200 VVS bombers hitting the Divisions of my Motorised Corps who have crossed the Dnepr River near Kiev. I set up an Air Superiority Directive east of Kiev. I think it was a size 4 box. Set up to fly every day. I deliberately use a small number of fighters (4) to keep down my OPS losses.


I think this is a screenshot from the subsequent turn, I think I lowered the number of fighters to two before I took the picture.

Air Superiority and Naval Patrol fly before all other directives. Based on the Logistics Report, of which an extract is displayed, it looks like two Air Superiority Directives “clash” and trigger an air battle (pure speculation as to what this means but the same thing plays out on other days). This can be seen by the Dark Blue highlighting.

At this altitude the speed of the Bf 109s is superior. Note how the AS Directive drew units from both Stab/JG 3 and 1/JG 3. (In step 2A and 2B they fly separately below).

STEP 2
Enemy bombers move into my AS box, presumably from the direction of Poltava air base (highlighted in Burgundy red).

STEP 2A
They are first intercepted by a lone hunter from Stab/JG 3. He shoots down 3 of them and returns to base (perhaps reporting the flight path of the enemy bombers). Lime Green highlighting.




STEP 2B
Perhaps alerted by the lone hunter from Stab and/or already in the air, 3 fighters from II/JG 3 intercept the Soviet bombers. They down 2 each (again, perhaps reporting the flight path back to base). Yellow highlighting.

STEP 2C
The Soviet bombers reach their target and prepare for their bombing run. From the direction of the sun emerge a terrifying mass of 64 Luftwaffe fighters. Most likely alerted by the two previous encounters by fighters on Air Superiority missions, they pounce and annihilate the massed Soviet bomber formation. Orange highlighting. Maybe I just got lucky.

Note from the battle reports how all three of the STEP 2 encounters are linked. This can be seen by clicking on the hyperlink in the centre of the battle report.

[Hardradi]

DAY 2

Opposing Air Superiority directives clash again.

[Hardradi]

DAY 3 (the cycle repeats)

STEP 1
Opposing Air Superiority directives clash again (Dark Blue highlighting).



STEP 2
Enemy bombers move into my AS box, presumably from the direction of Poltava air base (highlighted in Burgundy red).

STEP 2A
This time they are intercepted by 3 hunters from II./JG 3. They only manage to shoot down one a piece. They return to base (perhaps reporting the flight path of the enemy bombers). Yellow highlighting.

STEP 2B
The lone hunter from Stab/JG 3 is out again. He spots the massed bombers of Long Range Command but can’t or doesn’t engage. He returns to base (perhaps reporting the flight path of the enemy bombers). Lime Green highlighting.

STEP2C
The Soviet Ground Attack goes in but it turns out to be a trap! Massed Luftwaffe fighters scramble and intercept. Even I./JG 51 in Gomel, part of Luftflotte #2 gets in on the action in support of Luftflotte #4. Red highlighting.

Again from the battle reports, all three of these encounters are linked. This can be seen by clicking on the hyperlink in the centre of the battle report.

[Hardradi]

Here I take a screenshot of a Directive so that I can recall what planes were allocated to which Directive. Then I can put planes on Rest at the end of the Ground phase, if that is what I want to do. I can also see what planes are out of range and move them if I want to.



Here I have eight Air Superiority Directives in play, mainly to protect bombing targets which back then was Panzer Groups.
They are also good at intercepting enemy recon flights, naval patrol and protecting airfields.

[Stamb]

interesting, what were result of ops losses?

[Hardradi]

OPS losses are very low for the AS missions set up with low numbers.

I sometimes might go up to 16 if I am trying to intercept specific missions my opponent might fly and still do not find them that bad.

[OberstVonWitz]

My word... This is just an example of the FRUSTRATION of this game that anyone could be bothered with multiple 4 hex groupings!!!

I don't think the pre- slaughter fest did much to the result compared to not doing it at all.

Based on many accounts if any German fighters are "in the way" its going to be a bad day out for the Russians.

Try it with no NO pre plan and let me know.....

[Joel Billings]

It would be interesting to hear what happens when you don't fly the AS missions. It could be that since you have multiple airbases in the vicinity, and the Soviets appear to be flying along the front line to reach the target, that they would be intercepted in any case. However, it has to be true that the AS interception increases the detection level of the attacking force, making it more likely that other auto-intercept aircraft will have time to engage the targets. So this might not work in all cases, but does seem to be a good idea to try. Especially useful when your fighters are so much better than the opponent's, and you can survive being outnumbered. Small AS flights can help be your spotters without taking many op losses. Sounds like a very good idea if you are expecting enemy non-GS air action.

[Sarge11]

Have been trying to fly air superiority missions, last couple turns, assign units min aircraft 10 per mission, nothing happens? Is that because they didnt find anything or never left the base????????????

[Hardradi]

Have been trying to fly air superiority missions, last couple turns, assign units min aircraft 10 per mission, nothing happens? Is that because they didnt find anything or never left the base????????????

Its most likely because they didn't find anything. Based on what I know, you will only see the direct results of air superiority in the Air Phase (friendly and enemy).

You can slow down the air phase and watch the screen and or the bottom right tabs to see if it is flying. Also check the air phase log.

[jasonbroomer]

Interesting that your first example managed to fly AS 16 hexes away from their staging base. I can’t seem to fly any further than 12 hexes away with severely limits the usefulness of AS, particularly in the opening turns.

[56ajax]

Interesting that your first example managed to fly AS 16 hexes away from their staging base. I can’t seem to fly any further than 12 hexes away with severely limits the usefulness of AS, particularly in the opening turns.

Are your fighters based at the staging base? 15 (or 16 if you count the hex the purple line goes through) hexes is the max distance for AS ops, and 11/12 the max for escort. Thats in 1941 anyway. I think the manual says dont expect too much at maximum distance.

[jasonbroomer]

That might make sense, I'll check it out

[Mehring]

Have been trying to fly air superiority missions, last couple turns, assign units min aircraft 10 per mission, nothing happens? Is that because they didnt find anything or never left the base????????????

You might find a report of AS missions in the air execution segment of the logistics report- not sure if it reports your own activity, also the air execution phase summary should tell you the number of sorties flown regardless of contacts. Another way to tell for Soviets particularly, is whether the experience levels are rising. AS missions far behind the lines are a significantly less slow way to raise experience than leaving f/fb in national reserve.