Unit Bombing--Too Powerful?

[HMSWarspite]

ORIGINAL: Pelton


1. German production never dropped off until the factorys were over run so yes the bombing of factory is Middle Earth right now.

Not found a weakness in your super optimised game play have we? And you might find references to historical books and data rather more effective in making your case than allusions to Hobbits and Dwarves...

[;)] (I think)

[Seminole]

This isn't Carpet bombing, just FB bombing; some rocket-equipped Hurris and Typhoon, but mostly P-39, P-40, and P-47 armed with 500 lb bombs. Yes, nearly all losses are FLAK for sure.
Flak losses are heavy with this tactic, but the plentiful FB types like P-39 and P-40 are still pretty effective, so losses aren't a big deal

I had way too many escorts, my results would have been better if I had switched many of them to FB-B from FB-F
These results are attainable with any FB in the Allied inventory
< Message edited by Q-Ball -- 3/2/2015 4:51:57 PM >)

Did you come in 9000 ft to avoid flak from neighbors?
Bad assumption on my part about the LBs, forgot it groups them together when they're in FB mode.
I take from your comments you are setting load out?

Since I've only played the battleground Italy scenario as WA, are those numbers because of how many groups you have available at this point, or have you maxed your doctrine settings to increase participation as well?

[bradcue]

ORIGINAL: Seminole

This isn't Carpet bombing, just FB bombing; some rocket-equipped Hurris and Typhoon, but mostly P-39, P-40, and P-47 armed with 500 lb bombs. Yes, nearly all losses are FLAK for sure.
Flak losses are heavy with this tactic, but the plentiful FB types like P-39 and P-40 are still pretty effective, so losses aren't a big deal

I had way too many escorts, my results would have been better if I had switched many of them to FB-B from FB-F
These results are attainable with any FB in the Allied inventory
< Message edited by Q-Ball -- 3/2/2015 4:51:57 PM >)

Did you come in 9000 ft to avoid flak from neighbors?
Bad assumption on my part about the LBs, forgot it groups them together when they're in FB mode.
I take from your comments you are setting load out?

Since I've only played the battleground Italy scenario as WA, are those numbers because of how many groups you have available at this point, or have you maxed your doctrine settings to increase participation as well?

I came in at 9000 ft. because I observed Meklore using that altitude, and getting good results. I suppose it limits flak losses from Heavy flak, but still alot are lost to light flak.

I am setting load-out; Rockets, if available, mostly a combination of 500LB bombs and gas tanks

I did transfer units from England, so I have a decent concentration of FBs in Tactical Air Force. I'll check next time I have turn, but around 2500 total IIRC. That includes both FB-F and FB, but I've been using some fighter-trained as bomber as well.

I have frequency set to AUTO; I haven't quite figured out that particular setting, a couple times when I monkeyed with it, I had problems, so I'm leaving it alone for now

[Q-Ball]

ORIGINAL: bradcue

ORIGINAL: Seminole

This isn't Carpet bombing, just FB bombing; some rocket-equipped Hurris and Typhoon, but mostly P-39, P-40, and P-47 armed with 500 lb bombs. Yes, nearly all losses are FLAK for sure.
Flak losses are heavy with this tactic, but the plentiful FB types like P-39 and P-40 are still pretty effective, so losses aren't a big deal

I had way too many escorts, my results would have been better if I had switched many of them to FB-B from FB-F
These results are attainable with any FB in the Allied inventory
< Message edited by Q-Ball -- 3/2/2015 4:51:57 PM >)

Did you come in 9000 ft to avoid flak from neighbors?
Bad assumption on my part about the LBs, forgot it groups them together when they're in FB mode.
I take from your comments you are setting load out?

Since I've only played the battleground Italy scenario as WA, are those numbers because of how many groups you have available at this point, or have you maxed your doctrine settings to increase participation as well?

I came in at 9000 ft. because I observed Meklore using that altitude, and getting good results. I suppose it limits flak losses from Heavy flak, but still alot are lost to light flak.

I am setting load-out; Rockets, if available, mostly a combination of 500LB bombs and gas tanks

I did transfer units from England, so I have a decent concentration of FBs in Tactical Air Force. I'll check next time I have turn, but around 2500 total IIRC. That includes both FB-F and FB, but I've been using some fighter-trained as bomber as well.

I have frequency set to AUTO; I haven't quite figured out that particular setting, a couple times when I monkeyed with it, I had problems, so I'm leaving it alone for now

Sorry, this was me. I used a log-in that my games were registered under without noticing; I guess I can't troll anyone with that log-in now![:D]

[Seminole]

I came in at 9000 ft. because I observed Meklore using that altitude, and getting good results. I suppose it limits flak losses from Heavy flak, but still alot are lost to light flak.

Would the altitude have any impact on FB attacks? I think I read somewhere (on the forum, not in the manual) that dive bombers drop down to 1000 ft for their attacks. Not sure what the attack profile is for rocket or bomb equipped FBs...

