Some hints from a lover of this game

[Bella]

Love this game. I've played some 260 game turns of BTR as Allied in the 700 game turn scenario. As such, I've made many, many mistakes and learned a lot of lessons, some of which I want to pass on here to anyone joining the game. I welcome and encourage comments from the experienced players. Some of the assumptions I make about game mechanics may be plain wrong and I want to be corrected. There is no particular order to these comments, and this is not a comprehensive list. I will post again later as things occur to me. Please note that everything I write below is from the Allied perspective, not the German.

Targets: The key thing about selecting targets for your heavy bombers is to avoid trying to strike at a large variety of types of targets. This invites losses for little return. I keep in mind always that the goal of the strategic bombing campaign should always be to destroy or near destroy the German Air Force (LW) before D-Day. To that end, focusing on suppressing a small variety of critical industries will hinder the production of replacement aircraft and repair materials for damaged aircraft. Here are the three target types I really focused on:

Rubber: This is a critical industry that is crucial to producing armaments for all units including aircraft. The best thing about hitting rubber is that the industry is highly centralized and concentrated. A single raid can severely damage rubber production. Examples of this are the Ludwigshafen plant with 20 production, the Huls Chemische plant with 40 production and the Bunawerke plant with an incredible 60 capacity. Also, many of the smaller plants are within easy range so that missions do not have to be deep penetration with the resulting high losses. (Bunawerke is fairly deep into Germany, but worth the losses.) I was able at one point to reduce rubber production by 80% and maintain it by further raids to between 70-80%.) A further benefit to hitting rubber is that, because it is crucial to producing armaments, you seriously hinder the enemy’s ability to make anti-aircraft guns of all calibers.

Aluminum: Critical to the construction of air frames for new and damaged aircraft, the aluminum industry is also fairly highly concentrated (capacities of 12, 14 and 18 for the larger plants, and middling plants of 8 capacity) and for the most part the plants are located in western Germany and France. Fifteenth AF based in Italy can hit several of the Italian and Axis allied plants, also. I was able to get Aluminum production down to 55% and keep it there.

Chem: The Chemistry targets are vital to the oil industry. Reducing this industry eventually affects the production of aviation gas (I think, please correct me if I'm wrong.)There are several large targets (Ammoniawerke is the largest at 29 capacity) and targets are generally based in the west, with many in France and in Italy, so easily reached. I managed to get Chem down to 75%, and keep it between 65-75%.

Focusing on these three varieties (while also destroying the Luftwaffe in the air, see below) has reduced LW response to my raids by May 25, 1944 to about 10-15% of what they were in December of 1943. Bf 109 and Fw 190 fighters are very scarce and the LW seems to focusing on Me 410 fighters (question: is this due to low usage of aluminum in this model?). The LW has largely abandoned France except for a couple bases in the deep south of France (Toul, Bordeaux region etc.). The Me 262 and He 163 jets have appeared in Germany but their influence is pretty minor.

Early errors: I initially tried hitting the FUEL industry exclusively to suppress the production of synthetic fuel, (used to produce avgas, since historically, the destruction of the fuel industry is really what finally crushed the LW and the rest of the German war machine). This is a waste of time until you have pretty much shattered the Luftwaffe. Even at this point of my game, though, with the German fighter force really damaged and only really able to get stragglers, I'm still avoiding FUEL plants. The losses are just too high, and you destroy the morale of your bomber groups. The enemy AI puts up so much flak around FUEL plants, and so many of the larger plants are so deep into Germany, that to my mind, it's not worth it.

I also focused early on on hitting Aircraft Engine factories with the idea of creating a bottleneck in aircraft production. However, this industry is not very concentrated (true of the rest of the aircraft industry, air frames and electronics) with many of the plants deep inside Germany. Not worth the effort unless there is nothing else still standing in range, and its at least an 8 capacity plant or bigger. Often, the goal of the raid is just to get the LW in the air, so you can shoot them down.

I avoided trying to hit the ball bearing industry, even though it's historical and there is a high concentration of industry around Schweinfurt. But, the flak there is really intense, and the rest of the industry is fairly scattered with many smaller plants. Too many plants to hit.

One strategy I hit on that seemed to work for places like Schweinfurt, Ploesti, Hannover and Leipzig for example, where there are a lot of closely packed factories to hit, was to do a strike at the rail yard in the middle of all these factories. It reduces the production of all industries surrounding the rail yard. (I hit Ploesti rail yard (oil industry) with Fifteenth AF and reduced it to 99% damage. in a single raid. My industry damage score jumped a full point off that one raid.)

