Aircraft interception

[STEF78]

Sever game STEF78 versus Stelteck

My plant in Berlin is methodiccally destroyed. I brought back an airbase, then an HQ.. no result for several turns


Interception level 215 (night and and day)

[Stelteck]

I'am bombing at night now. Efficiency of bombing is very low (It mostly only slowing the repair) but it is difficult to intercept.

Daytime i'am getting murdered (like loosing half of the bombers each raid).

[STEF78]

I set interception both night and day....

[STEF78]

double post

[glvaca]

The planes you show are no night fighters so it makes sense they don't intercept.
Add some night fighter units, that should help. Don't know how much, never tried it.

[Denniss]

Night bombing might still be too effective vs smaller factories while it seems too ineffective vs larger area targets (like manpower/railyard/port etc).
Day fighters may be penalized for flying at night.
Maybe you get some improved leader rolls by assigning the airbase directly to the nearby HQ instead of a distant high HQ
You may want to try some other percentages of interception levels.
I strongly suggest to try different tactics/setups with a head-to-head testgame

[Stelteck]

My current night bombing only slow the repair.

The plant was first destroyed by unopposed daylight bombing. I do not think i would be able to destroy a plant by night raid alone.

The night raids now barely tried to prevent the repair of the factory.

[STEF78]

ORIGINAL: glvaca

The planes you show are no night fighters so it makes sense they don't intercept.
Add some night fighter units, that should help. Don't know how much, never tried it.

I don't have NF at this stage of the war... or cannot find them

[sillyflower]

ORIGINAL: glvaca

Add some night fighter units, that should help. Don't know how much, never tried it.

Germans don't have any night fighters until '43
My ordinary fighters on night and day haven't had any problems shooting down hundreds of BrianG's night bombers but Stef can hardly send the LW fighter arm back to Berlin

I have to say that I have every sympathy with Stef. Credit to Stelteck for innovation, but I have just declined to copy the tactic though others might prefer an HR

[STEF78]

ORIGINAL: Denniss


Maybe you get some improved leader rolls by assigning the airbase directly to the nearby HQ instead of a distant high HQ
You may want to try some other percentages of interception levels.

They are attached to the closer HQ

NF intercept now set to 300

[Telemecus]

ORIGINAL: STEF78
NF intercept now set to 300

My guess is that you need a low number not a high one to intercept. (I think) a high number means fewer interceptions with more aircraft, a low number means more interceptions with fewer aircraft. At the moment you are still struggling to get one interception not get more planes in to the interceptions you get. With 300 it may not even bother to try to intercept as you may not have enough fighters there to get to that level

[Denniss]

I'd never use 300% intercept setting, I don't know how the game engine reacts if you don't have 3 times as many fighters as the number of a/c of a large enemy force.
NF intercept may or may not affect day fighters on night missions
What's your percent to fly setting ?

Have you tried different settings in a h2h game ?

[morvael]

If I remember correctly, night interception is limited to just few planes.

[STEF78]

ORIGINAL: Denniss

What's your percent to fly setting ?

10%

Have you tried different settings in a h2h game ?

Never been is such a situation before....

I usually use:
- intercept 150%
- % required to fly 10% on the first turn then 30%

[Telemecus]

A possibility is to put your fighter interception rate to 5% and your % reqd to fly to 0% as this should guarantee you get a night interception - and then increase a little every turn so long as you keep getting a result. If you are worried about the groups outside of Germany you can set the ones with less than 30% ready aircraft to night missions, or send to national reserve, to simulate the result you would have got from % reqd to fly to 30%. However your interceptions on the Eastern front will be in penny packets instead of large groups to begin with (unless you turn everything there to night missions only/send to national reserve). Basically are you prepared to prioritise home air defense over Eastern front air?

ORIGINAL: Denniss
NF intercept may or may not affect day fighters on night missions

This is a thing I want to know. In this case if you need to change normal intercept to a low number to get day fighters to night intercept - and if your opponent notices - then they can just switch back to large scale day bombing again. I assume it is the NF intercept setting that matters - but if anyone knows better?

[BrianG]

Is one of the airbases in a heavy urban hex.

I thought those where no good for flying planes. Same as rough or swamp hex

[Telemecus]

From the screenshot and that there are daytime interceptions probably OK on that

[glvaca]

ORIGINAL: sillyflower

ORIGINAL: glvaca

Add some night fighter units, that should help. Don't know how much, never tried it.

Germans don't have any night fighters until '43
My ordinary fighters on night and day haven't had any problems shooting down hundreds of BrianG's night bombers but Stef can hardly send the LW fighter arm back to Berlin

I have to say that I have every sympathy with Stef. Credit to Stelteck for innovation, but I have just declined to copy the tactic though others might prefer an HR

I don't doubt your in game observation but flying a Me109 at night = suicide.
The Me109 was a notorious difficult plane to take-off and land, to the point it probably killed more pilots on training missions than in combat. That might be a slight exaggeration [:D]

[STEF78]

ORIGINAL: BrianG

Is one of the airbases in a heavy urban hex.

I thought those where no good for flying planes. Same as rough or swamp hex

No clear terrain

[STEF78]

ORIGINAL: Telemecus

From the screenshot and that there are daytime interceptions probably OK on that

I've set on both, except one only one night interception