Pacific War 3.0 (No Encircled please!)

[Lowpe]

Experienced pilots are of critical importance.

Try dogfighting with 55 exp versus 80 exp and you will find out. Night naval bombers really need 80 exp to hit with their torpedoes along with a high naval skill.

[rader]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

Experienced pilots are of critical importance.

Try dogfighting with 55 exp versus 80 exp and you will find out. Night naval bombers really need 80 exp to hit with their torpedoes along with a high naval skill.

That is my suspicion too (exp makes a difference directly in combat), which goes against common wisdom.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: rader
That is my suspicion too (exp makes a difference directly in combat), which goes against common wisdom.

Common wisdom is that xp acts as a critical multiplier in everything you do. Pilots, ships, LCUs - everyone benefits a lot form high xp

[Alfred]

In very general terms the following applies.  Bear in mind, not all the applicable factors are mentioned.
 
 
1.  Pilot skill ratings are used exclusively in combat situations.
 
2.  Non combat situations factor pilot experience level.
 
3.  Combat situations which are not directly addressed by the aptly named skill, use as one of the relevant factors, the experience level.  Experience feeds into and modifies pilot Morale, Fatigue, Disruption levels in combat.
 
4.  In a fighter on fighter confrontation, the jockeying for position is influenced by the relevant skill rating; A2A to engage, DEF to evade.
 
5.  In a fighter on fighter confrontation, after the jockeying for position is determined, an energy state check is made.  This check is partly influenced by the respective pilot experience level.  It determines the actual combat speed at which combat occurs.
 
6.  The combat speed may result in adjusted MRV ratings of the airframes for that specific combat.
 
 
In classical WITP only experience mattered.  This is not the case in AE which has "sub contracted" many of the old classical WITP experience checks to the relevant skill ratings.
 
Alfred

[Lowpe]

ORIGINAL: Alfred

In very general terms the following applies.  Bear in mind, not all the applicable factors are mentioned.


1.  Pilot skill ratings are used exclusively in combat situations.

2.  Non combat situations factor pilot experience level.

3.  Combat situations which are not directly addressed by the aptly named skill, use as one of the relevant factors, the experience level.  Experience feeds into and modifies pilot Morale, Fatigue, Disruption levels in combat.

4.  In a fighter on fighter confrontation, the jockeying for position is influenced by the relevant skill rating; A2A to engage, DEF to evade.

5.  In a fighter on fighter confrontation, after the jockeying for position is determined, an energy state check is made.  This check is partly influenced by the respective pilot experience level.  It determines the actual combat speed at which combat occurs.

6.  The combat speed may result in adjusted MRV ratings of the airframes for that specific combat.


In classical WITP only experience mattered.  This is not the case in AE which has "sub contracted" many of the old classical WITP experience checks to the relevant skill ratings.

Alfred

I always read everything Alfred posts at least twice. [:D]

I always meant, but never got around to it, to train defense first for some Japanese fighter squadrons on anti-sweep duties.

I used low level layered cap, and the lowest layer was always my highest maneuver frames like say an Oscar. Their job is not really to shoot down the Allied sweepers, but to dance with them and avoid being shot down -- an attempt to pull the engagement out of the stratoshpere.

Of course, the war being what the war is for Japan, the worst pilots ended up flying Oscars, with the 70 air 70 def pilots, when I could get them, all going into Franks, Georges, Jacks or CVs.

But the attraction of training pilots in defense would lessen the pilot training a fair bit, not half but a fair bit. Defense is always a tough skill to train.

By the end of the war, Japan usually struggles to get an Ace past 20 kills before going down himself, while the American pilots rack up staggering amount of kills and sorties. I think the game does a really good job here...

[BBfanboy]

I disagree on the difficulty of training pilots in Defensive Skill. I have mine train in Strafe or LowG/LowN, flying at 100 or 1000 feet respectively. I also use 1000 feet for Air Skill training. The Defensive Skill rises quickly with low level training.

[RangerJoe]

You could also train pilots in Low Nav to increase the defensive skill. That way they are also ready to die for their Emperor . . .

[inqistor]

Maybe Transport skill influences missions like para-drops, and dropping supplies? Just wild guess.

