Need Asvice As Germans

[sfbaytf]

Playing a PBEM where I'm the Germans in the Italian Campaign. Not really sure where to begin. I'm tempted to just pull back. I'm also at a loss as to what to do with the Luftwaffe and Italian Air. I kinda want to just pull them back and keep out of harms way...

[decourcy2]

Playing against a Human you should probably move your air units to separate bases as much as possible. 3 or 4 air groups on one base is just asking to be runway bombed. Leaving units and a fort down in the toe is probably a good idea as it will slow the Allies down more than you would think for a small commitment of manpower.

One thing you can do is don't fly your two engine bombers until the turn he invades, then hammer just a few hexes around his landing site to sink ships and limit his supply.

The Allies can do very little without airpower so check the map for where there are air bases and don't make your defense line just north of those air bases.

[sfbaytf]

What about the fighters. Keep them back and just defend your air bases or save them to escort a naval strike? Or should you try and contest the allied's flying ground support?

[LiquidSky]

It's not so much contesting as causing minor disruptions. Take your fighter squadrons and spread them out...no more then one full squadron per airfield. Don't bother giving them missions, they will intercept automatically. And they will suffer greatly.

The bombers you have several choices. I prefer to do night strikes on the allied airfields rather then naval interdiction. Against a wise allied player you will never isolate his ports by air. But you can nail his planes on the ground if his night fighters are in England escorting Bomber command. But that too will pass...the bombers will attrit away fairly quickly and not be replaced.

In Italy, I try and keep all the airplanes north of Rome....or even in Northern Italy/Southern France. It can be used effectively against any far flung allied invasion....and against Corsica until the allies finally get enough planes together to defend it. And it is far enough away from the allied airfields in Sicily/Southern Italy that he will have a hard time bombing you back.