LoBaron
Posts: 4776
Joined: 1/26/2003 From: Vienna, Austria Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: GreyJoy Lobaron, i count the numbers of ready fighters. 2900 were present at an avg of 50% CAP. So that should mean imho that 400 were airborne, 400 on stand by and 400 more acrambling... But the rest of them not present in that 50% CAP should have been scrambled... That's how it works with small or medium air battles so i'm pretty sure it should work for monster battles too. And imho a level 9 AF doesn't mean a single huge AF but a serie of connected AFs.l. But the point, again, isn't the losses on the ground but the fact that the bombers always get through...and there's no way to prevent it. Nemo is right. I have tested it the very same thing after my CV fleet defeat: no matter how good your cap is...the CVs willALWAYS get sunk. Always. Hakodate is overstacked. Ok...but what if rader had sent 400 betties against my BBs at hakodate instead of the Helens? Where should i base my fleet? How should i defend my fleet? Tell me which is the way to succesfully cover my fleet and i will try it...but at th moment i don't see how... Does the combat report truncate data? Because if I add the numbers below I get 1192 total fighters. Allied aircraft Corsair II x 16 Seafire L.III x 3 Mosquito FB.VI x 14 Spitfire VIII x 72 Thunderbolt I x 12 Thunderbolt II x 6 Spitfire VIII x 20 F4U-1D Corsair x 25 P-38J Lightning x 16 P-38L Lightning x 66 P-39N2 Airacobra x 11 P-39N1 Airacobra x 10 P-40N5 Warhawk x 56 P-40N26 Warhawk x 6 P-47D2 Thunderbolt x 21 P-47D25 Thunderbolt x 92 P-51B Mustang x 36 FM-2 Wildcat x 48 F4U-1A Corsair x 93 F4U-1D Corsair x 139 F6F-3 Hellcat x 184 F6F-5 Hellcat x 246 Anyways, what I do agree on is, we have an issue with regards to large strike packages. The underlying problem looks like one of target selection routine of CAP and/or escort behaviour, or max size of strike packages. The recent combat replay displays the issue nicely: You were not able to penetrate the escorts with CAP numerous enough that this should be possible. The problem is not number of planes shot down, this is within realistic figures, but that the fight solely was carried out CAP vs. escort, leaving no fighters to engage the bombers. This is what has to be looked at. There are two obvious solutions to this issue: 1) this was already pointed out by hades1001 in the tech forum: limit the maximum possible number of aircraft in a single raid package, independent on how good coordination is. This would enable CAP to overwhelm the escorting fighters. 2) change the logic of how CAP selects targets and/or how escorts react to attacking fighters. I do not know enough of the model here to get an estimate on how predictable modification on this part would be, so I am unable to guess if this is possible. What we have to be careful though is not to tilt the balance the other way with the above solutions, meaning no attack gets through because CAP becomes overpowered. As to your strategy question, and also to explain why I still am reluctant to view your game as representative for getting "realistic" results: In my opinion you should have bogged down in Hokkaido long ago, waging a defensive air war and pose a threat to Honshu, while exploiting raders comittment to defend the HIs against your invasion on at least two other fronts. Germany and Japan broke down because they were forced to fighter on multiple frontlines spreading out the defensive forces. I think Germany is a much better example to compare to your current situation. You are trying to win an air war against "Germany" as the "8th airforce" without the backup of the Russian front meatgrinder. It is a farfetched analogy but I think a good one. If Germany had been able to concentrate 90% of the Luftwaffe against the 8th instead of attriting the units on the SU front, the losses for the US would have been brutal bordering to desatrous. Your situation is similar: You pose a single threat vector against an airforce as strong as your own. This makes any decision easy for rader. I know it is a bit late to point this out, and I have the benefit of hindsight, but you made a brilliant invasion without maximising the benefit from it. The benefit is, you give rader a problem he needs to adress, and if only by building up a homeland defense by pulling back units from other fronts thats fine. But you don´t exploit this required force relocation. The consequence of a successful invasion of Hokkaido should be an increased pressure on DEI, Burma, China, the island hopping campaign to the Phillipines, at least two of the above. You are only beginning to wear rader out, to advance in the mest defended area before this has been accomplished is the most costly approach, and the most likely to fail. I know it is late war, but the decision to proceed while the air war hangs in balance was for the wrong reasons (IMHO a bit of a victory disease on its own, the percieved time pressure, and your vocal audience).
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