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What is your best strategy (AD set-up is really what I'm asking) for naval interdiction of Odessa? Which planes do you use? Is it worth the trouble to bring the Flieger Fueher Ostsee down to the south? Or do you just take some Heinkel's and throw them out over the ocean?

It is definitely worth the trouble to bring down the Flieger Fuehrer Ostsee down for the naval patrol directive. It is the only directive these aircraft can fly and they are the best at it. You can occasionally just use them and they will interdict against the AI (cuz the AI does not fly NAVAL PATROL unless humans intervene at this time). I usually add the two Rumanian Bomber groups to the patrol just to be sure. This could also work well against a human opponent unless they have fighters around in which case assign some fighter escorts to the mix (the Rumanian fighter groups will do well if they are within range). If you are feeling that is not enough then add a German KG bomber group to the mix and possible a German JG fighter group for escorts. The value of the naval patrol and isolating Odessa is worth whatever you throw into the NAVAL PATROL.

Thanks Carl, I for sure plan on doing the interdiction. Still groping my way around with the mechanics so I'm not 100% on the effectiveness of ordinary LB's doing the job. I will bring the Flieger Ostsee dudes down south. Gives me a chance to figure out the mechanics of doing that chore as well! [:)][;)]

Copy Pasting this from another thread: Isolating Odessa or other ports is a fairly easy thing to do as long as the VVS isnt harassing your bombers. In the case of Odessa all you have to do is block the 2 hexes in front of the port (blocking meaning having an interdiction level that is 2 points higher than that of your opponent).

To do so: Do a 3 days a week schedule with rests in between (so raids on day 1, 4 and 7 for example). Bigger sorties are better. Use LBs with mine loadouts and your very valuable naval groups. The loadout is very important. Mines generate a lot more interdiction than the standard bomb set.

Set nr of req bombers to be a min of x, with x being 80-100. Set a nice AS screen that covers those two hexes and the ones nearby to prevent the Soviets from playing games. Keep enough airgroups in the area so you can rotate them out. Adjust the flightpath so it is flying over the two hexes covered and is avoiding enemy AA. If you do this for both air phases for 1 turn, the port will be isolated in a week. Ofc if you are planning to starve them out for a week or two, you will have to keep doing this. Be careful to not fly low morale AGs. Also, yes bring south the Flieger Ostsee, it is worth it.

xhoel, thanks for the help. That is exactly the kind of strategy I was looking for...

So.....trying to mess around with this Naval Interdiction AND trying to work with AI Assist BUT no matter what I try I can't seem to enable the FHQ button for Flieger Fuehrer Ostsee. I've attached it to Luftflotte 4 and manually moved it down near Odessa, but every time I hit AI Assist the AI moves it back up north so it can follow 18th Army which is its FHQ from the start of the game.

What the $%&^$ am I doing wrong here?

When you activate a Naval Port as a target the Follow HQ is blanked. When you decide to blank the Naval Port then you will have to reassign the FHQ.

So to activate a Naval Port objective, left click on the AOG Name Label and select from the port options - or do it through the CR.

Had the same issue. You need to make sure you set it to Hold each time you make a change to the stance of Luft 4. Otherwise, it changes Ostsee's stance as well and the AI will then move it for you.

Thanks Carl. I was just about to give up on AI Assist all together. I never would have figured that out. I set it to Odessa and then when I cleared it the FHQ was magically the 17th Army! Sweet.....

Roger that actrade, I set it to Hold when the FHQ was still the 18th Army hoping that at least it would not move.