Bomber Morale - When Not to Fly?

[Nicholas Bell]

So what is a realistic cut off for bomber units - ie to exclude them from missions based on their morale. Or when do YOU not include a bomber unit? It's difficult to know what to do when one doesn't know the formulas behind the values. In old USAAF (the last time we say GG's formulas for this type of game), bad morale affected bombers by lowering the accuracy of the bombing.

(The effectiveness of a bomber group is calculated:
effectiveness = (2 X experience + morale) / 3 X (125 - disruption) / 125 X (36 - altitude) / 36 X (200 - cloud cover) / 200
Effectiveness will be doubled if the disruption is less than 6%. )

It probably does more than that now.

Looking at BTR, if you apply a real-world flying schedule to the 8th Airforce units using Freeman's Mighty Eighth War Diary as a guide, one quickly ends up with bomber units' morale in the 20-30 range - even when not up against tough opposition. In the game, one needs to rotate units and rest them in order to increase morale. In the real world, units flew practically every mission and crews were rotated to rest them.

In game terms, if I only fly bombers with morale levels of more than 50, then I cannot maintain a historical level of sorties & missions because so many units are going to have to sit out while resting. Maybe historical commanders would order units to fly with what in game terms would have a morale of 20 to fly. Should I? Help me understand what the impact of morale is and how game morale relates to historical reality.

[wernerpruckner]

A morale of 20 or 30 will show you that the unit was hit hard several times, or lost its best pilots.

In game terms, if I only fly bombers with morale levels of more than 50, then I cannot maintain a historical level of sorties & missions because so many units are going to have to sit out while resting. Maybe historical commanders would order units to fly with what in game terms would have a morale of 20 to fly. Should I? Help me understand what the impact of morale is and how game morale relates to historical reality.

what time are you talking about?
there is no late war scenario.....

[Nicholas Bell]

Think there is a language misunderstanding [:)]

I understand why a unit will have a low morale rating.  If you fly them every day the morale will get very low.  The problem is not scenario specific.  What I am saying is that in WW2 the USAAF would fly their bomber units nearly every day if the weather was not horrible - and with H2X they sometimes flew even then.  If you fly your bombers in the game that frequently they will soon have a morale level of 20-30.  Is that the game designers intention?  Is it meant to be an accurate representation of history?  Do you fly your bomber units when they have this low morale level?

[wernerpruckner]

The USAAF did fly every day for a certain time....most often the weather made them stop for another several days.....

You can overuse your A/C massivly - I have done that several times....as long as you do not make too long flypaths ( the units should be back before evening ) and as long as you do not suffer to high losses....but the best thing is rotation for the units......you only let 10 to 20% rest....the others fly...works well for me late in the game

[Hard Sarge]

ORIGINAL: Nicholas Bell

Think there is a language misunderstanding [:)]

I understand why a unit will have a low morale rating.  If you fly them every day the morale will get very low.  The problem is not scenario specific.  What I am saying is that in WW2 the USAAF would fly their bomber units nearly every day if the weather was not horrible - and with H2X they sometimes flew even then.  If you fly your bombers in the game that frequently they will soon have a morale level of 20-30.  Is that the game designers intention?  Is it meant to be an accurate representation of history?  Do you fly your bomber units when they have this low morale level?

on a side note, remember, just because a mission flew and used radar for bombing, does not mean it was bad weather, the weather was good enough to take off and to land, just there was expected to be cloud cover when they got to the target

bad weather kept things on the ground, or those who got up, wished they hadn't

for the VIIIth and others

remember they had 4 Squadrons, and only 3 flew on a mission, so after ever 3 missions, you got a mission off

and then they expanded the size of the squadrons, groups, so more could fly, and more could rest

of course, we can't do that with the game, with in reason, but that is part of the reason, 32 is seen as full, while the Group has 48 planes

but rest what you can, when you can, you don't have to put up every group, every day

depending on weather, I try to let anything under 50 sit out, but big mission day, or good weather, I will go down to 40, but still try and leave those under 40 rest

all the war goes on, you will have a lot of group, so resting is not a issue

[Titanwarrior89]

I also thought they only had to fly 25 missions then back home. Is this covered in the game?

[TechSgt]

ORIGINAL: Titanwarrior89

I also thought they only had to fly 25 missions then back home. Is this covered in the game?

No!

TS

[Hard Sarge]

25-30-35-50

(at least it was 50 in 50 mission crunch)

fighters went more by hours flown, they really like the P-51 for that reason, 5 to 7 hour missions were common,

and no, pilots are in for the war

way the game works