I posted the following stuff on AU Tiger's first AAR, but thought I'd better put it in its own thread for better useability. If any one can post links to threads with similar content, please do. If, better still, you can post excerpts here, (I don't know how to do that without using screenshots) by all means do. Also I'm sure I got some things wrong, so correct and critique away. Go ahead and post Japanese relevant stuff here too.
Here’s some training tips:
First off switch all the Seagulls off of your cruisers and BBs for Kingfishers. Any additional squadrons of Kingfishers you get should be switched to Seagulls, thus putting the Kfs in the pool as replacements and using the Sgs as trainers. Remember to keep making these upgrades every time a cruiser/BB enters a major port.
Before I get around to those training tips, take my advice and fly the P-40’s and B-17’s out of the Phillipines to Oz. The P-40s will have to make several hops. Do this immediately before it’s too late. You will be in desperate need of those fighters and may use them for a while at Port Moresby. You will badly need those B-17’s as search planes.
The Seagull (and Kingfisher) squadrons can be used to train in escort. Early on you badly need Navy/Marine fighter pilots more than anything else. You will have to remember when you finish training them in air (combat) they will be going into the Patrol Reserve and you will have to look for them there when you put them onto active squadrons. Do not put them on Catalinas. Only train N/M fighter pilots in air, don’t bother with ground attack or naval attack or anything else, EVER. *** caveat brought to my attention by BBfanboy: train them in lowG or LowN at 1,000 feet and that will improve their survivability skills. ***Take my advice and don’t bother attacking enemy airfields with your carrier planes, they will be poor at it and you will lose a lot of pilots you can’t afford to lose. When in the presence of the enemy keep everything on Naval Attack/Escort with some doing some Search/Recon/ASW as needed. Enemy ships of any type are too valuable not to attack. If you must do a port attack, do it once and get everything back to protecting your carriers (troop ships etc.) from both air attack from the land or the sea, and from enemy surface squadrons. If you must put your carriers in range of Bettys, give them something else to chew on such as a surface squadron.
Once you have sufficient N/M fighter pilot reserves (trained to 70 or better in air combat) switch the float planes to training other types. The float planes can train pilots in anything you want (except torpedo attack). Your greatest early need will be Naval Search as your DB pilots must be proficient in that and you’ll also need Catalina pilots. Now, just keep in mind that Catalinas can carry torpedoes and you can use them to train in torpedo attack (as well as actually attacking ships). When your PBYs are being used to search, though, always set them to use bombs, as they need those to attack subs and they can’t carry torps to their full search range anyway. Much of the time there won’t be any torps available where they are based anyhow, but if you’re using them to train in torpedo attack, set them to use torps (they won’t train unless you do) regardless of whether torps are available or in fact the base you are using is inland, they’ll train just dandy anyway even if “use torpedoes” is in red. You can train any type of aircraft in Naval Search, ASW and the various types of Naval Attack at an inland base nowhere near water. I don’t actually know if you can base pure float planes (PBY4 & 5 but not 5A) inland where there’s no river, never tried it.
Most of the time your training squadrons should be set to 100% train with the range set to zero. Also, always keep the maximum number of pilots in each group whether they are training or active.
Following is a list of N/M aircraft types and the types of training required for them in the order of priority. Early on you won’t be able to afford to train in ASW but later on get those TB pilots trained in it. All training should be done to level 70, if possible.
F – Air
DB – Naval Bombing, Naval Search, Recon (maybe)
TB – Naval Torpedo, Naval Bombing, ASW (later)
FP – Naval Search, ASW, Recon, Transport (maybe) Catalinas make excellent transport planes and you will be using them to move MAG headquarters from island to island. MAGs have no heavy equipment but will keep torpedo inventory (air only) for you taken from your supply level. Invaluable units.
TR – Transport - train these up good, all the way to 70 and beyond, these are the planes you will eventually be using to drop Marine paratroops. Do not do drops with untrained crews.
Rec – Recon – eventually you’ll get some Navy Liberator recon planes. These are outstanding. Have some pilots trained up on recon (use FPs) and ready to go when these planes arrive. They will come with some crews trained to 50 or so. Take these off and train them up to 70 while replacing them with your well-trained crews.
