Turn 13 17-September-1941 Air War AKA SparkleyTit's Dishonourable Carnage Report
Turn 13 finds no Soviet air activity in the North or South at all, and just a few recon and one ground bombing mission in the centre. No interdictions are being flown during our turn either.
Last turn we again "gifted" a few Luftwaffe airgoups that were just about to withdraw in the hope they could take a few Red Air Force aircraft with them as a parting gift. The following screenshot shows them on airbases right at the front last turn.
But instead of bombing the airgroups that we had gifted to our opponents before they withdrew, they simply incurred losses by being displaced by a ground attack. So they are lost without even taking anyone with them.
We find a completely new air situation for the Soviet Union this turn. Only nine hexes contain airbases which are not frozen with aircraft in them. Three contain only interceptors near Gorky. East of Moscow there are three two of which include aircraft other than interceptors. And in the far North East a further three one of which includes aircraft other than interceptors - and the only one to have very long range bombers. This one is situated at the very last hex in that direction before terrain makes it impossible to fly aircraft from airbases. This last airbase is placed very obliquely for ground support so it presumably is there solely to supply partisans to the rear. Other than that no other airbases contain airgroups. This means there are absolutely no aircraft at all south of Moscow. In these cases airbases instead of being stacked are now dispersed each on their own.
Reconnaisance prior to the bombing of factories at Saratov picks up a large number of tank brigades in the area. And when reconnaisance is sent to evaluate the scale of the tank forces there yet another newly created airbase is picked up at Engels. But again without any aircraft on it.
The three airbase hexes at Gorky are too distant to attack effectively. This means the entire Luftwaffe air offensive is directed at just 3 hexes behind Moscow and 3 more to the far North East. Given the restrictions the game makes on commitments of aircraft and airgroups to any one attack the constraints we face this turn are not ammunition but the code base. Throwing the whole Luftwaffe against these airbases will still leave much of it unused.
As has been the case for several turns now no Soviet interceptors attempt to defend these airbases. However air losses are lower simply because they have so little aircraft on the map.
They could now have been producing 207 interceptors a turn, but instead can only produce 169 at most and have an expected average production of 134 - every turn we would expect one or two of their interceptor factories to stop production. Given their losses, even with so many aircraft in the national reserve, this means the Red Air Force is still diminishing.
ORIGINAL: The artist formerly known as HardLuckYetAgain
The Soviets could stop this cold if they wanted too pretty easy, question is will they do it.
That may once have been the question but it might not be any longer. With losses of interceptors in production outstripping their production, and the fighters they have not being able to defend the factories that produce them, the Red Air Force effectively will be locked out of contesting the air indefinitely. The question is now we know they want to stop it but can they?
The lack of interceptor cover also means effectively hundreds of stukas and other tactical bombers are providing high levels of ground support unopposed. Some of the lack of air support in earlier turns for the ground forces is now being repaid many times over.