There is one issue with targets that you should know about: I call it the 'Repair Kit' glitch. Anytime you have put a target into greater than 50% damage (or 50% disruption for ground units) it becomes red, and it is then time to leave that target alone, until it becomes orange or grey again. Reason? Say you have put Bunawerk into 51% damage, but you really want to finish the job, and you bomb it heavily again. You will find that bombing that red target actually causes the target to repair itself significantly, as if you are dropping 'repair kits' instead of bombs. I have tested this repeatedly by repeating turns. Leaving the target at 51% alone....it is at 50% the next turn. Bomb it with 250+ bombers? Damage drops to mid thirties the next turn. That's an example of something that happens all the time. I can only assume that the algorithm for bombing fails to take into account the original damage of a target when applying the damage from the current strike, at least while the target is red. Doesn't seem to happen on grey or orange level damaged targets.

Fighting the Luftwaffe: The thing about the war in the air was that there were no great battles. It was the daily grind of attrition that finally did in the LW. Pay a lot of attention to your escort assignments. Make sure you have coverage along the full route. I have seen a fifteen minute gap in coverage by escort lead to thirty bombers downed. The enemy AI is great at scheduling attacks and it WILL find the gaps. I like to send fighter sweeps by non-Eighth AF fighters along the path of the bomber stream to provide coverage for damaged stragglers, and to hunt down the inevitable German fighters hunting them down.

More Escort Ideas: Keeping with the bomber groups for the majority of their mission is very important to the survival of the bombers. Your escort fighters have two stats that are integral to this; Escort Radius ER (in miles) and Endurance END (in minutes). Escort radius of course means how far out a fighter can go with bombers, one way. This does not include combat (more below).

Here are the values for your most important escort types from December 1944 on:
P-47D-15 ER 256mi END 195min
P-47D-20 ER 389mi END 295min
P-47D25 ER 443mi END 335min
P-38J ER 449mi END 340min
P-38L ER 795mi END 600min
P-51B ER 582mi END 440min
P-51D ER 709mi END 535min
The Mustang III and IV were British production models of the P-51B, with the about the same ER and END. Notice that the P-38L has an even greater range than the P-51D!

To put that into perspective, here are some representative distances to major targets:
Paris 164 miles
Essen (northern Ruhr) 244 miles
Frankfurt-on-Main (southern Ruhr) 342 miles
Hamburg 373 miles
Berlin 513 miles

So, you can see the value of scheduling escort types according to how far they can fly. P-47D-15s are great for insertion (the first part of the trip) and extraction (the very last leg of the return flight). P-51, P-38J and L models, Mustang III and IV for the middle part. As the war progresses, and the LW begins to suffer real losses from your cunning tactics, it will withdraw further into Germany and southern France, and, in Italy back to northern Italy and southern Germany (typically starting January-February 1944). This offers another opportunity to increase the time your escorts can stay with the bombers over enemy territory. In March, I'm typically launching my escorts 30 minutes after the bombers. This is travel time over the English Channel and up the Adriatic Sea. The longer German response time from taking out their radar stations, and the greater distance the German fighters have to travel allows you to do this. If the LW gets tricky and puts a group of fighters on the Channel coast, re-play the turn and blast the airfield to bedrock, as well as putting Fighter Sweep (FS) squadrons hanging over it as they return (more below on that). (It is probably obvious that I am a chronic re-player of turns...yup, I game the system). To finesse this more, I like to launch a big batch of escort (typically a couple groups at least, say 100 fighters) to meet the mission just after it completes its bombing run. This allows you to reinforce for the trip home, and those fighters don't have to experience flak over the target. Time in the air is a vital stat. As soon as fighters enter combat, they begin to consume fuel at four times the usual rate. Generally, the P-51s, Mustang III and IVs and P-38Ls can get into 2-3 scraps before they go bingo fuel and head home. P-38J and P-47 D20 and D25 can do 1-2 scraps, all this depending on the distance to target. So, there is a lot of value in delaying their takeoff for that first 30 minutes, if it's safe to do so.