Remember that your US N/M crews and USAAF crews are kept in a separate pools and you cannot move them from one to the other. All other nationalities have only one pool each.
You will have great difficulty keeping enough good TB crews. Remember to never use TB training squadrons to train for anything other than Naval Torpedo attack. Train your TB crews in Naval Bombing and ASW on DBs and FPs. When they reach 70 put them back into the pool and when a spot opens in a TB training squadron, hunt them up for that. Remember they very much need to be proficient in Naval Bombing for those occasions when the target is out of torpedo range or your carrier runs out of torpedo inventory.
Pilot training from an allied perspective
Moderators: wdolson, MOD_War-in-the-Pacific-Admirals-Edition
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geofflambert
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- Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 2:18 pm
- Location: St. Louis
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geofflambert
- Posts: 14887
- Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 2:18 pm
- Location: St. Louis
RE: Pilot training from an allied perspective
I neglected to say that all search planes (whether army or navy) of any type will attack submarines and ships when the opportunity arises, so search air crews will always benefit from ASW and Naval Bombing training.
On searching, I like to have overlapping search fields whenever possible, and in such cases sometimes mix it up a bit as far as altitude goes. Normally most players use 6k feet but on clear days I suspect a higher altitude may improve detection, say 15k or higher. On cloudy, rainy or stormy days you better stick to 6k though.
Back to turning upgrades off, in one of my games I just had a carrier squadron on board the Hornet upgrade to Liberators. Boy was I p***ed off. Good thing I was in port. Whenever you manually upgrade a squadron, it will automatically provide an upgrade path to another model (usually) with upgrade ON. Automatically manually turn it back OFF.
On TRACOM, put pilots there only for safekeeping. Their effect on training is negligible. You want to save them up for use on your best fighters (usually) for special operations sometimes. Otherwise, once you have the luxury to, put them back in training squadrons to get even better. Don’t just leave them at the front to get killed when a 70 level pilot will do.
Whenever you have a squadron go from training to active duty, do not forget to reset the range from zero (if appropriate). I can’t count on my fingers how many times (even in base 2) I’ve messed that up and wondered why my planes aren’t getting their missions done.
Now, on to the USAAF
First, for the first year of the war perhaps, you will need to train bomber crews to do Naval Search as you will have nowhere near enough Navy planes for the job. You may need to use them for transport on occasion, but do not train them for it. The Army is going to have to do the bulk of the ASW protection for ports, so get some training in that too. Initially keep ASW trained crews separate from Search crews as you will dedicate squadrons to one or the other. Eventually merge these crews (cross train them) since search planes do attack subs when they see them. Don’t use those Bolos for anything other than training. It’s less efficient to train with squadrons that do not have a full complement of aircraft, but in the end I think you’re better off with more squadrons training with the maximum number of pilots even so. You should have a minimum of 1/3 of your air fleets training, ½ is better.
Another general note on training, if you have a wide range of skill levels, only the lowest skill level pilots may train, and the higher ones stagnate. Try and keep the range to 10% if possible. If you have a squadron in the sixties and you’re graduating each of them that reaches 70 to the pools, try and replace them with pilots in the 60’s or 50’s if you must so that everyone is training together. As a matter of course you will have stray pilots in the pools who are not trained to 70 but are not rookies either, due to releases to the pools because of withdrawals and taking training squadrons active.
Eventually you will have a hard time coming up with enough bomber pilots trained well in Ground Attack you may have to field units with scores in the 60s. The crews that survive will have their scores improve through experience. Once the Navy takes over more of the Search/Recon functions you will have more bombers available to training squadrons and for other duties. I usually use Havocs, Marauders and some of the B-25s to handle the ASW work. You will find the HE bombers too valuable to use in training squadrons and the B-25s are not as durable so try to use as many of those as you can for training. Once you have a large pool of fighter pilots, you can start using fighter training squadrons to train bomber crews.
You will start out with some squadrons of single engine recon planes that aren’t worth a crap but use them to train recon crews who you will absolutely need once you start getting your Lightning recon squadrons and you’re going on the offensive. Use those carefully as you will not receive replacement planes for the ones you’ll lose.
Fighter pilots: eventually you will want to train them in strafing and low Ground but it’s not a high priority and you should only use them that way very carefully. Whatever damage they do will not make up for the losses you suffer if the target has significant flak. Plus, they’ll be plenty busy fighting other fighters and bombers.
