Ramrod --Late 1941

[MengJiao]

So, the Germans now have 109F4s -- superior to the Spitfire Vbs in many ways (but not in firepower or protection), but the RAF has only about 20% green Squadrons while both sides now have about 30% Veteran squadrons/Stafflen.  There are some other odd permutations.  The RAF high cover is just two squadrons -- a wing organization that Brinncombe-Wood says is "more Flexible"...which is true in Supremacy, but in his notes to Victories he takes the usual line that the Big Wing is the mythical wonder that it never really was.  AND radio nets: each wing formation has its own, but the Germans have a GCI overlay as well.  I considered putting all the RAF squadrons on one net but: 1) you can't give orders outside your formation 2) any dogfighting effectively overloads the whole net 3) the only advantage is +1 to spotting/tallying if somebody else in the net has made a specific tally and directs you...but you still can't leave formation on a sweep without an order or an enemy attack...so back to one net per wing.

AND: the RAF high cover is set back since nobody saw much of what happened up there last time anyway.  This way, if the Germans attack the lower squadrons, there's a chance the high cover will at least see it.

Bombers are allowed to dive a little bit, but this doesn't increase their speed (unless they are dive bombers or something, which Blenheims aren't) so the Blenheims will be diving through a convenient hole in the broken clouds to attack the airfield from 6,000 feet.

[MengJiao]

AND: the RAF high cover is set back since nobody saw much of what happened up there last time anyway.  This way, if the Germans attack the lower squadrons, there's a chance the high cover will at least see it.

Bombers are allowed to dive a little bit, but this doesn't increase their speed (unless they are dive bombers or something, which Blenheims aren't) so the Blenheims will be diving through a convenient hole in the broken clouds to attack the airfield from 6,000 feet.

Start of Turn 4:  The first German attack was somewhat thrown off by the response of the RAF wing: pick up speed even if it means losing altitude.  For two squadrons and two staffles this resulted in a dogfight (which again, the 109F4s with their better speed had a moderate chance to avoid) and in the resulting two turns of shooting, one 109 went down and all participants are depleted and likely to break soon.  Moreover, even more oddly for all concerned, 601 Squadron "Dogrose" -- just kept diving and is now leaving its pursuer behind (though being shot at by direct flak -- that missed -- hense the sideways barage of puffs covered by the mysterious sign of the Sun god in his "you missed" incarnation.  Probably all this diving would be a mistake in a more detailed combat game, but in Supremacy, it works just fine apparently.
Meanwhile the other 109 wing has dived to its ground control vector and should be able to attack the bombers head on.  Thereafter they can just evade, dive away and otherwise escape hopefully:

[MengJiao]

Meanwhile the other 109 wing has dived to its ground control vector and should be able to attack the bombers head on.  Thereafter they can just evade, dive away and otherwise escape hopefully:

  turns 5 to 12 -- Unfortunately,  much dogfighting ensued.  On the other hand, flak shot down 2 bombers (2 times 2 times 2 = 8 points!) so in air terms
the Germans had 10 points (8 for bombers, 2 for two Spitfires) and the RAF had 6 (6 109s) so the Germans would have won except that the bombers hit the airfield heavily (10 points) giving the RAF a win (16 to 10).

  Lessons:  RAF: 1) don't bother diving away -- it just takes you out of the battle
                           2) have as little high cover as possible
                           3) three-squadron wings are okay and they can spot over a wider area, though the third squadron often misses the battle for one reason or another
                  Luftwaffe: 1) avoid dogfighting (its not like they didn't try)
                                   2) try to pick off a wing and forget about the bombers
                                   3) see if the FW190A (no FW190A4s for a while) helps