Here is my proposal D revised:
How to make a strategic bombing raid:
1. Announce how many bombers you are bringing to bomb your enemy’s factory.
2. Interceptors: If your enemy has fighters stationed in the territory, these fighters can try to intercept you. In this case you may need to bring escort fighters along with your bombers to help see them through.
This battle lasts only one round.
1. All incoming escorts and bombers fire according to this scale,
and all casualties get to return fire before being eliminated :
Jet fighter A@2 & D@3
Fgt Interceptor @2
Bombers (StrB and TcB) @1
**Fighter escort @1 +1 if paired with 1 TcB or Fgt. *****
So 1 pair of Fgts: 1@2 and the other 1@1.
2. All interceptors then fire against the incoming planes:
When interceptors rolls “2” they hit the escorting fighters first, then the StrB or TacB.
When interceptors rolls “1” they hit the bombers (TcB and StrB) first, then fighters.
StrBomber in SBR only, can take a hit before being destroy.
But if it receives this hit, the StrB can still do bombing
(Damage 1940: 1D6 / Damage 1942.1&.2: 1D6/2= 1D3).
Damaged StrB are repaired at the end of turn like BB in 1942.1&.2
After the airbattle round, any StrB can retreat without submitting to AAA fire.
3. All casualties, both sides, are removed. Surviving escorts and interceptors withdraw.
4. Surviving bombers will face AAA Fire from the defending territory’s IC.
StrB (and TcB going against NB and AB) must endure AAA fire before bombing IC (or NB & AB) as usual.
AAA fires 2 dices against each StrB and only one against TacB.
For each “1” it gets a hit against this specific aircraft.
**If it is a TacB, then it is destroy,
if it is an undamaged StrB, then it became damaged but cannot make any bombing drop on IC (or NB & AB),
if this undamaged StrB receives 2 hits (rolls of “1” “1”), then it is destroyed.
if it is a StrB already damaged by interceptors, then it is destroyed.**
Thus any StrB not hit by AAA can bomb the IC:
undamaged at 1D6+2 (1940) or 1D6 (1942)
damaged by aircraft 1D6 (1940) or 1D3 (1942)
Ex.: So 3 StrB can endure 3 hits without being destroy and they can bomb IC (at reduce damage).
In the same situation another player can decide to destroy 1 StrB, and proceed with one undamaged Bomber to attack the IC and keep another damaged bomber (yet to decide to retreat or not).
In case of a mixed group of StrB and TcB, it is the attacking player as usual which decides casualty: destroying a TcB or taking a hit on a StrB.
5. BOMBING DAMAGE:
Finally, keep the damage on IC and NB, AB as 1D6+2 for a StrB and 1D6 for TcB.
But to promote more airbattle with interceptors, when a SBR or TcB get a free ride without interceptors, the bombing damage get fiercer:
2D6 keep the better one and add +2. (As if it was a heavy bomber).
If playing 1942.1/1942.2, this could be 1D6+2 (instead of OOB 1D6) for the more accurate bombing.
For Tactical Bomber this could be 1D6+2.
I’m sure defending players will allocate more interceptors to prevent this.
6. The total is the amount of damage done to the Industrial Complex.
StrB now still can be destroy even behind a screen of escort Fgts.
However, StrB get better chance to survive than in the previous “Bomber are priority target rule”.
So this precious unit is not on a suicidal runs and if they past the AAA can still deliver what 1940 OOB rules say: 1D6+2.
In the case you SBR with more than 1 StrB you now have a tactical decision to make when interceptors got more than 1 hit on your Bombers. In 1940, you may even choose between a TcB or a StrB.
*** I modified the escorting Fgt with 1@2/2 Fgts to get the exact ratio of number divided by 2 for aircraft against ground target:
Fgt Def4/2=2 Fgt A3/2=1.5 TcB and StrB are still inferiors in dogfight with their @1.
This rules are quite similar to navy battle including BB so it respects the A&A system rules and are not too complex.
It does not contradict history in the way that even when the StrB were priority target, the Fgts doesn’t have the choice to engage the escort screen and sometimes destroy the escort Fgt instead of the bomber.
About the second hit for StrB, don’t forget that it is a whole flight of maybe 100 bombers and not only 1 plane. So many can be crippled, delayed, lost fuel, lost their way, etc. so they weren’t able to reach their target and have to get back home. Thus a damaged StrB unit, can have repair the older ones, and add some new Bombers to reach their operational number.
I was looking for a middle way to reduce the odds of loosing too many bombers if compare to OOB Global 1940 rule for escort that was realy protecting StrB behind escort Fgts.
What do you think of this new version?
Addition: actually under this HR, the defensive factor for interceptor is doubled from @1 to @2 (vs OOB Global 1940) to keep the balance for Tactical Bombers during SBR against Air Base or Naval Base, I suggest this conditionnal rule: if an air raid is performed solely by Tactical Bombers without any escorting fighter, then intercepting fighters defend @1 and their is still only one AA roll @1 against every single TacB.