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fochinell -> RE: AAR swift vs fochinell (6/18/2007 11:42:31 PM)
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Another day, another outbreak of insane rage at Evil Galactic Darklord HQ:
Firstly, yet another attempt to dodge the diabolic weather (and I mean [sm=00000612.gif] weather) ends up with two lead B-17 groups taking on the might of the Luftwaffe instead of the ten I had planned. [:@] At least all the escorts took off this time. [sm=nono.gif]
More outrage and tears over the bombing, as my attempt to hit the Krupp Germania Werft UFAC north-east of Kiel (777,145) ends up flying south of the target to hit the invisible Neumunster Flugzeugwerke; this seems to happen every time I try and attack that target. [sm=00000018.gif]
Then some typically useless medium bomber attacks on factories in Italy (and tactical targets in Holland) end up with excessive bomber losses to Flak. [sm=00000023.gif]
The life of a galactic Dark Lord is never an easy one. Time to execute some of my unfortunate subordinates to improve my mood. [sm=character0169.gif]
OK, time for StrategyTalk, that section of the forum where I explain the tricks I try and use as Allies for targeting.
Firstly, until the 8th AF get the capability (size of bomber force and long-range escorts), BC need to do some of the work hitting strategic targets. The large RUBBER, STEEL and CHEM factories are useful targets that H2S-lead BC raids should hit. I use 5 Group to do this, while the rest of BC hit the larger RR targets or ports in urban areas to build up the terror score. In all cases high morale leading units are needed, with about 4 Groups of B-17 or more to stand a chance of doing damage if your lead unit doesn't nail the target in daylight.
Target systems worth substantial effort are, in my opinion, RUBBER and STEEL, followed by CHEM. A few good raids on the really big factories can really hurt these critical industries, while they have subsidiary factories within tactical bomber range which can supplement your critical dependence upon the 8th and 15th AF to do SB damage. I've hit POWER before, but there are just too many well-distributed sites to manage to sustain serious damage before repair rates pull it out of critical damage. At the beginning of the game your bomber force is too small to sustain a realistic campaign against a large number of targets, so concentration pays off.
I've tried AFAC and (in my last game with Werner) EFAC, but while I think they can cause some useful annoyance and disrupt Axis aircraft production, they can't cripple it - largely due to the poor bombing accuracy involved once the sites get substantive Flak defence (and Werner sticks to his word on Flak limits).
The only game where I think SB targetting really paid off against a human opponent was when I went after RUBBER with extreme ruthlessness and repetition while building up TERROR (this meant hitting RUBBER sites all the way out to extreme range with every bombing force available - 2TAF Mossie FB's, Typhoons, even P-47 fighter-bombing - as often as possible to keep them all over 90% damage) and then using my increasing forces to hit CHEM and ARM factories while keeping RUBBER critical.
I was turning most of the urban areas of Germany black in that game by launching maximum-effort BC raids with creep-back factored in to ensure bombing concentration (e.g. plot waves of bombers to look like an intersecting fan across the area of the city you want to devastate, as creep-back will see succeeding bomber units bombing back along the line of approach - you don't want to hit black areas of devastation while some areas remain untouched). In my last couple of games with Werner I've gone down to using one Group of BC per night; the level of additional terror damage is lower, but the morale drop with BC units is substantial and you will end up with units constantly hitting open country rather than the biggest city if they get below 40%. Using 20% of BC every night also reduces attrition to miniscule levels while Werner risks high attritional losses to my NI's plotted over active NJG AF's or chickens out of sending up his night-fighters entirely. [:D]
This time round I'm going to hit a variety of systems, but with a concentration on transportation targets which should pay off with a good SB and TERROR score. But first I'm going to have some fun allowing the 8th AF to fail against some specific targets like the UFACs and maybe ball-bearings with a blood-bath or two at Schweinfurt. Yee-haah! [sm=sterb020.gif]
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