KayBay's Allied Strategic & Tactical Doctrine

[Fraggman]

Hello there,

I'm going to be picking up the game here shortly and the information here has been a great read. But the last post was quiet a few years ago. Do you have any new info for what you learned as worked for you?

Thanks, Fraggman

[ScrubLord93]

I'm going to be picking up the game here shortly and the information here has been a great read. But the last post was quiet a few years ago. Do you have any new info for what you learned as worked for you?

I believe everything here in terms of production, transport, bomber mission planning, etc is still completely valid for the current version. Recon is still very important, as is planning out your raids to be in vicinity of each other and following similar paths so that they provide mutual coverage with their escorts.

Some observations I've made playing on the 2023 version of the game are listed below:

• I find the night intruders to be very un-fun to keep track of and plan. Spending the time to run night fighters through your bombing line at night is a waste of time as most nights you will see zero interceptions and you will only get a shoot down rarely. The only way to make night fighters useful as the Allies is to catch landing aircraft, which in itself will require noting down by hand landing times of enemy aircraft stationed there and then plotting out numerous mission by hand to cover an airfield for 60 minutes or so. It's cool when it works, but spending 5+ minutes every night mission cycle in return for a handful of intercepts is just not worth it and I leave all that to the AI now.
• Fighter sweeps are very finicky and kind of broken. I saw kaybay said here that fighter sweeps were overpowered in the version of the game they played, and I just haven't experienced that in the 2023 version. Fighter sweeps (FS) in the current version will give up all their altitude to strafe random targets along their mission path, rack up flak damage in the process, and then sit over their patrol target soaking up more flak damage at a lower altitude than you wanted them at. FS missions in the current version of the game seem valuable for catching landing aircraft, strafing airfields for attrition, and strafing enemy units for close air support. This could be very nice for killing off high priority enemy airframes like jets or later war props, but it'll again involve meticulous noting of where air groups are stationed and what times they are taking off and landing. If you're doing PBEM, this won't work at all since the human player will be much more proactive about moving their airgroups around so you can't destroy landing aircraft consistently.
• I'm not sure if someone wrote up a more detailed piece on supporting Allied landings vs strategic bombings, but my strategy is to avoid striking land units until right before the invasion kicks off. For example, for the Normandy landings I would start striking a small selection of ground targets daily about a week out from June 6th. A month prior to the landings, I would start working on striking every rail junction anywhere near the invasion point. This will make land units recover from disruption and damage taken from battle slower as supplies are constrained. I think that focusing on Overlord or Avalanche targets before about a month is a waste of time since they will be repaired by the time the invasion starts. Landings follow historical timings completely, but you can influence their progress once the landings have completed. Before you start a game, just make a note of landing events like Operation Overlord or Husky and time your tactical bombing support accordingly.
• Space out your escort groups. I.e, don't slap every single escort you can to meet up with your bombers at the same time, even if the mission planner shows they have the endurance to stick with the bombers the entire way to the target and back. Escorts and interceptors alike use WAY more fuel in combat than regular cruising with the bomber formation, so if you can space out when escorts are meeting the bombers you can get fresh aircraft coming in more often which results in fewer escort gaps during the mission.
• Diminishing returns on bomber groups starts happening after 100 aircraft. That was mentioned in this thread but I'm not sure if it ever had a number attached.