Frustrating Carrier Strike Issue. No escorting fighters!!

[jmalter]

In addition to the 'too many CVs in one TF' prob, co-ordination can be adversely affected by altitude settings, & dividing CV fighter groups among both Escort & CAP missions can cause tactical probs.

- In any fighter group, the 'unassigned' %age is available for strike escort. Regardless of the group's altitude setting, the escorting fighters will accompany the strike aircraft at a top-cover altitude 2k' above the assigned strike-group altitude. Setting the escort fighters to a different altitude will result in co-ordination probs.

- Setting any 1 fighter group to a mixed mission (say, 30% CAP, 30% Rest, & 40% unassigned (available for escort) is a prob, b/c the group must be given a range to match the strikers, yet the CAP folks will share that range & possibly be out of interception range to protect their CVs. Far better to divide the available fighter groups among missions - assigning some to escort + Rest (at the correct alt & range), and others to CAP + Rest (at the preferred alt & range=0).

This will give best results for each mission, & make it easier to deal w/ group Fatigue. If a CAP group was unengaged, it'll be available w/ minimal Fatigue for strike escort the following day, while the previous day's strike escorts can be set to CAP + Rest for the following day at range=0, giving them a chance to reduce their Fatigue.

[HansBolter]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

ORIGINAL: Anthropoid

Have to say, I'm a bit fuzzy on how "Escort" works too. If anyone could walk through a barebones description of how to set a fighter squadron and a bomber squadron so that the former is more likely to escort the latter as it goes to rain down death and destruction on the enemy, I'd appreciate it.

Definitely at one time I had perfect mastery of these mechanics in WiTP and WPO, probably even in WiTPAE during the brief period I played it after it came out.

But there have been so many intervening games in the years since . . . I think Supreme Ruler is what is messing up my memory. In that one, you actually specify "Escort THIS unit (air land or sea)" by selecting it after you click "Escort" mission for a fighter unit. Just fiddling around to get back into WiTPAE and train up for a PBEM against Malagant, I'm seeing it don't work thataway in WiTPAE [&:]

Fighters set to do nothing, will fly escort for bombers. They should be at the same base, have a good leader, good morale and low fatigue and perhaps set at an altitude near the same as the bombers. Do not set them to any other activity including rest. The number if any that fly is determined by the AI. Escorts are at a disadvantage when faced with strong CAP and usually take a knocking

That statement can be a bit misleading. Fighters set to do nothing do nothing. Fighters set to Escort with no percentage settings for secondary mission will fly 100% Escort (or at least the percentage of 100% that will fly that day).

[Anthropoid]

Thanks Hans

[rustysi]

ORIGINAL: RisingSun

ORIGINAL: paradigmblue

ORIGINAL: RisingSun

That base Kota Bharu had 30 CAP in zero range

There's your problem right there, if your fighters are set to 0 range they can't leave the hex to escort the bombers because you've limited their range to 0. If your fighters were set to max range they will escort your bombers as long as those bombers don't outrange them. If you want to ensure your bombers are escorted all of the time, make sure that the bombers max range is lowered to match the max range of your fighters.

Ah sorry I miss type that, was thinking of something else. Yes they range was align with bombers. Sorry for the wrong inputs here. It wasn't zero. I was thinking in another locations that was CAP at zero and got missed up with this locations. This game can be annoying and trying to keep track of everything. Was doing good until this kick in near Singapore. My Betties and Nells always get their escorts from the zeros and the zeros were CAP incase B-17s try to pound in Formosa.

Up North of Bangkok, I had 14 Ki-43-IIc and lost one plane within 30 days, they manage to shoot down almost 50 planes that flew from somewhere up near Rangoon. Was doing good down Singapore, then the bombers wouldn't take the escorts. Every Allied bombers that tried to attack my base, always has escorts.

Weather, gotta check the weather. The only times I've had coordination problems with the Japanese early (and that's as far as I've gotten as yet) is when the weather in the base hex is bad. I guess the same could be said about the target hex also. As far as mixing army/navy A/C I've had no problems there either.

[rustysi]

Chazz, glad to see you back. Games' gotcha huh?[:D] The 'vampire' thread was a real hoot though, lotsa laughs.

[rustysi]

ORIGINAL: jmalter

In addition to the 'too many CVs in one TF' prob, co-ordination can be adversely affected by altitude settings, & dividing CV fighter groups among both Escort & CAP missions can cause tactical probs.

- In any fighter group, the 'unassigned' %age is available for strike escort. Regardless of the group's altitude setting, the escorting fighters will accompany the strike aircraft at a top-cover altitude 2k' above the assigned strike-group altitude. Setting the escort fighters to a different altitude will result in co-ordination probs.

- Setting any 1 fighter group to a mixed mission (say, 30% CAP, 30% Rest, & 40% unassigned (available for escort) is a prob, b/c the group must be given a range to match the strikers, yet the CAP folks will share that range & possibly be out of interception range to protect their CVs. Far better to divide the available fighter groups among missions - assigning some to escort + Rest (at the correct alt & range), and others to CAP + Rest (at the preferred alt & range=0).

This will give best results for each mission, & make it easier to deal w/ group Fatigue. If a CAP group was unengaged, it'll be available w/ minimal Fatigue for strike escort the following day, while the previous day's strike escorts can be set to CAP + Rest for the following day at range=0, giving them a chance to reduce their Fatigue.

Now this sounds very interesting, I'll have to try it.

[chazz]

ORIGINAL: rustysi

Chazz, glad to see you back. Games' gotcha huh?[:D] The 'vampire' thread was a real hoot though, lotsa laughs.

Yeah, except that I was being laughed AT. It felt like grade 3 recess.

Not very cool.

[chazz]

So are my fighters supposed to be set to ESCORT or SWEEP?

[Jorge_Stanbury]

ORIGINAL: chazz

So are my fighters supposed to be set to ESCORT or SWEEP?

escort

[rustysi]

ORIGINAL: chazz

ORIGINAL: rustysi

Chazz, glad to see you back. Games' gotcha huh?[:D] The 'vampire' thread was a real hoot though, lotsa laughs.

Yeah, except that I was being laughed AT. It felt like grade 3 recess.

Not very cool.

Sorry guy I didn't mean it that way. I'm sure I'll be on the hotseat with some silly thing I'm bound to do (based on my pasted history) at some point in the future. Besides IIRC correctly a lot of what was funny was after the thread went off topic. Again apologies.