KayBay's Allied Strategic & Tactical Doctrine

[TechSgt]

KayBay;

The new game is great, eh?

Fighters don't go flying off -- to Dover. [:)]
Setting up a fighter Patrol point on the bomber's return route has been very "fruitful".

The massive amount of operation points on the first turn, allows setting up groups and squadrons to execute a strategy much quicker than TOH.

But, I'm finding the Recon change to be... interesting. Pick the main target, secondary, then plot every outbound waypoint over a target, also.
Since each plane will take extra photos, intell will add up in a hurry. Plus, you can save on the recon mission count. Having the "real" mission as an outbound waypoint also hides the target from an Axis player.

For a 1943 campaign, Bomber Command is where the action will be till Jan 1944.
Then it switches to daylight bombing till D-Day -- the historical Italian breakout occurs about this time, too.
Then it goes tactical till the breakout from Normandy.
Now the game is going on all cylinders -- 2 strategic daylights AF's, 2 night strategic AF's, 3 tactical AF's -- till the end.

Anyways, you've got a good read going, so get back to work! [:D]

TS

Edit: Remember of 17 Aug '43, Bomber Command launched a maximum-effort mission to Peenemunde!

[kaybayray]

TechSgt,
Oh I got something much better in store for the Third Reich with BC. Man it would be Lights Out if I had the Halifax II with Jamming right now. But I will just have to use my wits until then.

What is this you saying about Recon? I really havnt read through the manual much yet. You saying that Recon birds will recon anything they fly over? Only what about Ack? I mean I dont like losing Recon birds.

Yeah its awesome now that my 38's on Fighter Sweeps across the Med do head for Tea in Dover. Jeez that really ticked me off with the original. About 15% of my Fighter losses were birds takin off on the World Tour.

And yeah I have been working real hard learning how to use BC. That is why I started off with that on this thread. That is your most Lethal weapon until 44. I have toyed with the idea of just working BC to kill Germany but I dont think you can. Too much industry must be shut down to take the legs from under the Luftwaffe. BC is just too sloppy and slow with respect to hitting Industrial targets.

I hear Fighter Sweeps have been Nerfed. I hope not to bad. I loved setting up Bushwhackes with Fighter Sweeps. About 25% of all my kills are ground kills. At least with the Original. We will see with this version. I also got to get a handle on the Fighter Patrols with the Allies. I didnt see it explained in the Manual but as I said I havnt really dug into it yet. I'm like my kids on Christmas..... couldnt wait to get going with my new toy. LOL [8D]

Later,
KayBay

[kaybayray]

Hey TechSgt,
I just gave the Recon section in the Manual a quick read. Yeah... sounds good. I will have to pay attention to how it works as I have my Recon birds running on this first day. Thanks for the great Tip man [8D]

LOL.. was funny.. I read in the Manual that "if you launch your Recon missions early enough in the morning you can have the latest recon photos for Today's Mission"... And what is the Appropriate Engineering Term for this Revelation??? "DUH" [8D]

Man all my birds launch at Oh Dark Hundred and get back before the stove is even hot. My Law is "No Recon = No Mission" [8D]

Man this is such an AWESOME game !!! Hard as Molybdenum though. But that is what makes it so cool [8D]

[TechSgt]

ORIGINAL: kaybayray

Hey TechSgt,
I just gave the Recon section in the Manual a quick read. Yeah... sounds good. I will have to pay attention to how it works as I have my Recon birds running on this first day. Thanks for the great Tip man [8D]

LOL.. was funny.. I read in the Manual that "if you launch your Recon missions early enough in the morning you can have the latest recon photos for Today's Mission"... And what is the Appropriate Engineering Term for this Revelation??? "DUH" [8D]

Man all my birds launch at Oh Dark Hundred and get back before the stove is even hot. My Law is "No Recon = No Mission" [8D]

Man this is such an AWESOME game !!! Hard as Molybdenum though. But that is what makes it so cool [8D]

KayBay;

If you work the timing, you can have the recon land just before the bombers reach the target and watch that recon number drop to zero! That's going to give the bomber boys the best chance to hit the target.

I think each recon flight can take up to five photos per mission. I found by using the outbound waypoints, I ensure the flight has a chance to take some extra snaps. Now if the clouds would follow the path I want! [:'(]

If you watch during the Action Phase, if a Recon plane @ 12K flies over an airfield and takes some flak, that airfield has 37mm AAA.