I am making some small experiment right now, and left one of my air units on General Training. It seems to train Defense skill quite fast, but all pilots delivered there were completely green, so it might be just coincidence.

[Alpha77]

I handled non combat training and building quite low priority. Eg. transport, recon and search. One must give priority with limited resources, this means skills that give your air a chance to maintain air superiority at least over own bigger bases. I found recon + search average skills and exp will do. Not so for air and anti naval combat. I have now some better transport units with the new Helen transport, I found with ca. 65 transport skill and 60 exp they do a much better job in moving men and light guns then the lower skill transport pilots (but they also fly worse planes), more stuff gets to the destination with almost no op losses.

For air combat sure exp is also important, just the same as air and def skills. I found 63 exp pilots in Franks might be worse then 70 exp pilots in Tojo 2c´s. I also have made some tests in the Marianas scen, where ZeroM5s with high exp pilots did ok vs. Hellcat sweeps. Not great cause they lack firepower and speed in the end, but they often are able to escape. This was not true for some Frank As with only ca. 60 exp. The Frank only got better when they got some better pilots. So pilot skill/exp is very important sometimes more than the plane itseld they fly. If it is not totally BS like the early Oscar mind you..

Edit, the Zeros also had more planes in the air then Frank or George btw. The airfield for Franks and Georges is size 5 the one with the Zeros size 4, still the Zeros seemed to join the battle faster for some reason (means more numbers to meet the enemy). I wonder if SR3 planes have a malus of some kind also in how fast they get in the air, perhaps longer service time is modelled also in air combat...

[Alpha77]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

More effective if you match speeds and then fire a sustained burst into the belly. But the game might not model this, nor the cannon fire going into the bomb bay . . .

It models it - at least the firing from underneath, I made some tests with the Marianas scen where some old IJN nightfighters are included they ONLY have a schräge Musik and NO forward firing gun. But these are totally useless I have to say vs. 4Es one can only hope the model which gets a radar and at least also forward firing guns is better, even if a bit slower...

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: Alfred

In very general terms the following applies.  Bear in mind, not all the applicable factors are mentioned.


1.  Pilot skill ratings are used exclusively in combat situations.

2.  Non combat situations factor pilot experience level.

3.  Combat situations which are not directly addressed by the aptly named skill, use as one of the relevant factors, the experience level.  Experience feeds into and modifies pilot Morale, Fatigue, Disruption levels in combat.

4.  In a fighter on fighter confrontation, the jockeying for position is influenced by the relevant skill rating; A2A to engage, DEF to evade.

5.  In a fighter on fighter confrontation, after the jockeying for position is determined, an energy state check is made.  This check is partly influenced by the respective pilot experience level.  It determines the actual combat speed at which combat occurs.

6.  The combat speed may result in adjusted MRV ratings of the airframes for that specific combat.


In classical WITP only experience mattered.  This is not the case in AE which has "sub contracted" many of the old classical WITP experience checks to the relevant skill ratings.

Alfred

I always read everything Alfred posts at least twice. [:D]

I always meant, but never got around to it, to train defense first for some Japanese fighter squadrons on anti-sweep duties.

I used low level layered cap, and the lowest layer was always my highest maneuver frames like say an Oscar. Their job is not really to shoot down the Allied sweepers, but to dance with them and avoid being shot down -- an attempt to pull the engagement out of the stratoshpere.

Of course, the war being what the war is for Japan, the worst pilots ended up flying Oscars, with the 70 air 70 def pilots, when I could get them, all going into Franks, Georges, Jacks or CVs.

But the attraction of training pilots in defense would lessen the pilot training a fair bit, not half but a fair bit. Defense is always a tough skill to train.

By the end of the war, Japan usually struggles to get an Ace past 20 kills before going down himself, while the American pilots rack up staggering amount of kills and sorties. I think the game does a really good job here...

I accidentally train defence first a lot on my fighter groups! [:D]

I usually train to about 40exp/70air and then switch to 100% 100ft sweep. That gets them to 70 defense after a while. Once I pull them I often forget to change the training altitude.

