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What conditions will cause raids not to take off at all?

I am allied in a PBEM. On turn 30 I had a 300+ plane Night Bombing Mission (NBM) that did not go thru with the raid. On turn 31 I had 3 x 300 plane NBM that did not go ahead. On both turns I had suporting NI missions that all went ahead. My oppontent tells me he had no messages regarding these missions at all.

Today I ran some tests and I can replicate the problem but I have no idea why the raids will not go ahead, radio activity goes up like they are going to raid but then nothing happens with no message. Can it be too much cloud at the time, lack of light or some other factor? Or is it a bug? The weather at the time says 41% cloud at 1400ft. Moon 04. On the same night I can plot a raid 1 hour later at it will go ahead. Any clues?

4/10ths cloud at 1500 feet is extremely dangerous for a massed takeoff and formup. Cloud does vary, so there's every chance it will clear up in an hour or so...

This might be an avenue for improvement in the PBEM reporting, but I'm not able to commit to timeframes on anything at present.

Thanks Harley. After some more experimenting I *think* I might have it. If there is too much cloud/bad weather at the form up point at launch time the whole mission gets scrubbed. I have been watching the cloud closely in the German phase and there is a small open window in the cloud. If I plot the mission to take off in the window 2000 hours, the mission goes ahead. If I plot an hour earlier or later than 2000 hours (ie the cloud graphic is over the form up point at the time) I see radio traffic going up to the time of launch then nothing, the raids don't go at all.
 
I have no problem with this. But what drives me nuts is that i have to try and work all the stuff out with trial and error. The manual should tell me this or there should be a message for the allied player in either his replay or report page. [:-]