As far as fighter sweeps, I'm back to square one. They are working like I always hoped they would, but now I have to see if those ten years old ideas actually work!

TS

[kaybayray]

Hey TechSgt, <S>

Yeah in the past with the Strike Recon I would send out the day before to get Pre Strike Recon then I would plot Recon to over fly just after the raid to get Damage Assessment of the Strike. Worked pretty well. I know we can make the same day pre strike recon work for targets early on. Later in 44 wont be so easy. I dont like flying my strikes late in the day unless my overall strategy for the days missions calls for it.

Guess I am back on the learning curve with respect to Fighter Sweeps. Not sure what changes were made and how they will effect them. But this next few weeks should be very interesting.

Later,
KayBay [8D]

[kaybayray]

Greetings All <S>!!

I have built my next addition to this thread. It deals with Daylight Strategic Bombing. I am sorry for the way I am going to have to post it. I will have to post text and image and then post another, etc... until I get it all in. I think there will be some going back and forth between pages of the board because I think I am near the bottom of this page. I appoligize for that but I dont have any control over how you post Excell spreadsheets on this board. I hope it wont be too difficult to make sense of it because of how I am going to have to post it.

Thanks,
KayBay

[kaybayray]

Greetings All <S>
The KayBay has Returned!!

Sorry I have been away deep in my Bunker pouring over the game and analyzing the possibilities. I have spent a lot of time looking at the different Industries, how the German Industrial Base is proportioned and looking at how one might go about effecting the destruction of German Industry. I have read a few more books from both sides and am currently working on my next group of books in my attempt to take the immersion to a new level. The Matrix Crew made a lot of changes and I have been doing my homework.

I have already posted my Strategic and Tactical Doctrine with respect to Bomber Command and Night Bombing. From what I have seen with the changes my Doctrine is still very sound. I don’t propose any significant changes. I have found that my RCM aircraft are a lot more effective much earlier on so I will not be revisiting Bomber Command for the time being. As I pursue my Campaign I may modify my overall technique but for now that which I have written works very well.

What I am doing now is moving on to the next phase which will be centered on Daylight Strategic Bombing. This area is much more complex as your options increase exponentially with respect to your Target Base. You have a much wider variety of Targets to select from with a huge array of potential pathways. As my Grandmother always told me “Theres more than one way to choke a dog”, and that is what I am going to explore. The various ways in which one might go about choking this dog.

Now as usual what I am discussing here, as always, is The KayBay Way. In no way is this to be considered anything else. Do not look to me thinking I am telling you this is the “Only Way” or the “Best Way”. It is just one “Possible Way”. That might possibly lead to your destruction should you follow it. I make no guarantee of your success. The fundamental premise of this game is “Either side can win”. I do not want to debate that or anything else here. That is for the General Discussion area of this Forum.

This is a fantastic game and I want to play it at the deepest level of immersion that I can take it to given my limited capabilities. If you are looking at this game to drink some brewski’s while munching some “Nosh Material” as you command your little icons around the map then my advice to you is to stop reading this immediately. Go no further because it will just annoy you.

OK, that being said…. Now let’s take a look at German Industry. Now I see it as two distinct categories, Production and Transportion. I do not include Air Bases as well as Ground and Air Forces in this particular discussion as they are, IMHO more in the way of a Tactical Target to be dealt with in a more haphazard way as your campaign unfolds. I do not recommend attempting interdicting Ground Forces as it is quite costly and does nothing towards the destruction of German Industry. Which is the one overall goal for your Air Forces in the first place. I will include dealing with Axis Air Forces at a later stage of this discussion where it is more appropriate. Initially you must determine what your Strategic Pathway is. Then you can go about those details.

Keep in mind “There is more than one way to choke a Dog”. This will be a recurring theme and take care not to jump to conclusions as I work my way through this. I do not have the time to sit down and pen this discussion in it’s entirety all at once. It is extremely complicated and I will have to work my way through it. There will be a lot to digest as we go.

OK so now here is the most basic analysis of German Industry as I see it. I put it in a spreadsheet and analyze it through the perspective of relative proportion and general concentration and distribution of all Industries. Broken down into the two fundamental categories as I see it. Prodution Industries and Transportation Industries.

