ORIGINAL: Bletchley_Geek
And I'd love even more that you, or anybody, explained to us in a comprehensive way how to handle the air war, now or after that revision, because the manual - and the knowledge in the community - is far from adequate, especially wrt explaining actual mechanics and how do aircraft attributes relate to those. Also giving a comprenhensive explanation of how air doctrine sliders work - with actual concrete gameplay examples, mind you - would also help a lot.
Thanks [:)]
PS: Interdiction missions - what some Axis players think to be the "safest" role for the Luftwaffe - really aren't. Last turn I managed - or rather I should say that rather than me, these too black-box mechanics are in charge, so the credit should go to them - to achieve a 2.5:1 exchange ratio in favour of the VVS. Sincerely, the outcomes look like as if the Soviet Union had AWACS planes vectoring interceptors on enemy aircraft. Just far, far too effective, and saying "out of whack" is not a hyperbolic statement by any reasonable measure.
I would also wish for a more detailed "guide" on how to use the Luftwaffe in a most efficient way. Turn 1 and 2 with extensive airfield bombardments appear to be very successful, and easy to handle. But deeper into the GC I kind of loose the handle on the air war, at least it feels like it. Maybe it is in part because it is a much more abstracted system that doesn't show a lot of events and mechanics going on behind the scenes, unlike in the way in AE that I am so used to. Maybe I am just misusing the Luftwaffe.
Whether the vectoring of CAP is too efficient as BG's questions, I don't know. It would indeed seem that it is comparably effective to vector the majority of "readiness" or "patrolling" fighters from a set of airfields into a CAP action a few hexes away as it is to join up an attacking bombers and fighters for pre-scheduled missions.
I know that I can use that to my benefit in later turns, though. I found that putting together strike packages consisting of minimum of bombers escorted by large groups of good fighters, where large means at least #(axis F/FB) >= expected #(VVS F/FB), can act as a reverse CAP trap. Key to it appears to be the range, though, so I pick targets that are ideally less than 6-8 hexes from my bases, while maximizing the distance to the VVS airbases. Range seems to have stronger effects on losses (operative and loss of damaged returning ones?). This gives a ratio of 4:1 or 5:1, often better, in fighter losses in 41 or 42 -- not too bad. Does sound gamey though?
What I makes me wonder as well is that the bomber losses in general and not limited to single-engine ground support planes as mentioned somewhere above, tend to be "horrendous" when on ground support missions (in the sense of steadily and rather rapidly attriting Luftwaffe assets). Interdiction seems to be less costly, but too often the escorts are too few (perhaps I overused the F in my supply flights or runs the previous turn?) or perform below my expectations.
I know people including ComradeP point out the value of ground support in combat, and also interdiction should lead to noticeable effects, but even with 100 bombers involved I so far rarely find them to play key roles. Not sure what I am doing wrong, but I restricted myself to selective bombing runs of key hexes, and else feel the Luftwaffe bombers best perform supply runs except in winter, where they can recuperate in Germany. I see a few casualties, some equipment hits, and several disrupted elements, which despite a 50-100 bombers involved hardly seems to lower the defenders abilities. The Wehrmacht is in relative terms already strong enough to handle most stacks own, so rather not waste bombers or mission miles on GS.
However, this is a little unexpected as it is commonly accepted that the Germans perfected a close air-ground interaction and that the success of German Blitzkrieg tactics was in part due to the close support provided by Luftwaffe? The way I seem to misuse it, it rather is a fuel hauler...
Any advice is greatly appreciated...