Do you raid?

I rarely can justify to myself the chance of loosing a 12 IPC pieces on something like that. And when I have enough resources to waste on it, I likely will win regardless.
I’d much rather group up my bombers with some fodder and lay waste to the enemy units, thus both removing them from the game and forcing the enemy to buy new ones. Better value for my investment.

So I don’t.

I don’t SBR either, I used to when IC’s didn’t have an included aa gun and the IC was undefended.  But with the new rules I can always find another use for my bmbs.

there are always interceptors…

Never.

the math of SBR is fairly simple.

2 runs = 11 points of damage, which is a basicly a break even, but if your bombing small factories then you might be wasting some ( rolls of 4,5, and 6 all result max damage to a small factory). In which case you would need to do probably 3 bombing runs to equal the value of your bomber.

The big problem with SBR in my eyes at least is sometimes you lose that bomber without doing any damage, so to make it work I want 3 or 4 bombers working over 3 or 4 turns. That way the math says that as long as there are no interceptors i should do more damage then the 2 bombers i should lose.

Other problems are: Sometimes the bombers get diverted to other things so it takes longer for the math to work. Often I find myself wishing I had 4 more infantry and 1 less bomber.

So thats the long answer, the shoter version is: No I dont like SBR

I don’t run SBRs much either.  Like Xandax and JimmyHat said, I usually end up needing them for something else.  Sometimes if USA can get bombers over to England, and there are no German interceptors, I will pound the IC at Western Germany just to frustrate the Germans by making them keep repairing the factory.
Also, if the Allies, particularly USA, have Japan surrounded and are trying to build an invasion force, we will SBR Japan to try and keep them from building up too huge a defense stack.

Japan bombing India can be devastating.  It can nearly stop them from producing for several rounds.  UK usually does not have enough interceptors to counter Japan during the first rounds of war if Japan positions itself.  I have even brought some TACS to hit the AB and NB.

If India is at -20 on its factory, it is usually best to hold the $$$ for one round to avoid being hit again and again.  I have seen this a few times.  It limits the responses that UK Pacific can do and the India Infantry stack will not grow during this time.

Need to build at least one or two Japan Bombers during peacetime in order to be ready for this attack.

I think that SBRing can be excellent if you pair it with a strong convoy disruption strategy.

I also think that SBRing with escorts is an good way to knock out defending fighters once a nation has decided to turtle. Look at it this way: Russia has a stack of 60 infantry backed by 3 fighters and a handful of tanks in Moscow. With normal attacks, it will take serveral turns to knock out those fighters’ big guns. But if you SBR, Russia has to either let you have access to his facilities (of course if you get past the AA guns), or risk his precious defensive giants. Russia doesn’t really have the money for either if he’s turtled.

i start bomb alot with america its really the only thing i get them to do in europe buy a Bomber and Fighter per turn starting round 4 can cripple germany. in a couple of turns against a germeny going hard russia all there factories in france + w. germany + italy are disabled.

@Young:

I am courious to know if anyone is purchasing strategic bombers and conducting bombing raids to damage facilities. I am thinking about buying a bomber or two as Germany and bombing Russia’s southern minor ICs (if there are no interceptors). Anybody have experience or results bombing in Alfa+2 or is it truly futile.

Yes, I have conducted Strategic Bombing Raids in Alpha 2.  Primarily, I have attacked the London complex when England has too few or no aircover to prevent it.  I would not recommend dedicating large numbers of fighters to escort the raids, if you need more than 1 or 2, then perhaps you should look to other targets, but SBRs are a valid alternative to Sea Lion. (Valid does not imply better or worse, only possible.)

SBR is really an Allies Tactic.  Not so useful for the Germans.  The Germans bombed the UK (Battle of Britain) but everything I see and read on it was they bombed the cities (political purposes) or the hit the wrong airfields, hit shipping ports and bombed shipping targets.

Only the UK and US really used SBR to it’s fullest.  They went right to the heart of German production.  Killing it’s ability to produce anything.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Britain

In a lot of games I see the Allies bombing Axis Airbases. The first Ally bomb the Airbase so he cant scramble fighters when the next Ally attack his fleet, man. Of course you need to go two Allies in a row for this to work, or else he just repair the Airbase between the attacks-

Yes.  Isnt it great that in Alpha 2 all the allies (except Russia) go back to back?

@docfav7:

Only the UK and US really used SBR to it’s fullest.  They went right to the heart of German production.  Killing it’s ability to produce anything.

Yeah, I hear Germ had a tough time producing babies out of Dresden after that city got hit.

All nations in WW2 hit civilians.  Carpet bombing was pretty much a strategy of hitting towns with factories in the hopes that you hit the factory.  SBR’s should be equally worthless to the axis and allies war effort.  Had the US built transport planes rather than bombers and bombs, the war would have been over by Christmas of 44.

Just because it was a tactic used in WW2 doesn’t necessarily mean it needs to be in this game, it was a very wasteful tactic and…pssst…didn’t really help the allied cause like it gets trumped into in those WW2 magazines.

Actually according to most sorces on the subject you are not quite right.
@docfav7:

… The Germans bombed the UK (Battle of Britain) but everything I see and read on it was they bombed the cities (political purposes) or the hit the wrong airfields, hit shipping ports and bombed shipping targets.

The Germans started targetting RAF airfields and aircraft production facilities (and later radar stations when they discovered their importance). This nearly crippled the RAF (fighter command), and the Germans were very close to getting the upper hand, but then they suddenly changed strategy and startet carpet bombing cities because they thought that would make the UK submit. On the contrary it gave the RAF breathing room to rebuild and start giving the Germans unbearable losses again.

The Luftwaffe was designed for blitzkrieg ground support (and of course air superiority), and didn’t have the heavy bombers needed to conduct a carpet bombing campaign. Add to that, that the range of fighters like the Bf109 was rather limited giving them very little combat flying time over Brittain per mission.

@docfav7:

Only the UK and US really used SBR to it’s fullest.  They went right to the heart of German production.  Killing it’s ability to produce anything.

Actually they went for the civilian population mainly. They made the same strategic mistake as the Germans in the early war. The effectivenes of carpet bombing civilians was greatly overrated by both sides. (until the A-bomb obviously)

:evil: :evil: :evil:
Or maybe the western allies knew this but kept focusing on the bombing campaign to put up an effort that seemed devastating while the dictatorships wore each other down on the eastern front.
:evil: :evil: :evil: