Jeep carriers

[jmalter]

ORIGINAL: John Lansford
Also, set all the replenishment squadrons on board the CVE's to "no replacements". If you don't, those big squadrons will grab all your replacement planes and there they will sit, while your land based and carrier squadrons do without. Don't bother setting them to any kind of combat mission either; they won't perform anything except training missions, so they will need normal CVE's with them for CAP and other purposes.

my workaround for this is to offload 1 of the 2 VRF sqns to a land base for pilot training. w/ 1 sqn the VRF CVEs are capable of flight ops, & I put them in CVEscort TFs, flying their own local CAP & ASW as they 'follow' the CV TFs from 6 hexes away. At the beginning of the orders phase, switch the CVE TF to a ReplTF & the CVs can suck planes from it as needed. Then switch the ReplTF back to CVE before you close your orders phase.

I'm really looking forward to 1/45 in my game, when Allied AEs can join in the unrep fun. w/ AEs, AOs and VRF CVEs in ReplTFs, the CVs can stay on station indefinitly!

[JocMeister]

ORIGINAL: John Lansford

Also, set all the replenishment squadrons on board the CVE's to "no replacements". If you don't, those big squadrons will grab all your replacement planes and there they will sit, while your land based and carrier squadrons do without. Don't bother setting them to any kind of combat mission either; they won't perform anything except training missions, so they will need normal CVE's with them for CAP and other purposes.

This is not my experience. I have used VRF squadrons on both CVEs and land and they operate just like any other squadron. [&:] The replenishment squadrons come in twos aboard the CVEs. This overloads them (28x2 planes). So if you fly one of the squadrons off and put it in a air combat TF they should perform combat missions.

I havn´t tested it but I think the VRF squadrons must be in a replenishment TF in order for other squadrons to draw replacements from them.

EDIT: jmalter beat me to it!

[Encircled]

What Joc said

I've got a replacement squadron of Devastators happily bombing away in the Gilberts, covered by a replacement squadron of Wildcats.

I'm in the process of moving them to their proper role, but they work fine as normal groups

[Sardaukar]

CVE crews thought that "CVE" abbreviation did stand for "Combustible, Vulnerable" Expendable"...[:(]

[John Lansford]

Learn something new all the time about this game. I never remove either of the replacement squadrons off the CVE's so didn't know they'd function normally at a land base. My original comment still stands, though; if you don't remove them off the carriers you'll need another CVE with non-replacement squadrons to protect them.

[rms1pa]

sounds like a job for the Long Island.

rms/pa

[crsutton]

I just had a big carrier fight in 1945 and can assure all that replenishment TF do work very well. Both the CVE's with VR groups and the AE type ships have been invaluable and allow the Allied fleet to stay at sea long term. Very nice.

[Lifer]

Weird what if but I am curious. If I put the VR squadrons ashore and a CVTF passes within normal range, will they provide replacements to the CV groups?

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: Lifer

Weird what if but I am curious. If I put the VR squadrons ashore and a CVTF passes within normal range, will they provide replacements to the CV groups?

Yes.

[wdolson]

I've always put the VR squadrons ashore and used them to train the next generation of pilots. The now empty CVEs can either be used for aircraft transports, or put Marine squadrons on them and give better cover for invasions. The inland patrol squadrons (initially equipped with Kingfishers, but later SBDs) can also be put on the CVEs once they convert to SBDs, though that is a bit gamey. SBDs were deemed unsuitable for CVEs because the wings didn't fold.

In 1943 the USN gets some carrier trained units that arrive shore based. Those can also be put aboard CVEs.

I like to train up pilots before committing them to combat and in the early game replacing USN pilots is tough because there aren't any shore based squadrons to train the replacements. With the VR squadrons training up pilots the USN carrier squadrons end up with a plethora of pilots in a few months.

Bill

[Lifer]

Thanks CR. I'm doing what Bill has suggested for the training aspect but I haven't seen or paid attention to the drawing of replacements from those squadrons.

[Lokasenna]

ORIGINAL: wdolson

I've always put the VR squadrons ashore and used them to train the next generation of pilots. The now empty CVEs can either be used for aircraft transports, or put Marine squadrons on them and give better cover for invasions. The inland patrol squadrons (initially equipped with Kingfishers, but later SBDs) can also be put on the CVEs once they convert to SBDs, though that is a bit gamey. SBDs were deemed unsuitable for CVEs because the wings didn't fold.

In 1943 the USN gets some carrier trained units that arrive shore based. Those can also be put aboard CVEs.

I like to train up pilots before committing them to combat and in the early game replacing USN pilots is tough because there aren't any shore based squadrons to train the replacements. With the VR squadrons training up pilots the USN carrier squadrons end up with a plethora of pilots in a few months.

Bill

Is there a place in Tracker or something that I can check which squadrons these are? I'm not comfortable with the editor...

[Miller]

ORIGINAL: nashvillen

It is almost April 1945 and I have sunk 30 of those little CVEs. 800 kg bombs make them go boom! [:D]

Yep. I sank over 80 in my last game. Never send them within 20 hexes of the Jap mainland!