Shannon V. OKeets
Posts: 22095
Joined: 5/19/2005
From: Honolulu, Hawaii
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Here is my rewrite of Patrice's text for 3.4.3. The tables don't line up correctly here, btu they are correct in my WordPerfect file.
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3.4.3 Committing Air Units
How you commit your air units is vital to succeeding on the battlefields of MWIF. Air units are assets that give a powerful advantage to whomever uses them best in support of military operations on the ground and at sea. Understanding three concepts will help you master MWIF's air operations:
1. Air units only "act" once per game turn.
2. Activity limits make advance planning mandatory.
3. Fighters are crucial.
Concept 1: Air units only "act" once per game turn
Concept 1 is about having a good picture of your air unit arsenal, which air missions they are best for, and what you want them to do in the current game turn. Reorganization can let you use air units multiple times during a game turn, but there are always very few reorganization points available and they’re expensive to use. It’s usually better to only count on air units performing a single mission each turn.
The air units discussed in this section are bombers and air transports. Fighters are discussed in the section on Concept 3. Bombers and air transports have a direct effect on the war, while the fighters only serve to enable friendly bombers and air transports to accomplish missions, or prevent enemy ones from doing so.
Bombers
Bombers include: strategic bombers, tactical bombers, fighter-bombers, torpedo bombers, and dive bombers. Air transports (those air units with their range circled in white) don't drop bombs, or do so weakly. In WIF, there are very few air transports, but they perform roles that make them both unique and irreplaceable.
Here are the air missions that bombers perform. In parenthesis is the factor on the counter that is most important for the given air mission:
• Naval Air Patrol / Naval Air Combat missions (air-to-sea factor) help control sea areas, either through combat or dissuasion. A port attack also falls into this category since it executes as a naval air combat. Usually the best bombers for this air mission are the naval bombers (NAV), because they receive a bonus when searching for the enemy at sea.
• Strategic Bombing missions (strategic factor) can damage the enemy's military production facilities. Strategic bombing is also a valuable tool to force enemy fighters to fight your own fighters, when you are seeking air superiority in a theater of operations.
• Carpet Bombing missions (strategic factor) help friendly land forces fight enemy's land forces. Carpet bombing can destroy ground units, but needs to have a large number of bombers (at least 4 air units heavy bombers, maybe more) to have a smallish, 50%, chance of success. This represents a high cost for limited results. Generally it is only used by the Allied side toward the end of the war, after their ground strikes and ground support needs have been met.
• Ground Strike missions (tactical factor) help friendly land forces fight enemy's land forces. Ground Strike is the most frequently used air mission, as it disorganizes (i.e. “softens”) enemy land units before you declare your land combats. If successful, it gives a large bonus to land combat attacks (+2 per disorganized unit with the 2D10 CRT). One rule of thumb for having a reasonably high chance of disorganizing the enemy unit(s) is to have about 10 tactical factors perform the air mission. For example, 2 Stukas with 5 tactical factors each, gives two 50% chances to disorganize the enemy, or 5 fighter bombers with 2 tactical factors each, gives five 20% chances to disorganize the enemy. This does not guarantee disorganizing the enemy, but offers reasonably high odds. A successful ground strike can also immobilize enemy units, which limits your opponent’s reaction capacities, and is a good way to win land combats on the long term.
• Ground Support missions (tactical factor) help friendly land forces fight enemy's land forces. Ground support is used often, because it doesn’t count against activity limits (discussed later in this section). Ground support simply adds tactical factors, as if they were land combat factors, to a land combat. For each quantity of tactical factors equal to the enemy defensive combat factors, you add the same bonus that a ground strike would have achieved by disorganizing an enemy unit. For example, if the enemy has 15 combat factors in a stack with 2 land units, for each 15 tactical factors you add, you gain a +2 (2D10 CRT) to the land combat. So, for 15 tactical factors you get a +2, while those same 15 tactical factors would have had a good chance of giving you a +4 against a hex with multiple units, if they had been used in a ground strike mission. Hence, ground strikes are better when the enemy hex is strong. Sometimes though, ground support is better, primarily when the enemy is weak. For example, if the enemy hex contains a single unit with 4 combat factors, using 12 tactical factors as ground support guarantees a +6 to the land combat, while using those factors in ground strike missions would provide +2 at best. Because ground strike missions count against activity limits, while ground support do not, it is best to not ground strike weak enemies, if you know you have the air power to hammer them with ground support bombing.
