Same here Moleman and the rest of the CM team I do appreciate the work you guys do. After nearly 12 months of early and mid war setups a late war match up is much welcomed. When you look at the fighter match ups they are fairly close in an one on one situation. However.....
Here is the issues as I see them for the ALLEID side I assume I will be on. And my turn at CIC booty duty is coming up soon also.
Numbers of fighters: 24+ pilots each frame on the ALLIED side that get stuck (yes stuck) in bombers vs the 4 AXIS pilots in Ar234's. 24 ALLIED pilots is about 1/3 of a Friday night show-up. Need to drop the numbers of ALLIED bomber pilots to even this up. Recommend all Lanc's get dropped or optional and the Mossie Min requirements eliminated. Make the Mossies optional all together. The ALLIED side being short 1/3 of their strength in fighters will have a positive effect on the AXIS side. Especially after H+60 when the bombers all land and tower out and the horde of AXIS fighters start surging toward the ALLIED front line bases. Over the last several weeks on the BBS there have been multiple posts and discussions about this very subject and here we go again. Why are bombers even required? Why not make them optional everytime, all of the time. As a planner its my job to get a win for my side. I should be able to do this with "tool's" and select what I want to use and how I use them. Not told I will send 12 bombers here or there. I don't understand this side of the setups. NEF stated on a separate Post its up to the CIC to start planning better and I agree with his statement. But what planning is there when the CM has already decided for me what my force structure will be? And trust me 1/3 of the ALLIED pilots don't want to fly bombers.
Points and Risk Management: Using the Min's the Lanc's account for 540 points that the ALLIED side is risking assuming a min 12 launch with formations. Plus the 12 Min Mossies at 15 points each which is 180 additional points in risk for a total of 720 points of risk every time the frame starts for the ALLIES. The late model Mossies with formations are NOT required to fly so not included but if the ALLIED CIC chooses to use them then the risk only increases. By contrast the AXIS side is risking only 240 points for the AR324's at a min launch of 4 with formations. This is a "bomber to bomber" assessment. Regardless of targets and how bombers are used etc the risk is still a risk. And given that the Hangers are only worth 25 points / STRAT buildings worth 5 each the ALLIED side will have to drop 29 hangers or 144 STRAT building just to match the 720 point bomber risk. Especially with a 1/3 less fighters. If you add on the late model Mossies the ALLIED risk just increases to the point of not making sense to even fly a bomber toward a target unless the ALLIED targets include at least 40 hangers or 180 STRAT buildings which we probably don't have enough ordnance for. The ALLIED planner would be better off to have his bombers take off, circle, land and tower out to save the points because the risk doesn't make it worth the reward unless you can gain control of the airspace first while handicapped with 1/3 less fighters. At least in that scenario I would gain 240 points in "landing bonus's" of 5 points per AC! By not using the bombers I would force the AXIS to come looking for the points instead of the ALLIED planner flying them to him at a target! Recommendation: Triple the point values for all ground targets. Make me as a planner want to risk my bombers because it isn't there now and that landing bonus is looking better and better.
I don't really care a lot about historical accuracy in the scenario's myself, others do. I'm only concerned with my squad having a fair chance to win and most importantly having fun on the ALLEID side with 1/3 of the pilots not in fighters. Its not fun to lose most of the time. Its not fun to spend 1/3 to 1/2 of the FSO's in bombers either. Remember those posts??? Winning or Losing is gauged by points. We gauge success by the points won and lost per frame and sortie. So if you lose a 20 point AC its OK as long as you take out a 25 point hanger or shot down a 20 point AC in the process. Of the squad as a whole losing this many points but gaining this many.
