Masters of the Air Turn 3

 The November/ December Turn opens. Germany gets another Pilot so deploys a new FW190 in the Ruhr and brings an older Bf109 out of reserve there - only 2/10 of a Pilot needs to be lost before it goes into mothballs but it will be there to help whilst it can. A new flak division arrives in Berlin. The older flak division there will get moved elsewhere. The RAF gets a second Halifax heavy bomber and pilot. The US gets a new B17 and an extra Pilot on top. 

The weather remains Stormy so only rebasing is allowed. The new flying fortress arrives in East Anglia. The old flak division in Berlin is rail moved to Bucharest - it will become active next Turn. The Bf110 moves closer to the Ruhr. With 4 single engined fighter units as well Hitler is confident his fighters can keep the Allies at bay. 

Next phase the weather becomes Fair. Hitler curses as this means bombs even in Winter. The Allies strike for Hamburg with RAF medium and heavy bombers and US heavy bombers fly over the North Sea to avoid German fighters as much as possible. The RAF night bombers are unaccompanied as they are outside the range of the Mosquito night fighter unit but the US are able to send two fighter units to escort their bombers. The Germans intercept with a single day fighter unit and night fighter unit. Two US medium bombers accompanied by 2 RAF fighters to bomb Paris.

The night bombers go in first and two factors are turned back the Ju88s. Flak dividing itself between day and night attacks send back another 4 factors. RAF bombing factors are halved at long range and lose one third for bombing at night. Now for the single Fw190 against the P47 and P51. The Germans knock back 4 US fighter factors but are aborted themselves giving the US a VP and taking the Germans to a whole Pilot loss. The US bombers bombing factors is halved for long range to 7. 4.5 Production points are lost and a factory destroyed (3 VPs alone for that). Over Paris the German fighter is aborted and 2/10 Pilot lost and an Allied VP. 1.5 Production Points are lost due to the US medium bombers. US heavy bombers in Foggia hit Milan at long range and cause 1.5 Production points damage. Hitler has too many planes for remaining Pilots so sends a Bf109E into reserve in Aachen southwest of the Ruher. He's also worried about long range bomber raids on Berlin evading fighters so needs to pull a  Bf109G figher unit back from the Ruhr to defend Berlin. 

In the final phase of the game it's snowing. Bombing factors are halved but the Allies spend 4 VPs to send all their planes out again.  The Ruhr is plastered with both night and day raids and Lille is hit with day raids from the same bombers that hit Paris. Milan is again targeted by the Foggia bombers. Over the Ruhr of two German  day fighters one is aborted costing 2/10 pilot (so the Germans are up to 6/10th pilot losses) and an Allied VP.. The remaining German fighter abandons the fight to US derision. One Mosquito night fightter squares up against two German night fighters. The mosquito is in trouble so leaves the combat.  The night fighters attack the RAF bombers but one gets aborted losing another 2/10 pilots and the VP to the  Allies.Now the night fighter does abort a heavy bomber (so costs the RAF 2/10 fighter and the Germans get a VP). The bombs now go in.Flak aborts one RAF bomber (so the Brits get one whole Pilot lost and the Axis get another VP). Some US bombers are turned back by flak. After all that the Allies roll poorly on bombing and cause no damage. Over Lille RAF fighters double team the Luftwaffe FW190 and abort it getting a VP and causing the Axis one whole Pilot lost now. Bombs drop and cost 1.5 Production point damage. The US bombers over Milan cause carnage and cost 4.5 Production points damage. In the German phase they contemplate moving a fighter to cover Milan but decide thay cannot afford to leave other areas uncovered. In their phase the Germans spend 2 VPs to move a factory out of Cologne to Brno in Czechoslovakia. With only one factory in each Ruhr  city it makes it lesss attractive to bomb one of them as it means only a maximum of 1.5 Production points can be lost.

The Turn ends. 11.5 Production points damage rounded up to 12 and 12 VPs for the Allies. Germany expected a quiet winter but has bwen hammered including losing 2 factories on top! The RAF puts the Wellington into reserve as it's lost a whole Pilot.  The Germans put their medium bomber in France into reserve. This costs 2 VPs as they now have lost tactical air power for the Western front. Allied attrition of German production and pilots is bearing fruit. The Allies currently have 38 VPs to the Axis 3.

Germany gives up a VP to start producing a flak division of 20mm guns - not much hitting power but they are desperate. They can also begin to train another Pilot. The US spends a VP to start producing another Mustang early. They produce 2 Pilots. The Commonwealth produce one Pilot and have no planes free to build. They can build an extra one next Turn to compensate.