As you can see if you examine the factors for your different bombers, you have planes that are good at strategic bombing (high strategic factor). Those can be used for strategic bombing and carpet bombing missions. In some cases, your bombers will have both high strategic and high tactical factors. With those, you will be torn trying to decide which air mission they should perform. Therefore, you really need to know how many bombers you have, and how many of them you are going to use for each type of air mission you’re planning for the game turn.
Air Transports
Very few air transports are on the map at any one time, usually not more than half a dozen to a dozen worldwide for all major powers. Ironically, this makes it easier to decide which ones will fly which missions - you won’t have much choice. Because air transports have such weak air-to-air factors, one of the major concerns when using them is to make sure they don’t get shot down in air-to-air or anti-air combat before they can even complete their mission.
Here are the air missions that air transports perform. In parenthesis is the factor on the counter that is most important for the given air mission:
• Paradropping missions (range) deliver paratroops directly onto enemy hexes, even if there are enemy land units present. A land combat occurs in a later phase of the game, and if the enemy isn’t forced from the hex, the paradropping units are automatically destroyed. This is a powerful tool for taking hard to reach hexes and for adding extra land combat points when attacking a particularly difficult target hex. For example, Gibraltar and island hexes are difficult to capture without a strong invasion force, or a combination of invading and paradropping units. Like invasions, paradrops are risky (they put your expensive units in harm’s way) but are fearsome weapons when used correctly.
• Air transport missions (range) deliver land units to distant friendly hexes. This mission lets you deliver land units quickly to an overseas hex, or to a hex that plugs a hole in your line. This mission type isn’t used very often, partly because maintaining a threat of a paradrop, even if you never fly the mission, is a useful thing for your air transport to do during a turn. And partly because reorganizing a unit can be very attractive late in a turn.
• Reorganization by air transport missions (# of reorganization points, range) permit you to reorganize units. See the discussion below on reorganization.
Reorganization
Reorganization is what enables an air unit (and other units) to “act” multiple times in a game turn. This is a very powerful ability, and you should always try to have as many reorganization points as you can, because it allows you to use your best units several times in a game turn.
Reorganization points during a game turn come from 3 sources :
• HQs, that have from 1 to 5 reorganization points.
• Air transport units (ATRs), that have 1 or 2 reorganization points (usually they have 1 point).
• TRS/AMPH and a special kind of SUB (Supply SUB), that have 1 reorganization point.
Air bases
WIF doesn’t have air bases, per se. Instead air units simply have stacking restrictions in different types of terrain. Where you base your most valuable air units is crucial. This most commonly is done after they return to base from an air mission. You want them to be in supply and potentially capable of being reorganized.
That is, to reorganize air units after a mission, return them to base:
• In range of an HQ, and if you plan to use an HQ to reorganize units, gather as many units as the HQ can reorganize - so you do not waste the HQ’s reorganization points, or
• In range of an ATR, but you also then need to remember to “save” an air mission so the ATR can fly its reorganization mission, or
• In a coastal hex where a TRS/AMPH/Supply SUB is able to reorganize the air unit.
Concept 2: Activity limits make advance planning mandatory
The mechanics of MWIF are such that you can’t do everything at once. Unless you take an Air Action, you will only have a limited number of air missions in an impulse. So you need to prioritize the air missions that you want to execute, and then fly as many as you can each impulse. The priority of each mission is to maximize the assistance/support for the rest of your military operations. Delaying military operations can be deadly, so make sure you have the necessary air missions available when they are needed.
Activity limits and prioritization
Some air missions do not count toward the limited number of air missions you have available each impulse. These are :
• Ground support.
• Fighter escort.
• Fighter interception.
• Air units flying as air support for a naval combat.
All other air missions do count against your limits, but these four ‘free’ air missions can be conducted at will. This is one of the reasons why you will sometimes fly bombers in ground support missions rather than on a more efficient ground strike mission.