It hasn't really mattered much which one come first. If it's 100ft sweep I train to 60 or so defense, and they'll be very low in experience still, so I can then train air.

[obvert]

ORIGINAL: Lowpe

ORIGINAL: rader

In terms of Allied tactics, Encircled is a top notch player. One devious tactic he uses is to sweep bases or hexes 2 hexes away from my airfields with P-38s so that he can entice small groups of CAP to their death in a fight at highly uneven odds. I know I can set my cap to maximum 1-hex (or even 0 hexes which I assume means only over the airfield?) but sometimes I need to run LRCAP or need to stay flexible to respond to more than one hex.

Is there any good way to respond to this tactic, other than doing it back to him?

You have to restrict your cap to 0 hexes to prevent this. Sweepers are at a huge advantage against lrcap. Especially set your lrcap to 0 hexes so it doesn't stray from the target hex.

About the only time I set it to greater than 1 hex, is in rear area bomber only defense, and even then pretty rarely as it greatly reduces effectiveness. I will do it over sea areas where naval battles are expected to cover any damaged ships retreating...but you can't sweep sea hexes. Oh, night fighters usually get a 0 or 1 or 2 depending upon the area.

You don't have to set it 0. You can also set to a higher defensive altitude than he's using to sweep. If that isn't possible, then it might be best to set to 0.

All of this is cat and mouse.

If you have radar in the hex from AA or base forces not in a base, your low level layered CAP can still be effective while bleeding.

[rader]

July 17, 1942.

On Jul 15, the Allies landed a Marine regiment on Tulagi, where I've got a major seaplane base. He has about 150 AV ashore to my ~50. He might take it as-is, or he might need to land a bit more. We're both reinforcing halfheartedly and bombing/bombarding but I think neither of us want to get sucked into a major Guadalcanal campaign.

Yesterday, July 16, 18 Bettys from Rabaul bombed the marines on Tulagi and encountered 4 F2A Buffaloes flying LRCAP. Luckily, the Japanese force included 30 Zero escorts who swept aside the CAP for no loss. But, we knew there had to be an Allied carrier in the area, most likely CVE Long Island based on the date. Submarines were sent out to scout the seas south of Tulagi, and today scored the first carrier kill of the war (assuming she goes down of course, but 2 torpedoes on a CVE with a fuel storage explosion is likely very bad).

[rader]

Oops, the defenses on Tulagi are crumbling worse than expected. Here's the first deliberate attack. Tulagi should fall very soon.

[rader]

On the China front, we finally opened up a main road supply path to Chungking. Supply draw along the minor road from the North didn't actually seem like much of a problem before, but now supply should flow nicely. Forces are gathering for the first assault on the city.

[RangerJoe]

For Tulagi, I would fly in reinforcements just to prolong his agony.

For Chungking, I would bomb and/or bombard (if possible) any units that can draw supplies from Chungking. Whether or not they are in the city, I would bomb them. I believe that any attack raises the supply consumption of the units by 10%. So break down some bombers into small packets and bomb as many target hexes as is possible.

That is great work on the Long Island. Any Allied carrier down, especially now, is a good ship.

[rader]

Another successful raid by DD Tachekaze! That ship has really earned its pay as a commerce hunter. Now if it can only successfully make it home to Japan...

[PaxMondo]

ORIGINAL: RangerJoe

For Tulagi, I would fly in reinforcements just to prolong his agony.

For Chungking, I would bomb and/or bombard (if possible) any units that can draw supplies from Chungking. Whether or not they are in the city, I would bomb them. I believe that any attack raises the supply consumption of the units by 10%. So break down some bombers into small packets and bomb as many target hexes as is possible.

That is great work on the Long Island. Any Allied carrier down, especially now, is a good ship.

Or much more. If they react with AA, the supply consumption can be extreme. Just as in RL, ground unit fire everything they can, even if it can't reach the altitude necessary. Preserves their morale in doing so, but expends a lot of supply.

[rader]

What's going on with Waigeo?

I assume it's actually clear as indicated in the code but it sure looks JR on the map!

It would be a great place for a base if JR; if clear, not so much. I wonder which it's supposed to be?

[RangerJoe]

JR is great for a base for defensive purposes.