Eagle Day LW observations

[HellenicBlade]

Greetings all,

I feels awesome playing these games I used to spend hours on when I was a child, gratitude to the team.

I am currently playing a one-week 1940 campaign as the LW. I have the following observations/questions:

1) The Ju-87 units are a God-send, they are capable of putting a radar site out of action and can do similarly against a Primary Airfield. With a few PRI AFs near the shore, these are almost free points for my StGs.

2) The Erprobungsgruppe 210 units are worth their weight in gold, easily able to sneak at low altitude and put the hurt on a PRI AF, while the RAF is busy dealing with the bigger, badder raids higher up. Although not as killy as the Stukas, they can turn a PRI AF from green to orange very quickly and they do not necessarily need fighter coverage.

3) I am baffled by the 110. I've been going through several sources and the general consensus is that the 110s were not as bad as once thought, but were really wasted in close escort duties. Going by that, I usually place them on high escort duties, 3-4,000 feet above the bomber formation, in order to take advantage of their high speed and good armament. Although I do not get mauled, I do lose several destroyers, while only occasionally managing to nab a kill, even against outdated Gladiators. Am I doing something wrong?

4) My Night Intruders are quite inefficient, going around in circles and achieving nothing. What would be the best use for Night Intruder Units? Have them fly over the airfields that the RAF stages its Night Fighters?

5) With PRI AFs scoring so high, is there any reason not to commit to bombing them and them alone?

Thank you for bringing this gem back to life and I wish everyone Merry Christmas!

[mark dolby]

ORIGINAL: HellenicBlade



4) My Night Intruders are quite inefficient, going around in circles and achieving nothing. What would be the best use for Night Intruder Units? Have them fly over the airfields that the RAF stages its Night Fighters?



Thank you for bringing this gem back to life and I wish everyone Merry Christmas!

It's a long time since I played as LW in BoB but I do remember when using the LW intruders you must set the target as the EXACT co-ordinates of the airfield for the best chance of getting the D0-17's to hit anything. Don't expect massive results but it's most gratifying when they do attack an airfield.
Good luck.

[HellenicBlade]

Thank you, very helpful, I will definitely try it out. Anything on the 110s?

[simovitch]

Me 110's really suffer in dogfights because of their low maneuverability rating. Check out the weapon database and compare with the Bf109's and Spits and even the Canes.

Their best asset is their range, so their best use to me would be close escorting the deep raids to Birmingham/Liverpool/Manchester.

[Denniss]

Boom and Zoom tactics made the Bf 110 highly successful, close escort or forced into dogfight made them dead meat.

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: Denniss

Boom and Zoom tactics made the Bf 110 highly successful, close escort or forced into dogfight made them dead meat.

Hear, hear.

[HellenicBlade]

I usually put them on high escort with the close escort being handled by 109 units. Generally, if I use 4 units as an escort, three will be 109s and one will be 110s, with one 109 unit being close escort and the others being the high escort. I will try putting them in different altitudes above the formations and report on the results.

Thank you gents, any other tips would be much appreciated.

[warshipbuilder]

Thank you gents, any other tips would be much appreciated.

Surrender[:D]

[-pag-]

1&2. Thats my experience too.
3. I get the same result with the 110s. I've experimented a lot with them. In ED they are vulnerable in most roles: hi/low sweeps , close and high escorts. I expected them to do better when set free at high alts than they seemed to do in the game. The only somewhat successful role has been the fighter bomber groups flying below radar. However, if the spits and hurr show up they get mauled-as expected. They also do ok as detached return escorts.
4. Not sure.
5. Yes. The one day and week campaign is all about points. The longer campaigns score differently and based on strategic targets. In these campaigns, the PriAFs are still important targets, hitting them hard gradually reduce the RAF. You can even push an early air superiority win. -as explained the manual.

[HellenicBlade]

Regarding the 110s, I would reasonably expect them to be able to deal with Gladiators, Defiants and Hurricanes, using proper boom and zoom tactics. According to Christer Bergstrom's Battle of Britain Revisited, ZGs were not at all helpless and actually achieved a better kill ratio than the JGs. I will try to experiment with them a bit more.
I have not tried a longer campaign yet, thanks for the tip.