Matrix Games Forums

The ratings of the aircraft in Pacific War have changed considerably since the original version, and therefore, strategies for aircraft production also need to be revised. I thought I would put my notes and advice before the public. I have focused primarily on the early decisions, since later the Allies have plenty of production capacity and don't have to make trade-offs.

Fighters: the increase of the P-40E's range to 4 makes it hands down the best Allied fighter at the beginning of the game. Two factories should be set to produce F4F Wildcats so that the Allied carriers have something to work with, and then every other fighter and fighter-bomber factory should produce P-40E Warhawks. It will take a couple of months for the numbers you want, but a squadron of experienced P-40E's can cause grief to the sons of the Emperor on land, sea, or air. I personally think that when the P-38F Lightning becomes available, it should be ignored: it's more expensive and it's not a fighter-bomber. But when the F4U Corsair comes on line, throw caution to the winds. Make lots, and equip every squadron you can. (Note that in Ver. 2.3, the Corsair is slightly superior to the F6F Hellcat, the reverse of the situation in the original game.) One final observation: the F8F Bearcat is a great plane, but by the time it comes along, a competent Allied commander will already have won the war. <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

For dive-bombers, the aircraft of choice is still the SBD Dauntless. The SB2U Vindactor is as capable at bombing and only half as expensive, but against fighters the Vindactor gets slaughtered. Also, the Allies rarely encounter a shortage of reserve dive-bombers; there aren't enough squadrons at the beginning of the war.

The subject of torpedo bombers brings up a bug which I haven't seen reported yet. The computer switches the American torpedo bomber factory to TBF Avengers immediately at the beginning of Campaign 41. Oh, if only it were so. The sad truth is that the factory "hangs fire" for months--the "*" next to production doesn't go away until the first squadrons start appearing, usually around the end of April. Set the American factory to Devastators. They aren't much good, but they're better than the nothing you get otherwise. The British factory in Calcutta has an interesting choice: it starts out producing Swordfish, but the Vildebeast is a slightly better airplane. The question is whether it's enough of an improvement to justify losing a month's production.

Medium bombers or "tac-bombers" is where the Allied player has to make some tough decisions. The best early bomber is the B-25 Mitchell, which its range of 5 and bombload of 30. Some players prefer to make nothing but Mitchells. But the Mitchell isn't available for several turns. I prefer a more varied mix: some Mitchells, but also the A-20 Havoc for its excellent performance against enemy fighters, the Wellington for its outstanding range, and above all the Beaufort. You see, the Beaufort, and later the Beaufighter as well, has one great advantage which does not show up in the docs: it does NOT have to be assigned the "Naval Interdiction" mission to attack enemy ships. These are the planes to use when your airbase is in range of a staging area for Japanese shipping. Especially, squadrons in South-West China can often reap a gratifying harvest. On the other hand, when you're defending a base and expecting Japanese carriers to show up, the plane to use is the A-20 Havoc set to Naval Interdiction, and escorted by P-40E's.

Heavy Bombers: WHAT DO YOU MEAN, THE B-17'S RANGE IS ONLY 6?!? Well, that definitely means the B-24 should be produced with both factories when it becomes available. But get some B-29's when you can; its bomb load and range make it well worth the extra expense.

Hi, in 2 human games one of the common house rules is in regards to aircraft (who can fly what)
British and commonwealth factories have to build British or Commonwealth aircraft. US air groups have to fly US aircraft (Army has to fly Army and Navy/Marine have to fly Navy/Marine types-the exception is that large Army bomb group equipped with SBD at start it can change or keep) but the rest can fly whatever they want. I wait intill the Mitchell is being built before switching the factories. (Marader and Havoc remain in operational groups intill mid 43 as I tend to build the new airgroups before changeing the old) I like to have a few groups of Beaufighter X when they become available.
As Japan I build Oscar Zero Betty Helen Val Kate and Mary. I stop production of Sonia-Sally-Lilly-Nell I change 1 15 Zero factory to Oscar (Otherwise it takes forever to re-equip all those Nate groups) I first change the Lilly groups to Helen and then start on the Sally groups to Helen. Keep one or 2 Sonias (they can base from a size 2 airfield) rest change to Mary.

The house rules turn out not to make much of a difference. The techniques I use already allow for British bombers. For fighters, the Commonwealth factories should build the Kittyhawk II at first, which is nearly the equal of the P-40E at short range. (The Allied player should still equip as many squadrons as possible with the P-40E.) And the British carriers should certainly be allowed to fly Wildcats: several of them operated Martlets, which were Wildcats built for export.

Later on, I admit, the rule becomes a bit more of a problem. If the Commonwealth factories cannot build those lovely Corsairs and Thunderbolts, then they will have to build Spitfires, and Mosquitoes, which are now more useful than in the original game.

I differ with you view on aircraft. I like to use both the p40c and p38f. These aircraft can intercept a raid, escort a attack and then do another air sweep. If the Japanese air is not to tough these unit can very rapidly increase there experince level.

That's a clever use of one of the lesser-known quirks of Pacific War: pure fighters will launch a "fighter sweep" mission as well as defending bases and escorting raids, but fighter-bombers will not. However, in the early turns of the game, nearly every Allied fighter squadron will be butchered by Japanese fighters. This is realistic, since the Japanese pilot corps was probably the best trained in the world in December 1941. The single exception to this is the AVG or "Flying Tigers", which of course use the P-40C. Still, there should be enough of a reserve of P-40C's to keep the Tigers going so that the Allied player can concentrate on making P-40E's.

