so , why do these aircraft even show up?

[2ndACR]

As to withdraws, I would rather see this "Britian must withdraw 1 fighter sq, 1 bomber sq, 2 DD's, a CA and 2 brigades"
 
Or something along those lines.......that way if you are heavily engaged in battle you do not have to fret about the "poof" on the magic date.

[gunnergoz]

For that matter, I'd like a magic "begone" button that simply cleared out all units requiring withdrawal in the next 30 days or so...where ever they happen to be at the time.  It is one bit of micromanagement reduction that I could halfway cheer about.

[Sardaukar]

Well, one does not have to withdraw air units or ships. You just have to pay Political Points for it..daily.

One just have to adjust to fact, that as Allies, you are "SACPAC" aka Supreme Allied Commander, Pacific. Bit like Eisenhower (SACEUR)in Pacific setup. Better start to think like that. You are not President of USA, or PM of UK etc. Nor you are Gen. G. Marshall etc.

You get allocated resources to fight a war. Them not enough or not your liking? Welcome to real WWII dilemmas.

In AE, you are not a god, you are SACPAC. You have to fight what you got. If you absolutely have to have ship or air unit, you have to pay for it. As with land units, combat units were premium stuff...and with "Germany First"-policy, tough luck. If not happy with historical restrictions, there is always the editor. Or "No Withdrawals" switch.

[Mike Scholl]

ORIGINAL: gunnergoz

For that matter, I'd like a magic "begone" button that simply cleared out all units requiring withdrawal in the next 30 days or so...where ever they happen to be at the time.  It is one bit of micromanagement reduction that I could halfway cheer about.

Or maybe just have them withdraw "automatically" UNLESS the player paid pp's to "activate" them (Or the Japanese actually landed in North America). Then they could be safely ignored if the player didn't want to wrestle with the minutia.

[romanovich]

There's FINALLY an intelligent strategy game, let's please not try to dumb it down now! Personally, I am extremely happy that AE is the cream of the crop in terms of complexity and realism. There's no other game that requires this much thinking, and provides this much historical detail.

If this game is too complicated for you, or lacks 'playability', there are tons of other games out there for you. There is no game out there for me to switch to if the developers acquiesce to demands to tone the complexity down.

No more of this, please. Play Scrabble, if necessary. Thanks for your kind consideration!

[witpqs]

ORIGINAL: Sardaukar

As Don said:

All of this changes if the West Coast is invaded....

This tells it all why those units arrived historically and why they are in game. US feared invasion on mainland USA, with nice 20/20 hindsight, that was ridiculous fear. But, especially in game like AE, some players are going to make wildly unexpected moves, even landing on West Coast. If that happens in your game and those units had been removed, many of those deriding historical placement of units would be first in line to scream that West Coast is not properly garrisoned.

As far as I know, AE tries to be as faithful to history as possible with unit arrivals. There is always those Disband & Withdraw buttons.. Deal with it. [8D]

As you say! And taking that thought further, in the real event with only the information at hand the decision was about making certain there was no 'bullet to the head' - as opposed to "I should risk that bullet to the head so that later on nobody thinks I was being ridiculous!"

[Central Blue]

I like playing a game where the first devotion is to historical OOB's. Maybe there could be some tweaks to make management easier. Don't know. Maybe it could be made simpler if the AI promises never to invade the West Coast, but it's different for the PBEM'ers.

That being said, what I have discovered from moving some of those units around is that you can add to your stocks if you haven't added pilots. It is sometimes (not always) possible to disband them into a unit that will stick around. And as you fly them around, planes without pilots are left behind, and they can be added to the pool.

You can call this gamey, or old-fashioned military scrounging and ingenuity, but I do end up with a few more handy units of B18's and and B17's than you would have otherwise. I have this image of guys at Wendover waving bye-bye as the boys leave for North Africa and England, and then looking around at all those lovely planes that got left behind.

I can't give details on the numbers now since I am at work, but there are at least 3 decent squadrons of Bolos flying our of Lahaina, and 1 at Seattle that I didn't get in my first time starting the game before I started fiddling.

[pmelheck1]

I am another who wants historical accuracy.  If the unit was their I want it their if only for a short time.  AE to me gives a better feel of the moves between theaters than did WITP.  The war in the Pacific didn't happen in a vacuum.  The commanders I'm sure we Very unhappy about having to surrender manpower and equipment to Europe.  I also don't want a magic removal button.  A LARGE part of this style of game and this game in particular is planning.  The withdrawal screen for ships has a due this month and due next month select to find and route those ships going to Europe.   Some withdrawals are due to units that were due to be reformed and retrained.  Some commands just disappeared weeks to months from the beginning of the war (ABDA comes to mind).  Adds a nice depth for me...

[tanksone]

ORIGINAL: Don Bowen

ORIGINAL: khyberbill

Sort of, but also a good learning tool as you can now understand the tremendous demand for pilots and planes placed by the expansion of the armed forces in the early years of the war.

I really didnt want to learn this and could have read a book. I am more interested in playing the game and this, while historically accurate, certainly adds zip point squat to playability.

I absolutely disagree.

Hi, I guess it's time for the bananna to invade the US again so they might appreciate those planes. Btw tip of the hat to Henderson Productions....top notch game.

[Sardaukar]

And I thought I understood something about Pacific War, but AE has really made me read ans think about logistics side of the war.

Sometimes I thought "why didn't USN try this..."..but now I know that even when combat assets were there, support was not.

I wonder if Matrix Games should offer this game to Annapolis...since for example tank simulator Steel Beasts Pro is used in many militaries (including Finland) as tank combat training aid. This would nicely introduce those aspiring USN officers-to-be to some Pacific War history, relation between air & naval power and logistics of war. [8D]