A good example of prioritization is to remember to “save” the right number of air missions to conduct paradrops. If you plan on paradropping 3 air units during this impulse, and you only have 4 air missions allowed, you know that you only have 1 single air mission remaining to fly other air missions. Generally you’ll use it to ground strike the enemy land units where the paradrop will occur, but not necessarily. It may also be a simple rebase mission to have a fighter air unit protect the paratroopers after they win their land combat.
Another example is to remember to “save” the right number of air missions to conduct air rebase missions when your army is advancing. After your land units have moved, you will want to rebase your air units farther forward, so in the next impulse they can reach withdrawing enemy units, or to cover your advancing forces. Saving air missions for rebasing air units in preparation for critical air missions during the next impulse, is an advanced game skill. Failing to do so is one of the pitfalls that new players fall into most often.
Action Choices
A second aspect of activity limits is the Action Choice. There are 4 types of actions that you can use during each impulse. In decreasing order of available air missions they are : Air, Combined, Land, and Naval actions. Depending on your major power, you may have more air missions during a land action than during a naval action, or vice-a-versa. For example, Germany is a land power and has more air missions during a land action, while the CW is a naval power and has more air missions during a naval action.
Here is an overview of these four action types, with emphasis on air mission activity limits:
• Air actions have unlimited air missions, but no land or naval moves.
• Combined actions have a large number of air missions (3 to 7, China excepted), some land moves (2 to 6) and a few naval moves (1 to 3).
• Land actions have some air missions (1 to 4), unlimited land moves, and no naval moves.
• Naval actions have some air missions (1 to 3), unlimited naval moves, and no land moves.
Your action choice also has an impact on reorganization. Reorganization is cheaper for air units if you choose an air action, otherwise it is twice the normal cost.
Many experienced players consider the action choice the most important decision of an impulse. Choosing wisely requires you to have a good idea of the units you want to move during the rest of the turn, not just for the current impulse. Then you have to match your current action choice to your planned moves in the current impulse, taking into account both the current weather and the weather forecast.
For example, if you want to conduct a large scale summer offensive, it might be a good idea to start the game turn with an air action (summer means good flying weather), so you can use your air force widely and without restrictions. Ground strikes can soften up the enemy for future impulses. To some, it might look like a wasted impulse, because there will be no land moves or land attacks. But it can pay off big during the next impulse, providing the enemy doesn’t have the reorganization capacity to immediately undo the results of your ground strikes. Another advantage of an air action is that it lets you reorganize air units using your full reorganization capacity. Other actions only let you use half that capacity, since reorganizing each air units would cost double the reorganization points.
Number of impulses statistics based on 8 actual games
The uncertainty of when the turn will end adds more pressure for you to make your action choices correctly. Here are some statistics from Patrice Forno, accumulated over 8 completed 39-45 games. That is 48 Jan/Feb game turns, 48 Mar/Apr game turns, and so forth. This comes out to an average of 125 to 126 impulses per side (3.5 per side, per turn) for an entire 1939 to 1945 game.
Average, maximum, and minimum impulses per side, per game turn:
• Jan/Feb 2.5 4 1
• Mar/Apr 2.9 5 & 4 1
• May/Jun 4.2 7 & 6 2 & 1
• Jul/Aug 4.7 8 & 7 3 & 2
• Sep/Oct 3.5 5 2 & 1
• Nov/Dec 2.9 5 1
To translate this table, over-the-board experience has shown that a Jul/Aug game turn will have an average of 4.7 impulses for each side (say 5 for the side that moves first, and 4 for the second side), with a maximum of 8 impulses for the first side, 7 impulses for the second side, and a minimum of 3 impulses for the first side and 2 impulses for the second side.
Note that:
• The minima and maxima sometimes occurred only once over 8 games (48 game turns).
• The larger of the maxima is for the side that moved first. The second side may have one impulse less.
• The larger of the minima is for the side that moved first. The second side may have one impulse less.
• During the winter, you may only get one impulse in a turn even if you go first!
Simulated probability distributions for impulses per turn
This table is based on a simulation of 100,000 years of WiF game turns.
