FAQ / Info for Newb's

[BBfanboy]

Thanks Korvar! I had clicked on something that took me to the next page which offered the manual and forum squeeze downloads, but the forum squeeze one was void.
I took a quick look at the PDF - it looks quite useful!

[L0ckAndL0ad]

Hi there!

Playing Allied campaign vs AI (scen6) with reinforcements ON by default. But automatic pilot assignment just doesn't work. Squadrons aren't getting new pilots and turn red (Num column). I tried turning it off and on again but no luck. Got a bunch of US Army air groups in San Fran that are red, so it's not a supply or AF size problem. Set to "Auto" and "Any". Any ideas what am I doing wrong?

[Korvar]

I'm not sure on the automatic pilot assignment - I always use manual selection. I also did some searches in the manual and didn't turn up anything particularly informative.

Maybe someone else can chime in with better info?

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: L0ckAndL0ad

Hi there!

Playing Allied campaign vs AI (scen6) with reinforcements ON by default. But automatic pilot assignment just doesn't work. Squadrons aren't getting new pilots and turn red (Num column). I tried turning it off and on again but no luck. Got a bunch of US Army air groups in San Fran that are red, so it's not a supply or AF size problem. Set to "Auto" and "Any". Any ideas what am I doing wrong?

That toggle does not apply to pilots. Pilots are not an item which is the term employed in s.2.5.7 of the manual.

Top left of each air unit screen in yellow text is indicated whether pilots are fetched via automatic computer action (from selected pool) or player manual action.

You can either adjust each unit to meet your requirements from their individual units screens or globally adjust from the two list all land air units screen and list all naval air units screen.

Alfred

[L0ckAndL0ad]

ORIGINAL: Alfred
That toggle does not apply to pilots. Pilots are not an item which is the term employed in s.2.5.7 of the manual.

Top left of each air unit screen in yellow text is indicated whether pilots are fetched via automatic computer action (from selected pool) or player manual action.

You can either adjust each unit to meet your requirements from their individual units screens or globally adjust from the two list all land air units screen and list all naval air units screen.

Alfred

I'm sorry Alfred, but you're wrong about the toggle. It does apply to pilots. The difference between Reinforcements ON and OFF (pilot management wise) is whether or not it would set pilot management for all units to Any/Automatic/Any or to Manual by default, accordingly. The terminology discrepancy is probably due to the fact that the manual is older than the feature (hence separate Pilot Management Addendum.pdf, denoting v1094b).

The rest of what you wrote is as vague/cryptic as most of the time (I'm a lurker), unfortunately. (no offence!)

Yes, all my squadrons are set to Any/Automatic/Any pilot management options. I tried Any/Automatic/Replacements combo also.

The question is: can pilots be automatically replaced, so that squadrons always try to have 100% pilots (1:1 planes to pilots ratio)? I can swear I've seen it work, like this:

turn 1: 6 planes, 6 pilots (12 max planes)
turn 2: 12 planes, 6 pilots (reinforcement planes come in, pilot "num" turns red)
turn 3: 12 planes, 12 pilots. (squadron automatically gets new pilots)

But I can't get it working consistently for some reason, even in full supply areas like West Coast.

ps: sorry, can't post images/save file, 7 day forum newbie account restriction :\

[L0ckAndL0ad]

Okay, the 7 day limit should be gone by now, so here's the screenshot. Any/Automatic/Any setting combo, full supply, in range of an Air HQ. 25 planes, 12 pilots, and the game does not add new pilots as turns go by. Anyone?

[Kull]

ORIGINAL: L0ckAndL0ad

Okay, the 7 day limit should be gone by now, so here's the screenshot. Any/Automatic/Any setting combo, full supply, in range of an Air HQ. 25 planes, 12 pilots, and the game does not add new pilots as turns go by. Anyone?

I ran a few small tests, far from comprehensive, just to see if this does work. And it does, at least with the settings I tested.

To begin, I had a newly arrived P-40B in San Fran that came with no airframes and one pilot. I split it in three and used 3 variations of the auto pilot selection (more on that below). And the result was, "no pilots".

Next I split up a 3 airframe, single pilot B-18A in Boise and used the same pilot retrieval settings that didn't work with the P-40B, and in one turn, a pair of pilots arrived.

You can see the settings and pilot results in the graphic appended below, but to summarize:

- The Automated Pilot Selection System will provide pilots, but not more than the number of "unpiloted" airframes (hence no pilots were delivered for the B-18/A unit, since it already had one pilot and one airframe)
- The specified retrieval pool IS used (but perhaps not if it's left at "Any")
- When pilots arrive as unit leaders, they are promoted
- Even though I specified that one of the pilots be "Trained 50+", the chosen pilot did NOT have overall experience of 50+, but then neither did any of the pilots in the reserve pool. Interestingly, he was chosen even though his status was "WIA" (probably because he had more experience than anyone else in the pool, although the choice of a wounded guy is probably a bug)
- The requested pilot with "Any" level of experience was just that - not the most or least experienced of those available

Anyway, I suspect your issue came from requesting that pilots be pulled from a pool called "Any". Since that doesn't exist (it's a combination of named pools), perhaps the Automatic Selection code doesn't recognize it for some reason.

