seazones and air units

[gwgardner]

First, I'm not bringing up these points because I want to criticize the game. I like this game a lot. I'm just trying to offer some suggestions that I don't think would be too hard to implement, but would help add flavor to the game.

So here goes:

An element missing in the game is any effect of air power on naval movement and sea zone control.

I think the sea zone rectangle in the game should be expanded to add that element - some advantage for the side that has air superiority in a given zone. This should be an advantage against convoys and fleet activity. How one determines air superiority in a sea zone I don't know - perhaps allow the powers to purchase air points to be assigned to sea zones.

For instance, the Baltic: the game requires that access to the Baltic be restricted to the side that has control of Copenhagen. Beyond that, there's nothing to keep the entire Royal Navy from heading into the Baltic. In the real world that would have been suicide, with or without German control of Copenhagen.

Similarly, one reason for the Axis taking and being able to keep Norway was that it served as a base for the Luftwaffe. Yet that is not modeled in the game.

The Norway thread got me thinking about this, because the way the game works right now, there is just zero reason to take and control Norway.

[Michael the Pole]

Cant agree more!  This is a MAJOR flaw that has to be adressed in the next patch!!!  Examples are endless of the inability of naval units to operate under hostile air superiority without suffering severe casualties.  (Eg. Crete, English Channel, Pr of Wales/Repulse, etc, etc) However, there has to be a chance included for the occasional slip-up where, too EVERYONES suprise, naval units were able to execute their mission and escape relatively unharmed (Eg. RN bombardment of Tripoli 1941, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau's escape up the English channel.)

[iwcarmichael]

I wish I had gone to this post before purchasing WWII. Why would anyone design a WWII game where air power can't intercept naval power? Control of the air over the English channel was crucial for a German invasion of England and it was crucial for the allied landings at Normandy. It was also crucial to the British ability to intercept axis shipping in the Med.

Just to say that naval warfare wasn't a big part of the war in Europe, is to miss the whole reason for this, air power! Naval power brought Germany to her knees in WWI because the English fleet was able to blockade Germany. In the Napolionic wars the British Fleet was able to treat the Baltic as its own personal sea because there was no airpower to oppose them.

A simple algorithem to give air units a chance to intercept naval movements - particularly amphibious and convoy is all that is required - if certain air units have to be moved into and out of a naval interception box for each sea zone during the players turn, so be it. Rules like the Malta rule are a cheap cheat. Malta was only effective in intercepting Italian convoys to North Africa when it had opertaional aircraft and naval units - make the British base air units in Malta - and recognize the fact that even a handful of unopposed aircraft could devistate merchant shipping.

I was recommending this game to a friend, but now I can't.

As the previous person noted, this should be a relatively easy fix, as air units in a naval zone could be treated as just another type of naval unit for interception purposes. A sensible refinement would be to make some coastal zones, as it is unrealistic to have the German airforce intercepting convoys in the mid atlantic.

What a rip off if the Germans were to have air superiority in France, but be unable to touch the allied fleets doing close bombardment support or sink any of the allied landing craft before the units can land. If air attack can be allowed on naval units, the attrition rule for landing craft could be reduced, or done away with.

Please create rules to allow air interception of naval units!

Ian