Prob. of turn ending after impulse Jan/Feb Mar/Apr May/Jun Jul/Aug Sep/Oct Nov/Dec
3 5.60% 2.50% 0.10% 2.60%
4 23.40% 11.80% <0.1% <0.1% 3.70% 12.70%
5 32.80% 24.90% 3.50% 0.50% 13.40% 24.50%
6 24.30% 27.10% 7.80% 0.80% 20.60% 25.10%
7 9.90% 18.80% 16.50% 10.80% 22.60% 18.10%
8 3.00% 9.90% 20.90% 18.30% 18.50% 10.30%
9 0.70% 3.50% 20.00% 21.10% 11.70% 4.50%
10 0.20% 1.20% 15.10% 19.70% 5.80% 1.60%
11 <0.1% 0.30% 9.30% 14.60% 2.50% 0.50%
12 <0.1% <0.1% 4.70% 8.50% 0.90% 0.10%
13 1.50% 3.90% 0.20% <0.1%
14 0.50% 1.40% <0.1%
15 <0.1% 0.30%
16+ <0.1%
Expected # of impulses: 5.2 6.0 8.7 9.5 7.2 6.0
Prob. of an odd number of impulses 49.10% 50.10% 50.90% 51.20% 50.50% 50.20%
Prob. of an even number of impulses 50.90% 49.90% 49.10% 48.80% 49.50% 49.80%
Concept 3 : “Fighters are crucial”
Concept 3 is about enabling the bombers/air transports you have allocated to fly successful missions, and to deny that ability to the enemy. Specifically, you want:
• Your fighters to prevent enemy air units from completing their air missions, and
• Your fighters to enable your air units to complete their air missions despite the presence of enemy fighters.
You should be aware that some fighters that also have the ability to fly as bombers (fighter-bombers). These units provide additional flexibility, because if you have enough fighters to cover all your fighter needs, you can use your best fighter-bombers as additional bombers.
Air superiority
The final goal of concept 3 is to achieve total air superiority. This is when your fighters provide enough protection that you can consistently accomplish all your air missions (which can also occur if the enemy has no remaining fighters). At the same time, you have sufficient fighters, with sufficient range, to prevent the enemy from flying air missions. This happens rarely in MWIF: sometimes in the early stages of the War in Russia, and sometimes in the late stages of the War in the West. You can however, often achieve local air superiority in an area 10 hexes across more often. Additionally, towards the end of a turn, you might find yourself with total air superiority if enemy air units have all flown missions or in some other way have become disorganized.
Obtaining air superiority can be done by simply much building more fighters than the enemy, which means that you have geared up your production to achieve that goal (see 3.4.10). With a lower cost it can also be obtained by using your fighters wisely.
Elements that contribute to achieving air superiority, other than sheer mass production, are the following:
• Choose your fights
You have to know where you need: (1) your air missions to succeed, and (2) your enemy's air missions to fail. To do this you need to rank the threats from enemy air missions, and reserve fighters to prevent those that are most threatening, (assuming you can’t prevent them all).
Take into consideration that Strategic and Carpet Bombing are more efficient if they are not intercepted (+1 to the die roll), so you might intercept those missions purely for the sake of denying that nasty +1.
When you are the phasing side, you have 2 opportunities to send fighters into combat. You can send them as escorts before the enemy sends interceptors; and you can send them after the enemy sends interceptors. When sending escorts, it is wise to only send those that cannot reach the target hex as interceptors (interceptors have half the range of escorts). This way, you send fighters if and only if the enemy sends fighters. Even better, you can control what the odds will be. For example, when playing the western Allies late in the war, and nearing total air superiority, you can try to arrange that all the air-to-air combats are at least +2 in your favor. This is possible because of the enormous range of the late war western Allied fighters.
Also, using an estimate of how many impulses are left in a turn, you can calculate how many fighters to use each impulse. For example, knowing that a Jul/Aug game turn has an average duration of 9 impulses (but can also last 15 to 16 impulses), if you have 27 fighters in a theater, you can estimate that using more than 3 per impulse will lead to too few fighters in the later impulses (unless you reorganize some). But you must also take into account your enemy’s use of his fighters and his reorganization capabilities. If he has 27 fighters, and is using 9 of them during the first impulse, then you can use just as many to counter the threat. Keep in mind the enemy’s reorganization points. If he has a lot, and you don’t, you’d best be advised to preserve some spare fighters for later impulses.