I checked the manual on the altitude thing:

All enemy units that are flown over during an air mission
will attempt to engage the air group units with their antiaircraft
ground elements and any anti-aircraft support
units. AA units in cities/airfields will fire at aircraft flying
in adjacent hexes if they are 15000 feet or higher, while
units will fire into adjacent hexes if the enemy aircraft
is 10000 feet or higher. Fire at adjacent hexes has much
less effect than fire at aircraft flying directly overhead.
For all air missions AA units in the target hex are much
more effective. AA units attached directly to cities or
airfields (including flak intrinsic to the airfield unit) are
more effective, as are self-propelled flak units. These
are cumulative benefits, so a self-propelled flak unit in a
city that is in the target hex will receive benefits from all
three conditions.

Looks like I will be loading up my schnelle eingreiftruppe with lots of AA SUs...

I am setting load-out; Rockets, if available, mostly a combination of 500LB bombs and gas tanks
I did transfer units from England, so I have a decent concentration of FBs in Tactical Air Force. I'll check next time I have turn, but around 2500 total IIRC. That includes both FB-F and FB, but I've been using some fighter-trained as bomber as well.
I have frequency set to AUTO; I haven't quite figured out that particular setting, a couple times when I monkeyed with it, I had problems, so I'm leaving it alone for now

The setting you're talking about is 'missions per day' setting in the Air Directive, right?
What I'm wondering about is the 'Mission Percentage' in the Air Doctrine settings. Do you up that to get 300+ showing up, or is it just that you've thrown so many groups into the AD that that many planes show up.

[Q-Ball]

The number of planes is set to AUTO, which I beleive is 100. The results are from having quite a few aircraft in that directive, but that's not the only one I am running

Vs. Meklore, I have an AA unit attached to every Mobile division, and sometimes 2. The Germans get quite a few Flak SUs anyway, and that's what I do with them. Meklore has killed alot of my guys, though he does have very high flak losses, with over 30,000 Allied planes shot down through July of 1944. Embedding flak doesn't stop it, it only extracts a price.....

[marion61]

This is how I assign strike numbers. 1st if it's recon, and I'm setting it over a large area I will set it to 99. This will create as many recon flights as possible, and I leave the requested numbers on auto. Strat Recon I leave on auto.

For a bomb city, most of the time I set the area to 0, strikes at 1, I count how many bombers and escorts I have total, and depending on how many AD's I have that turn, I divide the number of available by the number of AD's I have to get my requested number. Example: I have 1500 bombers and 200 fighters in Bomber Command. I set my strike number to 1 for each AD, and if I have 5 AD's, that would be 300 bombers and 40 fighters requested. Set them for however many days you want. There are exceptions to this, but generally this is how I do it.

For ground attack it depends. If I'm out to hit units, I will set the area to 1 or 2, see how many hexes have units in them (I like 1 hex strikes cause if there's a unit in every hex, that's 7 strikes), then set your strike number to the number of units you want to try and hit in the area. I don't normally set an actual requested number for this, but I do sometimes, especially if I have a lot of planes.

Ground Support and Naval I set my strikes to 99, to maximize my patrols over the area. I'm not sure if you've noticed this or not, but when you fly to your naval AD, your planes are creating a 2-4 hex wide path as they fly to the target. If you have it fly by other areas that need some naval while getting to their patrol, they can create additional naval interdiction on their route. I like to fly them near ports I want cut off by just adjusting their path. Multi-tasking!

[Smirfy]

Which is the the best for rockets equipped planes? Support, Interdiction or Unit attacks?. One perception I have is when messing about with various settings I took my P40's off Ground Support and they performed better in the Unit Attack mode. Is that not essentially the same thing?

[Seminole]

This is how I assign strike numbers. 1st if it's recon, and I'm setting it over a large area I will set it to 99. This will create as many recon flights as possible, and I leave the requested numbers on auto. Strat Recon I leave on auto.

I think that runs the risk of 'burning up' your allotted flight miles for the week before the week is through, doesn't it (moreso I would expect with ground attack than recon, but under the same principle)?
I've set the intensity to 'high' and seen ADs run out of aircraft late in the week (e.g. bomb days 1-5, but not on day 6 or 7).

Ground Support and Naval I set my strikes to 99, to maximize my patrols over the area. I'm not sure if you've noticed this or not, but when you fly to your naval AD, your planes are creating a 2-4 hex wide path as they fly to the target. If you have it fly by other areas that need some naval while getting to their patrol, they can create additional naval interdiction on their route. I like to fly them near ports I want cut off by just adjusting their path. Multi-tasking!

Yes, I actually mentioned in my AAR. On turn 2 one hex on my B-25 Naval Patrol route was contested from a 3 to a 2, so the path to the patrol area over Messina failed to also block out Palermo that turn.

What I've seen is it accumulates over the route from the staging base to the target, so I will setup my route/staging base accordingly.
I have not see it accumulate in the adjacent hexes on the path, but I bet you could put two ADs on the same path to good effect.

[marion61]

It doesn't burn my miles up. If it's a deep strike they don't go but every other day. If it's close like the Ruhr, then I send them 5 days. Plus if I have 1500 ac, and I make 3 AD's, and request 500 for each AD for those 5 days, you won't run out of mileage. The planes are only being used once a day, and every other day if it's a deep strike. You don't need 7 days over a target to do what needs be done, so my bombers only fly 4 or 5 days out of every week.