Barbarossa - Bombing naval convoys - suggests/advice?

[Jeremyd1985]

Ok its now Feb and I have consolidated a defensive line across the main rivers such as the Don whilst I wait out the winter. I have created a large pocket to the west of Leningrad in Estonia trapping large masses of soviet troops. My problem however is that the pocket is still being supplied from the sea via convoys. I currently have placed 4x4 wings of Naval bombers to hammer convoys in the northern Baltic sea off the gulf of Finland in hope of cutting off the supply's based in Tallinn. I have these 16 naval bomber wings stationed at Airfields in Finland so they are relatively close, 8 wings are bombing during day and 8 wings are bombing during night. After months I am still yet to see results and have not seen the supplies in Tallinn drop below 600, they are infact increasing at times. I don't have subs unfortunately as I have neglected my navy completely in favour of a powerful air force, which is currently holding its own against the bombers/fighters in the west and east. Is there something im doing wrong? wud like to close the pocket before the next summer offensive to free up more men, I have so many naval bombers targeting that area and yet the convoys still get through. I have drawn arrows to represent my next summer offensive any suggestions I should change my strat? also this might be a bad move but ive stopped building anything as im trying to upgrade my forces in favour of a more modern army, I currently have 400IC dedicated to upgrading and the rest prioritised on increasing supply's for the coming offensive and providing reinforcements. Is this a bad move?



btw mod is edge of darkness/WIF2

 

[Stuka Ju87 D3]

How many convoy transports does the USSR have?

1. If you're steadily reducing their convoy transports number, just wait it out until they reach zero. You've got a long time till the mud clears out.
2. If you're not succesfuly reducing their number, you still have many options
a) Surround the pocket with the minimum number of your worst units and forget about it until you ... (check b)
b) Capture Leningrad and the Sovs can't resupply the Estonia pocket.
c) You can land a few divisions in Tallinn. You'll capture the supples, and as they redeploy their troops to surround your pocket within a pocket, their pocket defenses may weaken enough for you to achieve a breakthrough somewhere. If you go this route, do this before spring so you have time to redeploy your Panzers where you'll need them later. Edit: if you don't have transports, you can use that convert convoys to transports decision or w/e if WIF2 has that.
d) There's a province to which Leningrad is connected ... Ti-something... It's on the other side of Lake Ladoga. If you capture that and Leningrad is surrounded, you should be able to starve the Estonian pocket as well.

 

[SpaceViking]

Your navy should be active in the Baltic, too. Between them and the planes you will soon run the Soviets out of transports. Not only that but they will start to make more when what they really need to be making is troops.

 

[Eugenioso]

Ok its now Feb and I have consolidated a defensive line across the main rivers such as the Don whilst I wait out the winter. I have created a large pocket to the west of Leningrad in Estonia trapping large masses of soviet troops. My problem however is that the pocket is still being supplied from the sea via convoys. I currently have placed 4x4 wings of Naval bombers to hammer convoys in the northern Baltic sea off the gulf of Finland in hope of cutting off the supply's based in Tallinn. I have these 16 naval bomber wings stationed at Airfields in Finland so they are relatively close, 8 wings are bombing during day and 8 wings are bombing during night. After months I am still yet to see results and have not seen the supplies in Tallinn drop below 600, they are infact increasing at times. I don't have subs unfortunately as I have neglected my navy completely in favour of a powerful air force, which is currently holding its own against the bombers/fighters in the west and east. Is there something im doing wrong? wud like to close the pocket before the next summer offensive to free up more men, I have so many naval bombers targeting that area and yet the convoys still get through. I have drawn arrows to represent my next summer offensive any suggestions I should change my strat? also this might be a bad move but ive stopped building anything as im trying to upgrade my forces in favour of a more modern army, I currently have 400IC dedicated to upgrading and the rest prioritised on increasing supply's for the coming offensive and providing reinforcements. Is this a bad move?
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btw mod is edge of darkness/WIF2

Can your bombers reach the whole baltic sea? have you closed off leningrad? is Denmark strait closed? are you using area or region orders for bomb convoys?

 

[nhinhonhinho]

AFAIK in edge of darkness/WIF2 as Germany you will have some naval by event like the Bismarck and several Hilfcruiser (spelling?). Also if I recall correctly Germany started out with some other naval units. Send those navy to the Baltic and attack the convoys there.

 

[Chicken Spadge]

How many convoys are you sinking with those bombers? (If you haven't got that type of message switched on, perhaps you should enable it). Are they as effective as subs in this particular task?

If NAV bombers are as good as sinking convoys as they are at sinking every other type of ship, the Russians should be close to breaking point very soon.

 

[SpaceViking]

When playing as the US you can economically destroy the Japanese with NAVs (well, and some ships) based on Guam. Don't attack the neighboring Japanese islands (Marianas I think) but just attack shipping that goes to them and eventually all Japan will be producing is convoy transports. I discovered this by accident one game.

 

[Skn1]

Ok its now Feb and I have consolidated a defensive line across the main rivers such as the Don whilst I wait out the winter. I have created a large pocket to the west of Leningrad in Estonia trapping large masses of soviet troops. My problem however is that the pocket is still being supplied from the sea via convoys. I currently have placed 4x4 wings of Naval bombers to hammer convoys in the northern Baltic sea off the gulf of Finland in hope of cutting off the supply's based in Tallinn. I have these 16 naval bomber wings stationed at Airfields in Finland so they are relatively close, 8 wings are bombing during day and 8 wings are bombing during night. After months I am still yet to see results and have not seen the supplies in Tallinn drop below 600, they are infact increasing at times. I don't have subs unfortunately as I have neglected my navy completely in favour of a powerful air force, which is currently holding its own against the bombers/fighters in the west and east. Is there something im doing wrong? wud like to close the pocket before the next summer offensive to free up more men, I have so many naval bombers targeting that area and yet the convoys still get through. I have drawn arrows to represent my next summer offensive any suggestions I should change my strat? also this might be a bad move but ive stopped building anything as im trying to upgrade my forces in favour of a more modern army, I currently have 400IC dedicated to upgrading and the rest prioritised on increasing supply's for the coming offensive and providing reinforcements. Is this a bad move?
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btw mod is edge of darkness/WIF2

Hi Jeremy, what mod do you use so you can see the trees on the diplomat screen?
Thanks,

Skn

 

[Soul of Darknes]

They could have 0 transports but in all my games when i surrender troops in some province are supplies depot or something like this and even is not connected to the rest of the country it never reach 0.

 

[der Kriegsherr]

Personally, I'd just go with subs: They seem to be superior at attacking convoys.
And keep in mind, there may in fact, still be supply stockpiles in the pocket. Although, since its the USSR, I wouldn't expect those to last too long.

 

[Shiro_Ishii]

Gather up whatever naval assets you have (the ancient battleships and destroyers) and set them to 24/7 naval bombardment on Talinn and/or Leningrad. Be sure to check the "attack convoys" box. This will keep them in just the right place(s) and will definitely begin to show some results. Switch your bombers to daylight only and just wait it out.