Air War 1942: What am I doing wrong?

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Air War 1942: What am I doing wrong?

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Air War 1942: What am I doing wrong? - 1/2/2012 6:07:20 PM

Rusty1961

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Okay, I'm the allies in scen. #1 and it's July 17th, 1942.

I can't do anything about those massive Oscar sweeps and Zero Escorts. Once I get enough planes to defend a base he just Oscar sweeps it to death than sends in the Betties with a massive Zero escort. Then I have to abandon the base as he destroys the remaining damaged Hurris and Hawks on the ground.

What am I doing wrong? I sweep his base, his Oscars win every battle. He sweeps my base and he wins every battle.

Or, as I suspect, one really can't do anything about the plethora of Oscars the Japanese player makes?

As, as I also suspect, the situation will get much, much worse when his Gen. II fighters come on-line?

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RE: Air War 1942: What am I doing wrong? - 1/2/2012 6:23:39 PM

Miller

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It all boils down to numbers. The Oscar is a pretty mediorce a/c in the game, but if he is sending 200 a turn to sweep a base (with say) a 100 P40/Hurricane CAP.........weight of numbers usually prevails.

A good tactic for the Allies early in the game is to use a "Hit and Run" defence. Leave the base under attack empty, then move in as many units in one turn (or LRCAP it if the target airfield is closed) so you can get a parity in numbers. Unless his sweeps come in one big mass (very unlikely) you can bloody his nose. Then pull those a/c out of the area to rest and recover losses....and repeat. This is not foolproof by any means, but you should see at least 2:1 kill ratios in your favour once you factor in ops losses for his damaged a/c failing to make the return flight.

(in reply to Rusty1961)

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RE: Air War 1942: What am I doing wrong? - 1/2/2012 7:16:02 PM

ADB123

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quote:

I can't do anything about those massive Oscar sweeps and Zero Escorts. Once I get enough planes to defend a base he just Oscar sweeps it to death than sends in the Betties with a massive Zero escort. Then I have to abandon the base as he destroys the remaining damaged Hurris and Hawks on the ground.

First off, think about where you want to defend, and what can help you.

One of the key things is to use Railroads to support your Air Efforts. Develop a series of supporting bases that are connected by Railroads. This way you can move up Fighters and Railroad them out for repairs and replacements.

Build up a BIG 4E Airbase at maximum Oscar Range. Fill with 4Es, put your best Fighters on short range (1 hex) CAP. Let your opponent try Sweeping at Max Range - it will tire out his pilots, force his Ops losses skywards, and give your pilots great practice. Then send your 4Es out to hammer his Oscar Base. Oscars won't touch 4Es - the 4Es will become Aces if your opponent attempts to defend seriously with Oscars.

Most importantly - fill your P-38 Squadrons with your very best USAAF Aces, and move them to the same area. Put them on Max Alt CAP, watch Oscars attempt to Sweep, and watch your Aces list grow and grow until your opponent realizes his mistake.

(At this point, many Japanese players will attempt to bring in the KB to even things out. Just Railroad out your 4Es, Put your P-38s on 100% CAP and Max Alt, and watch your opponent cry as the KB planes get decimated.)

Remember, the Bigger the Air Base, the better. The more BIG Airbases nearby each other, the better.

Defend where you have an advantage, attack where your opponent has a disadvantage.

Remember - Oscars use the same engines as A6M2s, but also and more importantly, the same engines as A6M3s, A6M3as, Tojos and many other Japanese fighters. Engines in Oscars aren't being used to build better Japanese fighters. (If your opponent learns that too late, he is dead.)

Good luck -

(in reply to Rusty1961)

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RE: Air War 1942: What am I doing wrong? - 1/2/2012 9:11:10 PM

dr.hal

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Good input ADB123, that should help him out.... the Oscar's firepower is really poor and with no armor, if you get parity, your armor and firepower should help out noticeably.

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RE: Air War 1942: What am I doing wrong? - 1/3/2012 2:51:01 AM

USS Henrico

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Make sure your defending base has radar, which will enable your CAP to be much more effective at responding to the sweeps. A CAP without radar will get chewed up by the Japanese fighters.

Personally, I would reserve your limited numbers of P-38s for sweeping enemy bases, as IMO they're much more effective in that role.

(in reply to Rusty1961)

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RE: Air War 1942: What am I doing wrong? - 1/3/2012 10:11:37 PM

dr.hal

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Do NOT depend upon your P-38s for cap as their up time is limited, service rating of 3 makes them hard to keep active.

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RE: Air War 1942: What am I doing wrong? - 1/3/2012 10:18:22 PM

JeffroK

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I would guess the OP is about the India /Burma area.

It isnt unusual for the AI to put up massive numbers over Chittagong & Calcutta which the RAF finds hard to defend.

In 1942 Allied fighter numbers are still building and its hard to keep up a defence.

While many of the coments above might work in 1943, 1942 is a different animal.

