Transfering Air Units

[Forrest37]

When you transfer an Air unit from the PI command area to another one does that transfer all the planes, even the damaged ones that remain at the original airbase? Or do you have to transfer the damaged ones seperately as they are repaired?

[mlees]

Option "B", I believe.

[ckk]

thry are supposed to follow the parent unit s they repair, however it is smart to make sure that this happens.[;)]

[mlees]

It might seem tedious, but it's smart to "hold the hands" of all of your units...

The fragments will follow the parent units, but at the end of the turn, after the combat results are calculated. You should "force" them to move on your turn, instead, so that the enemy doesn't hit them while still at their old airbase.

[Marten]

i'm not sure what has happened in my game. i've sent functional b 17 from clark field do india, after a few turns i've sent some repaired b 17 from clark to australia. a turn has ended and... my b 17 in india were gone. all of them went to australia. kind of long long trip. [&:]

[mlees]

Surprise! The game is working as designed:

When you transfer an air unit to a different base, only aircraft that are in the "ready" status will go. The aircraft in the "damaged" state stay behind until they are repaired through the normal aircraft repair methods. (These methods are fully automated, and not in player control.) If you look back at the old base, you will see a "subunit" with all of the damaged aircraft in it. You can tell it's a subunit when there is a slash in the name when there wasn't before: e.g. VP-10/1 is a subunit of VP-10.

In the following turns, any subunits created in the above manner will attempt to rejoin their "parent" organisations. This too, is automated, and generally there is not much you can do about it. Plan for it then.

Note, also, that divided aircraft units will merge together automatically when the player "upgrades" their model type. Don't let that surprise you either...

[Marten]

but flight from karachi to cairns? oh mighty b-17! [&o]

[Forrest37]

I wondered as it seems that the PP hit is for functioning airplanes and not for total airplanes. Thus you can get the air unit to change from PI to India or Aust. cheaper if you transfer them when they have only a few operational planes rather than when they all are operational....if the non-operational ones follow for free.....

[Feinder]

This is a bit of an "oversight" that has been reported (by your truely).

Basically, you can reduce the PP cost to convert a sqdn, by transferring the undamaged aircraft to a base (leaving the damaged behind), and then paying only the cost of the undamaged AC. But if you pay the PPs to convert the sqdn while it has the damaged AC at the same field, you also pay the cost of the damaged AC.

As it is right now, a PBY sqdn with a max size of 12, with 6 flying and 3 damaged...
If BaseA has 6 undamaged -and- 3 damaged AC = 9 x 4 = 36 points. Or, you can fly the 6 undamaged to BaseB and leave the 3 damaged at BaseA, and only pay 6 x 4 = 24 points at BaseB.

The 3 damaged AC will convert to the HQ of the parent when they are rejoined. However, it doesn't do you any good to pay the cost of converting a sub-unit (/2, /3, /4, whatever). If you pay to convert the subunit, and then it is rejoined with the parent, the subunit will convert back the HQ of the parent.

Frankly, I think you should have to pay the PP cost according to the max size of the sqdn, regardless of number of aircraft, damaged or undamaged. So our same PBY sqdn with a max size of 12, with 6 flying and 3 damaged, should cost 48 points to convert. The parent and all subunits convert at once. And again, it doesn't matter that the sqdn is completely filled out, you still have to pay the full cost.

-F-

[mlees]

but flight from karachi to cairns? oh mighty b-17! [&o]

Yup. Can do in two hops. You will also need to be aware that there is a hardcoded upper limit to the number of air units in the game. This number will include all those little sub units you create, either intentionally, or not.

What is the limit? Trade secret. Can't tell ya. The enemy is listening.

[Knavey]

Will post this here because it does apply, and preparing a bug report for it also.

Lets say you have a unit of 72 planes that you have broken down into its 3 subunits.
A/B/C

You transfer the subunits to another base and some damaged planes remain behind.

Base 1
A/B/C
Base 2
A/1 B/1 C/1

Next turn you see that a few of the damaged units have repaired in the A/1, B/1, C/1 units, but there are still some damaged units left.

Here is the bug.

If you recombine the A/B/C units at Base 1 into the main unit again, and then try to transfer the repaired subunits A1/B1/C1 to base one, then the planes that are still damaged will disappear. Goodbye, gone, poof!

As long as you don't recombine the A/B/C units first, you won't have this problem.

Just an observation for you guys that like splitting up the larger formations.