Pilot Management -- Again

[CV 2]

ORIGINAL: crsutton


You have to remember that the manual was written for AE version 1.0 and there have been many changes in the frequent patches but the manual never changes. Don't put too much stock in what you read in the manual. We had "dedicated" training sqadrons in one of the earliest patches. They did not work out too well and were removed.

Why the .pdfs in the manual directory arent updated is beyond me however. No reason for that not to be.

[Sieppo]

I still have two things I quite haven't understood, maybe someone could kindly explain:

GROUP RESERVE: I did some searching around and nobody seems to use but it could maybe be used for resting pilots? So as to set an pilot to group reserve he's inactive in the squadron and could be back in 1 day? What is it in general?

PILOTS IN TRANSIT: I noticed a problem when filling air groups with pilots. Let's assume I have on turn 1 set some experienced pilots to go to a certain group. They will take some time in transit. Then the next turn I check the group again and have forgotten that I have already set some pilots to arrive into the group but they are in transit and add some pilots into the group AGAIN. Do the pilots in transit show somewhere in the groups screens?

EDIT: damn, replied in the "wrong" thread but I guess it could be seen as the correct one also

EDIT2: the pilot addendum seems to give the explanation of the group reserve as "inactive/non-flying". Is it also quicker to change groups via the group reserve than the general reserve?

"If the pilot is active (delay is 0), then left-click will allow pilot to be transferred to
the Group Reserve (make inactive/non-flying). Right-click will allow pilot to be
rotated out of the group for 180 days."

[Amoral]

If you 'request a pilot' from reserve it will only draw on general reserve. If you request a veteran you can choose from either general reserve or from all group reserves. Pilots in group (as opposed to general) reserve have about twice the delay getting to their new squadron, but no delay if you reactivate them to their original squadron.

I personally never use group reserve.

[LoBaron]

ORIGINAL: Amoral

If you 'request a pilot' from reserve it will only draw on general reserve. If you request a veteran you can choose from either general reserve or from all group reserves. Pilots in group (as opposed to general) reserve have about twice the delay getting to their new squadron, but no delay if you reactivate them to their original squadron.

I personally never use group reserve.

Group reserve can be immensely useful if used to directly transfer pilots from your dedicated training squads to operational squads.

Set the pilots chosen for transfer to group reserve, go to the squad you want to add the pilots to, go to group reserve on pilot selection and select the pilots made available from the training squad. Saves a lot of tedious search for multi-skill pilots in general reserve.

[Sieppo]

ORIGINAL: LoBaron

ORIGINAL: Amoral

If you 'request a pilot' from reserve it will only draw on general reserve. If you request a veteran you can choose from either general reserve or from all group reserves. Pilots in group (as opposed to general) reserve have about twice the delay getting to their new squadron, but no delay if you reactivate them to their original squadron.

I personally never use group reserve.

Group reserve can be immensely useful if used to directly transfer pilots from your dedicated training squads to operational squads.

Set the pilots chosen for transfer to group reserve, go to the squad you want to add the pilots to, go to group reserve on pilot selection and select the pilots made available from the training squad. Saves a lot of tedious search for multi-skill pilots in general reserve.

So it's like a fast channel for transferring pilots between squads? Saves the "travel time" to and from general reserve? In addition to a place where to rest? I'm having a hard time understanding the concept. A reserve is a reserve but how is it different from the general reserve as a concept? Say for example the General reserve is situated in Japan but the group reserve safe but near the fronts?

[Lokasenna]

Using the "release pilot" buttons at the bottom is what spares the variable 1-7 day transfer time that you get by clicking on individual pilotz. Get good at usjng these and you can transfer a pilot from a training squadron in Tsitsihar to a front line unit at Rabaul instantly.

[sandlance]

Ive been playing "DOWNFALL", And group reserve is esential in keeping the B-29 Group available for extended periods. On average a pilot with Fatigue or 15-20 if put into Group reserve will recover 50% of the fatigue each day. Instead of resting the whole you can rest just individual pilots.

[NigelKentarus]

Something I couldn't find is, when setting a LB squadron to training, is there any advantage/disadvantage to selecting Airfield or Port attack? I understand selecting Naval or Ground, they improve skills. Thanks.

[geofflambert]

I think it does help to have well trained pilots in a training sqd. but I think it's a bad idea to do that on purpose. Try to keep all the trainees in close proximity skill level wise. Some train faster than others. If they get too far ahead they just sit around drinking beer and playing poker. Their rates of STDs rises dramatically. All too often they end up in the hoosegow and what good are they doing then?

If they're fighter crews, put them in the reserve then reassign them to an "accelerated" training squadron to finish up. If they're TB crews you can do the same or more likely move them to a squadron training on a different skill. They need to be proficient in naval attack w/ torps, naval attack w/ bombs, naval search, ASW and reccon wouldn't hurt. If you're allied you might want to improve their ground attack skills. I was just talking TB crews, every AC type needs its own sort of crews and you need to keep them segregated somehow. If someone would come up with an app that would keep track of them by parameters the player defines I think that person would get a lot of love. witpqs are you listening?

As for transport crews I use those squadrons to train up in general skill level as much as possible. If a squadron is active but just moving cargo from one airfield to another, recruits will get it done just fine and their experience levels will rise while doing it. All they need to know is how to fly and not get lost. I keep a cadre of highly trained transport crews in reserve for airborne operations. If I'm the Japanese I use most of those transports to train in general skill level. Once those crews reach 50 in experience level, I start making fighter pilots out of them. By the time they reach 70 in air combat skill they will be quite good at def and anything else you might want them to do.

[geofflambert]

Has anyone else noticed how many hits there are on this thread? Is that a record for a one pager?