ORIGINAL: TheFerret
Continuing thinking about pilot vs. airframe losses - I tested the theory that letting the VVS fly and beating them in the air will eliminate more pilots than destroying the VVS on the ground. I launched very limited airfield strikes, targeting a few of the largest fighter bases near the border plus most of the bases in the Bessarabia/Odessa region since there's no ground combat there T1, turned on ground support, set a couple of AS directives over Bialystok and Lvov, and let the air battle work itself out during my ground phase.
The result: compared to HardLuck's example, I lost 350 more Axis pilots - but eliminated 600 more Soviet pilots. I'm sure this approach can be optimized (this time around I tried adding drop tanks to all the fighters, which I assume contributed to the very high ops losses) but I'd still expect to lose 300+ Axis pilots - the question is, what is a favorable loss ratio for pilots, and how many losses can the Axis realistically afford at that loss ratio? And note that my airframe losses are shifted away from bombers and toward fighters - I'm not sure what to think of that; while I like the idea of having more bombers around, they won't be worth much if they're sitting around twiddling their thumbs for lack of fighter escorts.
few really big bits as a response.
For most of the war with the axis, airframes are not a constraint but your pilots are. Especially as ideally you don't want to stop using trained pilots till fairly late in the game (that experience/skill boost is what gives you the real edge over the VVS). In contrast the Soviets need to rely on untrained pilots (& get them to some acceptable standard by training up to the NM values in their reserve), it won't be till late in the war does a group of Soviet pilots live long enough to really push up unit experience levels.
So, I think, you are playing 2 different games. As the Axis I regard my pilot stock as critical and will try to keep losses at or under the trained replacements. For the Soviets, the best I can do is to avoid catastrophic losses but I know that a new unit (or one that has just taken heavy losses) will need to sit in the national reserve for some time just to have any value.
So in the main aircraft losses should be readily replaced (you might have to shift plane types in the early game but that is marginal).
In a way that leads to a discussion as to what you are trying to do on T1 vs the VVS. Left unchecked its going to cause you problems in 1941, not least where you can't concentrate or have lagged behind due to supply problems. Even bi-planes and the I-series stuff can generate enough interdiction to deny you admin moves, SB-2s can hit depots and they can generate quite a lot of GS. So the T1 cull is to get you a clear window till the LW is better aligned to the front lines (say from T5 onwards). You'll win every air exchange till late 1942 but you have to be present to achieve that.
To some extent taking out modern Soviet fighters, the Pe-2s and their recon assets is good as those are all hard to replace, but in truth inexperienced pilots in Yak-1s are not that much of a threat. What I wouldn't do is to risk too many Luftwaffe pilots on T1 - set yourself a budget and try to work to that?
