ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain
ORIGINAL: Dinglir
ORIGINAL: HardLuckYetAgain
I'm getting murdered in the Air but Experience is averaging out to mid 70's for my fighter arm.
The Luftwaffe started the game with experience in the mid 80's which represent the fact that they had spent several years at war (Spain, Poland, Norway, France and the Balkans) plus their intensive training. The Soviets can spend two months of getting slaughtered in the air and then get experience comparable with the Luftwaffe starting values.....
In my honest opinion the experience gain of Air Groups needs to get seriously nerfed come a future patch.
Going by history, it should be all the way up to 1943 before the Soviets got "parity" in the air. In this game, such parity will come in 1941 if you are willing to micromanage your airforce.
I also believe the Soviet Air Groups start with an experience level that is FAR to high. Historically, the Soviet pilots often had very few flying hours behind them when they went up against the Luftwaffe in 1941. One groups of IL-2's started the war with an average of 8-10 flying hours (they had practised take offs and landings, but not actual fighting - few had ever seen the RS-82 rockets they were supposed to use).
All the way through the war Soviet replacement pilots reached the front with 8-12 flying hours (none in bad weather) and often no hours in the type of plane they were to fly against the Luftwaffe.
I concur with you that the experience starts a bit too high for the Soviets. But the process in this game to get them a higher experience would be the same I think, just a bit longer with lower experience and morale.
It is all how you control your Airforce. The principles are the same on both sides just need to know how to control that airforce. I can say that on many occasion my opponents expect too much from the Luftwaffe and fatigue the heck out of them. That just opens them up for unnecessary casualties. Yes, I see this on the Soviet side too, even more so.
But, I have always said the way west for the Russians starts with the Airforce. Build the proper Airforce in 41 and early 42 you are off to the races. Without giving away too much you did put a damper on my building of my Airforce by a few months but normally by Spring 42 to late Sept 42 I'm in full control(or at least 2/3's of the fronts) of the skies in most of my games. With that I will have the level bombers and "normally" the TAC bombers to support any attack anywhere with great fighter Coverage and bomber support. In late 42 or early 43 I turn on Interdiction for full effect. It gets sick quick the amount of causalities from interdiction.
I just haven't seen any other Soviet player play the Airforce like I do. Or maybe I just missed it, but I thought I read all of the AAR's all the way back to Beta
Some objectives I have
1. build Soviet Airforce #2 (check)
2. build Guard Infantry no matter the causalities prior to blizzard (check) (Turn 13 I have 13 Guard Infantry and 23 more with 5 or more wins(does not include Mountain, Armor, Calvary)
3. save as many trucks as possible to support a huge airforce (check)
