What constitutes acceptable air losses?

[HansBolter]

In an effort to mitigate the VPs I'm losing I'm trying to get a handle on controlling losses.

How many plane losses per turn is acceptable?

I have turns where I lose anywhere from 300-490 planes and turns where I lose 120 without changing anything about the missions and directives being assigned. How can I know what results to expect?

Is there any value in targeting U-Boats in an attempt to mitigate those VP loses or should the concentration be only on Oil/Fuel/Manpower/Heavy Industry?

Is there any value in targeting V-Weapons in an attempt to mitigate those VP losses or should the concentration be only on Oil/Fuel/Manpower/Heavy Industry?

For all of '43 my strat bombing efforts concentrating on Oil/Fuel/Manpower/Heavy Industry yielded 10-11 VPs per turn.
In '44 the yield for the same effort dropped to a steady 4 VPs per turn.
Does anyone have an explanation for the reduction?
Are there any changes I can make to get that yield back up to 10-11 VPs per turn?

[Metalist]

I have only played as Axis so far, but to give you an idea my opponent who is an experienced player managed to score, in '43, up to 25 VPs from the strategic bombing and this happened for a considerable amount of turns, and the lowest points he scored were 12-13. In the first half of '44 he usually manages to score 8-9 points.

The decrease you're observing is due to strategic bombing divisor. Basically you earn less points as time goes by. Here's from the manual 25.1.1.:

SBP Date adjustment divisor is as follows:
1943: 6
Jan-Jun 1944: 9
Jul-Dec 1944: 12
1945: 18

You can see a more detailed view of your aircraft losses in metrics screen, this might give you an idea of what went wrong. If you see in an increase in A2A losses maybe Luftwaffe is being more aggressive, or high operational losses might mean weather is simply not good enough to fly etc.

[HansBolter]

Is there a way to calculate what percentage of my VP losses are directly attributed to plane and pilot losses?

If I'm only gaining 4 VPs a turn through strat bombing while losing 8-10 VP or more to losses, I would be better served standing down the air force altogether.

Unfortunately, I have to pull teeth to get the info necessary to balance that equation.

Since the Losses report comes at the end of the Axis turn and the beginning of the Allied turn I am only given a breakdown for the planes and pilots lost during the Axis turn. Where can I find a similar breakdown of the losses incurred during the Allied half of the turn?

I am curious how to go about achieving a VP yield like your opponent. When I set air directives the AI sets missions with huge areas of 7-9 hexes square. Would I be better served by taking control and assigning many more single hex target missions? I do often move and sometimes downsize the areas of the mission targets selected by the AI, especially when the AI wants to send the 8th AF to, or near, Berlin long before the P51s have arrived. I only allow Bomber Command's night missions to penetrate deeply into Germany. Am I screwing up by doing this? Do I need to take the leash off the 8th to achieve the kinds of yields your opponent is getting?

Is there a way to see the factory types displayed outside of the air targeting selection? The map button for displaying factories does not actually display the factories, but rather provides a shaded highlight for hexes containing factories. This make is very difficult to determine what hexes need to be targeted for specific factory types. IIRC WitE2 displays the actual factories with that map button. Apparently they recognized the shortcoming, corrected it in the follow up game, but never came back and corrected it in this game.

[rickwarintheeast]

Throughout the war, I focus Bomber Command on MANPOWER reductions. I designate three targets per turn, bombing the two highest effect MANPOWER targets in medium range and the highest MANPOWER target in deep range (usually Berlin).

In 1943, I use the 8th Air Force to pound U-boat bases and production facilities to get and keep them below 50%. When sufficiently damaged, I focus on damaging RESOURCES, SYNTHETIC FUEL, and MANUFACTURING. Starting with the biggest production capability (maximum -- damage), I work down the list, hitting two cities each turn, until U-boats start hurting me again, then I take a time-out, and paste them, then go back to pounding

Unless I am misremembering, I don't think the Allies receive victory points for U-boats after the end of 1943. Consequently, starting in 1944, I go after the V1 / V2 launch sites and production facilities in the same fashion as the U-boats the prior year.

And I've found it worthwhile to keep an eye on each unit's ready aircraft. When a unit's ready aircraft fall below 75%, I rest them until the are back to 100%. I also like to use the medium bombers and a combination of Day-only and night-fighters to focus on airbases where Germans are massing fighters, especially when they are near priority bombing targets.

Have fun.

[HansBolter]

Thank you very much for the detailed explanation.

Will try to start taking more control from the AI on mission planning and follow your recommendations.

I recently let Bomber Command target Berlin and suffered over 75 plane losses on that target alone with a total that turn of 686 plane losses across the board. My highest total yet.

Should I have spent the bulk pf '43 targeting airbases in an attempt to degrade the enemy air force?

Bombing air bases does not seem to be nearly as effective in this game as it is in WitPAE.

[rickwarintheeast]

Who knows how many winning strategies there are...lots, I bet.

In 1943, I focus Bomber Command mostly on the Ruhr, Hamburg, Essen, and the like. When groups fall below 75%, I rest them. I send Fighter Command in to cover as much of the routes as possible. And I use 2nd Tac, with their medium bombers and stuff, to go after the airfields, and send in both day and night fighters over those airfields. Sometimes I get lucky and bag some of their fighters.

One thing to consider is that the Germans have a very large number of night fighters. I've not done it, but I've heard of the Allies retraining and switching Bomber Command to daylight operations. The RAF losses go up, but a huge part of the Luftwaffe fighter strength becomes highly vulnerable during day-light operations.

With the 8th Air Force, I focus them on U-boats, Resources, Synthetic Fuel, and Manufacturing.

As soon as enough B25's and B26s become available, I move them into the 9th Air Force and attack Luftwaffe concentrations in Le Havre, Normandy, and the Paris area. Again, with a little luck, some of those German fighters might not make it home.

Regards,

Rick