Early Ki-44 Tojos

[vonK0tze]

I'm playing as the Allies against a Japanese AI.

I have noticed that the AI sometimes uses Ki-44 Tojos in China and the Philippines, in December '41 and January '42. They have been tearing up my planes pretty good. However, according to the database they should only be produced much later in the game.

Is this some kind of advantage that the AI has? Or is there a historical precedence for these planes?

(Also, what can I do against them?)

[Maallon]

The Japanese start with one Squadron of I think 8 Ki-44 Tojos in Canton in Scen#1. But they can't produce any until they are officially researched, you can see them as early prototypes.

What you can do about them? The same thing you can do with every other Japanese Plane type as well, bully them with superior numbers and train up your pilots [8D]

edit:
On a more serious Note, there is little you can do at the very early game to fight the Zeros, Oscars and the 8 Tojos effectively, don't expect 1:1 Kill Ratios against them. They have a superior Plane and most importantly elite Pilots at the start. The best thing you can do to minimize your losses is to avoid combat against them at the start as much as possible and train up your pilots to more reasonable values. Especially the Skill Def is very important to keep your Planes alive.
After you have trained up your Pilots skills to the 60s you can try to engage the Japanese Fighters, but always try to do this with superior numbers and don't let yourself get dragged into an attritional battle. The Japanese will win every kind of attrition competition in 1942 against you (Ships being the exception here).
Also layer your CAP if they come from very high altitudes, don't try to fight them on high altitudes as your Fighter Planes perform even worse at them. It is generally better to let them first dive onto you and then let your higher Layer of Fighters dive onto the Japanese Fighter afterward, as they are now on a lower Altitude. Your Fighter are more durable and can survive the initial dive, especially if you have trained your Def Skill.
But as I said, don't expect 1:1 Kill Ratios this early on, only engage if you are in an advantage and fall back if you aren't.
And once you kill their starting elite pilots, fighting them becomes easier as well.

[ITAKLinus]

ORIGINAL: Maallon

The Japanese start with one Squadron of I think 8 Ki-44 Tojos in Canton in Scen#1. But they can't produce any until they are officially researched, you can see them as early prototypes.

What you can do about them? The same thing you can do with every other Japanese Plane type as well, bully them with superior numbers and train up your pilots [8D]

I confirm. There is a squadron of 9 Tojos in Canton on 7th Dec. They were pre-production planes.

Since they don't have any replacment for many months and they are very few, it's not a big deal for either side.

[RangerJoe]

The first Tojos were essentially hand built as working prototypes. The Japanese did produce more of them but nothing like what would be produced in the game. I would consider that if I were making a mod, then the Japanese would get some of these aircraft dumped on them for free. Maybe 9 or 10 in a month, no more.

[vonK0tze]

ORIGINAL: Maallon

The Japanese start with one Squadron of I think 8 Ki-44 Tojos in Canton in Scen#1. But they can't produce any until they are officially researched, you can see them as early prototypes.

What you can do about them? The same thing you can do with every other Japanese Plane type as well, bully them with superior numbers and train up your pilots [8D]

edit:
On a more serious Note, there is little you can do at the very early game to fight the Zeros, Oscars and the 8 Tojos effectively, don't expect 1:1 Kill Ratios against them. They have a superior Plane and most importantly elite Pilots at the start. The best thing you can do to minimize your losses is to avoid combat against them at the start as much as possible and train up your pilots to more reasonable values. Especially the Skill Def is very important to keep your Planes alive.
After you have trained up your Pilots skills to the 60s you can try to engage the Japanese Fighters, but always try to do this with superior numbers and don't let yourself get dragged into an attritional battle. The Japanese will win every kind of attrition competition in 1942 against you (Ships being the exception here).
Also layer your CAP if they come from very high altitudes, don't try to fight them on high altitudes as your Fighter Planes perform even worse at them. It is generally better to let them first dive onto you and then let your higher Layer of Fighters dive onto the Japanese Fighter afterward, as they are now on a lower Altitude. Your Fighter are more durable and can survive the initial dive, especially if you have trained your Def Skill.
But as I said, don't expect 1:1 Kill Ratios this early on, only engage if you are in an advantage and fall back if you aren't.
And once you kill their starting elite pilots, fighting them becomes easier as well.

Yeah, I pretty much avoided them after I encountered them a couple of times. They shot down 5 or 6 planes of the AVG in China, however, which was a bit annoying...

[Q-Ball]

Are you seeing more than 9 of them? Just curious, I thought maybe your questions was whether the AI was able to "cheat" and produce more of them than 9. Because as a human player, you are definitely stuck with just those 9 planes.

They also shouldn't be tearing up the AVG, maybe you have a disadvantageous altitude setting. They should be able to hold their own though.

[Maallon]

Yeah, a fully equipped Squadron of 27 H81-A3 should be able to handle 9 Tojos on their own. Were there more Fighters involved?
If you like you could post a screenshot of your Squadron Settings and the Combat Report(s). If I remember correctly one of the Flying Tigers Squadron starts with an abysmal commander, so he can mess up things for you too.
5 or 6 Planes are actually not that bad for a Jan 42 Fighter engagement for the Allies.