Using Night Fighters

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Gary Grigsby's War in the West >> Using Night Fighters

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Using Night Fighters - 4/2/2017 6:33:18 PM

PaulWRoberts

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Just an idle question: in playing against the AI, is there any reason not to put all the night fighters into RAF Bomber Command to serve as escorts?

Is there any use for Night Fighters in Coastal AF, or in any of the Med AF's for that matter? (Do the Germans run Naval Patrol missions at night, for instance?)

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RE: Using Night Fighters - 4/2/2017 8:34:29 PM

bomccarthy

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Joined: 9/6/2013
From: L.A.
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Interesting question - I've never seen the German AI mount any sort of offensive night missions, such as night bombing raids on airfields.

From my somewhat limited knowledge of German air operations in the Med, nighttime air defense was a significant mission for Allied night fighters in the Med during 1943 and early 1944, and certainly in England. Nighttime air defense in the Pacific was so important throughout the war that MacArthur requested USAAF P-61 units in the Philippines be replaced by USN/USMC F6F night fighter squadrons in late 1944.

(in reply to PaulWRoberts)

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RE: Using Night Fighters - 4/2/2017 9:58:03 PM

Markojager

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It's useful to put some of them in night intruder missions over the airfields, they catch the german night fighters just when they are landing.

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If you find yourself in a fair fight, you didn't plan your mission properly.

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RE: Using Night Fighters - 4/4/2017 5:16:37 PM

HMSWarspite

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From: Bristol, UK
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This is one of the (small) issues I have with this game. Why did the number of NFs used over Germany (e.g. with Bomber Command) stay so small, when, even against a human, there is no need to have more than nominal NF defence? There must be something missing. The UK obviously thought there was a threat. There is also the refusal to use radar and some of the other ECM over German held territory for a long while. Failure to model these gives the WA a boost which was't really there. Either the NFs should be used as reinforcements when they joined BC, or some other sort of fix is required. I suspect the Morale effect of even light night bombing (in RL) was the reason to keep them in RAF FC.

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RE: Using Night Fighters - 4/4/2017 8:09:20 PM

Markojager

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Indeed, it was more a political movement, to reassure the public from night attacks as the called 'baby blitz' from january to may of 1944, when the luftwaffe wasted the rest of its bomber forces. As this is an useless use of planes and pilots, the average player don't do that (from what I had read in AARs), so it's safe to say that the boost to the allies come from the rational decision to left empty the homefront from a low probability/effect night attack.

_____________________________

If you find yourself in a fair fight, you didn't plan your mission properly.

David Hackworth

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RE: Using Night Fighters - 4/4/2017 9:38:40 PM

HMSWarspite

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From: Bristol, UK
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Ah, but in game, the bomber attacks cannot achieve anything useful, so the GE doesn't do them, so removing the NF is rational. In RL it wasn't so simple... If there was a VP loss per (say) 10 aicraft in an unintercepted raid on UK, then there would be an incentive. Or just give the NF as reinforcements when they switched to BC...

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I have a cunning plan, My Lord

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