Fighter operations early in the war – If at all possible, keep your fighters doing CAP over their home base with a range setting of zero. Your cockpits are armored and your pilots’ chances of surviving shoot down and not being captured are much better over territory you control. It’ll be a long time before you have a sufficiently large fighter force, either in terms of pilots or aircraft, to take any risks. Sometimes you’ll just have to stand them down to stop the attrition.
Following I will summarize the training priorities, but to clarify something, I don’t mean to say don’t train any bomber crews in Ground Bombing, you want to have some training and opportunities will arise where you will need them. They will be very good for Airfield attacks and for Port attacks. Note that Port attacks are considered ground attacks and the Airfield/Ground attack training level applies. If the enemy leaves ships disbanded in port within range of your bombers, he will regret it. As for attacking LCU’s, unless they’re in clear , rough, desert, cultivated or developed hexes, I don’t think it’s worth it. Attacking them in forest, jungle, mountain or base hexes (usually) will yield poor results.
F – Air Combat, Strafe, Low G
LB – Naval Search, ASW, Ground Bombing, Recon *when I use LB I mean level bombers, not light.
2E LBs – add Naval Bombing
DBs – Naval bombing only. You’ll have some Banshees early but by the time you get pilots sufficiently trained on them, you’ll have to withdraw them. Eventually you’ll get some more (6/43) and they can be devastating when defending a forward port.
TR – Your crews will have to learn by doing, you never get enough of them and you’ll mostly need them flying supplies into China and at times Burma. Late in the war you may want them for para drops so train up some crews later, or leave it to the Marines to handle.
RC – Recon. Don’t use these planes for anything else (like search). Much too valuable.
Many players use a house rule of no 4E bombing below 10k, (in your case Naval Bombing) edit, this was in reference to AU Tigers PBEM and I’m OK with that, it’s largely historical but not completely, and some feel the game is borked if you use them lower. Of course you can do search and recon and transport and anything else at whatever altitude turns you on.
** Thanks to BBfanboy for the following: Train all types at whatever at 1000’ to improve their Survival skill level. Bombing training at that level of course will increase lowG and lowN only. Fighters, however should only train in ground attack at 1k as air combat training doesn’t appear to do well at 1k.
On searching, I like to have overlapping search fields whenever possible, and in such cases sometimes mix it up a bit as far as altitude goes. Normally most players use 6k feet but on clear days I suspect a higher altitude may improve detection, say 15k or higher. On cloudy, rainy or stormy days you better stick to 6k though.
Back to turning upgrades off, in one of my games I just had a carrier squadron on board the Hornet upgrade to Liberators. Boy was I p***ed off. Good thing I was in port. Whenever you manually upgrade a squadron, it will automatically provide an upgrade path to another model (usually) with upgrade ON. Automatically manually turn it back OFF.
On TRACOM, put pilots there only for safekeeping. Their effect on training is negligible. You want to save them up for use on your best fighters (usually) for special operations sometimes. Otherwise, once you have the luxury to, put them back in training squadrons to get even better. Don’t just leave them at the front to get killed when a 70 level pilot will do.
Whenever you have a squadron go from training to active duty, do not forget to reset the range from zero (if appropriate). I can’t count on my fingers how many times (even in base 2) I’ve messed that up and wondered why my planes aren’t getting their missions done.
Now, on to the USAAF
First, for the first year of the war perhaps, you will need to train bomber crews to do Naval Search as you will have nowhere near enough Navy planes for the job. You may need to use them for transport on occasion, but do not train them for it. The Army is going to have to do the bulk of the ASW protection for ports, so get some training in that too. Initially keep ASW trained crews separate from Search crews as you will dedicate squadrons to one or the other. Eventually merge these crews (cross train them) since search planes do attack subs when they see them. Don’t use those Bolos for anything other than training. It’s less efficient to train with squadrons that do not have a full complement of aircraft, but in the end I think you’re better off with more squadrons training with the maximum number of pilots even so. You should have a minimum of 1/3 of your air fleets training, ½ is better.
