Recon Missions

[Buck Beach]

I rarely use this Mission. Should I and to what extent? The Japanese AI recons everything and sometimes several times a turn.

[ChezDaJez]

It can provide you with valuable information about a base. It can give an idea of how many troops, aircraft and ships are located there. If you perform a lot of recon prior to landing troops somewhere, you will experience fewer losses.

Consider it a critical part of your planning when deciding where to invade.


Chez

[Oliver Heindorf]

the more information you get the better for you.

[MarcA]

ORIGINAL: Buck Beach

I rarely use this Mission. Should I and to what extent? The Japanese AI recons everything and sometimes several times a turn.

The japs get shed loads of dedicated recon squadrons. In the beginning the allies only get some poor DEI ones, half with a maximum range of 2 or 3. Later on you can replace them with Lightnings which are great. Before then you can use Catalinas and PBY's to do your recon for you.

[CJ Martin]

CHS adds a bunch of the missing allied recon squadrons, and I've found a few more that I'm adding into my CHS-based 1943 mod. Also missing from stock and CHS are the F-7 (recon version of the B-24), F-10 (recon version of the B-25) and perhaps most important the F-13 (recon version of the B-29).

-CJ

[Dino]

ORIGINAL: Buck Beach

I rarely use this Mission. Should I and to what extent? The Japanese AI recons everything and sometimes several times a turn.

You should...as much as possible.

Apart from gaining valuable intel, there is also the fact that any offensive mission will be much more successful with high DL (detection level) of enemy units and bases.

[AmiralLaurent]

Recon is critical. Even with aircraft not dedicated to this task (as Allied had few real recon units), recon will always show you the CAP over a given base. If the target of a recon is an unit in the open, it will give you the name of the unit.

The other recon effects depend if the AC is a recon one and the exp of the crew, but will give you more details about the number of units, AC and ships in a given base. Also the crew will have a chance to report enemy TF off the base, completing the job made by naval search patrols. Last but not least it will raise the DL (detection level) of most of the things in the hex, so air attacks against them will be easier to launch and will have more success.

So fly recon as much as you can. When I play Allied I often use heavy bombers for the job (as they did IRL), they have the necessary range and will not suffer much from Japanese CAP. Also Hudson, Blenheim and PBY are good for that.

Another trick is to set the unit orders as recon, but not give a target. In this case the AI will choose it itself and may target units in base (something you can't choose) and so give you more details about the enemy garrison. But you may have to wait a week or two before something useful comes by this method.

[Buck Beach]

I knew how important the Recon missions were in RL, just haven't used them much in the game.

My dad was with the 8th Photo Squadron when it first went to Australia in mid 1942 (first a truck driver and eventually a Photo technician) and then on to Port Moresby for about 2 years and on to the Philippines late October 1944 (had a couple of short stops in between, one being Biak Island). The coverted P-38s took hundreds of thousands of photos for General MacArthur's Hdqrs. He mentions in his diary that on his Dec 4th, 1942 shift in the Philippines they processed 6000 9 X 18 prints an all time Squadron record. As a side note he wishes me a Happy 2nd year old birthday. Pop has been gone for a couple of years now and at looking at the diary today makes me a little sad.

[dtravel]

Recon and DL are one of those "hidden" functions of the game.  You should be running recon as much as possible.  Detection Levels will influence not only how well you air missions will perform, but also whether they will even fly.  It will also effect ground combat and naval bombardments.  It probably also affects other things that we haven't realized yet.

[GaryChildress]

ORIGINAL: Buck Beach

I rarely use this Mission. Should I and to what extent? The Japanese AI recons everything and sometimes several times a turn.

When playing the AI lack of recon isn't going to destroy your chances of victory. The AI is pretty predictable and if you ever get really curious there's alway the cheat of reloading the turn and playing as the opposite side.

In PBEM on the other hand, recon can make or break your chances of winning. I find recon indispensible. A human opponent is much more unpredictable and those darn passwords tend to preven the latter cheat mentioned. [:D]

[Drex]

I agree with the above posters and especially with Gary: recon can make the difference between winning and losing the game.

[VSWG]

ORIGINAL: Gary Childress

In PBEM on the other hand, recon can make or break your chances of winning. I find recon indispensible. A human opponent is much more unpredictable and those darn passwords tend to preven the latter cheat mentioned. [:D]

You've been reconning Sawahloento with Dinahs for weeks now. Don't now where that is? Neither did I: it's a god-forsaken airfield in the center of Sumatra.

You're keeping a close eye on those Orangutans, aren't you? [:'(]

[Xargun]

If you do not specify a target and just put like 30% of your planes on recon, they will spot enemy units in the field and not just at bases on their own. This has shown me secret moves by opponents long before I would see them otherwise...

The more recon you do, the better off you ground missions will be... And the same goes for naval strikes. The best way is to put some of your bombers on Naval Search (I use 20-30%) and if they detect a naval target, it is nearly 100% chance that the unit will attack one (or more) of the targets they found.

Xargun

[Charles2222]

Another little secret I learned on my own volition. Target an empty hex for recon. If it doesn't accept it there is nothing there. If it accepts it there is something there and it will spot it on that mission. I'm not entirely sure I've ever seen the commander spot a ground unit that was outside of a base, but then my experience is limited.

[siRkid]

I also use recon to ensure a base is empty before dropping paratroops on it. [:D]

[Nikademus]

or by sub.

I havn't forgotten Bangkok ya old sneak. [:'(]

[Charles2222]

I just knew there was some way besides just memorizing what the opposite side had, that people were attacking un-occupied bases knowing that in advance. I had never thought of spotting previously unknown bases with recon, as I wanted it to be a surprise anyway. Only problem with that is that I bet the Japanese, or the allies for that matter, in many cases had a lot better information about whether there was a defending force in some of these places than the game allows you (at the start of the game I mean).

I guess I wouldn't regard sending some Mavis's out to recon an unknown base as cheating, but I just never thought of doing that. I understand paratrooper dropping may work differently than Mavis recon on bases, as there's at least facilities in many cases that can be reconned by Mavis's, or so I would think, such that you wouldn't know based on simply whether the target selection would work or not, but only on whether the recon itself spotted any troops. I'm think that as the game works, despite it not being so IRL, that if there's any base force there, even the worst recon will at least see enough to definitely state there is some unit there.

[el cid again]

Aside from not being surprised by units you don't know about - it makes your attacks more successful. ALWAYS send recon the day before an attack and every day of an attack.

[Andy Mac]

Just dont rely on the aircraft count you get from recon it seems to cound aux aircraft so a base with 200 aircraft will appear as if it has 100 F, 100 B and 200 Aux. Its crazy
 
Andy

[afspret]

I get some useful dope from them.  Most of the time my recon missions are at the commanders discretion.  When I want info on a specific target I'll designate a mission to that target and run it 2 or 3 turns.