ORIGINAL: c92nichj1 - there is a remove air unit sequence after setting up units that seems unnecessary to me. Every major power is asked whether he wants to remove any air units. Since you just put them on the map instead of into the air reverse pool, the answer will always be NO, won't it?
After reinforcement a player may want to withdraw planes and put them in the reserve, to gain an extra pilot for next turns reinforcements.
from a sequence of play perspective it could be done in the same as the reinforcement stage instead of skipping through each player in a separate phase, it usulaly how it is played anyhow.
Yes, this is how it is done presently. When setting up units, you have so many pilots that you assign to air units, and then place the air units on the map. Once all the pilots have been assigned, the remaining air units are placed in the air reserve. Or, you can directly move air untis to the air reserve and acheive the effect of having extra pilot(s) available for the next turn. These activities can be done in any order (and undone) up to the point that you commit to ending your setup phase.
As Patrice points out, there is the possibility that a player, based on how other players have set up after his own setup, may want to remove an air unit from the map. I have to struggle to think of a reason that the new information of how the opponent has set up might create a desire to remove an air unit. But I guess it's possible. I just find it extremely unlikely and there is the downside that following the WIF FE rules precisely in this regard has every new game start with a pretty much useless cycle through all the players asking if they want to remove air units. Boring![>:]
