Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: Gunnulf

Turn 16 - 16 October '43

Simple to summarise, this turn QBall pretty much bombed everywhere in North Germany. Quite impressive really with 150 city bombing raids in total on a total of 47 different hexes, a new high. I've not been though all of them but they are 50 plane raids. Losses inflicted were maybe the best in a while with 98 level bombers, and 45 P38s, versus 67 Bf109s and 18 Me410s. Some quick maths puts that at at a 1.28% loss rate combined 8th AF & Bomber command. Hardly going to set the high command scurrying around for a new tactic due to overwhelming casualties. That its 47 different hexes for me makes it difficult for me to imagine this can be considered each wave as part of complex raid. This is not even a shotgun now, its a blunderbus! :)
I can't blame QBall, I've made plenty of mistakes which haven't helped my case and they are snowballing, but clearly the bombing experts have hit on the right formula to work the game mechanics to the best advantage to minimise intercepts, maximise escort coverage, increase interceptor fatigue and reap huge damage. Maybe if 8th Air force had adopted the strategy of fanning out everywhere in individual wing sized attacks on multiple different places in a free-for-all then they would have come back with 1-2% losses rather than 5-7% they sustained? Needless to say all the inteceptor gruppes in range (given the area, thats almost all) have fatigue between 57 & 84 as the bounce out and back each time, eventually no doubt asleep at the controls, underperforming in battles, increasing fuel use and operational losses. This has to be a big part of the difference between this game where I am getting raped, and the other where so far in '43 my air force has well over double the day fighter pilots remaining in Luftwaffe Reich?

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ORIGINAL: decourcy2

Carlkay surprised me with a late December invasion... it was worse than I expected, lost Rome, several infantry divisions.

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ORIGINAL: Gunnulf

Turn 30 - 22 Jan 44

Snowfall over the Reich. Looks like he continues to fly but only 5 small raids find their targets; one night raid on Essen causes no damage (flying in the snow at night sounds like a particularly aweful job for sure!), but the day raids cause pretty impressive damage. Just 49 liberators cause 79% damage to a size 30 HI target at Braunschweig, while just 22 liberators cause 69% damage to the V-Weapon factory at Neustrelitz and 24 bombers cause 29% damage to the size 20 Griefwald factory. I cam't wait until we get back to 150+ raids finding their targets...!

However most discouraging is when we actually engage in the air as now there are already Mustangs flying AS missions over Hannover with devastating results. 3 battles on different days for the same interceptor groups; first on day two then 152 Bf109s thing they get the drop on 47 P38s and 50 Bombers, however we lose 10 to his 2. Then the next day come the Mustangs, we bring 216 and lose 25, they bring 72 and lose 4. Day 7 the same groups engage. The now battered Bf109s can only muster 130 and lose another 24(!) while the 65 Mustangs still serviceable lose just 2. Should we even bother flying? I'm expecting 44 to be devastating overall but I would hope that now and again we can get the odds to do some damage. None of this seems encouraging and we need to have a big think about our response. There is no doubt however that QBall has mastered the air war here.

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ORIGINAL: Gunnulf

Turn 33 - 12 Feb '44

One thing I was worried about was on the previous engagements with Mustangs our BF109s showed in the loadout screen to have droptanks whereas his P51s didn't. We had these on to allow a bit more range and overlap the intercepts. Jut in case this wasn't dropping the tanks before combat we took them off, however the impact on results seems to be zero and the Germans still get chewed up, at 24k versus his 25k despite in theory the interceptors reacting and being the ones to chose to engage. Why wouldn't you at least attack from above?
Elsewhere our mix of a BF109 interceptor screen and 2 'killer' AS boxes of 150 Fw190s & Bf110/Me410s works reasonably well (though not without a few engagements versus P38s where we lose 13-0) with a few isolated battles where we can pounce on just bombers, but results like this against the Mustangs make it unsustainable. Being able to limit the range gruppes intercept at would be really useful, as without it interceptor roam into danger too often. I'd be tempted to try again just AS missions but it just means more fuel burnt for less planes in the air over a smaller area i think and relies on just occasional ambushes.

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ORIGINAL: bomccarthy

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ORIGINAL: Gunnulf

Turn 33 - 12 Feb '44

One thing I was worried about was on the previous engagements with Mustangs our BF109s showed in the loadout screen to have droptanks whereas his P51s didn't. We had these on to allow a bit more range and overlap the intercepts. Jut in case this wasn't dropping the tanks before combat we took them off, however the impact on results seems to be zero and the Germans still get chewed up, at 24k versus his 25k despite in theory the interceptors reacting and being the ones to chose to engage. Why wouldn't you at least attack from above?
Elsewhere our mix of a BF109 interceptor screen and 2 'killer' AS boxes of 150 Fw190s & Bf110/Me410s works reasonably well (though not without a few engagements versus P38s where we lose 13-0) with a few isolated battles where we can pounce on just bombers, but results like this against the Mustangs make it unsustainable. Being able to limit the range gruppes intercept at would be really useful, as without it interceptor roam into danger too often. I'd be tempted to try again just AS missions but it just means more fuel burnt for less planes in the air over a smaller area i think and relies on just occasional ambushes.

I took a quick look at the Editor: Bf 109G-6 top speed is 400 @ 21k ft, while P-51B-10 top speed is 439 @ 25k ft. This means your units were a few thousand feet above their best altitude for speed. For comparison, the P-38's best altitude is also 25k (399 mph for the G/H model and 415 mph for the J/L model), while the P-47's best altitude is 29/30k ft (433 mph for the D-15 and 430 mph for the D-25) Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do about it - the Allies can choose the altitude at which you have to defend. To make matters worse, the B-17's best altitude for speed is 27k ft, so they will almost always bomb from an altitude higher than your best altitude. If it is any consolation, you'll never have to face the P-47N, P-51H, or F4U-5.

Keep in mind that you are in the months where the real-life 8th AF fighter units gutted the Luftwaffe.