Do you want bombing VPs? Hit Heavy Industry

[NotOneStepBack]

Server game with meklore.

Only doing daylight raids, hitting HI the last few turns. VPs have been averaging 10 a turn so far. It appears that the condensed nature of these targets are easy to hit and blow up nicely. Thoughts?

[marion61]

One thing I've noticed is that no matter how many fighters I have set in his paths, they aren't really shooting many down, considering how far he's flying into Germany, and I have most covering the approaches to those cities he's been hitting, but auto intercepts are low, and when they do they aren't really shooting anything down. I'll keep an eye on it, just to be sure I'm right before I scream "the sky is falling". Yes, the pun was intended.[8D]

[LiquidSky]

Yeah..I figured out that bombing Essen (40), Leipzig (40), Schwienfurt (40), Berlin (35), Dusseldorf (35) and some of the clusters in the Ruhr are good for HI.

As well...Berlin is a nice cluster of Manpower....and Vienna has some nice stuff. I don't think I broke 10vps per turn for bombing, but I was consistently in the 6-8vp area.

I try to use my bombing campaign to cancel out my casualty vps so that I can win on the city points.

[JocMeister]

That´s pretty impressive!

Btw, can the axis player shut down repairs of factories?

[Balou]

21.2.3., A shutdown is possible - but only when HI hexes get isolated. Otherwise, I don't think that's possible, and you would have to fight against automatic repair, which is 2% per turn for large HIs.

[NotOneStepBack]

ORIGINAL: LiquidSky



Yeah..I figured out that bombing Essen (40), Leipzig (40), Schwienfurt (40), Berlin (35), Dusseldorf (35) and some of the clusters in the Ruhr are good for HI.

As well...Berlin is a nice cluster of Manpower....and Vienna has some nice stuff. I don't think I broke 10vps per turn for bombing, but I was consistently in the 6-8vp area.

I try to use my bombing campaign to cancel out my casualty vps so that I can win on the city points.

I wonder if you bomb the rail lines going out from the Ruhr if it would cripple supply distribution?

[JocMeister]

I´m more thinking that as the axis I don´t want things to repair....

[Balou]

NOSB,

The axis production figures for resources/HI/supply look rather awesome.

GC start:
998 resources (= factories)
1392 HI, that convert resources on a 1:1 basis (500 tons of resources give 500 t of supplies per factory point); what's more, there is a production multiplier.
To this add what they already have right from the beginning
4600k of resources (stores+pool)
4400k of supplies in stores
1100k in pool

In my GC (ended in t91 in Berlin) see what's still left:
295 resources
581 HI (no RUHR for 10 weeks)
1600k of resources (stored + pool)
1400k of supplies stored
6900k !!! supplies in pool

I can't see wy the Axis should bother about the Ruhr (HI) or outgoing rail lines being bombed. OTOH there's the VP business, but that's a different story.

[JocMeister]

Yeah, that´s why I´m thinking as the axis you don´t want to repair stuff...The factories and everything else is just there to give the WAs something to bomb for VPs. And Germany won´t run out of anything anyway regardless of what you bomb.

[NotOneStepBack]

It doesn't matter what you bomb so I'm max'ing VPs. I understand your point Balou

[Balou]

ORIGINAL: NotOneStepBack

It doesn't matter what you bomb so I'm max'ing VPs. I understand your point Balou

As for now, strat bombing seems to be pure VP hunting.

[NotOneStepBack]

ORIGINAL: Balou

ORIGINAL: NotOneStepBack

It doesn't matter what you bomb so I'm max'ing VPs. I understand your point Balou

As for now, strat bombing seems to be pure VP hunting.

It is no different than bombing u-boats or v weapons.

[Balou]

Still it would like to know to what extent allied strat bombing did (help to) knock out Germany. History experts please step in, there should be figures.

[LiquidSky]

It's not the bombing...it's the damage that gives vps

[NotOneStepBack]

Very next turn

[JocMeister]

How do you manage to do damage like that while keeping the U-boats suppressed? [X(]

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: Balou

Still it would like to know to what extent allied strat bombing did (help to) knock out Germany. History experts please step in, there should be figures.

I don't think it did. Most sources seem to argue that German industrial production hit its peak in 1944 and only declined in 1945 due to loss of territory.

The quote may be anecdotal but one Allied general summarised the situation in May 1945 as 'the Soviets won the war, we just happened to be nearby'.

The decisive element was the destruction of manpower and material by the Soviets, plus the steady loss of critical resources as the Red Army advanced into regions like Silesia and took over the oil regions in Rumania and Hungary.

What the game models well, is that there was an enduring belief among the allies that strategic bombing could be decisive, Harris persisted in his belief that civilian morale would crack as a result. For the British from 1940-3, Strategic bombing was the only offensive tool, so it was easy to decide to believe it was effective. I think the Americans were more pragmatic, but still they had invested a huge amount in heavy bombers so there was a bit of a mindset that once you'd built the blessed things, you really had to us them.

[NotOneStepBack]

ORIGINAL: JocMeister

How do you manage to do damage like that while keeping the U-boats suppressed? [X(]

I dedicate the 8th US AF every 3 or 4 turns to just hit all the big dogs on U-boats with about 130 - 150 bombers in each ad. It doesn't matter how much damage you do, as long as they are damaged. Which is stupid, but that's how it calculates.

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: loki100

The quote may be anecdotal but one Allied general summarised the situation in May 1945 as 'the Soviets won the war, we just happened to be nearby'.

You know who said that? Never heard it before and as far as quotes go that is a pretty good one! [:)]

[Q-Ball]

I have come to the same conclusion, and have been getting 10-12 Vps a turn in a Server game via strat bombing.

At first I focused on Manpower, but swithced to HI, because HI repairs more slowly. The benefit to Manpower is that you are impacting production of something Germany absolutely needs and runs out of......Men.

I will probably stick to a combination of Manpower and HI. The other advantage to this is that Germans can't predict where you will bomb as they can against more targeted strategies, because HI/Manpower is everywhere

Meklore tried Vehicles against me as Reich, and we both think that was a waste. Vehicles just repair too quickly, and there are only a few large plants. While that makes it easy to bomb them, it also makes it easy to order priority repairs. My vehicle pools really didn't take a huge hit.

OIL is actually the absolute best to hit if you are VP hunting, only because the repair rate is very slow. It's just that there aren't alot of targets in Germany for that.