Naval Patrols/Interdiction For Dummies

[Cavalry Corp]

Thanks for this but how do the axis handle it ( esp around Italy ) - almost all I see is from the Allied side. I cannot even see how to make axis ( German ) run sea patrols but still trying to learn the game.

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: cavalry

Thanks for this but how do the axis handle it ( esp around Italy ) - almost all I see is from the Allied side. I cannot even see how to make axis ( German ) run sea patrols but still trying to learn the game.

same way, you can do them automatically, if so set the AD table to include auto-naval (strong hint I wouldn't do this) or via a naval patrol.

this is probably one time when you need to micromanage as there are a few things to think about.

a) load outs, most German LB have a naval load out, some have a choice. For default interdiction (say to hamper supply). I'd go with mines, if you think they are going to move troops in then there a couple of variants of torpedos
b) your turn/enemy turn/both? If you set the NP for your turn, you'll seriously interdict unit moves but not resupply, if you pick their turn you'll threaten supply but not unit moves, if you do both then you cover both issues but may also take fairly heavy losses
c) is it best done as a box or a snake? The 'snake' works as a NP drops interdiction all along its path, so a well chosen flight route leading to a single hex target can be good - esp if you want to isolate but in turn, its pretty easy for the allies to breach (this line of interdiction is also what TF leave behind them). A box may be harder to offset as it can be deeper.

[Cavalry Corp]

thanks for the fast reply - some of the things you mention I am still needing to learn but thanks. I will now look at it in more detail.

[cfulbright]

Loki,

Woohoo! I never noticed that command at the bottom of the air base details box. This is awesome, thank you.

Cary

[cfulbright]

Harry,

I know you posted this four years ago, but someone just pointed me at it, and it was very educational. I have a question and a comment on two of your recommendations:

5. For sea lanes and hexes you really need to control you want to set things to send in very few strikes of large numbers of aircraft.

Question: I've always set a lots of strikes with 3-4 planes each. So if I have 24 available PA and TB aircraft, I would set 8 strikes of 3 planes each. The F11 after-action screen typically shows the strikes around the edges of the 4-hex area box I drew, but I get results inside the box as well. Are you saying it would be better to set a single strike of 24 planes?

6. If you want to control a particular area both during your air phase and your opponents air phase it may be better to set 2 smaller Air Directives (one to fly in the Friendly Phase and the other to fly in the Enemy phase) than to set a larger Air Directive to fly in both phases.

Comment (with a question at the end): Rather than do what you do, I do the following: I put all the groups in a single air directive and set half the air groups to rest in the Friendly turn, the other half to rest in the Enemy turn. I sort by Experience and fly the less experienced in the Friendly, the more experienced in the Enemy, so this helps me keep the same air groups flying the same phase every turn, and I seldom have Fatigue issues that way. What do you think of that approach?

Cary

[Zenra]

ORIGINAL: cfulbright
<snip>
Comment (with a question at the end): Rather than do what you do, I do the following: I put all the groups in a single air directive and set half the air groups to rest in the Friendly turn, the other half to rest in the Enemy turn. I sort by Experience and fly the less experienced in the Friendly, the more experienced in the Enemy, so this helps me keep the same air groups flying the same phase every turn, and I seldom have Fatigue issues that way. What do you think of that approach?

Cary

This sounds like a good approach but I cannot figure out how to order individual groups assigned to one AD to fly in one phase or the other. I see how I can assign some groups to day or night, but the field to select Friendly / Enemy / Both phases is associated with the AD, not by group. What am I missing here?

[cfulbright]

Let's say you assign eight air groups to the AD. You mark the AD to fly Both Phases. You activate four of the eight groups and rest the other four for the friendly turn, and then you swap the ones you activated and the ones you rested.

Cary

[Zenra]

So you alternate flying half the groups in the Friendly phase of one turn while the other rests, then fly the rested groups during the Enemy phase of the next turn?

Sorry, but I feel like I am still missing something. Is there a way to set one set of groups from an AD to fly during the Friendly air phase and another set of groups from the same AD to fly only during the Enemy air phase?

[cfulbright]

Sorry, but I feel like I am still missing something. Is there a way to set one set of groups from an AD to fly during the Friendly air phase and another set of groups from the same AD to fly only during the Enemy air phase?

1. At the beginning of your own Air phase set half of the air groups in each Air Directive to Day/Night, the other half to Rest. The Day/Night groups will fly in the Friendly Air Phase.
2. After your own Air phase, set the first half of the air groups to Rest, the second half the Day/Night. The formerly Rested and now Air/Night groups will fly in the Enemy Air Phase.

It's some extra work, but it works.

If you move the Naval Patrol air groups so that all the groups for a particular air directive are in a single base, and no two air directives share a base, then it's easy to administer in the Commander's Report.

Cary

[Qitbuqa]

Perhaps I missed it in the manual, but is there a way to add waypoints when setting a directive. By "adding" I mean not altering their hex, but adding a bigger number thereof.

[cfulbright]

No, unfortunately you're limited to the four intermediate waypoints. I imagine a lot of processing and memory resources go into handling even those ten legs (five each way).

It looks from the different colored lines that you could possibly have a different return path, but I've never figured out if and how to move the return waypoints. If anyone knows if that works, and how to do it, I'd appreciate tell us.

Cary

[Seminole]

Right click on the dot for the return path waypoint.

[cfulbright]

I tried that and it takes me out of that AD. I can't get the hang of it.

Cary

[Qitbuqa]

I think I understand your issue. The reason why you get "taken out of the AD" is because you use two right clicks instead of one.

If you want to change WP's (both green and purple) you need two clicks for both. However, the routine is somewhat different:
-For green WP, you hover cursor over the WP hex and left click it, afterwards you choose new hex of choice and left click - this results in new location for green WP of choice.
-For purple WP, you hover cursor over the WP hex and right click it, afterwards you choose new hex of choice and left click - this results in new location for purple WP of choice.

Hope that helps.

[loki100]

its worth doing this as you can create some very useful naval interdiction patterns.

Remember that naval air (& ground recon) work as they travel. So one line out and one line back to a single point can give you a two hex wide interdiction spread - just the thing to isolate a port. In my last AAR I pulled this stunt into the Bristol Channel and got a nice naval interdiction that cut up across both Normandy-SW England and blocked the exits from Bristol/Cardiff.

Far more use in that situation than a more conventional block around a central hex.

[cfulbright]

It took some experimenting but I eventually got it, thank you.

I won't say this will change my life, but it certainly is one of the better pieces of news for me recently - no personally bad news, just not much good news these days.

Thanks again.

Cary

[cfulbright]

Roger - thanks!

So which line is outbound and which is inbound? Probably doesn't matter for NP's, but might matter for overland attacks where flak and interceptors abound.

Cary

[loki100]

I'd put the most important branch as the outbound, as you say you may pick up losses when running to the target spot. Whether this really matters I think depends on how subtle you are trying to be and how marginal your effort is. For the Axis player in May/June 1944 your remaining level bombers are a finite asset so you may want to judge very carefully how many to commit for a desired effort.

But then I wouldn't try this unless it was really potentially important, and if so, I'd chuck everything I had at the task (but then I am rarely that subtle!)

[cfulbright]

Agreed. My question was: which color is the outbound leg, purple or light green?

Cary

[Qitbuqa]

ORIGINAL: cfulbright

Agreed. My question was: which color is the outbound leg, purple or light green?

Cary

Green is leg to the target while purple is leg back home.