On a related point, the German fighters for the most part have terrible ER and END, worse even than British fighters (except the Mosquito and later model Mustangs, of course). I'm answering my own question from a later post here, but the need to base further back in Germany to avoid being destroyed forces the LW to build and deploy more longer range fighters like the Me-410 and the Me-210, just in order to meet the incoming raids over France. Neither of these is much good at fighter-fighter combat (they're hell on un-escorted bombers though), so your escort chews through them and the 410's an 210's end up just trying for stragglers in order to survive. At this point in my game (May, 1944), the LW AI is basing almost all his Me-109 and FW-109 units in Germany. A smarter ploy might be to have one or two groups attack very early from Holland based bases to trigger fuel use by Allied escort fighters, so that by the time the Me-410's arrive, the escort is weakened. But whadda I know?

The Me-262 jet is a pain if it gets into your bomber stream, but its endurance is so low that it makes a pass or two and retreats home. I love putting a non-Eighth AF P-51 squadron over its home base and watching them torch the jets as they try to land. I wiped out an entire 12 jet squadron that way a couple weeks back. The He163 is even less to worry about. It takes off, goes a short way and returns to base. The AI needs to get better at placing it under the bomber stream, but as long as you don't get predictable with your missions, no worries.

Avoid fighter and fighter bomber strikes on airfields. The light flak is always intense, even if there are no German units there and losses are always high. Plays havoc on morale of your fighter groups. I switched my B-25, B-26 and A-20 medium bombers groups from Ninth AF, 2nd Tactical AF and Med and 12th AF out for older night bomber types like the Stirling, Stirling III and the Lancaster I, of which there are plenty in the pool after their squadrons upgrade to newer models. Their bomb loads are HUGE (14,000 lbs for a Stirling III compared to a B-25 at 4000 lbs). A single Stirling III squadron can cause 99% damage to an airfield (although two squadrons is best), and at 15,000 feet, they largely avoid the flak. This is a techniques for March 44 and on when the LW has abandoned France and the heavies are left alone. I don't even give them escort for the most part. If you find a raid is getting hit by a stray German unit, re-play the turn, and add escort. These aircraft will do the job until the new Liberator III and IV arrives in sufficient numbers so you can upgrade the Eight AF heavies with them, and put the older B-24s into your Ninth AF and 2nd Tac AF units. Avoid using the B-17 after you have significant numbers of B-24 in the pool. Its bomb load is significantly less than the B-24.

You have to rest your air units. Missions every three days or so is best to dispel fatigue. This also gives the units a chance to repair damaged a/c. Don't push them into double digit fatigue, especially your fighters. They start to lose air combat fights when tired. Of course, the weather gives not a care about your schedule. Nothing more irritating than sending missions out in iffy weather, only to have a rest day with perfect blue sky. If anything frustrates me about this game, it's the weather algorithm. Plan, plan, plan, and then your missions get cancelled, or can't find the target. Worse is when your bombers take off, but the delayed escort gets grounded, so the bombers just go on blithely to their destruction.

I like to run the auto mission for reconnaissance on these rest turns, send up every REC plane (you can walk away from the computer on these turns). Watching rec missions is pretty boring but the info is valuable. Of course, being a turn re-player, reconnaissance is less necessary to me. But if you're a purist and don't want to play time traveler thing, do tons of recce.

Here's a trick that might seem like cheating, but I like to think of it as the Allies having great intelligence: Launch raids, set your detail level on 3, watch where and when the German units take off and especially when they return to base. Have a notepad ready to write it down, there's a lot of info. I even record the unit name and number, so I can tell who is who as they return to their bases. As the turn ends, exit, go back in, send out Fighter sweep patrols (use only non-Eighth AF fighters and non-Fifteenth AF fighters, in Italy, for this. Use Eighth AF and Fifteenth AF fighters for escort only. You need every plane up there with the bombers.) Have P-51, P-38 and P-47 D-20s waiting for them on patrol over those airfields as they come back. The slaughter begins. I've destroyed hundreds of LW planes this way. My best day (shared between the NW Europe and Italian regions) was 375 German aircraft in a day! I can average 120-160 destroyed enemy a/c per day. After a few months of that pounding, and hitting the industries above as mentioned, you'll have the LW on its knees in time for D-day.

More to come. Comments welcome.

