Beethoven1
Posts: 754
Joined: 3/25/2021 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: AlbertN T61 - Leningrad Air Tactics? I tried something different which produced better air to air results (still sub optimal I think) but definitely failed at delivering the needed interdiction level. (Needed between brackets since the air supply business keeps Leningrad afloat from isolation).
If you are not interdicting Leningrad successfully, then you are doing something wrong with your air setup. In my StB game, germany is getting up to level 6 or 7 naval interdiction over Lake Ladoga. There is simply no possible way for Soviets to counter the naval interdiction levels Germany can get when they are that high: Whereas in your screenshot, you are getting only 3 or 4. I also have way more airfields and more supply than MSAG will have, due to having more rail lines, but that is still not enough to counter Axis naval interdiction, if you do it properly. Try setting your missions with larger #s of planes set to fly, e.g. 200 planes, and with escorts. Also fly air superiority missions over Lake Ladoga. Or maybe you didn't change the loadout of your planes to drop mines for interdition? As far as the losses go, is it sustainable for Germany to fly interdiction to this extent over Lake Ladoga? Absolutely. In my game, as a result of this, the size of the VVS has been plummeting. Not a single Soviet plane is being used anywhere or for any other purpose than over Lake Ladoga. Meanwhile, the total number of Axis planes remains steady. He is also flying in blizzard and taking extra operational losses due to that, whereas you are flying in good summer weather, so it should be easier for you: My number of planes did go up just this last turn, but the only reason for that is that I am literally out of useable planes at the national morale level. I had to send planes back to reserve because the alternative would be to fly planes with 30 experience, otherwise my number of planes would still be going down. From the Commanders report, as Soviets I have only 1,215 fighters left which are in either the reserve or on the map (292 on the map, and 923 in reserve). Of those 1,215, only 528 of them have experience of 45 or higher (at or above national air morale level). The previous turn, only 329 had experience of 45+. My number of trained fighters went up only because I had to send them to reserve to train (meaning they could not perform missions over Lake Ladoga). So the Soviet fighter force has been, for all intents and purposes, totally wiped out after like 2 months of escorting over Lake Ladoga. You should be able to achieve similar results. If you are not getting these results, then you are just doing something wrong, because you are in a better situation than Germany is in the StB scenario in numerous ways. As far as the supply goes, you are overestimating how much transport planes can do. The Soviet troops in Leningrad will need several thousand freight per week, but air transport can provide much less than that. In the StB scenario, Soviets start off with pretty large stockpiles of freight in the Leningrad depots, but in my game mine are run down after 10-15 turns of successful German interdiction missions. Moreover, any freight delivered with the transport planes is going to be directly taking away from all those troops which are supplied on a long front in the wilderness with only a single track rail line.
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