S3 Series

Salute!

Thank you, Wilz.

At the time we are re-enacting the battle, the main LW goal was defending the homeland and maybe attacking the advancing gound units.

That being said, ya gotta give the LW buff squad a carrot, so Knights can get "points" have fun, but not really keep Patton, et al, from advancing to Berlin. Of course, by taking out some of our forward bases, they limit our capability, so I'll give them credit for that. Love those guys.

One thing seems sure. We gotta defend our bases.

Second things is to find their JU drones, but their routes are way back because we destroyed so many of their bases in first three frames.

Gums opines....

I gotta tell ya, I have never flown in an S3 where folks didn't talk about how to be victorious over the other side. Even the series rules talk about "victory." See below rules:

17. Victory Points - victory points are awarded for confirmed kills of e/a, airfields closed, bridge spans destroyed, port cranes destroyed, AI ships sunk and AI a/c destroyed. A full list is provided in the map PDF and summary.

18. Victory Conditions - The side with the most VPs at the end of the series wins.

There was a time when JABO created a red box and told the bombers to hit only the targets inside the box. That was probably the only time that I can remember that forced the fight into a small area. WE HATED IT! And, probably suggest that we never do that again.

In this series, the targets that were given to the bomber group have been all over the place. None of them, however close they may have been, were easy to get to. The first two frames, the bombers were under some pretty heavy attack. The third frame was a bit lighter. The fourth frame even lighter. It's easy to figure out why. Several of you have already mentioned it. They were behind with no hope of victory, so they changed their strategy. In frame three, the planners surmised that they would become desperate and focus on hitting behind our front line. They did. But, we were prepared for them and had many fighters scattered all around to engage them. They tried, but still fell short and our lead was expanded to 134 points.

WILZ was correct. They can't win by killing bombers. So, just like during the real war, the German leadership was getting desperate to stop the advancing forces. The only way they can "stop" us (a.k.a. beat us) is to surpass us in points. I think this is VERY realistic. It may not be playing out just like it did so long ago, but it is having the same effect on them that it did back then.

Whether we like it or not, they are going to do the same thing in frame 5 hoping to pick up another 152 points for victory. So, what are we going to do about it? Here are three suggestions:

1. Defend our assets with every fighter we have at our disposal (23rd, 4th, and 352nd). That bunch of fighters will prevent them from getting through. By the time that they are finished, they won't have two handfuls of fighters left to fly.
2. Get our bombers up and rolling into Germany from the North with limited air support (2-steps of 352nd). They will throw the Jg77 at us again. If I can muster enough pilots, we'll fill out our step of fighters to assist. The goal will be to destroy as many remaining fields as possible. This will be determined by how many bombers/bombs we can pull together. (Possible: L74, L89, L91, L93, and L92)
3. Roll the Night Stalkers to hit shipping (3 points each) in the North Sea. They can quickly take down 8-10 of them then prepare to help clean up anything standing at any fields the bombers may not close. This squad has been responsible for huge victory points and they'll do it again. The Ju52s are not going to be easy to get to and their points are lower.

I'm sure that we'll finish out the series on top because that was what really happened. Allies win!

<S>

My thinking has been along the lines of the 3 items that Daryl posted. Defend, Bomb bases, Sink Ships. The trick will be how to plan fighter resources and timing to defend and support the buffs and strikes. I will give it some thought Sat/Sun and post something by Mon evening. Please continue to make suggestions and throw darts until I post the draft plans next Thu.

Salute!

Well, fooo, Darryl has laid down the gauntlet. Heh heh.

He has about all of it right, IMHO, despite my feelings about planned targets for one mission. BFD!

Gotta defend our assets while still getting out there and blowing up stuff.

Gums sends..

P.S. If the foo-bird shits, wear it. The old joke upon request.

Over the first 3 frames it seemed like the targets that were further away (east) were not as heavily defended as the targets to the west.

(for reference consider Denmark to split west and east)

WESTERN SHIPS - On 2 occasions there were 2 or 3 destroyers and only 1 or 2 freighters.
WESTERN SHIPS - On 2 occasions we found 2 Freighters by themselves.

EASTERN SHIPS - On 3 occasions there were NO escorting destroyers and 4 freighters in each group.

sometimes the ships were almost a grid away from the map markers... this was later in the frame and they had obviously traveled for a while. Not always hugging the coast.

Note:
Freighters & DDs are 5 points each
JU-52 are 3 points each
Parked AC are 2 points each

I'd like to point out a couple of things.
While Darryl is correct on a few points, historically speaking the better bet was an all all blow against the bombers by the Luftwaffe.
Galland planned this, allocated material and for it, trained his pilots specifically for it but it never happened.
Pilots that had prepared for bomber intercept in one big day of attrition were instead squandered in fruitless ground attacks. (AKA Operation Bodenplatte).
Many bomber pilots were transferred to fighters. Bomber production was curtailed if not completely canceled to focus on fighter production.

If I was on the Axis side I know what I'd want to see happen if the rules allowed and if I could get cooperation from all squads.
One massive all out attack on the buffs. A final gesture of defiance.
If they put all the Knights into fighters frame 5 and used all available fighter groups to the task of stripping away/killing escorts, they would overwhelm the bomber group in one giant bloodbath.

I think the odds are good that the Knights will continue to try and rack up points in their 88s completely ignoring the 190F8.
Having used the 190F8, a lot, in the Main arena it's a much better bang for the buck in an S3.
I can't wait to see what their reasoning was for not using it.

Just my 352 cents...

If they got the a8 version, im surprised they aint using the sturnbock weapon loadout....I know I would...wow that thing is a killer

Salute!

They ain't gonna play historical.

They are gonna try to repeat the last frame.

We proved that a super escort plan would get buffs all the way to Big B and back, while they used jabo lites and the Knights to kill parked planes and such.

Just think. The parked planes are worth a lot, and we have lots of them compared to LW. Plus, we blew up many of their bases early in the series.

Many LW DARs to try to take out, and my feeling is they are not serious players. OUR DARs ARE MORE IMPORTANT to defend our bases and parked drones.

Gums opines....

COOL:
Shipping is the best way to utilize the Night Stalkers. You have proved that throughout the series.

CAT:
I love to hear the historical information that you, and others, provide for us. Please add links for further reading, at your convenience.

Your conclusion is the same as mine. They aren't going to try to wipe out the bombers, but instead, they will try to repeat what they did in frame 4. They see two remaining TAC fields and a port. They will try to blow out our parked planes and bridge spans all night long. They will try to find our ships, again.

We have to hold onto the 45-point lead and stop them from having free-reign over our targets. It's going to be a very exciting night for everyone.

<S>

Is there any reason that we need to take-out LARGE fields? Are MEDIUM fields easier to take down? Enough such that you guys could take out 4 in one trip instead of 3 large ones?