Strategic Bombing Defense

If Britain purchases nothing but bombers, the Germans will gain more I.P. swing than the bombers can inflict.  If BRitain purchases tech, they are simply hoping on a wing and a prayer.  All the tech suck for Britain but heavy bombers and maybe longrange aircraft.  If someone purchases a whole bunch of bombers just run over them with land units.  Build an A.C. in the south to fill out your fleet once you have ramped up I.P. with Germany and then move it up north and land on them.  If BRitain does nothing but build bombers they become inconsequential.  Sure they take out more money that it cost them to build but they also have far less money than your mighty German empire.  If they invest allot of money in tech and get lucky they get lucky.  Full on bomber is a crap strategy.  The Axis is really hard to play.  Try to be more efficient on the eastern fornt and don’t lose tanks.  Lose infantry.  Very often you see people say that the everyone gang up on GErmany strategy works.  It doesn’t, a frugile and efficient Germany can hold out and do severe damage while an unchecked Japan will soar up to insane revenue.  Frugile, efficient, and conservative GErman play and strong Japanese play are required.  Don’t pay attention to the advice on sites to build a factory with Japan.  Build trnasports.  Always attack Pearl Harbor.  If the U.S. doesn’t engage the Japanese in the Pacific, Japan should crush Russia easily and the game will turn towards the axis as Russia is left staring at their 8 I.P. per turn without bombing runs.

as far as i’m concerned, a dedicated strategic bombing campaign by either side is a waste of money insofar as building bombers and then replacing any that happen to get hit. the only time i generally use bombers is when i can’t use them to support any other attacks i might be using. it is worthwhile if you can get in some free shots, e.g if an IC has no AA to protect it, but I don’t generally like to use my bombers like that.

See, this just proves the love in our community, even an over-the-hill geezer like Jefe can still have fun. :D I am going to have to put the drinking game to use, as soon as I teach my roommate how to play.

New to this web site but not to the game.

My brothers and I play often (online) and have noticed that during SBR’s we hit for 5 IPC’s about 80% of the time. 1,3 and 6 combined, show up about 5% and 2’s account for 5% and 4’s about 10%. We have also noted that when an AA gun is not on an IC we hit for 4 IPC’s about 80% of the time with all other numbers showing up w/ the same frequency for the ramaining 20%. When SBR-ing with 2 Bombers the numbers seem to be totally random, however if you split the bombers up (example; UK has 2 Bombers ad SBR’s Berlin with one and South Europe with the other) for the raid we get a 5 with one every time and a 4 with the 2nd bomber maybe 50% of the time but that second bomber is also likely to hit for 1,2 or 3 or 5, never seen a 6.

I’m not sure if this all makes sense but you get the idea.

Could this be a bug? I can’t tell you how many games we play into the 18 - 24 round and no one loses any bombers (and we do a lot of bombing withouit worrying about getting shot down). We have actually had to set a limit on bombers being built to compensate for the bug (if indeed it is a bug).

Anyone else have this problem???

No. On a SBR the only thing that can shoot at a BMR is an AA gun.
-BMR flies to SBR the IC.
-Any territory that has an AA gun which the BMR flies over on the way to the IC gets to roll one die per plane. 3 BMR = roll 3 dice, add the #s, the defender returns that # of IPCs to the bank. :)

If 1 BMR is hit only 2 get to SBR the IC. 2 BMR = 2 dice, add the #s, the defender returns that # of IPCs to the bank. :)

In one variation of the game the BMR can be shot at on the return route if it passes over an AA gun. But, for example, if the UK BMR flies from UK to Germany, is missed by the AA, bombs and flies to Russia there is no second chance for the BMR to be hit.
I do not like this variation. In the regular game, the limited bombing and limited retaliation give you a simple idea of a complex war. Why try to make the game more difficult? If you want that GET A HARDER GAME!

In a second variation friendly FTRs can escort and enemy FTRs can intercept the BMRs. But again, it just makes it more complex. And do you allow the FTRs to intercept and fly attack missions or not?