[kaybayray]

Not all industries are equal. Some industries are categorized as Critical and others are Political while others are neither. There are many interconnections and interdependencies between many industries as well. This leads to a myriad of Pathways. I am not showing these connections and dependencies at this time. At this time I want to just look at the most basic analysis. First let me define some of the various categories I have broken my analysis down into. For the most part they should be fairly obvious what they are but in the interest of making sure that all whom read this discussion understand how I came to each value in my analysis I will provide some defintions.

Total Capacity = This is the total summed capacity of an industry. This is calculated by simply summing up the individual capacity’s of each facility of an industy.

% National Capacity = This is the Proportion calculated in percentage that a particular industry is of the overall Total National Capacity of that fundamental industry type.

Total National Capacity = This is simply the summation of capacity’s of all the facilities of all the industries as grouped in that data set.

# of Facilities = This is simply the total number of Facilities or Factories of a particular industrial category.

AVG Capcacity per Facility = This is the calculated average capacity that each facility of a particular industy has. Simply calculated by dividing the total capacity of an industry by the number of facilities in that industy category.

% Facility of Industry = This is the Proportion calculated in percentage that an individual facility is of a particular industy. This is based on the calculated average capacity per facility of that particular industy.

% Facility of National Capacity = This is the Proportion calculated in percentage that an individual facility of a particular industry is of the overall Total National Capcity for that fundamental production type.

Critical = These are the industries that have been categorized in the Game Structure as “Critical” industries. These are described in the Game Manual briefly. The idea being that these industries are more important to German production than non-critical industries are. I will discuss this in more detail and present more specific information on this later in the discussion.

Political = These are the industries that are more important for Political reasons that you will be forced to engage as “Mandatory Targeting” as your campaign progresses. They do have some Industrial and Strategic value but damge to these facilities will have a much less effect to overall German production than the non-political industries.


OK now that we have done our “First Pass” analysis of German Industry I want to point out some things about the various calculated values. As in all things there are “High Flyers” and “Low Flyers”. This is to say that in any industrial category there are individual facilities that are far above or below the calculated average values in my analysis. But you have to start somewhere if you ever hope to choke this dog. So for me I chose to start by trying to build an image of overall and individual industrial density for each industry. This way I can make at least some attempt to Rank each industry. Remember we have to develop a Pathway to enable the development of a Strategy.

For me as always, I want to get the most out of each trip I make to any target. I don’t like wasted trips. Having no Pathway to a Strategy is having No Plan and having No Plan for Success is a Plan for Failure. This also leads to a lot of wasted trips to useless destinations and the loss of a lot of Air Crews and Aircraft.

Now given that we know there is some variability in our analysis we can still glean quite a lot from it. Lets take a look at some Ranking analysis or Pareto’s of the data set we have built. This will help us see some of the Possibilities.

[kaybayray]

In Chart # 1 and Chart # 2 we have ranked the various Production Industries by their relative Capacity, both by Industry Production Capacity and by % National Production Capacity. What we gain from this is limited though. We can determine which industries represent the larger shares of overall German Production. This however does not reveal anything about Industrial Density. This is more important for our purpose. Recall I want to make the most of each trip over enemy territory and I don’t want to make wasted trips as well. So I need to also look at Industrial Density. By this I am referring to Density as the higher ranking of Production Capacity per Facility of the various industries. To do this I will rank them as such.

Why is the notion of Industrial or Production Density important? It represents the relative Capacity importance or ranking of various industries and individual production facilities within specific industries. I want to make the most of the risk I take with each mission so I want to target particular facilities of particular industries that represent a higher potential production capacity so that I can cause maximum damage to German Production.

[kaybayray]

Chart # 3

[kaybayray]

Chart # 4

[kaybayray]

In Chart # 3 we have ranked the industries by the Average Production Capacity per individual facility of that industry. This is a lot more representative of the Production Density of individual facilities of each of the industries. In Chart # 4 we have ranked the industries by the % of the overall National Production Capacity that each individual facility of each industry represents. This is even more telling of the potential value of facilities of the various industries with respect to their potential weight in overall German production. We can also see that in the higher end of the ranking of each there are several “Critical” industries. This is significant. This shows that purely on the basis of Industrial Density per Production Facility of the various industries causing damage to facilities in Rubber Fabrication, Ball Bearing Fabrication and Aluminium Fabrication will have the potential for causing more significant damage to overall German industry and production capacity as compared to all the other industrial categories. However, as revealing as this may be it still has not touched on the interconnections and interdependencies between the various industries as I have mentioned earlier.

