Night Fighters - Night trained units in general

[Cavalry Corp]

Will there be any remoddeling of this in AE
I would have expected the allies and Japs built NF and night bombing units to be used for that purpose
If nothing else non night trained units should suffer more ops losses.

Any comments welcome

Michael

[Gen.Hoepner]

I agree at 100%.
The actual night combat model is completely broken.
Non night trained bombers should suffer a LOT of op losses and cause really a little damage....
While at the moment a daily trained crew can bomb a single AF at night with exceptional precision!
And the same isn't going for fighters...if you do not NF is impossible to stop the night bombing...

[m10bob]

According to TITANS OF THE SEAS the Japanese certainly did have a couple of night trained Betty units, considered "elite" due to that exclusive type of deployment.
Their success rate did not match up to the Allied "Black Cat" units,(other night units)..

[Nikademus]

Airborne radar is the key. Night and day difference for Beaufighter units initially sent to Tunisia had their ASV units ripped out for security reasons. Acheived negligable results. Put back in....much better. Same crews.....same planes. Of course this still won't translate into mass downings. A good NF unit that burns or at least damages 1 intruder during the night would have been considered having done a good job.

Bigger problem is, like during the day....the ability to easily send Bomber Command sized night raids against targets....and hit them well once exp gets past a certain point. (70ish+)

[Cavalry Corp]

So just deignated night trained would be good with non night trained just suffering higher ops loses like the CVE situation
I imagine that would be a satisfactory solution most players would accept .These units were made designed and used for night ops .
I would like to see more historical use of night fighters and bombers.

Michael

[Nikademus]

Given the huge mass of exp sub levels already in there, i don't think that a specific "night fighting" exp catagory is warrented. Obviously pilots would need to be trained in instrument flying/navigating and get some practice time taking off and landing at night same as with carrier capable training but just as with the latter, it doesn't require a seperate exp value for naval airgroups.

Biggest factors again, would be availability of ASV and/or a good ground radar/vectoring system. multi crew planes would do best as well so that you have a radioman/ASV/spotter to poinpoint and coordinate, and of course the pilot to do the flying and the firing. Thats why the most effective NF platforms were usually 2E craft like the Beaufighter or the Ju-88. Basic 1E craft were utilized as well but usually were more of an ad-hoc thing. The Japanese managed some small successes using Ki-43's in Burma on night ops. They managed to bag several bombers but without radar or ground control it was largely hit or miss depending on visibility conditions.

[Halsey]

If that's the case, then planes designated as night groups should have the same mission options as the daylight groups.

Then it would be the players choice as how to utilize all air groups.[;)]

[Cavalry Corp]

Good point
I would say in its original concept WITP must have had the idea to give night flying units some advantage

For certain who would want to fly in a single engined fighter with 60 others around you and none of you can seeeach other - its stupid . They should be at a dis advatage
The night fighters in the game as pointed out at least have more than one crew for very sensible reasons - also seem to have more glass to see through!

Michael

[Halsey]

So I guess the advantage would be airborne radar.

It would still make night group units the logical choice in night operations.