[Yaab]

11.1 CHANGING LEADERS

No source is given for the leaders table. [:-]

[stan2]

I JUST GOT WITPAE AND I MUST SAY IT IS VERY CHALLENGING AT BEST. BUT I NEED TO KNOW IS THEIR A COMPUTER CONTROL FOR AREA'S LIKE CHINA THAT YOU DON'T WANT TO CONTROL ALL THE TIME

[Yaab]

There is no AI control for selected map areas. You control all map areas manually.

[sajm0n]

Whats the optimal use of TRACOM? How many of yellow pilots should i put in there, which ones? What do they do exactly (improving replacement pool's exp?)
If i dont put all of them to TRACOM, then where the rest of them should go? Best front line units, like KB or maybe they are best used for training groups (to speed up their training, if it works that way)?

(playing Japan - in the middle of first turn[&o])

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: sajm0n

Whats the optimal use of TRACOM? How many of yellow pilots should i put in there, which ones? What do they do exactly (improving replacement pool's exp?)
If i dont put all of them to TRACOM, then where the rest of them should go? Best front line units, like KB or maybe they are best used for training groups (to speed up their training, if it works that way)?

(playing Japan - in the middle of first turn[&o])

You should search the forum for this topic. Many threads on TRACOM. Reading the entire threads will give you a better information than a direct answer to your question. Just be careful that not all answers are correct, one reason why reading entire threads is best.

Alfred

[bush]

I searched and found the Ship Repair 101 Guide - but I'd like to have a clean copy to print, without all the yellow highlighted words. How do I actually get to the original?

[Kull]

ORIGINAL: bush

I searched and found the Ship Repair 101 Guide - but I'd like to have a clean copy to print, without all the yellow highlighted words. How do I actually get to the original?

https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.a ... 45&mpage=1

[bush]

Thanks Kull!

[thephalanx1453]

Note that even if search arcs are set, aircraft will still do a full 360° search over a 4 hex range.

Does this apply for ASW searches as well? If so, is it also up to 4 hexes or 2 hexes?

[RocketMan]

What does the area in blue represent (image from the original post)? TFs are covered above and the ASW line is a duplicate. I assume SS is for Sub Patrols, but have no idea what the Combat and Non Combat are supposed to represent.

[RangerJoe]

I did not make the chart so I will post my presumptions here.

The Combat TFs are those surface combat task forces composed of ships looking for trouble to include PT/MTB/MGBs, DDs, CLs, CAs, BCs, BBs and such conversions. There can be other ships types as well but they are designed to engage in direct combat with other task forces. This would also include Bombardment TFs since they do revert to Combat TF after bombarding.

The nonCombat TFs are those that you would not like to engage in combat to include your amphibious TFs, your transport TFs, your cargo TFs, your replenishment TFs, and so on.

I do believe that the numbers are color coded with blue being the highest bonus given.

[RocketMan]

I did not make the chart so I will post my presumptions here.

The Combat TFs are those surface combat task forces composed of ships looking for trouble to include PT/MTB/MGBs, DDs, CLs, CAs, BCs, BBs and such conversions. There can be other ships types as well but they are designed to engage in direct combat with other task forces. This would also include Bombardment TFs since they do revert to Combat TF after bombarding.

The nonCombat TFs are those that you would not like to engage in combat to include your amphibious TFs, your transport TFs, your cargo TFs, your replenishment TFs, and so on.

I do believe that the numbers are color coded with blue being the highest bonus given.

I'm pretty sure those labeled "1" are the most important (red) with those labeled "4" being the lest important (blue).

I understand what the types of TFs are, but ASW is duplicated in both the section outlined in green and the section outlined in blue. Surface and Bombardment TFs are listed separately in the blue section and "Combat TFs" are listed as a group in the green section. All the Non-Combat TF types are listed separately in the green section and in on group in the blue section. The only one in the blue section that is not ambiguous is the SS TF.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

[RangerJoe]

Well, the green boxed items give more specificity to bonuses that would apply to those types of task forces. I mean, why would a non Surface Combat TF need to cross the "T" of an opposing TF? That could actually be a bad move if the opposing TF was submerged, would it not?

The blue box is a more general category and thus has more of a general bonus for all types of TFs in that category.

As far as colour coding the numbers, it does not show whether it is positive or negative, that is what the arrow is for. I may have misunderstood initially when you mentioned the blue box because I thought that you were referring to the colour coded numbers.