43' air consideration

[Hofstadter]

I am wanting to start a grand campaign. However I am unsure how to organize my air. In all the other campaigns I did I never really bothered with swapping HQ's and moving air bases. What are some general tips to get started for the big campaign?

[LiquidSky]

Depends on what side you are playing.

As the allies, I will move all the twin engine bombers down to Africa/Sicily and all the 4 engine bombers to England.

I will set all squadrons on AUTO upgrade to start, which will turn a lot of spitfire squadrons into Hurricanes. I will train those as bombers as they show up over the next couple turns. I will then transfer them/set them up in the Med.

I will leave the Typhoons in England...and make sure they are trained as bombers as well.

All the long range fighters and night fighters I usually send to England...but it also depends on what your opponent is doing.

I will build airfields in every town near the eastern coast of England and park my short range fighters and RECON aircraft on them.


All the short range patrol aircraft I use around Sicily. The long range ones I park in England. Most of the others I will use in the Med.

[LiquidSky]

I also try to keep my airbases holding the same kind of aircraft. And I also try to keep their HQ near by.

The Germans are a whole other kettle of fish.

I try to conserve the fighter force until later in the summer. You can either use it to strike Corsica if the allies think to use it as an airbase, or you can use it around Berlin to punish any long range bombing. You cant really protect the Ruhr with air. Basically concentrate the fighters. I usually put the long range twin engine fighters around Ploesti to build up in strength. Plus they do a wonderful job shooting down unescorted bombers.


The Luftwaffe is going to get destroyed. There is no saving it. What you want to do is prolong it as long as possible because a damaged bomber loses morale and probably wont fly the next turn as well as probably not dropping any bombs the turn you damaged it. Don't get caught up trying to shoot down the allied planes. They wont run out.

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: Hofstadter

I am wanting to start a grand campaign. However I am unsure how to organize my air. In all the other campaigns I did I never really bothered with swapping HQ's and moving air bases. What are some general tips to get started for the big campaign?

I'm still playing around with ideas but here's my current variants.

With the Germans, get things geographically organised. So one LW group in N France, one covering S France, one covering Italy and 2 in Germany. Use 1 Jagd for your day fighters and 2 Jagd for your night fighters. I use the LW Reich to hold transport planes and stuff that is recovering etc.

My logic to this is with the axis I set very few air directives, in particular the defence of the Reich comes down to air unit location (they auto-intercept). With the above I can see where my planes are (the new on map air management tools are brilliant) and shuffle them around. What I am finding is if you concentrate, you might miss some raids but if you catch the allied airforces you can inflict heavy losses with relatively light losses on your side.

With the Allies, I don't (at start) change much in the Med. As the game evolves I reorganise and bring in reinforcements (incl Typhoons) but that is pragmatic.

In England, I am trying the following.

All recon assets to the British Transport command. This frees up a lot of air directives in your main formations.

At start I leave 9 Air empty.

8 Air redeploy a bit so your fighters are on the Anglian coast. BC move the Halifaxes/Wellingtons down to East Anglia (they can be out of range easily from their bases in the north).

Redeploy all your short range stuff in Tac Air and Fighter Command to the south coast. As with LiquidSky start an early programme of new bases and expansions (you'll need it all come April-May 44).

I leave 3 NF squadrons in Fighter Command and the rest go to Bomber Command. If you are playing PBEM there is a new and rather nasty NF mission flown in the enemy air phase that targets returning bombers etc. So it helps to have some NFs back for interception. You can also use these squadrons to return the favour (German NF bases in the Ruhr are a good target).

Then convert 8-10 fighter squadrons to bombers (they'll be withdrawn for 8 turns). Unlike LiquidSky at this stage I don't worry about their actual planes, you can convert to Hurricanes or Typhoons when they return. Once this batch are back, flip some more - in reality you need enough fighters for some AS missions and escort but you don't need that many.

For targets, with Bomber Command I split it into two main mission groups. One with the Lancasters goes for manpower and HI. The other with the Halifaxs and Wellingtons swaps targets (I give it a few but large bombs). You can do quite a lot of damage to U-Boats, hit truck factories (an easily overlooked target), rail stations and HI.

With 8 Air its U-Boats, HI/Fuel, Trucks/some tanks (PzIV is a good target)/rail stations.

Mostly using widely drawn target areas and multiple missions, I reckon on generating 10-12 VP per turn from the air war in 1943.

One thing I do is if most of my squadrons need to rest (morale < 60), I rest everybody. Small raids are very vulnerable to being caught so I'd rather take a week off. Usually the next week you can generate large attacks again and I think, over time this pattern of missing weeks rather than keep going with small raids pays off.

