You are the commanding officer of an Allied heavy bomber group in the skies over occupied Europe. The Wing hands you a field order and a finite number of men and machines. Which targets you strike, which crews you send, when you push and when you stand down is up to you.
Group Commander is a player-paced command simulation. There are no timers and no background clock ticking against you. Every phase of every mission traces back to a decision you made: at the briefing table, over the target, and in the debrief when the returns come in ragged.
Plan the raid
Each week the Wing deals a fresh board of targets: ball-bearing works, U-boat pens, marshalling yards, aircraft plants. Read the dossier, weigh flak and fighter cover against the reward, and commit your formation.
Fly it, one decision at a time
Watch the raid unfold as a mission profile above the ops log. Fighters come in waves. Flak walks across the formation. An engine throws a rod; the oxygen fails at altitude; the navigator goes down and the course drifts. Press on, divert to the secondary, or bring them home the call is yours.
Carry the cost
Losses are not a number. A downed fort takes named men with it killed, or bailed out and posted missing. Shipmates grieve, green replacements need bedding in, and every fallen man files a letter home that lands on your desk for your signature. Crews fatigue, lose form, break down and, if they live long enough, rotate home at the end of their tour. Shorten the tour to lift morale and the Wing frowns on you. That is the Doolittle dilemma, and it is yours to manage.
Run the station
A bomber base is a town. Feed it the whole station eats, and ration quality moves morale. Stock the bomb dump with the right ordnance for the target: incendiaries for industry, armor-piercing for the pens. Assign mechanics, repair four-axis battle damage, requisition fuel and fresh airframes. Plan your weekly fighter escort as range creeps eastward first the P-47, then the P-38, then the P-51 all the way to the target. Build and upgrade facilities. And keep the Wing's confidence: hit zero, and you are relieved of command.
Everything runs on Command Points
Recruits, facilities, supplies, second chances — everything costs Command Points, earned from missions and never quite sufficient. Command is the art of spending what you cannot spare.
KEY FEATURES
- Player-paced command — no timers; every action is a decision you make
- A living war— a target economy that bleeds when you strike and recovers when you don't
- Real history, on the calendar— max-effort raids pinned to their actual dates
- Named crews— morale, fatigue, form, skills, promotions, and tours of duty
- Losses that land— grief, replacements, and condolence letters you must sign
- Deep station management— mess hall, ordnance, maintenance, facilities, recruiting
- The escort problem— range-limited fighter cover that evolves with the air war
- Wing confidence— perform, or lose your command
