Endless convoy bombing

[unmerged(50895)]

Hi all,

I have been playing DD for some weeks now and in my last game as France in GC36 something odd happened. Four German Naval Aircraft (+ escort) started bombing my convoys in the Mediterrenean ! They fly over France and start bombing in the sea zone under Toulon. Once they start bombing they never stop I mean the actual attack goes on and on, they never return to base. At some point I decided to cancel all convoys just to try to abort the attack (and it worked btw). Is this normal ?

A little later on they started bombing my convoys again, same stack of Naval aircraft, only this time in the sea zone below Sicily :wacko:
I know that the AI supposedly has unlimited range, but it's still silly. I can do nothing as France to stop Germany from sinking my convoys in that sea zone. Damn, they should not be there anyway.

The AI in general is quite good. While attacking Germany in september 39 when they invade Poland, the German AI sneaked up my back door with it's fleet and unloaded a few divisions in Brittany an Normandy ! I was caught off guard. Nasty!

 

[unmerged(11633)]

The ai seldom bombed conoys in HOI2 1.3b. SOunds new.

Naval bombers have a very long range, so even if the AI is cheating, a player can probably reach the med too.

Can't you just build more interceptors and wipe them all out?

 

[unmerged(50895)]

You are right. I can't seem to remember one occasion on which the AI bombed my convoys before DD. So that's good. Maybe I should have built more interceptors in 37 and 38, but France can't afford much luxuries I'm afraid.

Intercepting them in the sea zone itself is possible in the case of Toulon, but I don't think any INT/FTR kan fly as far as the seazone under Sicily.

But that is not what bothers me the most. What does bother me is, is it normal that a convoy raiding attack lasts forever ???

 

[Golwar]

When you send your own airplanes onto convoi sinking mission they will act they same way. They stay above the area for a very long time, randomly catching convois. AFAIK the AI only cheats with naval range.

So all together there is nothing wrong with your experience, the AI just surprised you and that is fine

 

[unmerged(50895)]

When you send your own airplanes onto convoi sinking mission they will act they same way. They stay above the area for a very long time, randomly catching convois. AFAIK the AI only cheats with naval range.

So all together there is nothing wrong with your experience, the AI just surprised you and that is fine

But still, are these endless convoy raids by Naval aircraft a WAD or a bug ?
They act a bit like subs now

 

[unmerged(53922)]

You are right. I can't seem to remember one occasion on which the AI bombed my convoys before DD. So that's good. Maybe I should have built more interceptors in 37 and 38, but France can't afford much luxuries I'm afraid.

My advice - abandon Africa and you will have not such a problem. Is there any French national IC or Manpower to defend ?

 

[unmerged(50895)]

Abandoning my precious colonies ? Surely you jest
But seriously, maybe that would bypass this 'problem' a bit but it is not very realistic is it ? There would be no supply convoys heading for Africa and Indo China, but there would still be recource convoys heading for France, right ? So the Jerry's could still target those.

 

[Golwar]

But still, are these endless convoy raids by Naval aircraft a WAD or a bug ?
They act a bit like subs now

Must be WAD as the planes only on this kind of mission act this way - and always did. And it's not like this would be unsolvable for the player.
I'm far more annoyed when subs kill my convois somewhere far away, where neither me or the enemy has any port

 

[Permanganate]

Four possible solutions:

• Capture all airbases they might operate out of.
• Delete the convoys to/from Indochina and Noumea, and recreate them from Brest. Hopefully they'll now go across the Atlantic and through Panama.
• Intercept them with Esc F bombers. This won't do anything, the bombers aren't powerful enough to do much to each other.
• Rebase interceptors to Malta, Tunis, etc. and hit them with that. Best strategy.

I'm far more annoyed when subs kill my convois somewhere far away, where neither me or the enemy has any port

Convoy bombers annoy me more. Doomsday submarines aren't hard to find and they're easily killed, without doing any real damage to your fleet or convoys. Convoy bombers are far more effective, and it's possible for them to be literally impossible to intercept, because they're well out of range - German naval bombers based out of Brest, Cholet, or La Coruna hitting British convoys is a common example. The real-life solution would have been carriers, long range fighters, or bombing their airfields, but in HoI2 carriers don't have planes and do nothing to planes, long range fighters are no longer units, and bombing airfields is a complete waste of time in this situation.