Jeff

[Bella]

Here's another thing I learned: When bombing at night, try to send as many missions as possible over Germany. The British historically sent one or sometimes two very heavy raids, with very small diversionary raids to draw off the night fighters. The Germans were largely not fooled, and once a bomber stream was located, the slaughter of the bombers was terrible. It seems like the game models this well. Thousand plane raids might be exciting, and they no doubt generated great headlines, but the loss rates are terrible and your night bomber groups morale plummets. (I lost 110 bombers on one mission, early on before I caught on). The big raids also don't seem to generate the urban damage you'd expect from that many bombs dropping, also. Sending 140-160 bombers against a target will increase a German city's urban damage by a good 30-50%. That's perfectly satisfactory. Do that to five, six or seven German cities in a night and you'll see the terror score go up. I like to use Mosquito pathfinders as the lead groups, seems to up the damage (I haven't rigorously examined this, it just seems that way). After you plot a mission, have night fighters tail your groups. You'll get the odd German night fighter. In my experience, it's a lot of planning for a few kills, but hell, if you're going top play the game, play it all the way. I don't do the same recording of German units take off and return at night as I do in the day. The endurance of German night units is really long, and it's really hard to coordinate.

I replaced eight night bomber groups with B-17's. They can fly really high, and avoid much of the flak, and most night fighters can't reach them at 30,000 feet. I use them as a diversionary raid against Berlin while the other missions pound nearer targets. I'm not sure if it's because Berlin is the target, or they're just going so so deep into Germany, but they pull away the German night fighters from the other groups like flies to poop. The damage they cause to Berlin is modest, usually another 10%-15% urban damage, but that's not their main job, anyway. They're bait.

One thing I've noticed that isn't modeled very well in the game is the contribution of Bomber Command (the night bombers) to Overlord. Historically, they were used to attack rail centers in France after Harris was pretty much forced into backing the Overlord plan. They were so accurate and did this job so well that rail traffic in France was reduced to a few % of what it had been six months before and largely contributed to the virtual freezing of German assets prior to D-Day (They moved everything by rail, including Panzer divisions). Yet, when you send Bomber Command against French towns, you only get urban damage, and no rail damage. I must be missing something. Anyone have any ideas?

[Bella]

As I said in the post above, I'm at May 25, 1944. Just before D-Day. I've been using 2nd Tactical AF and Ninth AF to really pound France. Even used Eighth for some rail yard hits. Rail yards, airfields, V1 sites, ports. Airfields are a real pain; there are so many, and the LW seems to be able to fly large formations even from heavily damaged fields. But, to satisfy Overlord commitments, I am hitting them with my antiquated night bombers as discussed in a previous post, and with P-47 D-20 and D-25 FB strikes. There's progress, but Overlord score stays low. I have a question: I have been holding off hitting ground troops, as they just recover. I plan to smash them up on June 3, 4, 5 and 6 with every plane I have. Does this make sense? Last four days before D-Day, just gut all the land units in Normandy...is this the way to go? That's my plan.

I have a question about ports, especially regarding Italy. When rail yards are heavily damaged, do ports provide supply to the German front?

Speaking of which, I've red- lined every rail center in Italy on the German supply line, pretty much up to the Alps. Yet the German units I hit in the Gustav line seem to recover their organization very quickly. Avalanche score is dismal, like 15%. I'm starting to systematically hit airfields with my Stirling and Lancaster units, but it doesn't seem right that these German units recover their strength so fast in the absence of a healthy supply line. My two bits.

Radar: These are the dandelions of the war. Just keep popping up. They recover 5 damage points per turn. Yet it is really valuable to knock them out again and again. LW response is noticeably slower when nearby radar sites are out. Use your radar jamming aircraft (RCMs). Place them on the route of incoming bomber streams. They help. Not a lot, but they help.

I'm free associating, BTR style. Forgive my ignorance. Welcome all comments.

Jeff

[JeffroK]

Gday Jeff.

A lot of interesting comments, I think the basis to your approach is sound, get the Luftwaffe into the air and smash it.

My thoughts are just alternatives, I think there are a variety of approaches to the strategies used.
This time I'm only 2mths into the campaign so am going through the hard yards all over again.

