Since you have asked I will explain the impact of massed GA.GA can heavy damage a unit or supply base/railway etc. It's a very useful method for both sides. I don't really understand why you care so much about this problem. Some units may hurt but most of them are healthy. In fact, I see GA as a balanced strategy for Blitzkrieg. The land battle formula has increased the battle loss a lot. In many battles, the German army only suffered quite a few losses, but achieved very great results. I think it is exaggerated as much as the air interception probability. I haven't bombed your rear railway so far just to keep your supply system unblocked during the clean day in 1941. Therefore, I think the current practice is fair: I just choose bombing the unit in front of my eye, especially when I need to help my troops break through.
By the way, I carry enough escort(more than 70 per fly) every time whether the air interception happened or not.
Massed GA is not a bug, it has been in the game since the beginning. It is in my opinion a design flaw as it is totally unrealistic, however for now it is part of the game.
There are bugs with AS interception and auto-intercept which means the Soviets can bomb units on the front line free from the risk of interception. That is the best and most effective use of GA, especially if followed up by a ground attack. The way you have been playing would not have worked without those bugs, you could have got some GA in outside fighter cover but many of the attacks would have been intercepted.
I don't have past data as this is a server game, and the current turn Gundam has not done much bombing. However the previous turn Axis losses because of GA were roughly 1/3 of total combat losses for the turn. Most significant were about 60 Panzers lost directly to GA or damaged and then retreat losses.
1. Allows the Soviets to seriously damage 1-3 units a turn that then then be pushed back in ground combat when they might otherwise have held. Thus breaking pockets which has happened a few times in this game.
2. Axis have to make their pockets more secure to protect against the above, so there is an indirect effect here too.
3. Serious damage to Panzer/Mot units that they need to REFIT on a depot to recover from, thus putting them out of the game for 1 or more turns. I had one Mot division that lost half it's trucks, I think to GA but am not sure. It had 7 MPs two turns later as a result, so not from the bombing directly but because of the lack of trucks.
4. Axis have about 60 AA Battalions worth deployed forwards, that is roughly the equivalent of 4 divisions, many motorised, that are drawing supplies which would have otherwise gone to ground combat troops.
5. By taking up slots the AA SUs are stopping Axis deploying combat SUs to those units.
6. Casualties inflicted. Not that significant, especially as Axis have a glut of manpower during this period of the game. Over a full game they would add up, how much is hard to estimate. Panzer losses have happened on a few turns and that has likely more impact.
We don't know how significant the intercept bugs are to the game, that is way too complicated to calculate or even estimate. There are individual small or moderate impacts that have a knock on effect to the following turn, and then the turn after that and so on.