Don’t you love long answers to what you think is a simple ? :lol:

My odds calculator tells me that there is about a 25% chance of the bomber winning, 25% chance of the BB winning and 50% chance they both die. This assumes one-hit BB and no heavy bombers

Considering that while the BB costs more IPCs than the bomber, keep in mind it can do potentially much less attack damage (one time potential hit only on amphibious assaults) and on defense is essentially equal to only two transports (my odds calculators says 45% BB, 45% transports, 5% both die) I wouldn’t worry about it. Let them bomb away and your opponent will likely lose their bomber.

However, if you really don’t want to lose the BB, just make sure you keep a transport or two with it for “fodder”.

Its usually not a good idea to split up your navy anyway, I always make sure to keep some transport or submarine fodder next to the powerful and expensive ships whenever possible. As for land operations, you should always keep cheap (infantry or transports) weapons alongside expensive items (BB or bombers) so if they are attacked, the cheap items can be eliminated first.

Cystic Crypt is exactly right on his observation. For this reason alone, to this day I will never buy bombers – Axis or Allies. With bombers, you are risking too much. I, being a strict pessimist when playing A&A, will always believe that everything that can possibly go wrong will. As chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch commented on the game’s opening position, “The mistakes are all waiting to be made.”

Now say I buy bombers and on subsequent raids, I roll consecutive 6’s. Guess I’m the hero, the greatest since Air Marshall Brig. Gen. Ira Eaker, commander of the Eight Bomber Command. But what happens if the AA guns roll 1’s? What if this happens? Now, I have to kick myself in the back as I poured 15 IPCs down the drain. And since it takes at least 3 runs (even if I rolled 6’s) before I can make good on my investment, those are three turns in which AA guns are free to score hits. In addition to being a pessimist, I am also a control freak. On SBR’s I have no real control on the outcome of the battle. With inf and ARM, I can at least dictate when and where to hit, as well as when to retreat. The sheer suspense in SBR is already enough to kill me many times over.

I would much rather do more with less, which is the prevailing thought of the NASA space program. This means I buy 5 infantry instead of 1 bomber. So incase something goes wrong, which it usually does for me, I don’t crack all of my eggs in one basket.

“Only the spirit of attack, born in a brave heart, will bring success to any fighter aircraft, no matter how highly developed it may be.” - Aldolf Galland
“The create? The create matters not. It is the man who pilots the create that truely counts” -

[ This Message was edited by: TG Moses VI on 2002-05-17 21:19 ]

[ This Message was edited by: TG Moses VI on 2002-05-17 21:20 ]

Hey, lookie what I found in the Archives!
Oh, Boy! What a bunch of (jr?)high school rookies we had here.
You members and visitors from this(Dec. 2001) era,too!

@TheStenGun:

It was completely straight up, 3rd edition A&A with no Russian first attack. I did not need my airforce and used it to kill all ships in the Atlantic. I was still trasporting 2 inf a turn to africa, and also managed to kill the troops in egypt. He did purchase badly however, he bought all tanks with russia, and built a pacific navy to kill japan. I guess that was it, he just was doing everything that he should not. Brutal. Taking england was icing on the cake.

Come on! Why didn’t you just tell him the USSR and Japan both played POORLY. I figure…

R1: 24 IPCs to spend - 4 ARM purchased(total purchase=20 IPCs, 4 IPCs remaining)… placed in Russia or the game woulda technically been over after G1.

R2: 28 IPCs to spend - 1 IC for SFE(YOU DIDN’T EVEN ASK ABOUT IT[USSR Pacific Navy,HA!]), 2 ARMs[assuming he learned a little something](total purchase=25 IPCs, 3 IPC remaining.

Then after G2 Japan could chew off his SFE forces and use the shiny new IC!

And you NEVER ASKED what the US and GB were doing in the meantime.

Hopefully, you’ve all learned a little since then!