As I have also mentioned earlier, take care not to jump to conclusions because this is very complex. There is also “More than one way to choke a dog”. So I don’t recommend that you start launching missions at facilities of these particular industries. Take a look at the Map and look at the equipment you have. In the 1943 campaign in the opening months to isolate just these industries will be extremely costly and could result in disaster. So we still have a long way to go before we are able to put together a viable Pathway.

Now I have built what I refer to as the Target Effects Array. This is a flow chart showing the interconnections and interdependencies that I have spoken about. What I have done is taken the various types of Production Industries and arrayed them on a flow chart by virtue of their interdependencies. Starting at any point on the chart with any industry one can follow the Flow of the effect of causing damage to that industry to those industries that are interconnected and / or interdependent with it. The flow can be followed all the way down the chart to see what the ultimate effect on the Production Output is in the Effect Array.

For example if one starts at the <ALUM> Aluminium Fabrication Industry and follows the flow of the effect of damage to that industry one can easily see that damage to Aluminium production will direclty effect the productivity of <AFAC> Aircraft Assembly, <EFAC> Engine Fabrication, <CFAC> Avionics and Components production and <ARM> Armaments manufacturing. Which will have the ultimate effect on the output of Aircraft Production, Repair and Replacements as well as Ground Defense Production.

Now lets look at this particular possible Pathway of focusing on Aluminium Fabrication. If we look at our Pareto charts from earlier we can see that in Chart # 1 and Chart # 2, Aluminium Industry is at the far right or Lower end of the Production Capacity ranking. This means that relative to all other Production Industries Aluminium production does not represent a major or significant proportion of overall German Production Capacity. But as I stated earlier that analysis does not take into effect either the Production Density of that industry or the facilities of it.

Now if we look at Chart # 3 and Chart # 4, where we have ranked the Capacity Density of individual Facilities of all the industries by both specific industries and by the overall National Production Capacity we can see that each individual facility for Aluminium fabrication ranks as a more significant target. This is further raised in significance by the fact the Aluminium Fabrication is also classified as a “Critical” industry.

So we can now see that following a Pathway of Aluminium fabrication as a Strategic Bombing Target will directly effect the manufacturing of parts and components for aircraft assembly which will then effect the output of Aircraft Production, Repair and Replacement, as well as the output of Ground Defense Production. Therefore if your strategy calls for the reduction of the output of Axis Aircraft and Ground Defense then targeting Aluminium Fabrication becomes a viable Targeting Pathway.

Now that being determined, take a look again at the Map and your Forces. You have a long way to go to crush German industy following only this one Pathway. So you are going to have to study the Target Effects Array flow chart a lot more and find other Pathways to simultaneously work on in an overall multifaceted approach if you hope to obtain success over the Axis.

I will present some other subsets of this flow chart that IMHO have some significance. So much so that I want to make sure the readers connect the dots as it were.

[kaybayray]

Now if you want to effect the output of Aircraft Production, Repair and Replacement and / or the output of Ground Defense Production then a significant pathway is the Pathway of Steel as I refer to it. I have cut this section out and placed it below so that it can be seen much easier. Note that at the top of it are two “Critical” industries, Steel Fabrication and Ball Bearing Fabrication. Note that Ball Bearing Fabrication is effected by damage to Steel Fabrication. By causing damage to Steel Fabrication you are applying direct pressure on Ball Bearing Fabrication as well as the three Aircraft industries along with Armaments Production. If you also cause damage to Ball Bearing Fabrication directly, then now you are applying pressure directly to the three Aircraft industries as well as Armaments Production from two directions. This can have the potential to cause an increased effect to those industries. By following the flow down the chart one can see that the ultimate effect is on the output of Aircraft Production, Repair and Replacement as well as Ground Defense Production. Link this effect with what we have already examined with Aluminium Fabrication and now you can apply direct pressure to these four industries and their associated outputs from three directions. This is a very rigorous Strategic Bombing Pathway.

