Bombing Liverpool

[Markiss]

I never realized how vulnerable having all of it's convoys come into the same port makes the UK, until my opponent bombed Liverpool.

My income went from 475 to 225! That's 250 points every single turn!

Needless to say, this will be my new go-to tactic. The UK can install AA guns and have fighters to intercept, but all that does is do damage to the attacker, it cannot prevent the port from being bombed. And since the payoff is so high, it is worth any amount of casualties to shut down the port.

The only defense would seem to be to keep the majority of the RAF in the UK for the duration of the war, placed right on the southern coast of England to try to keep the Luftwaffe at a distance. But by doing that, you are inviting attack on your aircraft, and severely curtailing your ability to be effective anywhere else on the map. It doesn't seem like a viable solution.

This same thing cannot be done to Germany, since they wisely have their 3 convoys coming into 3 different ports. You would have to shut down all 3, and even then the impact would be much less. Probably not even worth the trouble.

Which begs the question, why is it like this? The UK has far more ports than Germany. If Liverpool got bombed flat, the ships would simply by directed to a different port. It seems like this is an artificial vulnerability that did not really exist. Shutting down the UK's entire maritime trade by taking out a single port should not be possible, yet it is.

Has anyone else seen this weakness exploited? If so, how did you stop it? Keeping enemy ships away from critical ports has always been an important task for the UK, but it is not possible to keep aircraft away.

[The Land]

Strikes me as somewhat exploit-y. In reality, convoys could unload at Glasgow or Bristol as well as Liverpool, though Liverpool was the biggest. There would doubtless have been some disruption if Liverpool docks were heavily bombed, but not equivalent to losing the whole overseas income of the UK!

The way convoy events work is to look at hex ownership, not supply ratings, so it might be a pain to fix. Maybe different convoys could have different destinations?

[taffjones]

Hi Markiss

In WaW if Liverpool is reduces below 5 (I think) the convoy's switch to Glasgow. I would have thought it was the same in WiE.

If not then there is a ready made fix by copying the WaW script.

[nnason]

Markiss,
In WiE Liverpool is a 12 strength. Wouldn't you have to bomb the strength to 4? This would take at least 4 attacks. Seems like the strat bomber would be reduced to nothing with any kind of defense and while it was building up to strike again so would the port. Or is a single;e bombing enough to cut convoys for that turn?

[Markiss]

Liverpool was flattened over a couple turns by a combination of strategic and medium bombers. I did not have it defended from air attack initially, as I did not realize the danger, and had never seen anyone attack it before.

I'm sure his bombers took damage, but it was certainly worth it.

[Dorky8]

DE 9999 - Would like to install 2 permanent AA's by the Liverpool port for 50MPPs?

[:D]

[Elessar2]

More seriously, a few contingency supply route scripts could be added, simple reroutes to another hopefully undamaged port.

[Dorky8]

Even more seriously, all the Brit convoys coming into one port that can be reduced below 5 with bombers don't make sense and should be fixed.

[X(]

[BillRunacre]

I'll see what I can do here! [:)]

[OxfordGuy3]

Was anything changed to re-route the Liverpool convoy in this case?

[BillRunacre]

I think it's still a viable strategy if the Axis build up a strong fleet of long range bombers and the Allies don't protect the port well.

[OxfordGuy3]

Okay, fair enough. I guess the same applies to Cuxhaven for the Axis and the Norway convoy