Fighter Pilot Morale

[TheElf]

Finally a subject I am an expert on...

Playing several PBEM games now as IJN. In one game I have two sqdns of Zeros, F1 & F2/Tainan Datai's, whose morale is abysmal. Historically speaking The Lae wings Morale was outstanding. Can anyone think of a good reason for this?

I have been unable to raise morale above 55 and lately morale has been hovering in the mid 40's! No amount of rest seems to improve the situation, though I'll admit operational needs have led to only a day or 2 of rest between operations. I have never had this problem before.

While I'm on the subject i'd like to point out that a fighter pilot by natural loves to fly. Flying means action, and action = victories. So why is it that not flying seems to be one of the only way to improve pilot morale? According to Saburo Sakai of the Marauder attacks at Rabaul the day of his arrival...

"...The attacks were the best possible tonic for me. At least Rabaul promised action to jerk me out of the stupor into which I had sunk from so many weeks of being grounded. I begged the doctor to discharge me from the hospital at once; I fairly itched to get my hands on the controls of a Zero again."

This is after several weeks of inaction at Bali (an island paradise according to Sakai) prior to the Lae wing rotating to the Solomons. During the uncomfortable transit aboard the Komaki Maru Sakai fell ill and withered into a drugged state. A bit extreme a case, but none the less illustrates my point. Fighter pilot Morale should not suffer from regular combat, only his fatigue. Morale should suffer only when large losses are taken in one day, or a Unit leader (or High scoring ace) is lost. Morale should go up if a unit scores victories regularly or suffers from extreme fatigue levels for long periods of time.

I would love some input on this subject and especially any insider info on the pilot moral/ EXP/ Fatigue matrix and how that stuff works in the game. How does a unit leader's attributes affect the unit as a whole?

The Elf

[JohnK]

Check the Inspiration level of the commander; you probably had the original commander get killed and the new commander may have an INSP of as low as 40; that probably is the single biggest influence on morale.

Units with a commander like that basically can't sustain combat at all in UV.

[TheElf]

Check the Inspiration level of the commander; you probably had the original commander get killed and the new commander may have an INSP of as low as 40; that probably is the single biggest influence on morale.

Nope. F1 Tainan CDR Kozono Ldr: 63 INSP: 70!
F2 Tainan LT S. Kawai Ldr: 59 INSP: 83!

Perhaps these two need some leadership courses on improving morale? But my understanding was Morale was affected by Inspriation Attributes, while leading others to a good intercept and tactics were reflected by Leadership attributes...

FYI these are the numbers for both Squadrons right now.

F2 Tainan Datai
A/c rdy: 24
not rdy: 2
Ready Pilots: 27
AVG Exp: 67
Morale: 43 !!
Fatigue: 41
Kills: 12

F1 Tainan Datai (Just rotated to Rabaul to see if it helps)
A/C rdy: 27
Not rdy: 0
Rdy Pilots: 27
AVG Exp: 80
Morale: 45 !!
Fatigue: 48
Kills: 17

Like i said I've never seen morale this low for these units, and nothing unusual has happened. The ONLY thing I can think of is my opponent has virtually abandoned PM and there has been very little "Action" over the Owen Stanley Range. Perhaps my origianl post was on to something in this regard? Any thoughts?

[ADavidB]

Originally posted by TheElf
Finally a subject I am an expert on...

Playing several PBEM games now as IJN. In one game I have two sqdns of Zeros, F1 & F2/Tainan Datai's, whose morale is abysmal. Historically speaking The Lae wings Morale was outstanding. Can anyone think of a good reason for this?

I have been unable to raise morale above 55 and lately morale has been hovering in the mid 40's! No amount of rest seems to improve the situation, though I'll admit operational needs have led to only a day or 2 of rest between operations. I have never had this problem before.

While I'm on the subject i'd like to point out that a fighter pilot by natural loves to fly. Flying means action, and action = victories. So why is it that not flying seems to be one of the only way to improve pilot morale? According to Saburo Sakai of the Marauder attacks at Rabaul the day of his arrival...

"...The attacks were the best possible tonic for me. At least Rabaul promised action to jerk me out of the stupor into which I had sunk from so many weeks of being grounded. I begged the doctor to discharge me from the hospital at once; I fairly itched to get my hands on the controls of a Zero again."

This is after several weeks of inaction at Bali (an island paradise according to Sakai) prior to the Lae wing rotating to the Solomons. During the uncomfortable transit aboard the Komaki Maru Sakai fell ill and withered into a drugged state. A bit extreme a case, but none the less illustrates my point. Fighter pilot Morale should not suffer from regular combat, only his fatigue. Morale should suffer only when large losses are taken in one day, or a Unit leader (or High scoring ace) is lost. Morale should go up if a unit scores victories regularly or suffers from extreme fatigue levels for long periods of time.