• Only send what you need
You don't necessarily need to send a lot of fighters to prevent or interfere with enemy air missions. Check out the air-to-air combat results table and the statistics provided below, to form your own conclusions.
For example, being at +1 or 0 is the same regarding your chances to destroying/aborting enemy aircraft (56%). Being at +1 you will destroy enemy units more often, but if being at 0 can save you a fighter for later, you might want to save the fighter. On the other hand, at 0 you’ll have more “clear through” results that you won’t like.
Also, being at -1 or 0 is the same regarding your chances to let the enemy clear through to his target. So if you’re short of fighters and defending against enemy air missions, you may choose to fight at -1 rather than 0, and save a fighter for a following impulse.
• Learn to abort
As an air-to-air combat is fought, both sides are likely to lose fighters. Be ready to abort the combat if the odds put you at an extreme disadvantage; fighting under -3 can lead to total disaster. Maybe letting that air mission clear through is a lesser evil than losing even more fighters?
• Reorganize fighters
Reorganization was discussed earlier in this section. Seriously consider reorganizing your best fighters, if they survived. That’s because fighters are cheaper to reorganize that other air units (you reorganize 2 fighters for the same reorganization cost as 1 multi-engined bomber), and “fighters are crucial”. As usual, this depends on what you need most.
• Choose your air bases wisely
Fighters generally have a shorter range than bombers, so you need to think about that when choosing their air base (i.e., hex). Remember that they have an interception range of half their printed range and position them so they are at interception range of the hexes/sea areas where you’ll want to engage the enemy. Never forget to make sure they are in supply.
When you are defending against raids that go deep into your homeland (and playing with the en-route interception option), try to have your fighters as a curtain through which the enemy has to pass to reach his target. Don’t forget to fill in the holes that the enemy opens in your curtain by forcing you to intercept air missions. He will use those holes in subsequent impulses.
When you are on the offensive, don’t hesitate to base your short ranged fighters directly on the frontlines (this is also true for very short ranged bombers, such as the Stukas). But be careful to avoid places that are threatened of being ground struck by adjacent enemy artillery! When you are on the defensive, you’d rather base your fighters within interception range of your front line, but as far back as possible, so they don’t get overrun by an enemy advance. Unavoidably, some of your fighters will be on the frontlines, but choose the worst fighters for those locations since they will be in danger of being overrun.
In addition, be careful about putting “all your eggs in the same basket”. This can occur not only by putting multiple air units in a hex but also by choosing a hex that has armor, an HQ, or other valuable units. If the enemy ground strikes the hex your fighters are in, you’ll either have to use your fighters to intercept (even if you would have liked to save them for a future impulse), or run the risk of seeing them disorganized by the ground strike.
When planning naval offensive in an enemy sea area, you generally first need to control air bases (islands, if possible with a port) in that sea area’s vicinity from which to base fighters to protect your fleet. You’ll need to plan this a few turns in advance, and possibly be obliged to conduct a few preparation invasions.
Statistics about air-to-air combat (from Carl-Niclas Odenbring)
Air-to-Air Combat Value
-9 -7, -8 -5, -6 -3, -4 -2 -1 0 +1 +2, 3 +4, 5 +6, 7 +8
Positive results for the Die Roller
Enemy Destroyed 2% 6% 9% 12% 16% 20% 25% 30% 36% 42% 49% 56%
Enemy Aborted 10% 14% 21% 24% 26% 29% 31% 26% 28% 30% 33% 25%
Total 12% 20% 30% 36% 42% 49% 56% 56% 64% 72% 82% 81%
Negative results for the Die Roller
No result 8% 10% 12% 13% 14% 15% 8% 16% 8% 9% 9% 9%
Enemy Cleared 80% 70% 58% 51% 44% 36% 36% 28% 28% 19% 19% 10%
Total 88% 80% 70% 64% 58% 51% 44% 44% 36% 28% 28% 19%
_____________________________
Steve
Perfection is an elusive goal.
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