The new and improved UK

[unmerged(1972)]

I'm playing as Germany, and around 1941 I started probing southern England to see what chances I'd have for an invasion. The thing is, they've got these huge stacks of fighters, versus my stack limited fighters, so I lose one squadron per second in these engagements over the English Channel. It's hard to see any possibility of gaining air superiority there.

Also, they seem to have about 40 divisions of infantry and a couple of armored divisions on the home island, which means I'd have to bring over at least 40 divisions of my own, using my 12 transports, all the while running the gauntlet in waters heavy with the Royal Navy.

All in all, I don't see much chance of Operation Sealion being possible with neither air nor sea superiority. What am I doing wrong here?

Oh yea, I tried working their navy a little with naval bombers. Any sea zone next to their mainland means a fighter intercept, so that's not a really viable strategy either.

 

[unmerged(24142)]

I'm playing as Germany, and around 1941 I started probing southern England to see what chances I'd have for an invasion. The thing is, they've got these huge stacks of fighters, versus my stack limited fighters, so I lose one squadron per second in these engagements over the English Channel. It's hard to see any possibility of gaining air superiority there.

Also, they seem to have about 40 divisions of infantry and a couple of armored divisions on the home island, which means I'd have to bring over at least 40 divisions of my own, using my 12 transports, all the while running the gauntlet in waters heavy with the Royal Navy.

All in all, I don't see much chance of Operation Sealion being possible with neither air nor sea superiority. What am I doing wrong here?

Oh yea, I tried working their navy a little with naval bombers. Any sea zone next to their mainland means a fighter intercept, so that's not a really viable strategy either.

First of all, what's the difficulty setting? Are the Brits getting aide from the U.S.? I also noticed it's 1941, which probably means the UK sat around for a year building units.

As the UK, to counter the mighty Luftwaffe, I made smaller fighter groups and put them together (not merged). About two or three groups of 3 fighters commanded by Lt. Generals, and one group of 4 fighters commanded by an Air Marshall. I tore the Luftwaffe to bits.

 

[unmerged(1972)]

Right, we're playing at Very Hard difficulty, and US is assisting the UK. Still, the US only has ~10 div and a few air squadrons (mostly bombers) there, so they shouldn't have any major direct influence.

Edit: It is my understanding that the fighter stack penalty also applies to smaller groups of squadrons if they are in the same territory's air space.

 

[unmerged(26888)]

Edit: It is my understanding that the fighter stack penalty also applies to smaller groups of squadrons if they are in the same territory's air space.

True. I gave up the patch (1.06c) since my figthers would fly one mission and then get so heavy losses that I would have to withdraw them for a month to regain organization (stacks of four, bla bla). Makes it a tough nut to crack on the harder difficulty settings when countries like UK and SU have as many figthers as you. With patch 1.06 I could actually defeat the polish airforce (figther numbers 2/1 in my favour) before I annexed them - weeeeee!

 

[unmerged(14249)]

All in all, I don't see much chance of Operation Sealion being possible with neither air nor sea superiority. What am I doing wrong here?

You're not doing something wrong. The AI is doing something right. In recent patches, the UK AI gives a high priority to defending the home islands and so usually won't send a BEF to France, for example. This was done because Sealion was too easy for a human Germany in previous versions - you would often find the UK empty.

If the enemy has a strongpoint then the general answer is to go elsewhere. Historically, the Germans decided that Sealion was not feasible so invaded the SU instead. If you still want to try your luck then you will obviously need to research and build accordingly - lots of good aircraft and naval units - so that you can get air and/or naval superiority.

Andrew

 

[TheUNDERTAKER]

Who needs an airforce?

I maked the experience that you don´t need a strong airforce. I build indeed two stacks of advanced tactical bombers and some fighters for defending against allied bombers (when I´m playing germany, what I am normally do). The Tac´s were only used when no enemy fighters are in range.
If you want to attack the british islands, than use the best tanks you can get (by 1941 you should have Tiger I and Panther) and secure the sealines with big stacks of submarines Type XXI; The british navy is than no problem. And the ai sends his naval bombers only one time. So you loose normally only 3 or 4 Transports (I had 48 Transports and lost 4), but no units: You can land all units incl. those on the sunk Transports. The britsh infantry and tanks are no match. I found London empty, so my tanks had no problem with urban terrain. And don´t forget to research AA-GUNS.