Gary,
you show up how limited my knowledge really is... I'll try to tell you what I think:
ORIGINAL: Gary Childress
A few questions:
1. At what experience level do you usually "havest" the pilots?
2. Is there a cap at which pilots on "training" will gain experience? In other words if I leave them on training long enough will pilots gain experience all the way to 100?
3. How many turns does it usually take for a pilot to gain, say, 10 experience when set to "training"?
4. If I "havest" pilots from a group that is about to withdraw, do I need to refill the group with pilots before it withdraws?
Thanks.
1) The short version is: When they have reached 50 of the required skill they go out to passive frontline units (which train, when they are not used, which they are usually only in emergency cases) if there is demand for pilots in these units. I would let them train longer if there is no demand; however, at the beginning of the game there is. Those passive frontline units turn into active frontline units which are used more/train less once the 60 skill level has been reached.
There is a longer version of the answer as well, necessitated by the actual pilot situation and by the fact that I have to admit I am sometimes a bit sloppy because the clicking frenzy of a strict pilot management approach is too much for me, but I will not say too much about this now.
Also, I harvest before I have to remove a given group no matter what skill level has been reached. Those pilots that are in the general reserve that haven not yet reached the "usable" skill level of 50 are used to fill up new training squadrons before pulling in new pilots.
2) I *think* that a) likelihood for improvement of a given skill is a function of the quality already achieved and b) improvement above some value that I don't recall is possible only by combat missions. I'll try to dig it out.
3) As stated above, it depends a bit on a number of variables. General rule of thumb seems to be I need 2 to 3 months of game time to get a newly drawn pilot trained in one skill to hit the "useful" threshold. It does take a lot of time to get your air force into shape.
4) I think it works the other way round: If you want to harvest pilots from a group, you can only remove surplus pilots (the ones above nominal strength of the group). It may be the easiest way to present an example:
Your figther group's nominal strength is 27 planes/pilots.
You add surplus pilots, e.g. 6, so you have 33 pilots.
You train the 33 pilots.
After some time, you have 10 pilots with your desired skill levels in the group and need new frontline fighter pilots.
You can send the 6 surplus pilots to general reserve immediately, bringing the group down to nominal strength. Then, sending to general reserve will not work any more.
In order to be able to send 4 more pilots to general reserve, you have to draw 4 new pilots first.
Hope this helps
Hartwig
P.S: Any ETA for the next issue of the Allied Daily Telegraph ?
