noobish questions

[bush]

A) Looking at the Aircraft Replacement screen. On the left I see a "replacement" rate and a "production " rate. Some planes have numbers in both columns, some in one and not in the other.

1) What is the difference between the two rates?

2) What do the 0's represent in either column?



B) Let's say I do a massive air attack on n enemy base.

1) Are port Supply hits different (in GAME terms) than Airbase supply hits?

2) What is the difference (again, in game terms) between Runway hit and an Airbase hit?

3) What game mechanic constitutes if the runway or the airbase is targeted/hit?

4) For the stricken base, what is the priority order for repairing all the different damage that is done?

5) Finally, I have read in this forum many times that attacks on PORTS should be used to silence CD's. I have seen combat from air attacks on an AF result in "guns" being destroyed. Are these non-CD tubes?

Thanks in advance for the answers!

[Panther Bait]

As far as I know these are correct:
 
A) 1) I am least sure of this one.  I think production rate is on-map production of airframes (i.e. factories that can be shut off), and replacement rate is off-map production representing factories not present on the map.  Effectively you get the combination of the two as the total replacement rate of that airframe to the pool.
   2) Zero's represent no production of that airframe from that type of sourse.  For production rate that could be because the factories are turned off, or it could be because you don't have any factories for that type (obsolete aircraft or aircraft that have not been put in production yet).  You might be able to increase this if you can turn back on (Allies or Japan) or you can convert/build factories (Japan only).  For replacement rate, it means that no off-site factories are building that type right now.
 
B) 1) I do not believe there is any effective difference between port and airbase supply hits and they both drop the supply level in the hex somewhat (supposedly about 1% per hit).   It could be my imagination, but I do seem to sense that when the port or the airbase get to very high damage levels, the number of supply hits drops off.  So if you are only port striking and see the supply hits stop, you might get some more if you switch to airbase strikes instead (assuming there is an airbase there). 
   2) Runway damage is tracked differently than general airbase damage.  If you look at the base screen you can see the damage levels for the airbase, the runway and the port. Both runway and airbase have to be below 50% for non-CAP missions to fly, but I not completely sure how the two affect other operations.  I suspect high runway damage increases op losses and airplane damagings, and that high airbase damage decreases air strike efficiency (less strikes and smaller strike sizes) and aircraft repair.
   3) Somewhat random I think. Hidden in the engine.
   4) Not sure, I think the game applies the available repair capacity (engineer points) equally to the damaged facilities.  Depending on the relative sizes of the port and airbase, that might mean that one gets repaired faster than the other since it takes more "points" to repair a level 4 factility than it does a level 3.
   5) Port strikes are more likely to hit coastal defense guns.  Gun hits on airbases are generally AAA guns, I believe.
 
Welcome aboard,
Mike

[engineer]

Base Repair:  for captured bases the precedence is ironclad:  runways are repaired first, airbase service is repaired next, and ports are repaired last.  For combat damage, my experience is that there is an element of randomization added, but the precedence is similar.
 
The other important point is that the amount of damage necessary to knock out an airbase is proportional to the size of the airbase.  For example a size 1 airbase can be damaged badly enough to prohibit operations at a much lower level than a size 10 airbase.  I don't recall the exact damage levels. 
 
My impression is that damaged airbases will also slow the ability of mangled air units to recover damaged aircraft and morale.

[FOW]

A1 - 'Production' is from factories on the map (both Allied and all Japanese). 'Replacement' is recieved from OFF Map (Allied only). This is the monthly amount.

A2 - '0' means none of that aircraft type are being produced/added to pool.

B1 - No difference for for port or airbase supply hits - it's all one supply (port fuel hits would destroy fuel only obviously)

B2 - Airbase damage reduces the effectiveness of your aviation support squads to repair damaged aircraft - the more base damage the harder it is to repair aircraft. Runway damage reduces the number of aircraft that will fly and increase the chance of operational losses when they land. I believe the effects start to be really noticeable from 50% and past 75% most flights will be cancelled even CAP.

B3 - no idea how the code decides which is hit.

B4 - runway damage is repaired first, then airbase, last is port.

B5 - Attacking the port is more likely to hit dedicated CD units. Attacking port or airfield will hit Baseforces (and the guns in them).

[Yamato hugger]

Production is indeed the on-map factory output, and these numbers can change based on damage to factories and expansion of factories (Jap player only). Note that if a factory upgrades to another type (which almost all do as the war goes on), the numbers here will change with it.

Replacements is a permanent replacement rate for that type of airplane. These numbers will never change and contrary to what someone said it is NOT allied only.

In both cases the numbers are average number of aircraft per month. So a "30" would mean you get 1 plane a day. A "15" means you have a 50% chance to get 1 plane or no planes in a given day. So that means that just because you have a "15" doesnt mean you WILL get 15 planes a month. It is possible that you could get 30 (if you made your 50% roll every day) or you could get 0. Its a random. If you have a "90" for example, you WILL get 2 planes each day and a 50% chance of a 3rd, ect.

[cyberwop36]

Air base supply hits also seem to crush morale of the air units there, cutting down your sortie rate.

Welcome aboard bushpu. As you can see from our answers the beauty of this game is the mysteries of it. The unformulated nature of the game and multiple various interrelated factors impact combat efficiency. A+B+C doesn't  always equal victory.

Good luck and keep asking questions.