How do strategic bombing work ? (Full Version)

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Nico165b165 -> How do strategic bombing work ? (12/8/2014 9:28:08 PM)

Now trying to understand how to properly bomb the german industry into oblivion.

First test : the air tutorial scenario, just leaving the default AD during the 4 turns and seeing what happens. It was a draw at the end. There must be room for improvments... or failure.

Second test : the air tutorial scenario, but this time erasing every default AD and setting everything up manually. Fun to play, but end result is Axis major victory. Oups.

So, back to the default ADs to have a closer look at what must be a way better strategy than mine.

[image]http://www.forty-two.me/files/witw_bomb.jpg[/image]

Basically, every air HQ has some recon + 2 or 3 large area bombing with the exact same area and every parameter equal, except the altitude.

I have to confess I did miss the "strategic bombing lesson" at school. Or maybe there was no such lesson ? Anyway, I need your help to see the light here.

1) Why this strategy "several times the same thing with different altitudes" ?

2) I tried some much smaller areas than the default AD. What are the pros and cons of each strategy ?

3) I see that every AD has normal priority. Does that mean that the first AD created has more priority than the 2nd, etc ? I saw in my own test that the 2nd or 3rd AD had far less sorties than the 1st. I even had a case where only the recon AD flew and the bombing, which was 2nd, had 0 sortie.



Nico165b165 -> RE: How do strategic bombing work ? (12/8/2014 10:05:52 PM)

I think i'm getting it from the results :

[image]http://www.forty-two.me/files/witw_bomb2.jpg[/image]

For the RAF bomber command, the "26.000" AD is executed first. Because not a lot of planes can fly that high at night, only a few 100s of sorties are made. Then the "18.000" AD is executed. Lots of planes can fly that high, so we have a lot of sorties for this one. Then there is not enough planes left to execute the last "13.000" AD. But it is still interesting to keep this AD because, if there was still enough planes, we could make a last low-altitude run on some already damaged targets.

For the 8th AF, both the "26.000" and the "23.000" ADs are executed with a lot of sorties because planes can fly that high during the day and the air HQ has enough planes for both AD. Maybe here a third bomb AD would have worked ?

For the 15th AF, it's the same as the 8th except they dont have enough planes to execute the second AD.

If I understand it correctly, this air model is really deep and brillant. So many different strategies possible !



KWG -> RE: How do strategic bombing work ? (12/8/2014 10:09:49 PM)

How many days a week are you bombing?



Nico165b165 -> RE: How do strategic bombing work ? (12/8/2014 10:16:00 PM)


quote:

ORIGINAL: KWG

How many days a week are you bombing?


I made no change : bomber command 4 days a week, 8th AF 3, 15th AF 2. I'll have to test what happens when I change that.



PresterJohn001 -> RE: How do strategic bombing work ? (12/9/2014 7:47:35 PM)

I had the same experience, default air directives lead to a draw, when i put my own in major axis victory!

Operational Losses are very high, how do you reduce these?



Helpless -> RE: How do strategic bombing work ? (12/9/2014 8:32:19 PM)

quote:

Operational Losses are very high, how do you reduce these?


Long range / bad weather / damage are contributing the most. Avoid flying in very bad weather and don't fly to often when bombing very long ranged targets.

Check if not too many air hqs are set to do automatic naval patrols.



Nico165b165 -> RE: How do strategic bombing work ? (12/10/2014 10:13:01 PM)

I got a win setting everything manually ! (Even if I'm not sure what win it is, see here -> http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3757629&mpage=1&key=�)

Here's the strategy used :

Turn 1 : 15th AF on Vienna, target oil/fuel; 8th AF and BC on the Ruhr, target oil/fuel/HI/manpower
Turn 2 : 15th AF, nothing, not enough intact planes to risk them; 8th AF and BC on the Ruhr, target oil/fuel/HI/manpower
Turn 3 : 15th AF on Vienna, target oil/fuel; 8th AF and BC on Hannover/Bremen/Hamburg, target oil/fuel/HI/manpower
Turn 4 : 15th AF on Ploesti, target oil/fuel; 8th AF and BC on Paris-Bruxelles-Antwerp and the coast, target V-weapons/HI/manpower

V-weapons seems to be the best targets. In one turn you can destroy a lot of them with the 8th AF with good escort cover. Turn 4 was by far my best turn in VP scored.

Air losses :

[image]http://www.forty-two.me/files/losses.jpg[/image]

Worst losses came from some big air fights between 8th AF and the Luftwaffe on turn 3. But the germans lost a lot of fighters too that turn.



Joel Billings -> RE: How do strategic bombing work ? (12/10/2014 10:36:48 PM)

I don't think you will score VPs for bombing v-weapons sites. Check the manual about how strategic bombing points are scored in the campaign scenarios to see what are valid point scoring targets.

Because you get points for damage that exists on factories each turn, and since damage is not repaired imeediately, you will score more and more each turn because you are accumulating a lot of damage on factories each turn that can't all be repaired.

Congrats on winning.



Nico165b165 -> RE: How do strategic bombing work ? (12/10/2014 10:47:21 PM)

I thought you won VP by inflicting dammage, not by maintaining damage. Good to know for the longer campaigns, thanks ! And I guess the negative VP for existing V-weapons rule dont apply in the tutorial ?



Joel Billings -> RE: How do strategic bombing work ? (12/10/2014 11:11:30 PM)

Right, no v-weapon negatives, so just stick to bombing VP scoring targets.



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