Where is F8F Bearcat?

[sir_lovealot]

As far as I know F8F Bearcat entered service on May 1945, but I can't find it in the WITP unit arrival schedule nor the aircraft database. forgotten? Perhaps, putting in F-84 Thunderjet in Witp could be a nice touch due to the fact of its first operational flight in early 1946.

I also want to tell you all that I'm happy today. I made the right decision by diverting Task Force Z for the defense of Dutch East Indies/Indonesia (my country, btw) instead of being chewed up by bettys from Saigon. I caught 14 totally unescorted fat jap transports south of Mindanao with Repulse, Prince of Wales and other destroyers...... But should I be happy? .......Even the dumbest admiral will never send virtually unescorted loaded transport into enemy territory, is this a flaw in gameplay? If this is true it really ruined WITP.

[Tankerace]

Its not a flaw. Remember, the Japanese are overstretched considerably. The more important convoys (those bound for Malay) are heavily escorted, while the once for the Dutch East Indies are not. Also remember, the convoys likely to come in contact with Force Z are prepared, but the rest are not. You can protect 1 well, and the other not so well, or have 2 lightly protected force. Its a simply measure of give and take.

[sir_lovealot]

Well, in fact historically the Dutch East Indies invasion force was escorted by a number of heavy cruisers, light cruiser and destroyers. Even Kido Butai were lurking south of Java during the invasion of Java. This resulted in the battle of Java sea and almost-total ABDA annihilation, except a few surviving allied destroyers.

In my case these 14 transports are virtually unescorted, the closest jap task force is 3-4 jap DE east of Leyte. Really sloppy right?

[Central Blue]

IJ sent open troop barges, un-escorted, to Guadalcanal. Dear old Dad was working at Henderson Field. He told me there was many a cock pit filled with puke after the pilots came back from strafing those barges.

[sir_lovealot]

Yeah...historically jap slipped unescorted barges hopping island by island during the night hours until they reached Guadalcanal, some of them caught by SBD, wildcats and P-39 airacobra during the daylights. But this did not happen in Dutch East Indies.

[Central Blue]

The IJ AI does not seem to do a good job modeling what happened in your neck of the woods.

[sacorsair]

Also where is the F7F Tigercat would be a bit of nice insurance in a carrier group going into 1946

[sir_lovealot]

Yeah...perhaps...actually these transports are bound for cotabato at mindanao, not for Dutch East Indies.
Jap AI left them unescorted because I withdrawn all surface allied naval assets in Phillippine to Borneo for the upcoming battle in Dutch East Indies and due to the presence of Kido Butai east of Luzon. Coincidentally, Jap's Southern Mindanao invasion force intersect with my patrol routes from Borneo. Maybe this is the cause of this problem. But still...does not look quite right.....

[sir_lovealot]

OK....
back to the original question...Where is the Bearcats?

[Oliver Heindorf]

not included in game.

try the search funktion I think this discussion was already here, cant remember the details.

[steveh11Matrix]

In the editor...? [;)]

[rhohltjr]

ORIGINAL: sir_lovealot
OK....
back to the original question...Where is the Bearcats?

Where are the Bearcats?

The database is already full of Allied carrier capable aircraft. No slots remain for the long campaign(41 - 46).
Without some help from Matrix/2x3 that is not going to change.

However if you want to add the missing planes to a late Witp game you will have to use
the editor and replace the long obsoleted aircraft with the newer ones.

look on //mathubert.free.fr for some great stuff, like a new spreadsheet with late war aircraft.[8D]

[Damien Thorn]

Bearcats are not good planes. Why would you want them? They were, according to some on this forum mor eknowledgable on this subject that I am, designed to fill the role of light fighters for the CVEs. Some people think that just because the number is bigger, F8F, that they must be better. Just stick with your coursairs. Or, you can add them in with the editor.

[anarchyintheuk]

ORIGINAL: Damien Thorn

Bearcats are not good planes. Why would you want them? They were, according to some on this forum mor eknowledgable on this subject that I am, designed to fill the role of light fighters for the CVEs. Some people think that just because the number is bigger, F8F, that they must be better. Just stick with your coursairs. Or, you can add them in with the editor.

Because they were operational during the war and actually shot down aircraft . . . unlike the shinden.

[Splinterhead]

Bearcats used the same engine as a hellcat on a much smaller frame. They were intended to replace the FM2 wildcats on CVEs and the hellcats on CV/CVLs. Some people think that since they could outrun, outgun, out turn, outrange, and outclimb the hellcat that they were superior to the hellcat.

[Mr.Frag]

Because they were operational during the war and actually shot down aircraft

VF-19 was 3 days out from getting into action when the war ends ... don't know where you are getting the shot down stuff from ...

[ZOOMIE1980]

ORIGINAL: anarchyintheuk

ORIGINAL: Damien Thorn

Bearcats are not good planes. Why would you want them? They were, according to some on this forum mor eknowledgable on this subject that I am, designed to fill the role of light fighters for the CVEs. Some people think that just because the number is bigger, F8F, that they must be better. Just stick with your coursairs. Or, you can add them in with the editor.

Because they were operational during the war and actually shot down aircraft . . . unlike the shinden.

There is a VERY nice F8F, in flying condition, at the air museum near Moody Gardens on west Galveston Island in Texas, if you ever want to see one. Every once in a while, they take the birds out and actually fly them. Great museum as most of the a/c in there are in flying condition.

[tblersch]

ORIGINAL: Damien Thorn

Bearcats are not good planes. Why would you want them? They were, according to some on this forum mor eknowledgable on this subject that I am, designed to fill the role of light fighters for the CVEs. Some people think that just because the number is bigger, F8F, that they must be better. Just stick with your coursairs. Or, you can add them in with the editor.

Actually, they were designed to fill the role of carrier-based interceptor, and as such were optimized for different features (rate of climb and speed, for example), than Hellcats or Corsairs. That they would have been very effective off CVE's was just a nice side effect of the design tradeoffs.

And regardless, they should be available post-8/45. Given that the long campaigns can go into 1946, and Bearcats were operationally deployed before the Japanese capitulation, their presence in the game is a reasonable expectation. Of course, it may be a moot point, since I suspect (and the beta testers have intimated) that few games are going to go much past '44...

[Mike Scholl]

ORIGINAL: sir_lovealot

Well, in fact historically the Dutch East Indies invasion force was escorted by a number of heavy cruisers, light cruiser and destroyers. Even Kido Butai were lurking south of Java during the invasion of Java. This resulted in the battle of Java sea and almost-total ABDA annihilation, except a few surviving allied destroyers.

In my case these 14 transports are virtually unescorted, the closest jap task force is 3-4 jap DE east of Leyte. Really sloppy right?

In reality, the convoys that moved on the DEI were escorted by the same Naval units
that escorted the convoys to Malaya and the Philippines. Because in reality, the Japs
didn't move on the DEI until they had the situation in hand in the first two areas. The
AI, like many players, often tries to "get ahead of itself" and do too much at once.
(Probably the result of the Japanese having too much shipping and too many troops
available in the game) The real campaign was conducted sequentially, with the same
ships and troops making a number of landings.

[Nikademus]

The Japanese did it the way they did because in real life....there is no CTRL-ALT-DELETE

[;)]