Overlord I

[StoneAge]

Mission List:

[Cripes A Mighty]

ORIGINAL: StoneAge

Today is all about revenge:

B-17 going in above his HAA 32100 feet, Hopefully I get enough hits to put Tricqueville repair shops out of action as it's currently holding 130+ planes. I also want to prove to my opponent that an airfield that close to my bases is not a safe place to base his aircraft.

B-24's going on a milk run to hit his PRI AF at Monchy-Breton another close in field that has no AA or planes at the moment. (I hope he has the balls to try and move planes here this turn). The second raid is going after troops near by the AF this is a test to see how much damage only a few guns can do at 28000 feet.

A few low down test raids with Typhoon IB on fields with only HAA to see if I can slip in under his gaurd. If this works expect to see a lot of single Mosquito squadron's on his biggest PRI AF

At this altitude I'm guessing these bombers were above the vast majority of enemy flak. Did you have any particular difficulties with mechanical failure at this high altitude? What about fatigue or morale? I would think that flying at this height in an unpressurized aircraft would be brutally grueling for the crew.

[StoneAge]

The aim of the 32000+ was to avoid some of his AA and it worked ok only a few planes came back with damage from AA. I tend not to run them this high very often as their bombing is very bad from this Alt. The bomb groups that went on this mission did not seem to have any effects on thier morale from flying so high. It may be there but I think it would take a few days up this high to begin being a problem.

AC losses seem to knock the morale around way more.

[StoneAge]

Mission Report:

Two missions bombed through cloud I was hoping that the Villeneuve raid would have moved to their secondary target instead of bombing for no gain. The Hispano-Suiza raid was a secondary target I should have put more distance between the targets.

Not many enemy fighters today but what did come up where his best

[StoneAge]

AC lost:

WooHoo 1 Me 163B and 2 Me 262A-o These guys have been doing some damage when they come up and play.

[StoneAge]

Camp Score:

[StoneAge]

Interesting new tactic from my opponent he is putting up 2 standing patrols and sending aircraft out of these groups trying to catch my recon planes. I need to keep an eye on these if he does it for a few more days I might run FS into those 2 areas to try and clear them out.

[StoneAge]

Day 23
Heading down to paris again this time swinging in on the under side, with 12% cloud I should be able to put some hurt on more rail today.

I need a few days rest to bring the BG's back up to strenght.

[StoneAge]

Mission List:

[StoneAge]

B-17G

3 Bomb Groups Standing down as they are under 60%

[StoneAge]

B-24J
Need some time off to getthem back up to full strenght before invasion starts.

7 Bomb Groups under 60% are going for a pre bombed rail yard in close. Just because the weather is so good if it had of been 40% cloud cover they would have stayed home.

34th BG and 492nd BG are leading a raid each today as they have Nav

[Cripes A Mighty]

Thanks for the entertaining AAR. I'm enjoying following along. I'm in January 1944 of my own full campaign game, with Overlord looming on the horizon, so I'm trying to pick up as many pointers as possible.

I do have a question/suggestion:

As you have stated, your cutoff point for a bomber group's go/no-go decision is a morale rating of 60% or higher. I noticed that some of the bomber groups you recently dispatched on raids are only marginally over the 60% morale minimum and have low numbers of ready aircraft as well. Specifically..

B 17G

96th Bomb Group - 23 aircraft ready - morale 63%
452nd Bomb Group - 25 aircraft ready - morale 63%


B 24 J

486th Bomb Group - 19 aircraft ready - morale 65%
466th Bomb Group - 25 aircraft ready - morale 61%


My question is... would it be better to let these groups have the day off, not only to allow their morale to rebuild, but also to allow their ground crews the opportunity to get more bombers ready through repair and maintenance? Granted, you'd be giving up a day of attacking for these units, but would it be worth it by having larger formations with better morale the next day?

I suppose every player has to wrestle with some form of this question, be they Allied or an Axis. I'd like to hear your take on it.

Thanks again for the great AAR.

[StoneAge]

Cripes,
My cut off is 60% under that is when I start to worry about morale, to me the 63% is fine. The number of aircraft is starting to worry me as the invasion starts in 11 days, I need to get 90% of these planes back into the air before the 1st as that is the start date for my bombing campaign against his troops start. This means for the next 7 days you will start to see groups taking a break of a few days unless the weather is fantastic for bombing.

When I start going after his troops, my ready aircraft are going to take a major dive in avaliable aircraft. Unlike the AI my opponent is loading up his troops with HAA, may not destroy plane but will put them in maintenance for a while.

Attacks for today are a special case. Great weather and I really want to destroy the rail around paris once this area is done there is really only 1 more large rail yard up in Belgium to hit.

[StoneAge]

Don't you hate when the German's go away for Easter.

Be back soon

[StoneAge]

Overlord I - Day 23

What a day new tactic from the enemy, lost a lot of Typhoon's my own fault going in low against PRI AF with a lot of AA. Had to be done though to knock out the airfields, just to show I was not scared to go after his PRI AF fortresses. He now knows they are not safe.

[StoneAge]

AC Lost:
He is getting better at hitting my raids

[StoneAge]

Camp Score:

[StoneAge]

New Tactic:

The enemy put up 3 standing patrols when my raids where first spotted. once my last raid crossed the coast he moved in behind them. Lucky for him this was the least defended raid and he managed to shot down and damage a number of planes.

[StoneAge]

Overlord I - Day 24
Great weather 6% cloud but with yesterdays losses I will be standing a lot of groups down today.

Only 2 major raids today both B-17 and in close. All bombers under 60% M and less than 25 aircraft are having the day off. The aim of today is to trick him into the air with the raids and then shoot him down with fighter sweeps. both raids are protected by only the best fighters 70+ exp and 80+ m. Combined with this are a max effort in FS, 9 in total, I hope the number of planes in the air make him come up and play as my fighters should have the edge.

Target selection: I chose the two airfield because they are near his large airfield I bombed last turn. The track takes them towards this field until the last minute then they vear away. This I hope makes him take off form this field, then I can shoot down or damage as many planes as I can from this field. With its manitenance destroyed I should be able to keep a lot of planes out of the fight or at least make him move them back.

[StoneAge]

Mission list:
300 bombers
1565 Fighters
5 fighters for every 1 bomber flying today lest see if this is reflected in shoot downs