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bomccarthy -> RE: 1943 campaign additional hq issue (3/28/2018 9:45:32 PM)
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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).
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