ORIGINAL: Nemo121
I'll paraphrase Stalin to you,A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths but a statistic.
As a Soviet I'd say that right now is the time to spend your men and materiel in order to achieve strategically decisive goals. If it costs you 10,000 pilots then so be it.
You are, now, at that point in time where you can trade a short period of higher operational tempo and losses for a much, much longer period of lower operational tempo and losses per unit time but, overall, higher losses.
Basically you are in the situation of Montgomery in 1944 in North-Western Europe where he simply couldn't sustain high losses per unit time but COULD sustain much higher losses spread over a long period such that losses per unit time were less. This is the logistical necessity which drove the disagreement between focused thrust vs broad front advances --- and not that egomania crap bad researchers always reach for as an easy answer.
Bottom line: Those pilots aren't your friends. They are assets to be expended in the achievement of worthwhile goals. Hell, even if they were all your friends it'd still be your job to send them to their deaths in order to achieve national policy objectives.
You stoneheart![:D]
I know you are right and i'm slowly changing my mind...but i hope you may understand my feelings...i've been following those guys and their improvements every day for nearly 1 year of RL...and nearly 900 turns of gameplay...i'm seen them struggle to remain alive during the dark days of Karachi and the Battle of India....i've seen them fighting for long months in the skies of Solomons...i've plauded at their achievements and i wept at every loss... They are not my friends, you're right....but they are my band...my crew and it's never an easy job to send your mates to death...even when you have to.
But i know i have to. And i will. It's my job. It's my duty. It's for an upper and worth goal.
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