CV air groups with PDU off

[ndworl]

I read in some threads that if you get a CV which has air groups equipped with planes more advanced than are presently available, you don't get the air groups. Can anyone shed some light on this? Does that mean the air groups never arrive, or that they arrive on the date the CV was originally scheduled for? If its the latter, that's not such a big deal. The arriving groups are so inexperienced, I generally replace them with others and send them off for training. But if it means you miss out of the air groups altogether, you'd have to think seriously about accelerating CVs at all.

I'm presently playing with PDU on, so its a simple matter of downgrading the equipment and storing the new planes until they actually come into production.

[BPRE]

You will get the groups with the complement of ACs as if they would have been available for production. I think that for most Japanese carriers not all of the AGs are fully equipped but I might be wrong.

The downside is that any losses are impossible to replace until the AC comes online so in reality it's difficult to use them for a long period of time.

/BPRE

[ndworl]

Thanks. And the air groups are fairly low experience as well, so I would think taking them into battle would cause high risks for the ship. I'm coming to realise PDU off basically negates a lot of the Japanese production game. If there's no point in accelerating CVs, there's not much need to increase ship production capacity, and there's not much point in accelerating aircraft research if only a few existing groups can convert once a new model is available. A simpler game all round I suppose.

[BPRE]

It definitely removes a lot of decisions you can/must make with PDU on but if you look at the CVs and their airgroups the last AC to enter production is B6N Jill in 43-12. Taiho will arrive around the 1st of April in 44 and Amagi and the rest in the autumn and later. This is without any acceleration of anything.

Obviously it might pay off to have the CVs earlier but maybe not as early as you can receive them with max acceleration (ought to be around 1st of February 43 for Taiho). You could always swap out their original AGs and use some spare groups with Vals and Kates etc.

I have a feeling that it's a bit too easy to change the Japanese production completely with PDU on compared to real life so PDU off is probably quite realistic.

/BPRE

[ndworl]

Maybe its (PDU off) trying to hit the wrong target? I understand the original game had the historical deployment of air groups, with their historical equipment. In response to JFB requests, PDU was introduced, to allow better handling of air resources. But the combination of Japanese industrial management and PDU led to unhistoric and possibly unfair ability for the Japanese player to equip all units with the most modern models.

Maybe if we just increased the cost of changing production, that would reflect the serious backawardness of Japanese industry while still keeping the flexibility allowed by PDU. Thus the Japanese player would have the choice of using Nates for free or spending a large amount to replace some nates with Tojos.

Of course, I don't know how to increase costs to build factories and the balance would have to be understood.