Advice on how to use naval bombers

[indika_tates]

Hi.

I was playing as Germany and I tried to make an efficient use of naval bombers without success. I tried two strategies. The first one was spamming the English channel with fighters & naval bombers on naval attack mission to support submarines on convoy raiding. Naval bombers did nothing.

Then I tried the same on southern England (with air superiority on my side) on port strike mission and naval bombers did nothing again. I remember when the game was released port strikes were too powerful. The RAF almost sunk my entire Italian fleet on port strikes.

I had more than 1000 fighters and 1000 naval bombers on both missions but I was able to sink maybe two or three destroyers but no more. Do someone have a good strategy to make an efficient use of it?

 

[Dalwin]

I think the reason you were not getting results with port strikes is that no ships were in port.

There is one problem with NAV of which I am aware. At some point, either 1.2.0 or 1.3.0 they lost their ability to initiate strikes against convoys.

Other than that they work reasonably well. As Germany I use them in the North Sea every game and sometimes in the Med and the Channel.

Because land based air will only do one sortie per battle, they will be less effective in conjunction with subs (but the subs themselves might do better). When trying to interdict the Channel I use NAV, FTR and radar in conjunction. The latter is important since it improves spotting and thus increases the frequency of battles. Since each strike will be a short battle and inflict usually only minor damage, it is important to get a lot of these quick battles.

 

[Gwydion5]

As Dalwin said. Also try to use smaller wing sizes, probably around 100 or so naval bombers per wing with multiple wings operating in a zone. Each wing will increase the chance of an engagement happening against a fleet operating in the region.

 

[Le Creep]

I wouldn't bother building NAVs (unless it's for carriers). Since they can for some reason only do one attack run every battle, they're hardly worth it in the current deathstack battle to the death naval combat system. I would instead build more CAS or TAC as they can assist in naval combat as well as land combat.

 

[indika_tates]

I think the reason you were not getting results with port strikes is that no ships were in port.

There is one problem with NAV of which I am aware. At some point, either 1.2.0 or 1.3.0 they lost their ability to initiate strikes against convoys.

Other than that they work reasonably well. As Germany I use them in the North Sea every game and sometimes in the Med and the Channel.

The problem is that ships were in port while doing port strikes. But every port strike was a defeat instead of doing damage. Radar coverage was 100% and every wing was 100 each. Air superiority from fighters to help also. I don't know what's happening. Maybe naval strikes are dependent of doctrines (base strike should increase naval targeting and damage but wiki doesn't confirm it).

I tried both day/night, only day and only night missions but with the same result. And in the air log my bombers weren't disrupted, so it's currently a broken feature or I can't realize what I'm doing wrong.

 

[Dalwin]

I am certain that I saw fleets being devastated by port strikes in 1.3.2. I am not 100% sure that I have reconfirmed this in 1.3.3, but I believe they still work fine. I do not know why you are struggling with them, though I would not expect 100 planes to do much damage. Hopefully you meant that you have several groups of 100.

 

[indika_tates]

I am certain that I saw fleets being devastated by port strikes in 1.3.2. I am not 100% sure that I have reconfirmed this in 1.3.3, but I believe they still work fine. I do not know why you are struggling with them, though I would not expect 100 planes to do much damage. Hopefully you meant that you have several groups of 100.

1000 naval bombers on 10 wings of 100 each sadly

 

[Dalwin]

The only thing you have not mentioned was how much static AA, if any, was present. I still don't understand why it is not going well for you.

How long did you leave the mission running? How many strikes did you see? Were there no hits at all or simply no sinkings? Did you expand the naval report to see details so that you would see if there were hits but not sinkings?

 

[ocelot64]

Hi.

I was playing as Germany and I tried to make an efficient use of naval bombers without success. I tried two strategies. The first one was spamming the English channel with fighters & naval bombers on naval attack mission to support submarines on convoy raiding. Naval bombers did nothing.

Then I tried the same on southern England (with air superiority on my side) on port strike mission and naval bombers did nothing again. I remember when the game was released port strikes were too powerful. The RAF almost sunk my entire Italian fleet on port strikes.

I had more than 1000 fighters and 1000 naval bombers on both missions but I was able to sink maybe two or three destroyers but no more. Do someone have a good strategy to make an efficient use of it?

I'd reorganise my naval bomber wings into wings with at most 60 airplanes. I read an in-game tooltip that no more than 60 naval bombers can join a naval battle at a given time. This would boost efficiency, since you're having more air wings.
As for port strikes: you need to have at least 75% firendly air superiority over the target area to perform a port strike.

 

[Secret Master]

Did the British or Allies have air superiority over England? Port strikes aren't allowed to take place if the opposing side has decisive air superiority.

And the ports in England are in the land air regions, not the Channel.

 

[Dalwin]

I'd reorganise my naval bomber wings into wings with at most 60 airplanes. I read an in-game tooltip that no more than 60 naval bombers can join a naval battle at a given time. This would boost efficiency, since you're having more air wings.
As for port strikes: you need to have at least 75% firendly air superiority over the target area to perform a port strike.

How many planes are allowed to participate depends on the size of the fleet. That tip saying 60 was only for that particular situation and not for such attacks in general. One must also take into account mission efficiency. Depending on range and weather and a few other factors one might need to have significantly more than 60 planes available to get 60 actually participating.

 

[elektrizikekswerk]

In most of my games I use NAV to spam coastal waters. 1000 - 2000 NAV (plus some fighter escort - just in case) are sufficient to eventually sink the biggest navies. I don't do port strikes often since I, too, have the feeling they aren't as efficient as they should be.

But sinking the complete Home Fleet and US Atlantic Fleet without even considering to invest in navy myself - priceless. After a year or so I basically had the control over the complete Atlantic. And losing some dozen planes in the for sinking battleships and carriers ist totally worth it.

Ofc, this does only work against AI. A human player would eventually figure out to not send his fleet to zone x, I guess. But even then you have the control over the given sea zone(s), which might be a small victory in itself.

 

[indika_tates]

The only thing you have not mentioned was how much static AA, if any, was present. I still don't understand why it is not going well for you.

How long did you leave the mission running? How many strikes did you see? Were there no hits at all or simply no sinkings? Did you expand the naval report to see details so that you would see if there were hits but not sinkings?

Thank for the responses. UK has max anti air on southern England through the national focus. Can be it the problem?

 

[Dalwin]

Thank for the responses. UK has max anti air on southern England through the national focus. Can be it the problem?

If you look at the mission summary for the region, you get a monthly total of how many of your bombers were forced to abort their mission due to this AA. By itself, it is not enough of a defense, but it certainly dilutes any offense. The AA also kills some planes, but those tend to be planes who at least got to launch their attack. Ones that are aborted never got to fire, though they did get to fly home (and hopefully not crash during landing.)