1943 campaign additional hq issue

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Gary Grigsby's War in the West >> Tech Support >> 1943 campaign additional hq issue

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1943 campaign additional hq issue - 3/26/2018 3:48:43 PM

jtaCumming

Posts: 4
Joined: 1/30/2018
Status: offline

9af and some 8af fb groups show up without any planes. With the pools low to start with they tend to sit there unusable for quite awhile.

I checked the editor and sure enough almost all 9af reinforcement fb groups have 4 or less planes to start.

Played through till late may when I realized there was no way to invade when 8 or more 9af fb groups have no planes.

Post #: 1

RE: 1943 campaign additional hq issue - 3/26/2018 8:54:01 PM

bomccarthy

Posts: 414
Joined: 9/6/2013
From: L.A.
Status: offline

I think that was a change in the recent update - the developers thought that the US plane pools were too full.

The problem is that the production "engine" in the game doesn't reflect how US aircraft were updated in frontline maintenance depots and by the squadron/group maintenance crews. As a result, US fighter groups tend to suffer non-historical shortages as they await updated models.

For instance, P-51B-1s became P-51B-10s when retrofitted with an 87 gallon fuselage tank at depots in England in December 1943 and January 1944 (field kits were shipped to England from North American Aviation). Units did not have to trade-in their P-51B-1s for P-51B-10s, as they do in the game. Similarly, P-47D-15s became P-47D-22s with the retrofit of new "paddle-blade" propellers while they were in squadron service in the Spring and Summer of 1944. In the game, the P-47D-22 doesn't even reach the US active pool until October 1944.

The limitations of the game engine really shows up, though, in the inability of a group to fly two different aircraft versions at the same time. In reality, P-51Ds were added to individual squadrons as they became available and were flown alongside P-51Bs, as seen in this famous shot of the 375th FS/361st FG in May 1944:

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< Message edited by bomccarthy -- 3/26/2018 8:55:13 PM >

(in reply to jtaCumming)

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RE: 1943 campaign additional hq issue - 3/28/2018 7:28:18 PM

jtaCumming

Posts: 4
Joined: 1/30/2018
Status: offline

Too full?

In just about every game I have played the pools for the P47-D-15 and P-51b are always very low due to losses and replinishment.

Its only after the D-25 and P-51D show up in June-July 44 that D-15 and 51B pools rise due to plane changeovers.

I have thought about retrying the scenario and being very conservative with changing over the P-47s...will require holding onto around 300+ in the pool
in order to meet the 9af demand in early 44. But that would mean using the older versions far longer than what was done historically.

Don't know what to do with the P47-D-25 squadron that shows up
with 0 planes as it comes in April I think and production does not even begin till June.

Last resort is to make changes myself in the editor.

Thx

(in reply to bomccarthy)

Post #: 3

RE: 1943 campaign additional hq issue - 3/28/2018 9:45:32 PM

bomccarthy

Posts: 414
Joined: 9/6/2013
From: L.A.
Status: offline

I just completed an Add Air HQ game where I kept P-40Ns in one 12th TAC group until Oct '44, when I transferred the 12th BC and TAC to France. I also had to keep another group in the US Spitfire LF IXe, just so I wouldn't deplete the pools of the P-38, P-47, or P-51.

One tactic to keep in mind is swapping groups between commands, rather than upgrading/downgrading. Thus, if you have a P-51 group in the 9th AF, trade it to the 8th AF for a P-47 group. This actually happened, when Doolittle prevailed on Spaatz to redirect new 9th AF P-51 groups to the 8th AF in exchange for P-47 groups in 1944 (USAAF bureaucracy still regarded the P-51B as a tactical fighter-bomber no different than the P-51A, while the P-47 and P-38 were officially high altitude fighters).

Another game observation: I have found that when a pool of a certain type of US fighter falls below 100, groups using that type won't fill beyond 60 planes (even though their TOE has upgraded to 75 planes).

In my next game, I am going to make changes in the editor - eliminate the P-51B-1 and add that number to the P-51B-10 production, but hold off availability of the P-51B-10 until January 1944 (the 354th FG will still arrive with them in December 1943). This will reflect the teething problems experienced with the Packard-Merlin that weren't really ironed out until the end of '43, by which time the depots in England were installing the 87-gallon fuselage tank).

I am not sure how to handle the P-47D-22. The game engine simply doesn't allow two versions of a plane in one unit. I will probably adjust its availability to May 1944 (the game imposes a three-month delay from the time a plane starts production in the US until it reaches the active pool in Europe, which is why I think it currently doesn't become available until October).

(in reply to jtaCumming)

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