[kaybayray]

If your goal is to effect the number of Sorties the Axis Air Forces are able to fly then you should consider what I refer to as the Pathway of Oil. Again I have cut this section out from the overall Target Effects Array to make sure that it can be recognized. In this pathway note that it starts with <OILS> Oil Storage. Causing damage to Oil Storage will apply direct pressure to the three major industries that produce Aviation Fuels, which are <CHEM> Chemical Fabrication, <OILR> Oil Refinery and <FUEL> Synthetic Fuel Refinery. If you follow the flow of effects from those three industries you can see that the ultimate effect is on Axis Sorties. Damage to Oil Storage will effect the industries that produce Aviation fuels which will serve to limit the number and duration of Axis Sorties able to be flown. Note that by damaging Oil Storage alone pressure can be applied to Axis Sorties from three different direction. If you also cause damage to any or all of Chemcial Fabrication, Oil Refining and Synthetic Fuel Refining this can serve the potential of increasing the pressure directly on Axis Sorties.

[kaybayray]

Many other pathways can be carved out of the Target Effects Array. I will not belabor this point. I just wanted to show what IMHO are some of the possibilities by looking at the Strategic Targets this way.

There are some other things that I have not yet shown with respect to the Target Effects Array Flow Chart. So far I have focused solely on Production Industries. Now lets take a look at the Transportation Industries. Those consist of Ports and Rail. The Game Manual describes what these two types of facilities are. I have put them into the format of the Target Effects Array I built for Production Industries and have placed them below. Doing damage to Ports will result in effecting National Industrial Strength. The Manual also describes the effects of damaging Rail facilities as effecting Supply Lines to Ground Forces, Transport of Resources and Production and Direclty effects nearby Industries.

[kaybayray]

Study of that which I have presented does show that there is in fact “More than one way to choke a dog”. As for me, I have done a lot of reading and have found some very interesting information about what effects where had by the damaging of various kinds of targets during the war. The Game Manual shows and states that causing damage to <POWER> Electic Power Plants causes a direct effect to ALL industries. With the greatest effect to those nearby. As I have also shown here damaging Rail facilities will effect the transport and distribution of the components of all production. This along with actual historical reports from the effects of targeting Power and Transportation with Strategic Daylight Bombardment has prompted me to select my major Pathway as that of Power and Transportation in my 1943 Campaign.

Again, what I have presented here is by no means and in no way to be considered as “The Only Way” or the “Best Way” but merely “One Way” or “The KayBay Way”. And it carries with it no promise of success. However as I have played this fantastic game for several years now I have gained I think a much better understanding of it. Recalling how daunting it was when I first started I wanted to present some of what I had observed and learned as well as some of the thoughts those things generated within me to members of the community exploring this game that may be experiencing what I did in the early days. This is just the beginning. I will continue with this thread as my time allows. But I wanted to at least get over the Beginning for Daylight Strategic Bombing. In future posts I will discuss actual mission planning and building for various types of missions. Keep in mind my way is one of intense immersion within this game.

I do hope you all will forgive how the Excel spreadsheets pasted to this thread. There is only so much I can do and I realize they didn’t transfer as they appear on my hard drive. But I do think readers will be able to see what I am presenting. My hope is that it makes things a bit clearer for those playing this game. I am also sure that there are many of you out there that far surpass my feeble understanding of this game. But I hope that I am making some positive contribution to those curious ones.

Regards,
KayBay


[8D]

[Nicholas Bell]

Great stuff, Kaybayray.&nbsp; You obviously spent a lot of time and effort putting this together.&nbsp; Thanks for posting.

[kaybayray]

Hey Nick <S>

Thank you very much Sir !!

You, Sarge, Swift, Harley, TechSgt all were part of this as well as many unnamed. Thanks to great advice, insight, sharing of observations and test run results plus all the Reality Checks you guys have given me made it possible for me to put all of this thread together. Never could have done any of this without a ton of help from all you guys and many many others that are not named.

And Nick, thank you so much for discussing so many topics with me and really giving me things to think about. I really do appreciate it all. You have done some really serious work with this game. And you have shared it openly. I appreciate that very much. This game is just so complex. The more I dig the deeper it gets. One day I might catch up to you... LOL yeah.. maybe in my dreams .. but seriously, thanks for all you are giving me.

Regards to the entire Community,

<S> KayBay [8D]

More to come... gota cool my brain cells.. only have 3 functioning ones left.. gota take care of em.

[wernerpruckner]

very nice !

[mikkey]

very interesting observations, thanks for sharing Kaybayray!