"Suited For" and a few other questions

[Don D]

1. I rebuilt the 1st Marine Division and used it to take Guadalcanal. During the assault one of the assault value adjustments for the Allies was leaders (-). Is Vandegraft handicapped because he's best suited for 'Assault HQ' instead of 'Assault' or 'Combat', or is it some sort of fog of war thing? He's the default leader of the 1st Marine. If 'suited for' matters in addition to leadership, inspiration, and land skill what is the difference between a leader suited for assault and one suited for combat? The defenders were naval guards and a bunch of engineers. I loaded the turn as the Empire and none of their leaders were particularly impressive.

2. I moved a bunch of pilots from rear area squads to the general reserve and replaced them with more rookies for training. They seem to have gone missing. How long does it take them to show up in the reserve pool? Or are they somewhere else?

3. What's the best way to get a surface force to cover a convoy? I had a cruiser force following a bunch of transports. An IJN surface force got into the convoy during daylight hours and sank every ship, then withdrew without engaging my cruisers at all. I reran the turn with my cruisers react range set to 6 with the same result. I reran with the convoy following the cruisers - there was no engagement and the convoy fled, ending up 160 miles in the opposite direction from where I was sending it.

[LoBaron]

1.) "suited for" is just a summary of their attributes and a suggestion based on those. It is not a value by itself. You won´t have additional penalties for
assigning them to another unit type than they are suited for, but usually just looking at the skills gives you a picture if it is a bad idea.
You wouldn´t want Lawson U. as an assault unit leader with 36 aggression/37 land/35 Admin for example, but to train up a unit in the rear would be ok with 65 leadership).
 
2.) not completely sure but it takes a couple of days sometimes.
 
3.) Check the aggression rating of your TF commanders. Cover force should always have higher aggression than the convoy. Also, could it be that your
cover force had to refuel and was not with the convoy when the combat occured? That a kind of unusual situation. With bad luck it can sometimes happen that
your convoy runs into the enemy TF first, but I never experienced a situation where the cover force did not engage at all.

[topeverest]

3. Have the trransports follow the surface combat at 1 hex lag. Set the most aggressive SC TF commander you can find, and set reaction to about 2. Put at least several DD and a CL in your Trans convoy in the event your SCTF fails to intercept. If it is important convoy, get subs around and in front of convoy too. Make sure all floatplances are set to search arcs where the enemy is most likely to come from. Also get AV support so you can search out the zone. Much depends on spotting level of enemy ships. This almost always works - but note if the enemy attains surprise, you are toast no matter what.

2. depends on where you actually sent the pilots. You can rotate them home for 180 days, send to general reserve, make them inactive / directly push them to another unit, and if 80+ to Tracom.

[SuluSea]

ORIGINAL: Don D

2. I moved a bunch of pilots from rear area squads to the general reserve and replaced them with more rookies for training. They seem to have gone missing. How long does it take them to show up in the reserve pool? Or are they somewhere else?

3. What's the best way to get a surface force to cover a convoy? I had a cruiser force following a bunch of transports. An IJN surface force got into the convoy during daylight hours and sank every ship, then withdrew without engaging my cruisers at all. I reran the turn with my cruisers react range set to 6 with the same result. I reran with the convoy following the cruisers - there was no engagement and the convoy fled, ending up 160 miles in the opposite direction from where I was sending it.

1. They should all be in the reserve pool by the end of two weeks.

2. Transports should be set to follow Surface forces and they would have engaged first, an aggressive commander for the surface force helps as well.

[crsutton]

I wonder what benefit there is to sending a pilot home for 180 days vs just putting them into tracom or the pool where you can pull them as needed. I have yet to send a pilot home for rest. Should I be?

[Rob Brennan UK]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

I wonder what benefit there is to sending a pilot home for 180 days vs just putting them into tracom or the pool where you can pull them as needed. I have yet to send a pilot home for rest. Should I be?

I think its there just for historical flavour, does absolutely no good afaik in game.

[CaptBeefheart]

quote:

ORIGINAL: crsutton

I wonder what benefit there is to sending a pilot home for 180 days vs just putting them into tracom or the pool where you can pull them as needed. I have yet to send a pilot home for rest. Should I be?



I think its there just for historical flavour, does absolutely no good afaik in game.

It raises your war bonds if the guy is at least an ace. Of course, the game has no war bonds. [;)]

3) I also ran some experiments and found you have to have the invasion TF follow the surface combat TF. Didn't note leader aggressiveness, but will keep an eye on that in the future. It would be nice if little details like that didn't have to be micromanaged.

[Don D]

Thanks for the responses.

Follow up question:

How do I get the surface task forces to wait up for the transports? I've got a new slow SCTF built around BBs Pennsylvania and California, but it's still getting a hex or two ahead of the transports every day. Obviously I can send them a few hexes each day set to 'remain on station', but is there a simpler way I'm missing?

[Sardaukar]

Put the other TFs to "Follow" command set to your your Surface Combat TF, it'll wait slower TFs, albeit it's not in same hex all the time.

Alternatively, one can put everyone to follow the slowest TF, that way they stay put together. Downside is that your SC TF might not get into combat before your transports get attacked.