I would love some input on this subject and especially any insider info on the pilot moral/ EXP/ Fatigue matrix and how that stuff works in the game. How does a unit leader's attributes affect the unit as a whole?

The Elf

"Morale" in UV is not the psychological phenomenum that we generally think of - it is instead a compendium of various factors which should really be called "readiness" or something similar. So "morale" is not the pilot's morale, but a fudge factor affecting how many of the planes in a given squadren will fly, and how effectively they will fly.

Matrix/2x3 really need to give this another acrynom, such as "Foobar" or "Snafu" or something from that time frame.

Dave Baranyi

(Only slightly tongue-in-cheek.)

[TheElf]

"Morale" in UV is not the psychological phenomenum that we generally think of - it is instead a compendium of various factors which should really be called "readiness" or something similar. So "morale" is not the pilot's morale, but a fudge factor affecting how many of the planes in a given squadren will fly, and how effectively they will fly.

If that is what Morale really is in game terms, can you think of a reason, given the stats in my second post, that "Morale" is so low? With a full complement of pilots and aircraft, competent leaders who inspire their average to above averge experienced men, an airfield that hasn't had so much as an enemy bullet casing fall on it in over a week, and relatively low Fatigue, what could be the reason for such low readiness?

If there is a problem, what is it and how do you fix it I guess is what I'm wondering here.

The Elf

[Drex]

I think that in NG malaria plays a big part in the morale equation. Dave in his post above is correct in stating that morale is not all psychological. It is also physical and relates strongly to disease and fatigue. I think the only way you can raise their morale is transfer them out as far as rabaul or Kavieng or even better, Truk, where there is no malaria.

[pasternakski]

You know, those fatigue ratings are pretty high, too. These guys look like they've been doing some flying recently.

[Yamamoto]

Originally posted by TheElf
The ONLY thing I can think of is my opponent has virtually abandoned PM and there has been very little "Action" over the Owen Stanley Range. Any thoughts?

That's it. In my experience my Japanese fighter pilots' morale goes up when they are shooting planes down and it goes down when they aren't. That makes sense if you think like a guy who sees himself as a 20th century samurai. By the way, strafing who't help. These guys only get happy again when they start shooting planes down.

Yamamoto

[ADavidB]

Originally posted by TheElf
If that is what Morale really is in game terms, can you think of a reason, given the stats in my second post, that "Morale" is so low? With a full complement of pilots and aircraft, competent leaders who inspire their average to above averge experienced men, an airfield that hasn't had so much as an enemy bullet casing fall on it in over a week, and relatively low Fatigue, what could be the reason for such low readiness?

If there is a problem, what is it and how do you fix it I guess is what I'm wondering here.

The Elf

Well, you've let the fatigue go a lot higher than I would - high fatigue seems to lower morale. I'd send them up north to a non-malaria base and have them do absolutely nothing for a few days. This way your fatigue will go down and the morale ought to go up.

But with that said, there are certain groups for whom the morale will never go up for some unknown reason. For example, there are a few scout groups on US cruisers whose morale is always sitting between 25 - 28 and never goes higher, even if fatigue is down to 5 or less. Maybe the "pisspots" in their biplanes don't work. <g> (Speaking of which, my Mom worked for Bell Aircraft during WW II as a "finisher" inside of P-39s, because she was small enough to fit into the tight spaces. One of the parts she would install were the "pisspots".)

Dave Baranyi

[TheElf]

I think that in NG malaria plays a big part in the morale equation.

I considered this, but I thought Malaria was only an issue at bases below a certain level of development. Currently we are talking about a size 4 AF and size 3 port. Shouldn't that mitigate the effects of malaria?

You know, those fatigue ratings are pretty high, too. These guys look like they've been doing some flying recently.

Well, you've let the fatigue go a lot higher than I would - high fatigue seems to lower morale.

Agreed. They just got finished covering the invasion of PM. There was some action from Med Bmbrs but I don't think much of the Lae wing was present to take advantage of it, for obvious reasons.

Mid 40's is the absolute highest I'd allow them to go, and that is usually for above average exp groups. Usually its in the 20's but even that didn't seem to help morale. I'm beginning to think its a combo effect of Malaria and lack of action. Thanks for the input Yamamoto.

[Drex]

there is no way to eliminate malaria in NG even if you could get a base up to 9 level. Hell, they still might have malaria there today. Can anyone confirm this? Malaria is not eradicated yet.

[Drongo]

Posted by Drex

there is no way to eliminate malaria in NG even if you could get a base up to 9 level. Hell, they still might have malaria there today. Can anyone confirm this? Malaria is not eradicated yet.

Malaria still has a widespread presence in NG, especially in the low-lying areas. Large scale attempts at DDT spraying reduced the problem in some areas but could not eliminate it.

If you travel to NG today, you would be at a high risk of infection without some form of preventative medication.

As to UV, a large base size does not stop malarial effects but it does improve recovery of fatigue (one of the causes of which is being in a malarial zone).