Until the P47D-15 arrives I find it hard to put up any escorts over the Ruhr or past Bremen, so for a few months its picking up points from closer range targets. I use the 8AF at 26k with the P47 as close and the Spits at 30k. I get good results but you wear the escorts down, Spitfire replacement numbers are terrible so I replace the Spit9 in Italy with Spit8 to keep up.
I have never had much success with the B26, it seems to be a Luftwaffe magnet and early on the 9AF can only use 3 RAF Spit sqns as escort, so they hit coastal targets only. I seem to have better luck with 2TAF mediums, but then they can use the whole RAF as escorts.
Typhoons & Whirlwinds are my tactical force, at 5-10kft they hit & run against the coastal band and often go in without escort, though I sometimes send Mustang I & IA to build up experience. It would be nice if they carried a few bombs or cameras(as IRL)
My use of Bomber Command has widened, Berlin is a stretch but I am hitting a lot of the cites under that distance. I send small groups of my EW units along with the raid (and NF sweeps)and its good to see the Radar circles shrink, and losses keep down most of the time. Lanc and Halifaxes hit deep, Stirling and Wellingtons closer and keep up pressure on the Ruhr. In my recent game I'm only 2 mths in so there are only 3 Mossie Sqns, so they visit Berlins as often as possible.

Italy is a worry, still relocating and haven't yet got 15AF running so I havent decided on a strategy for them. Otherwise its wack a mole against railways, radar and anything else the game lets me hit, I'm seriously thinking of rearming the Allied Airforces so that the better airframes are in the UK, P39 & P40 & Spit5 might get a good workout here.

As a long term War in the Pacific player, I sadly miss the "Tracker" app developed there, this game badly needs a program to track the numbers, I'm running a spreadsheet and running graphs, they give you an inkling into how things are progressing.

Jeff

[Bella]

Jeff,

I really enjoyed hearing about the early game again. Been a while. Just because of your post, I may play the long game again after I finish it, and try not to repeat my mistakes lol. Actually, not lol, like seriously. Feels good to have the weight of the late Allied arsenal on my side at June 1944, though. I'm also glad not having to use Mustang 1s or IIs as escort, at any altitude! Germans shot those down two to one, I swear.

I agree with your tactics for the early game. Americans wanted to hit Germany way before they were able to do that. They didn't expect the horrible losses. Can you imagine sending a raid to Schweinfurt in the game in October of 1943? You'd lose whole groups. It is way better to just saturate every reachable target in France until November of 1943, just as you described.

A weird thing happened in December of 1943. The weather turned unusually awful. Like, really bad. I grounded everything in Europe for basically thirty days. no raids at all. It wasn't worth it. Lots of planning and raids just kept getting grounded. This was exactly when the new P-47 D-20 and especially the P-51 B models came on line. I kept checking the aircraft replacements after each turn, and switching out squadron types. When January arrived, the weather got better and I started targeting raids, but now I had some substantial long range escort. It changed the game. I started hitting Germany.

Being a total research freak, I bought a bunch of books on Amazon and spent a lot of Covid time reading. Turns out that this actually happened in reality! Weather in December was terrible, the new fighters were arriving, and Eight AF spent weeks doing a crash conversion training program to get pilots into the new long range fighters, especially the P-51's. The battle really started then, in January and February, both in my game and historically. I don't know, it was just kind of cool seeing that similarity.

I have to give credit for the stalking enemy airfields idea to a player (name forgotten, too lazy to look up) on these forums who suggested it, but he was only doing it on night units for some reason. Once I had non-Eighth AF squadrons with P-51s, P-38s and P-47 D20s, the greatest joy was hunting landing German a/c and blasting them to pieces. I can just watch the messages about kills for hours.

I have some thoughts about Italy, since you mentioned it. My recommendation is to follow the game's desire to have you back the Italian invasion until the Axis reach the Gustav line (just south of Rome). Blast every airfield, every radar and every army unit you can, until the Germans are nestled in on that line. It happens fairly rapidly. Fifteenth AF will then form (as will 205 Group, more below). After the Germans are ensconced on the Gustav line in a nice tight row, my advice is to totally ignore the ground force there. Hitting them does not accomplish a thing, except aircraft losses. Nothing speeds up the move north from the Gustav line. Anyway, nothing that involves hitting the ground forces. (I may be wrong, and please, people, tell me if I am. This is just my game experience SO FAR talking here). It is far better for Fifteenth AF, Med AF and 12th AF to concentrate on reducing Italian and Balkan infrastructure. Smash every airfield, radar station, factory and rail yard in Italy, and as many in the Balkans as you can. Fifteenth AF should hit every Aluminum, Chem and Rubber plant in reach. Bomb Ploesti, Vienna, and Budapest rail yards, and every rail yard with factories around it.

