General Questions

[krb3]

I'm new at playing WITP I had a few questions for those who are more experienced at the game. I'm playing the Guadacanal scenario.

1. The HQ of the south pacific is located at Nomeau. When I clicked on the headquarters I saw a future objective box which said Nomeau. Was wondering what the significance of this is. Meaning if I wanted to take Lunga should I change this box to reflect that?

2. B-17 and B-24's. Can they fly missions from bases that are a 1 or 2, or does it the airfield size need to be larger? If so what size? I tried to find that in manual but didn't see that specially.

3. What is the best altitude to fly bombing missions with B-17/24's? With dive bombers?

4. Escorts-Let's say that I was flying a bombing mission from Cooktown and bombing Lae. Let's also say that I had fighters located at Port Moresby. Could I get the fighters to fly escort for the bombers flying out of Cooktown?

5. If you have a port the size of 1, and have several task forces to unload is it best to ferry them in one at a time or dock them all at the same time?

I appreciate your help

BRK

[Alfred]

1.  Combat units which are fighting at the same location as their future objective hex states, receive significant combat bonuses.  If the HQ they are attached to also has the same future objective hex, then additional combat bonuses accrue.  Hence if Noumea is safe from enemy attack and you do intend to capture Lunga, then you should adjust the future objective hex accordingly and ideally invade when the preparation points reach 100.

2.  Firstly, offensive missions can only be flown out of airfields sized at least level 2.  Secondly, Level Bombers (which B-17 and B-24 are) need to fly out of an airfield which is suitably large (in practical terms at least a size 4), otherwise they fly with reduced ordnance and range.  The appropriate size of airfield is based on the load capacity of the level bomber, IIRC 4+(load/6500).  Hence IIRC, an A-20 can fly out of a level 4 airfield,  a B-17 needs a level 5 and a B-29 needs a level 7.

3.  Depends what you (and your opponent if playing PBEM) want to do/think isn't gamey.  The higher you fly, the less accurate will be your bombing, but you will avoid some flak.  Many players insist on House Rules where 4 engined bombers do not fly Naval Attack at less than 10,000'.  Also note that 15,000' provides a dividing line regarding the size of the bombing flight - below 15,000' your squadron will attack in flights of 4 aircraft, above that altitude they bomb in flights of 9 aircraft.  So if you have a 9 plane flight which hits the target, you will get more hits than a successful 4 plane flight.  On the other hand, if your 9 plane flight misses, all 9 planes will miss the target.

Dive bombers are exposed to AA at both their assigned altitude and their hard coded bomb release altitude, IIRC 5,000'.  Similar story with torpedo bombers, although their release point is something like 100'. (You can check the specific release points in the manual)

4.  In theory yes, but there are many variables at play which impact upon getting escorts to fly.  Relevant considerations include:
(a) both escorts and bombers being assigned the same altitude
(b) both flying from the same base, and if not the escorts should be closer to the target
(c) weather conditions over the airfields

5.  Unlike AE, in classic WITP unloading rates dockside are not impacted by size of port etc.  However the size of the port will have an impact on much supply/fuel is present to restock the TFs, or how much can be unloaded without spoilage.  There are some other relevant factors dependent on port size but your question was too generic.  In short, a port size 1 is not a good choice for it to be become a supply hub, or troop/fleet concentration point - build it up or select a bigger port.

Alfred

[krb3]

Alfred:
Thanks for your reply. Sure are alot of things to learn in this game, lol. With a 200 page manual it's easy to miss a sentence or two that may answer my questions. I'm gonna go through manual again to see if I can locate especially questions about air base size for various bombers. I don't know what IIRC means.

[rtrapasso]

iirc = if i recall correctly

i agree with what Alfred said, with the exception of the things he wasn't sure about: divebombers release bombs at 2000 ft, torpedo bombers at 200 ft; skip bombing is at 100 ft.

You can't usually get fighters to RELIABLY escort bombers from another base - it might happen but don't count on it.

Unloading ships is not effected by port size in this game... loading them is, though, and so is the amount of supplies you can have before they start to evaporate due to spoilage.