Who is the best altitude against bombing raids?

[David_Perez]

I want to know, if somebody can help me [&o], about the best altitude i can put my fighters facing an enemy bombing raid.
I´m playing as japanese, and most of american marauders or mitchells simply pass by my defensive screen, and blast my airfields to ruines.

Thank for your help

[neuromancer]

I generally put my escorts at the same level as my bombers for best air defense. Although I have no idea if it actually works.

For fighters on dedicated CAP, I like to put them at altitude of or 1 or 2 K above the bombers expected altitude (computer tends to 6 to 10K), so they can swoop down on them, but not so high up they would miss them.
Again, I am not sure how effective it actually is in the game. It seems to sometmes work, and sometimes not. Mostly the hordes of Zeros make a mess of all but my largest CAP groups.

Generally I just leave them at 10 K, except for certain circumstances.


My medium and heavy LBA however - when doing port and airfield bombing runs - I set to 20 to 25 K, which makes AAA almost useless, and seems to hamper fighter interception as well (doesn't make it useless though, but B17/ 25/ 26 are fairly durable). I still do significant damage at this level, so I'm happy. Tends to rack up the fatigue pretty quick though.

[redman1]

There's no single correct answer to your question. The altitude should generally reflect the altitude of the attacking bombers. If the bombers are at low altitude, then your CAP should be at low altitude, for example.

Keep in mind, however, that the lower the altitude of the bombers, the more effective your flak will be, and the higher the alititude of the bombers, the less accurate the bombers will be. This simply means that you should moderate your CAP altitude adjustments.

[DoomedMantis]

3000 ft above the height of the bombers is best, but for really effective CAP, I set my CAp at varying altitude. You must also remember his escorts are probably set at 3000 ft above his bombers, so i set some CAp 6000 ft above the bombers to bounce him.

Also when attacking I vary my bomber heigth to throw my opponent off balance

[Philwd]

Setting your fighters in layers to stay a few thousand feet above the bombers will help to damage them but will never stop a raid. In this game it is set up to reflect the historical reality the IJN fighters had a very tough time closing with and hurting the American heavies. Unfortunately the medium bombers get the same distinction in this game so they are overpowered.

You have to slowly attrit the US bomber force so the damage becomes managable. That means sending in your own low altitude night raids. It means BB bombardment runs against his airbases. It means mucho AA at your forward airbases. Make the US player pay for his attacks. If you can find the old Luskan vs Raverdave AAR it shows how Luskan was able to inflict major losses on the US bomber fleet. He trained his Zeros and trained some more holding them back until he really needed to commit them.

So as in real life there is no easy answer for the IJN player. I have found up to now the best way to deal with them is to not give the US player a base close enough to Rabaul or Shortlands that he can reach me. Once that happpens its all over.

Quark