Hi, too bad the order of attacks is not reversed (the fighter sweep take place before the bombing attack)

I agree you wish for a fighter sweep first. I also have noticed the Japanese always seem to get the first attacks it. In the game a time should come when the allies get the upper hand a have first shot at the Japanese. Maybe if the side with a leed in scoring by a certain percentage gets first shot and if scoring is about even it could be random.

The "fighter sweep" was Adm Marc A Mitscher's brainchild. He first used it in the 1943 raids on Truk, with devastating results. The game doesn't model it correctly and the fact that Mitscher uesd F6Fs for his sweeps doesn't translate in the game either.

In any event, Adm Mitscher was one of the greatest fighting admirals is US History.

I am using this post to test the new site. I notice no new postings have occurred since the end of February.
So isn't anyone going to comment about bombers?

In version 3.2 I'm using the Wellington as the British standard bomber. It has nearly double range than the rest of British bombers, and is only marginally more expensive than the rest.

The Wellington is indeed a valuable bomber because of its range. Effectively, I think it also has the greatest bombload of any British bomber: in V. 2.3 bombs delivered are a function of range as well as capacity.

However, when the Beaufighter X becomes available (usually around November '42) I highly recommend switching at least one factory to building it. It does very well against enemy fighters--in fact, an experienced squadron against the weaker Japanese planes doesn't need fighter escort. Even more important, the fact that it will attack Japanese ships without being set to "Naval Interdiction" makes it very handy wherever you expect the IJN but aren't sure. And when it does, it drops the more reliable British torpedoes. A couple of squadrons at the right bases can make the Indian Ocean strictly off limits to the IJN.

Just a test message.

Originally posted by Capt. Harlock
the fact that it will attack Japanese ships without being set to "Naval Interdiction" makes it very handy wherever you expect the IJN but aren't sure. And when it does, it drops the more reliable British torpedoes. A couple of squadrons at the right bases can make the Indian Ocean strictly off limits to the IJN.

Yep!. The last game I played against the AI (enough challenge for me!!) I was able to hold to Timor and the Australian Beaufighters really kicked some Japs CV's tryin' to get there (with a little help from my US carriers):D. Is this capacity of the Beaufighter intended or just a bug of the game?

The Beaufighter was an EXTREMELY potent anti ship aircraft. It's not as good all around as the B25, so I standardised on the Mitchell, butthe Beaufighter was known by the Japanese as the "wispering death".

Yes, I knew that. What I meant was that the rest of Allied tactical bombers in PacWar need the NI order to attack shipping, which means that they don't land-attack.
Is this related to the position of the Beau in the aircraft database?.

On the other hand, I think that the Beaufighter, despite the lighter load and shorter range, performs better in presence of enemy fighters.

Yes, I knew that. What I meant was that the rest of Allied tactical bombers in PacWar need the NI order to attack shipping, which means that they don't land-attack.
Is this related to the position of the Beau in the aircraft database?.

On the other hand, I think that the Beaufighter, despite the lighter load and shorter range, performs better in presence of enemy fighters.

I belive that the Marine are suppose to switch to Avenger's sometime in '44, but in playing the game I don't see this happening. does the game no longer allow this??

I didn't realize that the Beaufighter didn't need the NI mission to attack enemy TFs. I'm totally confused on this now.

I was under the impression that all tac bombers refued to attack TFs unlsee set to NI. That not what the rules stated either.

The rules stated that USAAF and IJAF ARMY bombers (not bomber units) would only attack TFs with the NI mission. Even that wasn't in the rule book, but rather was in PWHINTS v11.

So much for accuracy and completeness in the rule manual.

So, what really seems to be the case is the specific plane type, not necesarily the unit.

That makes the Beaufighter MUCH more desirable. Probably more so than the B-25.

I have no idea if the Beaufighter is hard coded specially, but thanks for the gerat revelation.


About USMC avenger groups. You can't "convert" a dive bomber to a torpedo bomber group, but several USMC VMTB squadrons show up equipped with avengers starting in 1944. Additionally, several USMC VMB squadrons show up equipped with B-25s (I think I'll change these to Beaufighters.):D

I'm working from experience only, not having a chance to go through the source code. But it seems to me that the Allies and the Japanese are each given two medium- or "tac"-bombers that do not require the "NI" mission to attack ships. For the Japanese, these are the G3M Nell and the G4M Betty. For the Allies, the Beaufort and the Beaufighter. I have never seen the type of squadron, whether USAAF, British, USMC, Australian, or Dutch, make a difference.

A thought about converting USMC squadrons to Beaufighters: if you're playing against a human, check if he has a "house rule" against converting American squadrons to non-American planes.

I haven't played any PBEM, too many uncontrollable "stupid human tricks" in the game, Even my best friend would try to hang me out to dry with them, espcially since I drubbed him the last time we played a connected game of anything.

since the USMC bomber units take forever to arrive, I would probably have the dozedn or so RAAF and RNZAF units use Beuafighters.

I didn't know that there was a 2 plane per side exception to the NI restriction.