[Hofstadter]

ORIGINAL: LiquidSky



Depends on what side you are playing.

As the allies, I will move all the twin engine bombers down to Africa/Sicily and all the 4 engine bombers to England.

I will set all squadrons on AUTO upgrade to start, which will turn a lot of spitfire squadrons into Hurricanes. I will train those as bombers as they show up over the next couple turns. I will then transfer them/set them up in the Med.

I will leave the Typhoons in England...and make sure they are trained as bombers as well.

All the long range fighters and night fighters I usually send to England...but it also depends on what your opponent is doing.

I will build airfields in every town near the eastern coast of England and park my short range fighters and RECON aircraft on them.


All the short range patrol aircraft I use around Sicily. The long range ones I park in England. Most of the others I will use in the Med.

I had a feeling it would be something like this, I have been reading a couple of the aars that describe the air management, but they didnt really say why or a give a big picture of it.

[LiquidSky]

I always rest my low morale squadrons as well. Early war I use 70% as the trigger, but when the Luftwaffe gets less and less I move it down to 60%

You can generate a lot of bombing vps by just hitting a box that includes Cologne, Essen and the rest of that area....I usually make it size 3. I hit it with BC at night and 8th in the day. I usually ignore the U-Boats until the weather is raining, then send in one big size 10 raid box that includes all of that area hitting Uboats only. (I think Stade?). I usually only have to do it once or twice to keep the vps at a manageable level. And you know there is probably a lot of german fighters up there waiting for your unescorted bombers.

Ah yes, I always hit the same area with BC at night and 8th by day because it lessens the flak. They can only shoot so much before their ammo gets too low (although some recent patch has increased their ammo resupply/use).

Flying Air superiority with the mid range fighters is a good way to chew up German fighters for no real loss to yourself. I love to see them lose a hundred pilots to mine. I get a few hundred a turn. He gets 35ish. When you rest your bombers from flak damage causing morale loss.....fly the long range fighters on superiority around Berlin. Good stuff.

I have a fairly high lazy streak, so that is why I only train the hurricanes as bombers. I usually end up with 30ish squadrons of them anyways. And I can tell easily which squadron is trained as a bomber from one that is a fighter. Spit = fighter. Hurc = bomber. Typhoon = bomber.

And I will put the Typhoons in a different HQ then the hurricanes so they can tag team. One turn the typhoons hit...then they rest the next turn while the hurricanes hit. They tend to suffer a lot of morale loss from flak.

[Chuske]

Great thread and great advice, I'll link this in my tutorial thread

What about altitudes?

I'm tending to fly city bombing at 25000 ft (or for BC at limit of the planes eg 21000 for Lancasters etc), and recon I fly at 35k for high cameras, 24k for mid and 12k for low. Almost everything else I leave at deafult 15k ft but I have not tried anything other than the above so would be interested in what you guys do.

Also what are you using 2 engine bombers for? Naval, port, railyard and airfield bombing?

Final question is do you guys have a preference on ground attack or city bombing for railyards/ports?

[LiquidSky]

The primary mission in 1943 that supersedes all other missions is the death of the Luftwaffe. If it makes an appearance in the Med...and a lot of players will be tempted to use it foolishly on Naval interdiction or some other death ride...you have to be in a position to punish it. If it shows up, you bomb the airfields around Rome and Foggia.

That is where all those 2 engine bombers come in. If the Luftwaffe wisely stays away, then you use it to bomb railyards, and for Ground Support...and to interdict rail lines.

When the Italian theatre winds down with the fall of Rome and the push to the Northern Italian Garrison line, you can transfer them to England so they can bomb the v-wpn launch sites....and finally to keep bombing the Ruhr while BC and the 8th bomb farther into Germany.

[Seminole]

and a lot of players will be tempted to use it foolishly on Naval interdiction or some other death ride...

I caution everyone against thinking there is a 'best way'.
The 'best way' really depends on what your opponent is doing.
If my opponent is 'foolish' about protecting his LOCs in the Med I make sure the Luftwaffe punishes it.
I've forced Allied units to SURRENDER on Sardinia because the island was isolated and they routed...

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: Seminole

I caution everyone against thinking there is a 'best way'.
The 'best way' really depends on what your opponent is doing.
If my opponent is 'foolish' about protecting his LOCs in the Med I make sure the Luftwaffe punishes it.
...