I want to add an addendum here about losses I caused the Luftwaffe, mentioned in a previous post. I stated that I caused an average of 120-160 LW destroyed per day, on average. Note that that number was on days I was actually flying missions, in the period from January to April 1944. In the European theater, missions are on an average every three days, give or take for weather. Still, I made them bleed. Italy is a bit better for weather.

Re: 205 group: I read a great book called "The Desert Air force in World War Two" by Ken Delve. t mentions 205 Group (night) which popped up on my order of battle after Gustav line forms. They were fundamental to hitting Rommel's supply line while still in Africa. Benghazi, Tripoli, and also attacks on ships. They kept Rommel's fuel supply so low he couldn't do the things he wanted. Thy even blew up the Afrika Corps Christmas treats once, thousands of cigars, thousands of liters of beer and schnapps. In the game, I use them to night strike Vienna and Budapest and Ploesti on a cycle.

Here's some great reading if you like this game:

To Command the Sky, by McFarland and Newton....great overview of the American aerial campaign
Strike from the Sky, by Hallion. The history of close air support.
Luftwaffe, by Murray If you want to know why the Luftwaffe lost, read this book. Superb. Well written.

Many others. Reading is king.

Jeff

[gargamel9]

Woh! excellent info
thx[&o]

Ps.
Is it possible to send mosquito pathfinders for a heavy bomber raid over a city?
I usually make it so mosquitos are over the target 5 minutes before the heavies get there, which obviously are from another group, but I dont know if they bomb using their own leader or if the mosq add something to the attack other than a token bomb load.

[mark dolby]

I've always thought in the Italian campaign, YOU HAVE TO STRIKE THE ROAD/RAIL AREAS! Historically, the Allies plastered them and yet as noted, the Germans were able to hold on for a long period. If, in the game, you ignored those targets, then the breakthrough should not even happen anywhere near the historical time frame and yet it does - that's the anomaly in the game.

[Bella]

I agree that Italy is an anomaly. For the first 200 game turns of the 700 GT game I'm in, I struck at German ground units in the Gustav line regularly, and fairly heavily. I primarily used Kittyhawks for this,in about four groups, maybe 120 a/c in all, with the occasional P-38 squadron (they carry 1000 lb bombs) helping out when the didn't have fighter sweep duty. Kittyhawks are really disadvantaged against Axis aircraft anyway, have crap range, and are rugged enough to take a lot of flak. I kept at this until I had lots of surplus P-47s in the pool, and then switched them out and continued. I could orange line or red line German ground units and they would just recover, even after I blasted every rail yard along their supply lines all the way back to Germany. So, when the long range P-47 D-20 came along and I had surplus numbers, I fitted out those groups with that, and began to use them alternatively as support fighter sweeps for Fifteenth AF strikes against Axis industry in Germany and the satellite nations, with the occasional strike at ground units in the Gustav line. For the last fifty turns, though, I only strike at the ground units with very low morale heavy bombers (B-17's and B-24's at 30 to 40 morale) at max altitude. I read somewhere that low loss, successful missions increases morale faster than just not using the unit. It is May 26, 1944 in my game, and I just noticed that an airfield that had been behind the Gustav line turned grey, which means Allies had captured it. So it's starting. This is very close to the actual timeline (breakout occurred in the end of May, beginning of June after months of stalemate in the Anzio beachhead).

In summary, advice: yes, blast the rail yards, radar, airfields and ports in Italy, and all the critical industries you are focusing on (I focused on Rubber, Aluminum and Chem, as discussed in a previous post). This goes toward industry damage and Avalanche scores. Ignore the ground units, for the most part. My two bits.

[Bella]

Good question. When I send a night mission, I love to add a Mosquito squadron to the heavies. The B.IV version carries 66 X 30lb incendiaries, great for starting fires. Don't know if the game models this, but the northern German Hanseatic towns (Lubeck, Kiel, Hamburg, Bremen, etc) had a lot of wooden buildings so incendiaries proved especially useful there. But really, they're good anywhere. On the chance it is modeled, I always send a mossie on a northern mission. Also, the B.XV1 Mosquito version carries the 4000 lb bomb, a really whopper, plus two 500 lb bombs. Even at long ranges like Berlin, it still carries the 2000 lb bomb.

When I use the Mosquito squadrom as the lead unit, it always arrives well before the slower heavies coming after it.

