Group or Reserve

[paolorossi]

Dear all,
I'm on my first campaign on 1st january '42 as allies vs AI
I'm beginning to practice on building up air groups working on training of pilots
what's the main difference between hroup and reserve?
what it is better to use to send most experienced pilots in order to train other pilots?

Many thanks

Paolo

[dr.hal]

Greetings Teseo,

I hope you are enjoying the game! As for the two options in which to transfer pilots. When you select group (the default path) you are simply taking that pilot out of the rotation for air flights for that squadron. If you select reserve you are taking the pilot out of the squadron and putting that fellow into your general reserve pool and after a period (not sure how long but I do think it is variable) he will appear in your list of replacements that can be assigned to ANY squadron that you choose.

I hope this helps. Hal

[dr.hal]

Oh, I forgot to address your second question. Clearly the use of group will have NO impact on training anyone. By using this option the pilot is simply sitting in the squadron's flight room drinking coffee. But it's not clear to me if there is any training benefit to sending them to reserve. Others will have to comment here. Why I do it is to get pilots transferred into other squadrons for various reasons. For example if a squadron is about to be withdrawn, I like to drain it of all experience pilots, so those chaps stay within the Pacific theater rather than being sent to fight in Europe (which is what the withdrawal of the squadron is suppose to simulate). Or I might want to populate a new squadron with some experiences pilots so as to give the squadron a fighting chance of surviving until the whole list of pilots can gain experience. Hal

[paolorossi]

Many many thanks
now it is clear
one of the best thing of this game it is that you'll never end up improving your knowledge
your answer will be of vualable help, or at least I hope so
Paolo

[paolorossi]

Dear Dr.Hal,

since you've been so kind I have a further question
clear the need to change squadroon especially when a group is to be withdrawn, but .... I have some groups to be whithdrawn soon all with 1 pilot who is the group leader. When I try to release him I can't. is there a chance or is not possible for the group leader?

Many thanks

Paolo

[witpqs]

Air groups must always have a leader. Sometimes the leader is also a pilot. Leaders can not be pulled from the squadron via the pilot interface. You can replace a leader in the standard way, and that will cost you some number of PP that you will see displayed on the leader replacement screen (varies by the actual leaders involved). So if that leader is really fantastic, you might want to pay to replace him with some clown, that way he goes into your leader pool and you can put him in charge of some squadron later. Otherwise, he's just one pilot and do you really want to pay PP for him?

[paolorossi]

perfectly clear
many thanks
Paolo