u/Jolly-Elderberry6706

I should be finishing up my first full career in GB as soviets running from leningrad all the way through the Liberation of Odessa shortly. It has been very enjoyable, but I am stupid sick of YAKs at this point.

I have experimented a bit with some axis planes, but I am curious what maps and planes you guys enjoy, if they are not the best.

I have found the MC 202 to actually be incredibly fun to fly and fight with, despite being pretty underpowered Armaments wise.

Let me know what you guys all like and why. I need some new stuff to try!

This is specifically when flying fighter bombers. I am over 2 months into the war, over 50 missions, and my squadron of F-51s have never been intercepted, not once.

No friendly Aircraft flying around, no enemy Aircraft flying around. The only time we see enemy planes is when they scramble a pair or a squad of Yaks from the airfield we are attacking.

There is no sense of danger. In GB I was absolutely terrified of ground AA and being intercepted. Even on enemy superiority you just never get intercepted on ground attack. Not even enemy ground attackers on our side.

Anyone else having this issue?

Just failed an armored column attack in Korea, but I am not sure what it is looking for.

We knocked out 7 artillery, 7 transports, and a tank. I am leading a F-51 squadron, so it is not like we can hang around and strafe them all day.

15 targets with 4 planes seems satisfactory, and yet the game says the mission failed when I pulled back after losing 2 planes.

Anyone know what the requirements are?

For me it is the fact that I cannot change the class names of all the utility ships.

Let me make thematic classes man! I know it does nothing but I should still be able too!

I have recently gotten into playing submarine simulators and I realized that it seems like allied submarines, especially US subs, are completely overshadowed in WWII compared to nations like Germany.

Why is this the case? From my limited research the US sunk 50% of the tonnage of the Germans with only 25% of the submarines. That seems extraordinary, and yet the majority of sub sims like Silent Hunter and U boat focus solely on German Uboats.

Is there a specific reason for this because of doctrine or something else?

Just attacked my first royal navy convoy, and really had to grind and maneuver to get it done. We go to board, and I hip on the swivel gun to do some damage.

I get a notification. That one of the guys is firing at me, which kind of sucks as I am atill on the Jackdaw and nobody has hopped over yet.

I try to jump over to grab a human shield, and both marksman at the top AND the captain all shoot me at the same time, and I instantly die.

That isn't that enjoyable. The boarding process has not even started yet, and there is no way I am shooting 3 guys all on different ends of the ship before getting shot.

Maybe it is a skill issue, but it is incredibly frustrating to put in all that hard work just to get lit up before I can even jump over to the ship.

I have been playing through a career as the Soviets, leningrad into kuban now, random on all modifiers.

Most missions the AI is what I expect. The flight leader will come at me head on, and then the enemy flights split into pairs conducting rotating energy traps or reversals onto us. Pretty predictable, but it still punishes any mistakes.

But I would say once in every 30 missions I face AI that seems like it is scripted to kill me. No matter what strategy I employ they can throw their plane around on the defensive like crazy, and they basically take my guys head off with a single cannon shell. No hits to the plane, no canopy getting torn off, just a single deflection shot from half a kilometer away into my head.

I will go 30 missions without ever getting hit, and then even restarting these missions with all the Intel already I cannot find a way to last.

Am I just fighting "Ace" difficulty ai? Or is the game just deciding my career should he done? I am hesitant to do permandeath because it just feels so cheap.

Has any of the far more experienced community members experienced this? What is the general strategy?

I have been facing it since leningrad, and no plane I have flown has been able to counter it. I am currently flying Yak 1b and Yak 7 if that matters.

Just want some advice from the pros here regarding empire size.

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I play Ensign only, and I micro everything planet related. Is it better to Vassalize my 2,000 empire size empire, or simply keep trying to improve it?

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I usually try to keep 3 sectors for myself, and convert the rest to 1 sector vassals with maximum resource donation. Am I handicapping myself that way? It seems like I never outpriduce empire size after around 1200, as the tech gets significantly longer for equivalent stages each time.

What is your go-to strategy without submitting to aggressive vassalization against an overwhelming federation with "Wipe them out" CB? Playthrough information below if needed.

1,000 system standard galaxy that has been reduced to 3 Independant empires with about a dozen small vassals/protectorates.

I am UNE and not part of a Federation. I have a few protectorates and vassals and can field about 400K fleet power with my Juggernaut and Enclaves.

I had incredible relations with the major superpower, a synthoid Gestalt, for a few hundered years. They ended up creating a martial federation with the Commonwealth of Man, and suddenly their ethics dramatically changed. Before I could raise a fleet and prepare defenses, they subjugated every other empire on the map. They can field nearly 800K fleet.

The only two advantages I have is Galcom voting power and my empire size. I can almost guarantee any vote goes my way with favors. My empire size is at 1,000, but I am working on creating more vassals. The Synthoids are at 4,500 empire size last time I had enough intel to see, and have expanded more since then. I am trying to out perform them in technology, but they can basically throw their entire fleet at a chokepoint, take it, then status quo after and build back defenses faster than I can. It is death by 1,000 cuts. I have dropped their diplomatic weight, slapped on sanctions, but it seems like their is no stopping the inevitable.

I am simply curious. I am about to do the wedding and I think I have done everything I physically can up until this point. I have explored the whole map, found all sorts of weird PoIs, and I am blown away by how many little side quests there were to do.

I am main level 20, I don't know of that is considered good for this point in the game or not. How much more of this game is there? I don't need any spoilers, I just want to know if the game ends soon after the wedding, because man does Henry want to go to this wedding.

Edit: It appears as though my journey is just getting started. I cannot wait to keep going. Thanks everyone!

About 3 weeks ago I posted here asking for advice on flying the chaika on leningrad and how to not get completely wrecked by the Bf-109s.

I took all the advice and have been practicing, and I am very happy to say that I completed the whole leningrad campaign from Bychie Pole without dying!

It was inferior enemy and scattered AA, but I am still really proud of myself. The advice worked really well. I was not greedy and picked my engagements, making sure to only take low altitude engagements or wounded fighters.

I was shot down 6 times over friendly lines, and wounded 18 times total, but I never actually died.

Just wanted to show some appreciation. This sub is small, but you guys are awesome. Now it is onto the Mig 3 on Moscow!

My very limited understanding is it decreases the empire size cost of the planet, but I only get like 2 size decrease every tier, and it has another bonus that I don't really understand.

Is it better to spend all my unity on ascension perks first before working on the planets? 50-50 split? All in on planets? Also, am I ascending one planet to ascension tier 10 first, or all my planets to ascension tier 1 first?

It doesn't seem very intuitive to me. Any advice would be appreciated.

I have about 200 hours in IL-2 Great Battles now on HOTAS, mainly on Flying Circus. I switched over to leningrad about 30 hours ago, and I am just getting slaughtered. I am mainly flying the Ishak and Chaika.

I know that I am basically handicapping myself by using these planes, but it seems impossible to outfly and compete again a BF-109 F4 in an Ishak.

Is there a strategy or strength that these planes have vs the Germans, or am I destined to roleplay being an abuse victim for the entire siege of leningrad?