Another general note on training, if you have a wide range of skill levels, only the lowest skill level pilots may train, and the higher ones stagnate. Try and keep the range to 10% if possible. If you have a squadron in the sixties and you’re graduating each of them that reaches 70 to the pools, try and replace them with pilots in the 60’s or 50’s if you must so that everyone is training together. As a matter of course you will have stray pilots in the pools who are not trained to 70 but are not rookies either, due to releases to the pools because of withdrawals and taking training squadrons active.
Eventually you will have a hard time coming up with enough bomber pilots trained well in Ground Attack you may have to field units with scores in the 60s. The crews that survive will have their scores improve through experience. Once the Navy takes over more of the Search/Recon functions you will have more bombers available to training squadrons and for other duties. I usually use Havocs, Marauders and some of the B-25s to handle the ASW work. You will find the HE bombers too valuable to use in training squadrons and the B-25s are not as durable so try to use as many of those as you can for training. Once you have a large pool of fighter pilots, you can start using fighter training squadrons to train bomber crews.
You will start out with some squadrons of single engine recon planes that aren’t worth a crap but use them to train recon crews who you will absolutely need once you start getting your Lightning recon squadrons and you’re going on the offensive. Use those carefully as you will not receive replacement planes for the ones you’ll lose.
Fighter pilots: eventually you will want to train them in strafing and low Ground but it’s not a high priority and you should only use them that way very carefully. Whatever damage they do will not make up for the losses you suffer if the target has significant flak. Plus, they’ll be plenty busy fighting other fighters and bombers.
Fighter operations early in the war – If at all possible, keep your fighters doing CAP over their home base with a range setting of zero. Your cockpits are armored and your pilots’ chances of surviving shoot down and not being captured are much better over territory you control. It’ll be a long time before you have a sufficiently large fighter force, either in terms of pilots or aircraft, to take any risks. Sometimes you’ll just have to stand them down to stop the attrition.
Following I will summarize the training priorities, but to clarify something, I don’t mean to say don’t train any bomber crews in Ground Bombing, you want to have some training and opportunities will arise where you will need them. They will be very good for Airfield attacks and for Port attacks. Note that Port attacks are considered ground attacks and the Airfield/Ground attack training level applies. If the enemy leaves ships disbanded in port within range of your bombers, he will regret it. As for attacking LCU’s, unless they’re in clear , rough, desert, cultivated or developed hexes, I don’t think it’s worth it. Attacking them in forest, jungle, mountain or base hexes (usually) will yield poor results.
F – Air Combat, Strafe, Low G
LB – Naval Search, ASW, Ground Bombing, Recon *when I use LB I mean level bombers, not light.
2E LBs – add Naval Bombing
DBs – Naval bombing only. You’ll have some Banshees early but by the time you get pilots sufficiently trained on them, you’ll have to withdraw them. Eventually you’ll get some more (6/43) and they can be devastating when defending a forward port.
TR – Your crews will have to learn by doing, you never get enough of them and you’ll mostly need them flying supplies into China and at times Burma. Late in the war you may want them for para drops so train up some crews later, or leave it to the Marines to handle.
RC – Recon. Don’t use these planes for anything else (like search). Much too valuable.
Many players use a house rule of no 4E bombing below 10k, (in your case Naval Bombing) edit, this was in reference to AU Tigers PBEM and I’m OK with that, it’s largely historical but not completely, and some feel the game is borked if you use them lower. Of course you can do search and recon and transport and anything else at whatever altitude turns you on.
** Thanks to BBfanboy for the following: Train all types at whatever at 1000’ to improve their Survival skill level. Bombing training at that level of course will increase lowG and lowN only. Fighters, however should only train in ground attack at 1k as air combat training doesn’t appear to do well at 1k.
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geofflambert
- Posts: 14887
- Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 2:18 pm
- Location: St. Louis
RE: Pilot training from an allied perspective
RAAF training
I am continuously stunned at both the size and quality of the Australian forces, both land, sea and air. For such a small population it’s amazing. Oz has also been historically the US’s most reliable ally, not the UK or Canada. One area they are lacking in though is engineers and the Allied player needs to get the US engineers to the Coral Sea theatre as well as the India/Burma theatre as quickly as possible.
