Oscars and Zeroes

[Duke71]

In my PBEM-game I've noticed that my Oscar-fighters are just damaging the opponents in dogfights whilst the Zeroes often shoots them down. Is this true or is it only the fog-of-war fooling me? And which Japanese fighter is the best in UV?

Duke71

[Clipper1968]

The Zeroes are much more efficient than the Oscars:don't forget that the pilots experience level greatly affects the dogfight result.Zeroes are used by IJN with experienced pilots(over 80 or 85 at the beginning of the campaign) whereas Oscars are used by IJA with very less experienced pilots ( 60 IIRC).
Use Oscars in very great numbers so you could be able to get some consistent result with rested pilots or support them with a Zero squadron.
IMHO the best Japanese fighter is the A6M2 (longer range than A6M3 even if the A6M3 gets also a very good result in dogfiht).I also like the Tony for the IJA which could perform very well if you manage to get experienced pilots, unfortunately it will be difficult to train this pilots.

[Duke71]

Good points Pumba. The experience of my current (and only) Oscar squadron started around 50 and has crept into the 60s by now after some action. But the morale dropped to about 35 after some losses in a sweep over Gili Gili. In the battles vs. P39s the Oscar has the edge but just barely and when they meet Kittyhawks it's no fun at all... [:(]

What about training? Is that an effective way to boost experience compared to "easy kills"?

Duke71

[Clipper1968]

As the campaign progress, you will receive reinforcement pilots with an experience level of 50 or less ( most of them have an experience around 40 I think).So the first thing to do is to put the new incoming squadrons in training;the training can only give your pilots a maximum level of 59.You should assign training mission with level settings to 0%:your less experienced pilots could gain experience on the ground until 50,then you can launch them in the sky for training, otherwise they will happily crash their precious aircrafts as they are not been even able to take off or to land correctly.[:(](check the operationnal losses).Training mission should take at least one month for your squadrons before getting consistent results.Don't let them on the front line until they are ready for fight.
They have to conduct operational mission in order to increase their experience;nothing can challenge dogfight.[;)]
I am not sure but I think that you could assign your Oscar squadron firstly on CAP mission over the base,so their pilots can gain some experience without encounting great danger,at least for the beginning of the campaign.

[Duke71]

How much training do you prefer in cases like this? 50% or more?

[Clipper1968]

Most of the time I setup the training level at 70 or 80% even more in spite of the high fatigue level which could generate high operational losses. The main problem is that there is not a really turn over for the flying pilots during training mission:I have noticed that the more experienced will fly more, which is a nonsense.
This level seems reasonable to me but you have to check regularly the level of fatigue and increase or decrease based upon the situation.I think you should benefit by a one or two months delay in the Japanese campaign (IIRC the first Oscar squadron arrives in August or September 42) so this squadron could be trained correctly before sending on hard dogfight as hard time will arrive for the Sun Empire in November or December.
Good luck.

[crsutton]

Remember, that the oscar was hopelessy obsolete even by early 1942. It was a tiny fragile plane that was slower than the zero. Biggest thing for you to know is that it was only equiped with two machine guns. Oscar I had one 7.7 mm and one 12 mm gun located in the nose. I think Oscar IIs graduated to two 12.mm guns. Compare this to the standard six .50 cal machine guns found in the typical american fighter of the era. It was simply not enough arament to shoot down a modern aircraft unless the pilot was highly skilled or lucky. That is why you are getting a lot of damage results instead of kills.

The zero was also poorly armed but at least had two 20mm cannons in the wing. They were not great cannons (low ammo load and low muzzle velocity) but at least could do some damage if they hit.

[Duke71]

That's true. I've checked the database in the game and the Oscar has a gun value of 6 (if I don't remember wrongly) and the Zero has 30(?) so the firepower is quite different. I've not checked the American fighters in this respect.

I noticed that my Oscars had some hits but the punch was not hard enough to kill the enemy planes.

Wasn't the Japanese nickname for the Oscar "Hayabusa"? The same as Suzuki's top-speed touring motorcycle the GSX-R 1300? (That's maybe a little off-topic here...)

Duke71