RAF Bomber command.....how to not suck..?

[Helpless]

bomber command surprised the heck out of me here... a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy outlook for me.
edit: but is this the too high accuracy thing? or did I just get really lucky and find a crowded airbase.

Looks like OBOE/Gee accuracy boost.

[HMSWarspite]

Interesting thread here. I have no problem with BC intercepts or losses. Highly variable, and hence tricky to form an opinion as to whether the numbers are right, but I have not seen them too wrong yet.

In RL (and I hope the game) BC should not be capable of being another 8AF in Daylight. They were not trained for and didn't have the defensive armament for close formation attacks through opposing fighters, and could not fly as high so should be truly massacred if you don't have total and absolute air supremacy for them (either local or strategic). Even when they could have flown by day they often flew by night: marking was optimised for dark, and with H2S or Oboe, late war they were pretty much as likely to get concentration in the dark as in daylight. When they did fly in Daylight, they used night techniques - flying a stream rather than formations, marking etc.

Also, how much damage to Manpower do people think you should be able to do. Industry represents discrete plants in or near a city. There is probably a rough idea in a Dev, or scenario designer's head as to how big a 'size 1 HI plant' is. <1 acre? 5 Acres? Similarly a size 40, which is probably 50+ acres or something. Thus it is possible to cover the target with bombs on one raid and do large % of damage. If you logically analyse Manpower, it is the ability of a city (and surrounding area) to produce men of military age and fitness in each week. Thus is something like a fixed fraction of the local population. The birth rate doesn't matter (the people we are talking about were born in the late 1920's or earlier). Pure civilian casualties count (killing the guy who would have got his call up papers tomorrow obviously limits choices as to branch of service - Even the Nazis didn't have zombie troops). However there is also the 'non-modeled' aspects. Causing the sewers to fail, or food distribution to break down will cause a diversion of manpower to those essential services, and not all of those can be covered by unfit/over-aged/female alternatives. Thus I think it is quite difficult to get you head round what 1% of manpower damage is, when you look at how to cause it. The reason why I ramble on like this is I am not sure I would want to be able to routinely do 40% Manpower damage by bombing. Also I hope FoW on Manpower is high so we struggle to know what we are doing.

Anyway, I count BC as doing well if I get any MP loss in an AD. Also, don't use them in Daylight in soft areas. Use them at night to hit those irritating hard to reach Uboat factories (e.g. Danzig) or V weapons. Also I aim for HI and MP jointly... Seems to be working for me. If they do any good in Daylight in 1943 I would appeal for them to be nerfed as it just is not realistic... even with half of Fighter Command escorting them... they should make Schweinfurt look like a small playground scuffle in reality...

[Belphegor]

I think the target of airbase attacks should be the airbases themselves. The aircraft on them are just a surprise barrier to the bomb hitting the runway. Destroy enough airbases you can interfere with shorter legged fighters getting into the area you want.

question: does airbase repair cost production? If so, airbase damage is still reducing total industrial potential spent on combat items.

Just to be clear; in the screenshot above I chose for the first time to use the AI generated AD and also chose ground support for my night strat bombers. I picked airbases and railyards as targets. This was the result.

[Helpless]

does airbase repair cost production?

It cost supplies.

[Belphegor]

So if you're trying to disrupt the German economy there may be a reason to wreck airbases beyond simply denying their use. Like anything else economic I don't think you'll have a war winner just by knocking them out but every little bit counts.

ORIGINAL: Helpless

does airbase repair cost production?

It cost supplies.

[marion61]

BOMBER COMMAND ON STEROIDS!!! Recon, recon some more, and when your done, RECON!

[HMSWarspite]

I have just had a blinder of a BC raid... 760 heavies just got +61% manpower result on Munich. Never seen anything like it. I guess I managed to create a firestorm.

[Belphegor]

ORIGINAL: mike mcmann

Can someone please explain how the RAF bomber command can actually hit something? I have tried an exhaustive pattern of altitude, targets, loads...etc.. They seem to always either miss completely or do maybe one percent..or so.. While the eighth airforce smashes the crap out of pretty much everything...

Some guidance please?

Recce 2 turns ahead of hitting the target. You have enough recce to take lots of photos for a couple days before (and more than one target)... results below.

[NotOneStepBack]

I've been able to hit MAN just fine in my game with RAF bomber command. Switch to day bombing, have some planes carry BIG bombs and the rest incendiaries, and RECON.

[ratprince]

Yeah, Ive had great success on total day bombing. They just suck at night missions. RAF does just fine in comparison to 8th as long as they are in day

[Belphegor]

I haven't tried selecting bomb loadouts yet. Does it really help?

[marion61]

It's essential to know your load outs. You don't want drop incendiaries when your after subs and other hardened targets. I check all my loadouts before the air phase is processed. Incendiaries are great for manpower, fuel, and oil targets. If your axis and you need naval interdiction, a lot of the axis planes have mines which are excellent for naval interdiction.

[Belphegor]

how good a job does the auto setting do? And you check your loadouts after setting targets?

[Baelfiin]

Always check your loadouts, sometimes the auto setting does weird things.

[NotOneStepBack]

Check your load outs! It's also easy to use the "Use same loadout for all type plane in X AD" to make them the same.

[marion61]

I leave nothing to the ai. When I change target types I switch to the appropriate load out.