A pure Mosquito raid at night, as a diversionary raid, is always a good idea. Three or four mosquito squadrons can really trash a German city. I caused a +35 urban damage to Frankfurt-On-Main just last turn using only three night Mossie units.

Point of interest: The Stirling III also carries the 4000 lb bomb (Lancaster 1 too I think). That was part of the reason I replaced all my B-26, B-25 and A-20 units with it. They can really trash a target with only a couple units attacking (airfield, rail yard, etc.)

[Bella]

I mentioned paying attention to the escorts of your bombing missions in a previous post. When I began the game, I was heavily influenced by the historical problem that first the Germans and then the Allies had with Close Escort, versus High (or Loose or Distance) Escort. In the historical war, fighters tied closely to the bombers did not do well, and were often bounced. The real blow to the LW came when Doolittle authorized the Eight AF's escort fighters to roam away from the bomber stream and hunt down assembling and landing German fighters. So, given that, I initially would have one or two units on Close Escort, and the rest on High Escort (6000 feet above the bombers is ideal, and it is good to layer with an additional unit 2000 feet above that.) This ratio was a a really bad idea, I eventually determined. I shot down a good number of German fighters, but the bomber losses were unsustainable. Morale in bomber groups plummeted. The ideal ratio seems to actually be about 75% close escort and 25% High escort. This keeps bomber losses low and still scores kills on enemy fighters. Generally, I put P-38 and P-47 units on close escort, and P-51's and Mustang III and IVs on high escort, when I have the numbers. By February 1944, as Allied, you really begin to see the Allied industrial edge. My two bits.

[Bella]

Hey JeffroK:

I agree with you totally about Typhoons. Superb tac bombers with good range and good speed, and they can even fight off German fighters (albeit, not that well). In my opinion, the best of the British air arsenal (along with the Mosquito FB. And the Mustang III and IV, but those are just British production versions of the P-51, so not completely British). Whirlwinds I tried for awhile, but I found that the damage they cause to targets (low bomb load) and their vulnerability to German fighters (very slow, almost a hundred miles per hour slower than the Typhoon) made them at best something for the Italian theatre. The new Tempest FB has arrived and the game keeps upgrading my Typhoon units to it. I switch them right back. I wish there was a setting for a unit that prevents auto upgrades. The Tempest V is fast, with a good bomb load, and good at air fighting, but its range is awful, like an older Spitfire. I've left four units with the Tempest which I will base in Normandy when the airfields are captured. There might be an error in the data base. I can send Typhoons half across France on strikes. Yet their endurance is 144 while the Tempest is listed at close to that at 130. Yet a Tempest unit will turn back from lack of fuel WAY before a Typhoon unit. Odd.

I agree about the tracker app. That would be awesome to have. Spreadsheets, huh? And I thought I was kinda anal about this game lol.

[Bella]

Let's talk mandatory targeting. This can be a real pain if you let it be. In NW Europe, the first mandatory targets that show are the U-boat pens and U-boat factories, due to the political pressure put on Eight AF during the height of the U-boat scare, followed by the V-weapon sites mandatory targeting that appears at the end of 1943. V-sites are legitimate targets that contribute to your Overlord score, they're close to the Channel coast, so easily reached with minimum casualties, and they are good targets for the tactical bombers of 2nd Tactical AF and Ninth AF. The U-pens and U-factories are another story. This may sound weird, and non-historical, but after a couple of really costly raids against the Atlantic U-pens and one against the closest U-factory on the North Sea coast, I gave up on it. The flak over these targets is incredibly intense, LW fighter response is strong, and you end up damaging your bomber (and even fighter) forces severely for little industrial gain, when you really should be hitting critical industries. What I ended up doing was just using days when mandatory strikes on U-pens and U-factories were demanded as rest days for the Eight AF. The game manual talks up how hitting U-factories counts toward your industry damage score. So what? It does zero to damage to the LW, except in fights in the air, and so to me, they're almost useless raids. Destroying the Luftwaffe and its ability to replenish its numbers is the goal.