Wirraways – These aircraft are not much good for anything other than training. Eventually you will upgrade these squadrons to better planes. I suggest using them to train in the categories that will take the best advantage of the aircraft types you will be getting later. There are two very valuable types you will be getting plenty of: first the Vengeance. This is a dive bomber who should be tasked primarily or exclusively for Naval Bombing. I don’t like putting Aussie crews in high attrition jobs unless the target value is very high and the crew and the aircraft are exceptional in that type of mission. Vengeances are great for protecting ports, straits (as between Oz and New Guinea, or at Finschaven) and for blockading nearby enemy ports (as in the SE New Guinea area). Next is the Beaufort. A wonderful plane. It carries torpedoes (the Brit version V does not) so it is useful in the same way as the Vengeance, but has longer legs. I recommend you use your Wirraways mainly to train for Naval Bombing and Naval Torpedo and ASW. Remember to have your future Beaufort VIII crews trained in both NavB and NavT.
You may wish to have some Wirraway pilots trained in LowN and based at Port Moresby to attack cargo and troop ships coming in to Buin, Lae etc., but if you send them against warships they’ll just get shot down.
Fighters – I recommend you use your Aussie fighters for base protection and perhaps ground attack but no escorting. The Spitfires you will eventually get are too short ranged for anything else anyway. The Beaufighters should probably just be used to train fighter pilots at first, but later you will want to use them as attack planes because of their tremendous firepower. LowG and Strafe are appropriate.
Bombers – I generally use the Hudsons mainly for Naval Search. They don’t seem to make very good bombers, though you probably should use some of them for ASW work. Train up some extra searchers for when you get your Empires and Catalinas. I wouldn’t use bombers for airfield suppression because of the attrition rate (leave that to the Americans) but one shot port attacks may be worthwhile, so train some for Ground Bombing. Ansons I just use for training or for ASW work.
Transports – the Dragons and the Lodestars are too short ranged to be of much use, but you could use your Hudsons, Empires and Catalinas in that role so go ahead and train up some transport crews with them. Otherwise use them for general training.
New Zealand
Most everything same as RAAF except:
Vildebeests –torpedo planes, you know what to do with them, but they probably won’t see much action so you might use them for ASW. Do train up some TB crews for when you get your Avenger squadron.
Vincents – trainers mostly, you may want to help with that Avenger squadron by training in NavB and ASW, and in the meantime use them for ASW. Train up some in NavB and NavSearch for the Dauntless squadron you will be getting.
Fighters – train, train, train. You will be getting quite a few very nice fighters in the future, many carrier trained so build up a good pool of them.
Filipinos
You’ve got one fighter squadron and one recon squadron. Neither can escape conventionally as they are restricted. Even if you could escape with the fighters, they will never be issued better planes than the P-26s they have, which are total crap. The Beech recon planes are nice, you might try withdrawing them at the last minute and they might return somewhere like the US or Oz in 60 days, I don’t actually know.
Dutch
Some of the planes can fly to Australia, but I believe they can never leave there once they do. The rest can escape by withdrawing at the last minute and they will reappear at Aden if there are no suitable bases left in the DEI. Be sure to load up on recruits by sending all the trained pilots to the pools and putting in all the recruits you can before withdrawal, because you won’t get any replacements after the DEI falls until you retake it. Only train the pilots for the planes they have and for low attrition missions as there will be no replacements. The fighters can protect rear area bases. You can use the rest for recon, search and ASW and maybe a little transporting.
India
In this theatre, both for Indian, US and UK squadrons, replacement planes come very slowly for some reason and often you have to place them in Calcutta to get any replacements or to upgrade the squadron. I don’t know why this is or if I’ve been doing something wrong there. The US is very active in this theatre, but mainly USAAF and some Navy. I don’t like putting Marines (either LCUs or air) there, but restrict them to the Pacific. Otherwise you very much need to send to this theatre engineers of every kind (except combat, which the US never has an excess of) including units that provide air support and naval support as well as construction engineers. I also recommend sending a lot of US Army troops there as they will just be sitting on their hands otherwise. You won’t have enough support to be making amphib landings in the Pacific every week and just won’t need them til you reach the Phillipines. All of the Marines and a roughly equal amount of Army troops will be all you need there in the early going. You also need to send most of your transports there (not the Marine ones though), more fighters than arrive there anyway but you should be ok with the amount of bombers scheduled to go there. You may want to fly some B-17s there early on from Oz to help out with Naval Searching, but just a few, and probably the sqds scheduled to withdraw before long.
