Monster Axis Bots in the 1944 campaign

[Ludomeister]

Well, the subject line says it all. I just started the Daylight 1944 campaign, taking the Allied side, and after one day I lead 10-7 VP's. But at a tremendous cost! Man, the 109 and 190 bot pilots have enough skills to make my guys look like wimps. I'm just shot out of the sky at will. *Nothing* I do makes any difference when Axis wingies have more cards in their virtual hand than my wingleader has! It's not like I can't maneuver around these guys and get into a tailing position, but what good is it when the Axis wingie then plays 2 half loops in a row and then pummels you with enough lead to create enough 25 mm. Napoleonic minis to fill a good sized gymnasium! :mad:

Now, I know that any A/I has to be fairly beefed up to be able to go toe-to-toe with humans, but it ain't much fun when that uebermensch silicon opponent makes your guys look like they belong in some triple-Z baseball league in Outer Mongolia.

How have you guys who've played this campaign survived as the Allies? :confused:

Ludo

[Sixxkiller]

Its easier if you try to avoid the uber bots until they are fatigued. Send in the heavy bombers in two flights and then next turn rush with you best fighters. If you kill a few early, its a different war man! No fighters or fatigued fighters makes for victory!

-Ray

[Guest Mike]

Or even just dont' bomb a lot of targets on T1 & 2 - the 'bot will fly anyway, getting fatigue.

Enf of T1 score doesn't count - only end of T8 - last game I played I lost 45 pts in the 1st 2 turns - ended up winning 150ish-70 or so.

[Ludomeister]

Gents,

Mucho thanks ... I see the light. I think I'll give my guys a pass into the red light district of London tonight ... the R&R will do 'em good

Ludo

[Sixxkiller]

Its a long campaign man, a long campaign!

-Ray

[Guest Mike]

Yep - and hte 'bot behaviour is quite predictable - they will always put their best squadrons over the biggest rargets - so I always leave those alone for a turn or 2.

then I make my priority to shoot down their fighters rather than protect my own bombers.

Careful allocation of yuor own elite squadrons is a must too - don't jsut send them out willy-nilly - give them a break as often as possible - use your rookies to escort bombers over small targets, and sometimes do fighter sweeps over big targets with 2 elite squadrons just to attack his best fliers.

Sure this costs a lot of points, but by the end of the game you're roaming over Germany at will against half strength squadrons with .structure of 2 and that have lost performance, horsepower and even bursts from fatigue

[hyperstork]

How long do the different campaigns last, by the way? In number of missions, etc?

[bartbert]

It's hard to say precisely how many missions will make up a campaign. The Daylight 1944 campaign has 8 turns and 7 regions that can be fought over each turn. Theoretically, the campaign could require 56 missions if both sides contested every area on every turn. Realistically, you might see 3 or 4 areas contested each turn, so you might be looking at 24 to 32 missions for the entire campaign. Fortunately, you don't have to finish them all in one sitting.

That Battle of Britain has 5 turns and 5 regions. The Solomons has 4 turns and 5 regions. Singapore and Dunkirk both have 3 turns and 2 regions.

[Guest Mike]

Not only that but some missions can be really short - like when the AI has 2 1/2 strength exhausted fighters against yuor elite Spitfires........those games aren't nearly as long as full strength missions - sometimes a minute is enough to finish them