Morale (and another thing)

[vimhawk2]

A unit’s morale is reduced when its aircraft are destroyed and
also due to high pilot fatigue. A unit’s morale is increased due to inspiring leadership and by
successfully bombing targets (for the attacking player) or destroying enemy aircraft.

Think this is going to increasingly become a factor so am interested if there is more I can learn than it says in the manual, which isn't that much. Currently my Italian groups have far lower morale on average than the Northern European groups. But they also don't seem to be recovering. My two worst groups for morale I've kept out of the fight but they haven't recovered much (and one has hardly lost any aircraft in the whole campaign). I get it that it's a factor of their commander (leadership / inspiration - which one, both?) but the commanders of both are rubbish. I get the part about rotating and I should do that more often, but surely that would just mean they would be not recovering somewhere else! Fatigue isn't a factor either. Do I perhaps just try and get a load of them shot down in the hope of getting a better commander - sounds a bit extreme! On one of them though, the commander is the worst pilot in the group! Or is it that the destroying enemy aircraft factor is more important for improving morale than not fighting? Anyway, tips on how you manage morale would be appreciated.

Related to this and because I've just had the worst day of the campaign so far, I was wondering about how the defensive interceptions are handled. Basically the Allies attacked Klagenfurt from Italy and I reacted like the raid was going deeper (they had recently gone to Vienna / Budapest) so I though there would be an opportunity for 410s and some night fighters. Of course when it didn't go further I stupidly carried on with the attack and lost quite a few. Also I kept thinking as my attackers were being shot down all the way back to Italy that at some point the P38Js and 51Bs would 'run out of fuel' (or whatever game concept is used) and not be able to carry on intercepting all the way back. So does this happen if you use enough attackers? Or isn't the number of interceptions the defending fighters have to do a factor? Do they get to intercept as much as they can do within their range?

[Orm]

The Axis pilots morale is also lowered when their base is bombed- And I suspect that their morale is lowered when they change bases.

[mark dolby]

Hi.
Morale can go down really quickly and up very slowly.
Each E/A shot down +2
Each E/A damaged nothing
Rest variable

each friendly A/C damaged -1
each friendly A/C destroyed -3
base change -5
Bombed airbase Variable

So if your gruppe makes a pass on bombers and damages 3 and destroys 1 whilst receiving the same damage you will lose 4 morale. But each damaged bomber you pick off on the way home is worth 2 morale with a much better chance of no damage in return.
Once a unit goes above 80 morale the E/A shot down is worth only 1 point.
I drive my guys hard but tend not to change base unless the damage on the facilities is over 35% and I keep most units fairly deep anyway.
Italians and minor allies do seem to have lower morale which is why I tend to overuse them in intercepting damaged aircraft and getting the German units to do the hard work. Not that the gruppe sized units from Romania shouldn't pull their weight from time to time!

Mark.

[vimhawk2]

Thanks for that. Would they suffer the same morale loss for losing aircraft on the ground? After all they probably didn't lose a pilot at the same time?

Also would be interested in the answer to my other question about whether the ability for escort fighters to intercept is reduced if they keep having to do interceptions (as my disastrous attacks on my last combat day seem to be intercepted the whole way home without any new groups joining).

[mark dolby]

Hi.
Pilot loss on the ground is rare unless the unit was caught whilst taking off. I think morale loss is the same.
I personally believe morale should be linked to pilot loss rather than A/C but that's the way it is.

Escort fighters. 48 P-47 on a mission. You will note that bounces are only undertaken by a portion of the unit so only that many suddenly use more fuel. Therefore a lot of the unit can stay for longer and why you will see parts returning home rather than the whole group. And then when you have 4 groups of 48xP47 no wonder they always seem to be there.

Mark.

[vimhawk2]

Thanks. Lucky I've got a surplus of 300 or more Me410s. Think I'm going to need them!

Will also try and shoot down some damaged aircraft with my morale deficient groups. Because at the rate they are going the campaign will be over before they recover sufficiently on the ground - or they'll get a visit to their airfield by some allied attack and get even more emotional.

[simovitch]

Low leader inspiration will make it difficult to increase group morale. group fatigue will lower morale as well as the other factors Mark mentioned.

For the axis, low morale impacts reaction time, and could cause fighters to break off the attack earlier.

[vimhawk2]

Thanks. Though it sounds counter intuitive, perhaps there's an argument for trying to get lots of them shot down so the leader is killed? But with these co-axis and allied units, is it more likely that a new leader will have low inspiration than a German group?

[simovitch]

Thanks. Though it sounds counter intuitive, perhaps there's an argument for trying to get lots of them shot down so the leader is killed? But with these co-axis and allied units, is it more likely that a new leader will have low inspiration than a German group?

I would say yes, your minor-Axis replacements may not be better than the poor guy you tried to kill off.

[vimhawk2]

Noted, thanks. And presumably leadership and inspiration don't change? Arguably they should in the sense that in the real world such things do change, and the game does allow for experience to do so.

And as for this particular guy, I'm surprised his group haven't already tried to shoot him down.

[Orm]

I think morale should improve slowly by resting. Even with a leader with low inspiration.

I also think that fatigue should be reduced more by resting. Having 20 in fatigue at the beginning of the day when they have not flown the previous 12 days seems high to me (not flown any mission yet). It is not that exhausting to rest in proximity of an aircraft. Not that they should have been going on high alert anyway since they are located in Romania and Allies have yet to fly any mission into the Balkans.

Edit: By turn 18 the fatigue for those Rumanian units is down to 10. Have not flown yet, and no raids into the Balkans. Not even any scouting.