Wapitis, Audaxes and Lysanders – basically trainers, they can do everything except air combat and torpedo attack. Upgrade to better planes ASAP. The IAF can draw some models from the Brit pools but also get some of their own. Look ahead at what you think you will need and train for that. I would recommend fighters when allowed. Also, the Brits need most of the planes in their pools, so consider that as well.
Britain
Pretty straightforward, but you will need a lot of sqds training fighter pilots. The air war over Burma gets very intense early. The RAF handles both land based and carrier based units, and the pilots interchange, but I would suggest you use the carrier trained squadrons to train pilots for land based squadrons, and save your carrier capable aircraft for the time when you get some real carrier capacity, which is a long way in the future.
China
Pretty simple. You won’t be using your bombers for anything other than transport and training. The important thing is to train fighter pilots. You can use the bombers to do general training, so they’re better than raw recruits as future fighter trainees. Do some of this at 1,000 feet altitude. Do Not use your Soviet fighter planes in combat. Use them to train fighter pilots only. Eventually you will get some nice fighter planes from the US and you need your fighter pilots to be ready for them. Use them wisely.
That’s all folks.
I am continuously stunned at both the size and quality of the Australian forces, both land, sea and air. For such a small population it’s amazing. Oz has also been historically the US’s most reliable ally, not the UK or Canada. One area they are lacking in though is engineers and the Allied player needs to get the US engineers to the Coral Sea theatre as well as the India/Burma theatre as quickly as possible.
Wirraways – These aircraft are not much good for anything other than training. Eventually you will upgrade these squadrons to better planes. I suggest using them to train in the categories that will take the best advantage of the aircraft types you will be getting later. There are two very valuable types you will be getting plenty of: first the Vengeance. This is a dive bomber who should be tasked primarily or exclusively for Naval Bombing. I don’t like putting Aussie crews in high attrition jobs unless the target value is very high and the crew and the aircraft are exceptional in that type of mission. Vengeances are great for protecting ports, straits (as between Oz and New Guinea, or at Finschaven) and for blockading nearby enemy ports (as in the SE New Guinea area). Next is the Beaufort. A wonderful plane. It carries torpedoes (the Brit version V does not) so it is useful in the same way as the Vengeance, but has longer legs. I recommend you use your Wirraways mainly to train for Naval Bombing and Naval Torpedo and ASW. Remember to have your future Beaufort VIII crews trained in both NavB and NavT.
You may wish to have some Wirraway pilots trained in LowN and based at Port Moresby to attack cargo and troop ships coming in to Buin, Lae etc., but if you send them against warships they’ll just get shot down.
Fighters – I recommend you use your Aussie fighters for base protection and perhaps ground attack but no escorting. The Spitfires you will eventually get are too short ranged for anything else anyway. The Beaufighters should probably just be used to train fighter pilots at first, but later you will want to use them as attack planes because of their tremendous firepower. LowG and Strafe are appropriate.
Bombers – I generally use the Hudsons mainly for Naval Search. They don’t seem to make very good bombers, though you probably should use some of them for ASW work. Train up some extra searchers for when you get your Empires and Catalinas. I wouldn’t use bombers for airfield suppression because of the attrition rate (leave that to the Americans) but one shot port attacks may be worthwhile, so train some for Ground Bombing. Ansons I just use for training or for ASW work.
Transports – the Dragons and the Lodestars are too short ranged to be of much use, but you could use your Hudsons, Empires and Catalinas in that role so go ahead and train up some transport crews with them. Otherwise use them for general training.
New Zealand
Most everything same as RAAF except:
Vildebeests –torpedo planes, you know what to do with them, but they probably won’t see much action so you might use them for ASW. Do train up some TB crews for when you get your Avenger squadron.
Vincents – trainers mostly, you may want to help with that Avenger squadron by training in NavB and ASW, and in the meantime use them for ASW. Train up some in NavB and NavSearch for the Dauntless squadron you will be getting.
Fighters – train, train, train. You will be getting quite a few very nice fighters in the future, many carrier trained so build up a good pool of them.