My only comment is that you will win out but it may take many months. Get some USAAF into the theatre to share the load.

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Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum Europae vincendarum

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RE: Air War 1942: What am I doing wrong? - 1/3/2012 10:56:12 PM

Rusty1961

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Thank you guys!

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RE: Air War 1942: What am I doing wrong? - 1/5/2012 4:00:22 PM

Rob Brennan UK

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My advice which i follow vs AI or PBEM is :-

Do Not Contest/Fight where you cannot win. That way you don't waste valuable airframes or good RAF pilots. Is the enemy actually bombing anything of real value ?

Small CAP is well worth while on distant bases out of fighter range if the japs get greedy and just send in the betties.

As already stated LRCAP and tinkering with pilots and plane types works well too.

Good luck and enjoy the game

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sorry for the spelling . English is my main language , I just can't type . and i'm too lazy to edit :)

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RE: Air War 1942: What am I doing wrong? - 1/5/2012 4:14:21 PM

Chickenboy

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From the Japanese PBEM perspective, I think the Allies' best defense in early to mid-war is all about spreading the impact amongst different airframes / types of aircraft.

In other words, having Hurricanes, Spits, Wildcats and maybe a few other types in common defense is better than relying exclusively on one airframe / air force to take all the lumps. Diversification makes for greater Allied resilience.

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RE: Air War 1942: What am I doing wrong? - 1/5/2012 5:08:27 PM

HansBolter

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Chickenboy

From the Japanese PBEM perspective, I think the Allies' best defense in early to mid-war is all about spreading the impact amongst different airframes / types of aircraft.

In other words, having Hurricanes, Spits, Wildcats and maybe a few other types in common defense is better than relying exclusively on one airframe / air force to take all the lumps. Diversification makes for greater Allied resilience.

I agree completely. In fact it is a good idea to create viable pools of additional aircframe types that the game initially denies the player to spread the impact.

What I mean by that is there is almost no pool of P40Bs initially, but there are a few squadrons of P40Bs that can be canabalized to increase the pool numbers, making it possible to send at least one P40B squadron into front line combat with a viable pool of replacements.

I do this by choosing one of the permanantly restricted P40B squadrons on the west coast (obviously the one with the most extant airframes present), setting it to upgrade to P39s and waiting patiently until there are sufficient P39s in the pool for the upgrade. When it upgrades to P39s a few turns later the P40Bs go into the pool.

I do the same thing for one of the permamntly restricted P38 squadrons on the west coast. This provides a pool to flesh out the P38 squadron in the 51st PG under the command of the 10th AirForce.

Certainly I am sacrificing P39s this way, but I would rather have the P40Bs and the P38s than the P39s and although the rate of production/replacement for P39s is rather slow, eventually one ends up with an overabundance of them that rarely get used (at least by me).

All of this is of course predicated on the use of Player Defined Upgrades.

One of the first thing I do to gain an upper hand in air to air combat early on is prioritize upgrading the squadrons of the AVG. These are some of the most experienced pilots the Allies have at the game start and they need to get the best planes and get into front line combat ASAP. One upgrades to P40Bs, one upgrades to P40Es and the other remains as H81A3s since the upgrading of the other two fills the H81A3 pool with sufficient replacements. They go to Rangoon to start slaughtering Oscars and Bettys.

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Hans

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RE: Air War 1942: What am I doing wrong? - 1/5/2012 10:58:57 PM

zuluhour

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quote:

One of the key things is to use Railroads to support your Air Efforts. Develop a series of supporting bases that are connected by Railroads. This way you can move up Fighters and Railroad them out for repairs and replacements

I can move damaged ac by rail

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RE: Air War 1942: What am I doing wrong? - 1/6/2012 11:42:06 AM

HansBolter

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quote:

ORIGINAL: zuluhour

quote:

One of the key things is to use Railroads to support your Air Efforts. Develop a series of supporting bases that are connected by Railroads. This way you can move up Fighters and Railroad them out for repairs and replacements

I can move damaged ac by rail

You can transfer entire squadrons, both ready and unready planes, across diatances by rail that exceeds the air transfer staging range of the ready aircraft. The squadron disappears from the map and goes into the reinforcement que for as many days as the rail movement requires. That they are later announced as arriving reinforcements can be a bit confusing. I am constantly having to remind myself that some of my apparent air reiniforcements are not additions to my force poool but really only transfers of the force pool I alrady have.

Additionally, when your squadron is at a base on the rail net and you transfer the ready aircraft to another base in air transfer range that is on the rail net, your unready aircraft automatically disappear form the original base and use a rail transfer to follow the ready aircraft to the new base.

This can be a big help at a base that the enemy has gained the upper hand on bombing and has either put completely out of commission or is going to end up destroying all the unready aircraft on the ground before they can be made ready and staged out. Kind of a free escape for unready aircraft.

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Hans

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Post #: 13