I think this is simply essential advice. If I am playing the Allies and my opponent obsessive defends the U-Boat bases, I simply ignore them. Ok you lose VPs on that column but as opposed to having your bombers 'resting' due to damaged planes (=morale), they are flattening other targets.

With the Luftwaffe, its still potent in 1943 but that is as good as it gets. So look for an opportunity, recon, be flexible, be prepared to do nothing if it comes down to it.

Even in 1944 it can be effective. Its very tempting to go toe to toe with the allies over the beaches. Don't. Hold it back, sooner or later they will get extended, find it hard to draw air power from England but are suffering for supply in France. Then fight. Or concentrate in southern France where the Allies may be weak, or south of the Ardennes on the Franco-German border (again your small airforce on a sector the allies find hard to cover properly may do more good than hurled into the main battles).

The rail yard/rail interdiction and port/sea interdiction to me are trade offs. A bombed rail yard or port is long term, bombing a transport link is immediate (and flexible). So if you trash every rail yard in Central Italy it makes then bombing key rail hexes all the more effective.

With the allies for matching bombers to mission, my rough rule is if it can't move then 2 or 4 engined will do, if it can move but in a limited way 2 engined are a good choice, if its tactically flexible that is the ideal target for your fighter bombers.

[Seminole]

The key in my view with the Luftwaffe is that it's zenith of power in '43 comes not just from material strength in air frames and pilots, but from the distance advantages it should have in most engagements with the Allied air power and the advantage of interior lines. The Allied air force is its most spread out at the start. When it's summer of '44 and they've doubled in strength they're also going to be operating from bases closer to the action than they were able to in '43.

I want to exploit the Luftwaffe's advantages while they still exist.

[Hofstadter]

Is there an easier method of transferring air groups between Hq's, because I keep using the CR to select the aircraft, bring it up on that screen and transfer it individually, is there a way i can group them?

[RedLancer]

Yes - in the airbase screen there is a button on the bottom that sets all the airgroups to the same as the airbase - this should be done to avoid the penalty of having mixed air groups and airbase HQs. What I do is group the air groups together in the same airbase and then make a bulk change.

[Hofstadter]

I cant seem to find that button

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: Hofstadter

I cant seem to find that button

if you have an airbase open, with all the units showing, then below the units is an option 'set all planes to command xxxx', that will make all the units match the command for the airbase.

a real bonus in the first few turns when you are probably doing massive reorganisations to make the OOB fit your ideas

[Hofstadter]

Yeah that button isnt there for me. I am just pressing f10 and clicking on a base. The only thing below the units is that four button filter and the list of commands

EDIT: oooh wait I found it, I thought that button was in air transfer mode
EDIT2: ok, moving all my fighter bombers from RAF fighter to RAF tac, and moving short range fighters to the south and east of england. This is a new level of tedious

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: Hofstadter

Yeah that button isnt there for me. I am just pressing f10 and clicking on a base. The only thing below the units is that four button filter and the list of commands

EDIT: oooh wait I found it, I thought that button was in air transfer mode
EDIT2: ok, moving all my fighter bombers from RAF fighter to RAF tac, and moving short range fighters to the south and east of england. This is a new level of tedious

I've found the initial re-organisation is a lot easier if you use the on map filters now available. It allows you, for example, just to see FBs in Fighter command and so on (you can even focus down to the locations of a single type of plane ... probably more useful with the German side).

Its worth it, as once you have the organisation you want it makes setting ADs and relocating bases etc so much easier. Some questions its worth thinking about is do you want to leave any LBs in 2 Tac Air? Do you maybe want to move all 2 engined bombers out of Bomber Command?

There are no right answers, but I often find I use the 2 engined bombers very differently to how I use the 4 engined ones. So is it easier to separate by air command or not?

The med is a bit harder, not least you have more air commands than you really need and once you reach the end of 1943 you tend to strip airpower away. Longer term, there. I've decided just to leave Strat Air/15 Air with the heavy bombers and put the 2 engined ones into Tac Air.

When the game first game out, I reckoned there was 3-4 hours fiddling with the Allied Air OOB, partly having a better idea what I will do later and partly due to the new air unit management tools, I've got that down to an hour.

[Seminole]

This is a new level of tedious

It is a lot to fiddle with, part of the reason I started on the Axis side was just to have less to manage while I learned the game!
But I love the granularity over abstraction that the mission planning allows.
It's funny that no matter how much there is, you always see someone wishing for even more...(shorter turns, smaller hex scale, etc.)

[colberki]

Any strategies that the LW can consider to fight the WA to stalemate into 1944?