Overlord mandatory targets are different. Overlord targets can contribute to industry damage score. Rail yards are prime targets, as you drop the production of nearby factories. Radar sites destroyed helps reduce LW response time (for the Night bombers, too), and that helps to reduce your losses. Ports destroyed reduces industrial activity and so, again helps your industry damage score. Airfields are the only pain, really. There are so many of them, and they all have a lot of flak. As stated in a previous post, hit them with your Ninth AF and 2nd Tac AF heavy and medium bombers (or if you're like me, get rid of all medium bombers and just have heavies), and avoid hitting them with Typhoons or other Fighter Bombers, because the light flak plays hell on them. As to ground troops, I'm entering new territory here. I'm 11 days from D-Day, so I THINK it's time to start hitting them to hold or accelerate the Overlord timetable. But I don't know. My Overlord score is respectable but not anywhere near what I think it should be for the number of targets I have red-lined in France. Maybe it's because I've avoided hitting ground troops? Finally, both historically and in the game, the whole goal of the Overlord targets is to get the Allies onto the continent. Over-running airfields and industry in France and then Germany is a way to win.

Avalanche mandatory in Italy, same comments. Destroying Italian infrastructure helps some with your industry scores, and you can always have secondary targets that are non-Avalanche targets.

Finally, for both Theatres, no matter what the mandatory is, fighter sweeps are allowed to any target. Ninth AF and 2nd Tac AF forces regularly help Eight AF on raids as supplementary escort, and for stalking returning German air units as they land, even during mandatory targeting. Same with 12th AF and Med AF for Fifteenth AF in Italy and the Balkans. My two bits.

[simovitch]

Great stuff Bella, thank you. I'll see if we can get this moved to the War Room.

You can't impact the dates of D-Day or Avalanche as they are hard wired. You can accellerate the breakout dates from the 'baseline date' set in the code (players do not know these dates but they roughly match history) by damaging troops, and the best time to inflict this damage is when they are retreating from one defense line to the other (fortification=0).

Once they are back in the next defense line building forts they are tough to crack.

The breaking of the west wall is one of the most important means of achieving or denying victory in the long campaigns because of the subsequent rapid loss of Axis industry.

[Bella]

Thanks, Simovitch!

[Bella]

More about targets: It is wise to use the correct kind of aircraft for the target that you are hitting. I don't know if this is an artifact of the game or reality, but certain aircraft should never be used to hit certain targets. This is about day operations. Note: I make no claims as to the effectiveness of P-51 and Mustang FB, as I've never used them in this role.

Please note: these comments refer to strikes WITHOUT recent reconnaissance of the target (hit probabilities go up if you recce before the strike. Thanks to Mark Dolby for clarifying that below.

Factories: Best: Heavy bombers (B-24, B-17, Liberator III and IV). Moderately effective: Medium bombers (B-25, B-26, A-20 etc) and Typhoons. Minimally effective: Fighter bombers (all P-47 types and P-38 types). Caveat: I've struck targets that have not been recce'd for a hundred days + and still got 80-99% damage with Heavy bombers).)
Airfields: Best: Heavy bombers at low height (15-18000 feet), Fighter-bombers (P-47 and P-38 types) Moderately effective: Typhoons and Tempest, Medium bombers at low height (about 12-15,000 ft)
Railroad yards: All aircraft types seem to cause damage here. Fighter-bombers seem to be particularly effective.
Ports: info is scanty here. Best: Typhoons can cause major damage. Moderate effectiveness: Heavy bombers
Radar: Best: Heavy and medium bombers at low height, Typhoons. Not effective: Fighter-bombers such as P-47 and P-38. (You can send hundreds, it's as if they are dropping marshmallows instead of bombs. This is true even when recent reconnaissance is on the target (i.e., 1 day). I've played and replayed this. Save your FBs for railyards, troops and maybe airfields.
Ground units: Best: Fighter-bombers of the P-47, P-38 types (they kill ground units like ants, especially when units are on the move.). Moderate: Medium bombers at low height (10-12,000 feet....dangerous..lots of flak). Not effective: heavy bombers over 15,000 feet.)
U-boat pens: Trust me, avoid them. Having said that, i have no idea what is best for these.

[mark dolby]

A lot of the target damage depends on good info from PR planes.
Radar, I have to disagree - FB cause the major damage, but mediums do seem to be more accurate with the latest patch due.
A lot of the damage in ground units can be mitigated by placing large numbers of LAA to put off the extremely dangerous FB.

[Bella]

That just shows you the holes in my own knowledge of the game. I’ve only ever used PR recce to confirm damage after a strike. I had no idea it affected hit probabilities when used before a strike. I will keep that in mind from now on, and amend my comment above about suitable a/c types. Thanks, Mark!