Feinder
Posts: 6589
Joined: 9/4/2002
From: Land o' Lakes, FL
Status: offline
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I tried to make a big b-17e squadron and disbanded 3 squadron to 1. Wanted to get big attack, not 3 planes. It was about mid oct 1942. At first all looked fine. Over 20 planes and pilots, the squadron was in cooktown.
It doesn't do you much good to build a squadron with more than the max aircraft for the type (in the case of B-17s, it's 12; in the case of B-25s, it's 16; it's the number in parenthesis). Extra planes will go into reserve and/or eventually wind up back in the replacement pool. Also, when you're combining squadrons, look for the squadron with the best commander ratings, and fold the other squadrons into it (even if they're bigger than the squadron with the better commander). Every little bit helps.
I moved squadron to Moresby ( 6 airfields and plentiful support ). What happened: 11 planes in reserve, 3 being repaired and 12 in use.
I let the pilots rest after transfer and started operations. I was very careful and no losses, but some damaged during the operations. All the time reserve planes dimished until none. Now I have 12 planes and over 20 pilots in squadron???? What happened?
I pretty sure damaged aircraft are swapped into the replacement pool for a fresh plane (when it can be repaired). But because you had planes in reserve (actually at the airbase), it put the damaged plane in the replacement pool, but then drew a fresh plane from reserve (which is faster than drawing form the replacement pool). As you deplete your reserve aircraft in the squadron, you'll then start drawing from the replacement pool. Don't worry, the "missing" planes didn't get sent to Iceland. They're just in the replacement pool will be drawn normally.
Second one:
How pilots gain experience? Of course by training but in action. I have noticed that bomber crews gain easily exp by flying naval search ( and getting contacts ) or am I imagining whole thing? After hard fights seems that exp is declining. IE fresh unit has exp 80 and after a couple hard fight exp is 75. Combat lossess and replacement pilots are inexperienced???
Any mission gets a pilot experience. Putting pilots with 55 experience on CAP is dangerous, so that's why they have "Training" so you can work them up in the rear areas in less danger. However, "Training" has a dimishing return the higher exp a pilot has (about 65ish). Then your pilot will gain more exp by flying real missions. Yes, ASW and Search will gain you experince (slowly). Stick time is still stick time. The average exp of a squadron will drop as it recieves replacesments, because the replacements are of lower experince. US pilots normally start around 60, Japanese pilots start around 50. However, if you end up drawing ALOT of replacements at once (maybe because you lost 200 planes in a turn), the experience of the replacements will be much lower (on the order of 30 exp instead of 50). A "slow draw" is good for cigars and experience for pilot replacements. Another way to work up experience for you fighter-bombers (like P-39s) is naval and AF attack. If you can escort them, they'll gain exp by bombing, instead of having them get eaten alive by Zeros. Your bomber can also bomb "abandoned" red dots for exp (and there's obviously nothing there to shoot back at them). Personally, I think it's kind of cheezy, but it does work.
Secondly it seems that all the best pilots get killed after they have 4 - 6 victories.
As Frag said, watch your fatigue. Those guys with 4-6 kills probably have pretty good exp ratings (85+), which means they're likely to win a dog-fight all things being equal. The great un-equalizer is fatigue. Still, you're going to lose alot of pilots, no matter how hard you try. Most pilots will never get to 5 kills. Even fewer will make it to 10. Just take the perspective that they're all going to die, and if any survive, then you're happy.
I have read AAR´s and I have seen that players put B-17's attack altitude at 1000 feet. Was it done in real life in pacific? I don´t recall reading anything like that. Those attacks shoud have very high AA-losses.
I think that that kind attacks are most unrealistic. Not very important matter, just wondering.
If you fly your bombers under 6000' they take a hit to moral (where, if it goes below 50, they must roll under their moral in order to fly for the day). Furthermore, you will notice significanly higher Flak losses at 1000'. At 6000' the effect most Flak is negligable. I don't usually fly my bombers at 1000', that's more of a "shock" attack by bombers to initially suppress a base (usually about 50% more hits), and then move them back up to 6000'. But I don't normally like 1000', I'd rather fly consistantly at 6000' than have to worry about Flak and moral at 1000'.
-F-
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