How to defend against Strategic Bombing?

[KGrimB]

Hi everyone

So I’m playing a game with a couple of friends and right now UK is really hurting. Every turn Germany is flying over 6 strategic bombers and 4 fighter escorts to bomb London’s major factory. London knew that Germany was going to do this because London had very few planes so he built several AA guns to defend England. When Germany attacked the first time we had to read the rules and learned that none of the AA guns could defend against the attack.

What? Now England is trying to repair and buy 2 fighters a turn, but they are getting killed quickly by the Germans.

How can England get out of this situation? The anti aircraft guns don’t do anything against all the strategic bombers and Germany has enough fighters to sacrifice to the British fighters when they get a hit.

What do you need to do to get out of this situation as England. The American player has been unable to assist. The German player is doing the right thing trying to stop UK from building units to defend from an invasion, but how can England turn the tide on its own?

[taamvan]

Hello friend,

The rules out of the box do permit you to defend with your fighters, but they are not all that effective in stopping gigantic or continuous raids unless you get a really sturdy pile of fighters (4-10+) and then he has to consider whether he wants to risk attacking you with unescorted bombers.    The rules as written (1s are rolled for scramblers, escorts, and bombers, casualties taken, then aaa then bombs dropped) are pretty fair if you make sure that you concentrate your fighters and the Global version of the game does give you extra factories and money compared to other versions so choosing to buy fewer units and repair less ironically makes it less effective over time.

Others have argued, that statistically, the risk to the bombers is not $ for $ worth the SB trade, and this is plainly true, but the contrary point is that the bombers are 1) destroying money before it can be used 2) against a nation that is weaker than you so you can take losses 3) can be used any where at any time and not just to bomb AND it ties all those fighters down.

There is a Balanced Mod House Rules (linked above) that changes the rule (scrambling defenders hit at “2”) and makes interceptors more powerful, but this makes stratbombing less useful in my opinion, because the defense is increased vis-a-vis offence and once you get a bunch of fighters its a no-go on the big targets.

So yes, it may seem really abusive and that is just supposed to be part of the game and its a product of having too few fighters left early game, not building enough fighters throughout the game, and, once the USA is in the war, it can fly them over either via iceland or UK carriers, gibraltar etc.    Instead of the nearly useless AAA (rarely bought), fighters are the word.  If you still feel that it is broken, change to the “BM” rule of scramblers are 2 and escorts and bombers 1.      Still, I prefer the basic rules, for most games (and perhaps a bid)–-strat bombing is a two way street and you want both teams to be able to use it generously though it seems a bit overpowered in some situations.

Also, if he is bombing you out like this, the bombers cant be also used to lazer moscow or your invasion fleets, so Germany has to pause these offensives or rethink them as the game progresses b/c the bombers can only be used to overwhelm one zone at a time…nevertheless the bombing is devastating, at least to one of your teams at a time…

[GeneralHandGrenade]

The most effective tactic that I have used is do not repair the damage. Unless Germany is building an invasion fleet with transports and ground units, let him max out the damage while you use your money to build units in South Africa, Canada, or elsewhere that you may have built a complex. The other thing you can do is save your money for a few turns and then pay down the damage and build a ton of stuff all at once before he bombs you again. During that time where all of your facilities are maxed out he will get tired of sitting there and doing nothing with his planes. He flies to Russia and you spend your wack of cash. Why keep paying down the damage when all he is going to do is top up the damage again? Just don’t get caught saving a bunch of money and then lose your capital. Make sure you spend it all if there’s a chance he could take you out on his next turn.

[knp7765]

Hey KGrimB,
Excuse me if I read your post wrong, but you mentioned buying AA guns but they couldn’t help you in SBRs. This is correct.  However, your factories, airbases and naval bases have their own built-in AA defense. So after the dogfight round, you still get to roll one AA die for each bomber he sends to bomb your facilities. What’s more, those shots target ONLY the bombers, not the escorts. The escorts withdraw after the dogfight round. So if he is coming at you with 6 bombers, odds are good you should knock down at least one each time. That could get frustratingly expensive for Germany after a while, not to mention that one lucky roll where you get 3 or 4  ones.
That strategy of building fighters elsewhere and leaving your main factory maxed out can also be frustrating for Germany leaving those bombers sitting there doing nothing.  I’ve experienced that as Germany. After 2 or 3 rounds of this, I finally flew some bombers to Russia and some to help Italy in the Med. Very next round UK fixed his factory and started producing.
I was so angry and scolded Goring for moving his bombers away, even though I ordered it in the first place. Hey, I’m the Fuhrer. I’m allowed to be unreasonable.

[Cow]

You don’t need aa guns anymore to roll against bombing. It is built into the factory/harbor/airbase, you just roll your d6 and pray to hit.

[Caesar-Seriona]

Yes on the built in AA guns so this means that traditional AA guns are only good for aircraft that are used in traditional rolls which I learned with G40 that majority of players will try to use Strategic Bombers for actual Strategic bombing.

[Cow]

The bombing thing only matters if he has a sea lion to do, honestly better uk bombed than russia… at least UK has usa to back it up.

[Caesar-Seriona]

Usually Germany bombs UK in the event of Axis invasion of USSR. Most German players don’t want to destroy British factories in the event of an invasion. Because Axis London is going to be liberated by USA and Germany is going to defend the island.

[simon33]

In addition to Young Grasshopper’s point, you seem to be sending up outnumbered interceptors. Don’t do this. Leave them on the ground until you have probably more defenders than attackers. Defenders can be worthwhile on the ground in the sense of tying down the Luftwaffe though. If the odds are even, trading fighters for fighters is a negative for the defender in the event of a sea lion.