ORIGINAL: Lokasenna
ORIGINAL: Canoerebel
Capt. Harlock, I have 225 P-47D25 in the pools and all squadrons are flush. They are split evenly between CAP, escort and sweep. I am not impressed with them on sweep, so I lean towards Corsairs and Mustangs in that role, with the former doing most of the heavy lifting (and paying for it).
I think the P-47s will make it until the -N model comes online.
This is the exact opposite of my experience in several games, in some respects.
The P-47D25 was a beast in both of my Allied games. In my Japan game that's gone far enough to see it (against obvert now), there aren't many left. I think I basically traded 1:1 against them. It's the Corsair that is giving me effing fits and I don't know why - when I used it as an Allied sweeper, it performed OK but it was really only the deep pools that allowed it to be an effective tool.
My thoughts on sweeps, escorts and CAP are complicated by an oddity of game mechanics that I only realized a few months ago but that most of you have probably known since 1978 or thereabouts.
Sweeps are done in sequential order of the fighter squadron designation. Basically, I know the first fighter squadrons listed at a base will fly first, the middle ones middle, and the late ones late.
At Shikuka, this means mostly Navy squadrons fly early, Marine and Commonwealth fighters next, and Army fighters last.
If I want fighters to sweep ahead of bombers it does no good to order the Army fighters to sweep. They will come in after the bombers.
Usually, I want sweeps ahead of bombers, so mostly I've been using Corsairs.
Another oddity is that early sweepers tend to have a more difficult time, while late sweepers generally clean up (except P-38s, which have wildly varying results more often skewed towards "ewwww!") If I'm sending in a large sweep with no bombers, I'll try to configure so that the P-47s and P-50s can tear into the tuckered out enemy, even if my Corsairs suffered. But this is a fine line - because by then, enemy CAP may be gone, so that my late-arriving sweepers have no targets.
There are various permutations of these things, like trying to sequence early sweeps, middle bombers, and late sweeps.
And then there's the escort mission nuisances to consider, which I won't go into here.
Overall, I've found that I most like the Corsairs to sweep, the P-47s and P-51s to escort, and the P-38s limited to either escort or CAP or LRCAP (though occasionally they do well as late sweepers). I do use the -47s and -51s to sweep pretty often.
This is a complex mix. I think I'm decent at it now, but many of you might laugh and point out, "Hey, dummy, then why are you basically mired down in a 1:1 match against Erik's air force these many months?"
"Rats set fire to Mr. Cooper’s store in Fort Valley. No damage done." Columbus (Ga) Enquirer-Sun, October 2, 1880.
; Julia Child