Filipinos
You’ve got one fighter squadron and one recon squadron. Neither can escape conventionally as they are restricted. Even if you could escape with the fighters, they will never be issued better planes than the P-26s they have, which are total crap. The Beech recon planes are nice, you might try withdrawing them at the last minute and they might return somewhere like the US or Oz in 60 days, I don’t actually know.
Dutch
Some of the planes can fly to Australia, but I believe they can never leave there once they do. The rest can escape by withdrawing at the last minute and they will reappear at Aden if there are no suitable bases left in the DEI. Be sure to load up on recruits by sending all the trained pilots to the pools and putting in all the recruits you can before withdrawal, because you won’t get any replacements after the DEI falls until you retake it. Only train the pilots for the planes they have and for low attrition missions as there will be no replacements. The fighters can protect rear area bases. You can use the rest for recon, search and ASW and maybe a little transporting.
India
In this theatre, both for Indian, US and UK squadrons, replacement planes come very slowly for some reason and often you have to place them in Calcutta to get any replacements or to upgrade the squadron. I don’t know why this is or if I’ve been doing something wrong there. The US is very active in this theatre, but mainly USAAF and some Navy. I don’t like putting Marines (either LCUs or air) there, but restrict them to the Pacific. Otherwise you very much need to send to this theatre engineers of every kind (except combat, which the US never has an excess of) including units that provide air support and naval support as well as construction engineers. I also recommend sending a lot of US Army troops there as they will just be sitting on their hands otherwise. You won’t have enough support to be making amphib landings in the Pacific every week and just won’t need them til you reach the Phillipines. All of the Marines and a roughly equal amount of Army troops will be all you need there in the early going. You also need to send most of your transports there (not the Marine ones though), more fighters than arrive there anyway but you should be ok with the amount of bombers scheduled to go there. You may want to fly some B-17s there early on from Oz to help out with Naval Searching, but just a few, and probably the sqds scheduled to withdraw before long.
Wapitis, Audaxes and Lysanders – basically trainers, they can do everything except air combat and torpedo attack. Upgrade to better planes ASAP. The IAF can draw some models from the Brit pools but also get some of their own. Look ahead at what you think you will need and train for that. I would recommend fighters when allowed. Also, the Brits need most of the planes in their pools, so consider that as well.
Britain
Pretty straightforward, but you will need a lot of sqds training fighter pilots. The air war over Burma gets very intense early. The RAF handles both land based and carrier based units, and the pilots interchange, but I would suggest you use the carrier trained squadrons to train pilots for land based squadrons, and save your carrier capable aircraft for the time when you get some real carrier capacity, which is a long way in the future.
China
Pretty simple. You won’t be using your bombers for anything other than transport and training. The important thing is to train fighter pilots. You can use the bombers to do general training, so they’re better than raw recruits as future fighter trainees. Do some of this at 1,000 feet altitude. Do Not use your Soviet fighter planes in combat. Use them to train fighter pilots only. Eventually you will get some nice fighter planes from the US and you need your fighter pilots to be ready for them. Use them wisely.
That’s all folks.
RE: Pilot training from an allied perspective
Wow, really comprehensive, well done and thanks. A couple of quick comments. I was able to get the P-26 Philippine Squadron out of the PI successfully and it has reappeared in Californian (San Diego if I'm remembering right). I take great pride in having them survive and able to fight again. I shipped them back to OZ as soon as I could. In China I fear I don't really agree with you, as I've put my bombers there to good use right away. However, I DID realize they had little training so I was careful to use them where the Japanese fighters were NOT. So now they are very well trained and pretty deadly. Finally something that I do seems to have caught Japanese players by surprise. I don't contest the air in the PI with my P-40s, that's signing their death warrant. What I do use them for is to attack unprotected troop transports and believe me they will cause GREAT havoc with their 500 pd GP bomb on those transports. So I train them for naval attack to use against poorly supported invasions in the early stages of the war and after that shock and awe is done, withdraw them to greener pastures.
RE: Pilot training from an allied perspective
Very Interesting, but like most strategies its horses for courses.
Your plan fits your strategy, DrHal tries something different, others follow something else.
There are lots of useful tips in your plans, others that dont fit my style.
Your plan fits your strategy, DrHal tries something different, others follow something else.
There are lots of useful tips in your plans, others that dont fit my style.
Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum Europae vincendarum
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Bullwinkle58
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RE: Pilot training from an allied perspective
ORIGINAL: JeffK
Very Interesting, but like most strategies its horses for courses.
Your plan fits your strategy, DrHal tries something different, others follow something else.
There are lots of useful tips in your plans, others that dont fit my style.
This is true, and what I was trying to express to Mr. Lambert in the other thread about defenses of Ceylon. Just a bit of insertion of comments "I do it this way . . ." goes a long way when talking to those who might be beginners.
The Moose
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geofflambert
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RE: Pilot training from an allied perspective
ORIGINAL: dr.hal
Wow, really comprehensive, well done and thanks. A couple of quick comments. I was able to get the P-26 Philippine Squadron out of the PI successfully and it has reappeared in Californian (San Diego if I'm remembering right). I take great pride in having them survive and able to fight again. I shipped them back to OZ as soon as I could. In China I fear I don't really agree with you, as I've put my bombers there to good use right away. However, I DID realize they had little training so I was careful to use them where the Japanese fighters were NOT. So now they are very well trained and pretty deadly. Finally something that I do seems to have caught Japanese players by surprise. I don't contest the air in the PI with my P-40s, that's signing their death warrant. What I do use them for is to attack unprotected troop transports and believe me they will cause GREAT havoc with their 500 pd GP bomb on those transports. So I train them for naval attack to use against poorly supported invasions in the early stages of the war and after that shock and awe is done, withdraw them to greener pastures.
Just be sure to keep your escape route open, unless you use the withdraw to reappear in 60 days option, but you may wish for them before that at Port Moresby.
I'd also say that in this particular case (and I can't think of another similar one) the P-40s may actually be more valuable than the pilots, just until you start getting some fighters available for duty in the Coral Sea theatre. So try not to lose many of them.
Also, I consider any sort of praise from Dr. Hal to be high praise indeed. Thanks.
Just to shut BW up, I also consider any criticism from him to be high praise indeed. [:D]
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geofflambert
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RE: Pilot training from an allied perspective
Now, Dr. Hal, not to quibble with anything you said, I present the following evidence from my current PBEM for your consideration. I know there's a lot of dead fellers here, but I was quite impressed with these Chinese pilots.
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geofflambert
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RE: Pilot training from an allied perspective
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geofflambert
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RE: Pilot training from an allied perspective
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RE: Pilot training from an allied perspective
geofflambert, I hope you didn't misunderstand me and my China comment. I was speaking only about the bombers. I should have been more explicit. I also allow my Chinese fighters to engage but against the Japanese second line fighters (which seem to be what is mostly stationed there at least at the beginning of the war) or unescorted bombers. The latter allows my Chinese pilots the ability to gain experience without the threat of being shot to pieces (which as you point out happens even against second line Japanese aircraft). In my current campaign game my first ace was a Chinese national (he was using the P-40 which I like as it is armored and thus resilient against the rifle ammo of earlier Japanese planes)! I am quite proud of him and now he is a double ace. So in truth I agree with your fighter philosophy. Well done. Hal
RE: Pilot training from an allied perspective
The P40s in the PI are permanently restricted to there I believe?
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geofflambert
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RE: Pilot training from an allied perspective
ORIGINAL: Miller
The P40s in the PI are permanently restricted to there I believe?
Not permanently. I fly them to Cagayan and maybe wait there a few days before expending the political points to get them out.
RE: Pilot training from an allied perspective
ORIGINAL: geofflambert
ORIGINAL: Miller
The P40s in the PI are permanently restricted to there I believe?
Not permanently. I fly them to Cagayan and maybe wait there a few days before expending the political points to get them out.
I thought the HQ for them was grayed out so were impossible to change the HQ? Certainly were in my latest game.
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geofflambert
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RE: Pilot training from an allied perspective
The way you change a non permanently restricted LCU to an unrestricted one is to change the HQ. Your HQ may be permanently stuck but these squadrons are not.
Sorry, I'm being an idiot, no the HQ is not greyed out in any of the versions I've played including stock.
Sorry, I'm being an idiot, no the HQ is not greyed out in any of the versions I've played including stock.
RE: Pilot training from an allied perspective
Yes the P-40s can be extracted. And it is a good thing to do, worth the PPs. The P-26s however are another story, I just wanted to save them.