fixing and maximizing carrier loads

[lostsm]

playing as japs, my TF of light carriers has most of the aircrafts in reserve

at one point i had unloaded all of the planes in the base hex the TF was in (osaka) and then got more carrier based planes moved there and disbanded so i could maximize my load on the carriers. many turns later, the air groups now all have a small max size (hence the reserve problem), and I'm not sure how to fix this. I searched on the forums and there's a lot of very old threads suggesting all sorts of things

one thing I did was dock my carrier TF (in singapore), unloaded the planes and see if this fixed it, but all that happened is the reserve planes dissapeared and the air groups max size is still real small.

so how can i go about refilling my carriers? i don't see any new TB or fighters coming any time soon to replace this aircrafts, so should I just find new air groups and refill my carriers again manually?


which brings me to how do can you go about maximizing the loads?

i find this to be a real pain to accomplish. first you have to find the air groups, fly them in then split them up. then you have to come up with the right disbanding so you end up with the right amount for the right carrier, so it's a lot of hit and miss I find.

is there an easy way to do this, or do you just have to accept the default game loadout as given to you? kind of unfair IMO that I can't max out my planes VS USA carriers that can carry up to 100. i understand historically this all makes sense, but gamewise it is dissapointing that i can't customize my loads as i see fit

[rtrapasso]

ORIGINAL: lostsm

playing as japs, my TF of light carriers has most of the aircrafts in reserve

at one point i had unloaded all of the planes in the base hex the TF was in (osaka) and then got more carrier based planes moved there and disbanded so i could maximize my load on the carriers. many turns later, the air groups now all have a small max size (hence the reserve problem), and I'm not sure how to fix this. I searched on the forums and there's a lot of very old threads suggesting all sorts of things

one thing I did was dock my carrier TF (in singapore), unloaded the planes and see if this fixed it, but all that happened is the reserve planes dissapeared and the air groups max size is still real small.

so how can i go about refilling my carriers? i don't see any new TB or fighters coming any time soon to replace this aircrafts, so should I just find new air groups and refill my carriers again manually?


which brings me to how do can you go about maximizing the loads?

i find this to be a real pain to accomplish. first you have to find the air groups, fly them in then split them up. then you have to come up with the right disbanding so you end up with the right amount for the right carrier, so it's a lot of hit and miss I find.

is there an easy way to do this, or do you just have to accept the default game loadout as given to you? kind of unfair IMO that I can't max out my planes VS USA carriers that can carry up to 100. i understand historically this all makes sense, but gamewise it is dissapointing that i can't customize my loads as i see fit

It is a bad idea to unload your airgroups from your carriers, as you are finding out.

The game is set up to be (quasi)historical, so you can't get as many aircraft on IJN CVs as on USN ones... you are pretty much stuck with the defaults... you could try writing a mod if this is too upsetting, or there may be a mod out there already that does this (but i don't know if there is.)

EDIT: As for fixing the problem of small unit size: load your planes back onto the carrier, and keep adding aircraft to the unit up to its maximum size of the unit... that's as big as it can get... you can always load another unit onto the CV if there is room (for both max. # of planes and units on the carrier involved.)

[lostsm]

it's not upsetting. i'm just trying to figure out how to go about it the best way because i've read many threads where the 115% rule is mentioned... so then if I want to overload a carrier, best to just transfer planes into the carrier and not go about to build a new group?

as for the unloading airgroups is a bad idea... why is this? is it just some old bugs, or is the game reassigning planes/pilots or something like that?

one of my fighter groups has a max size of 1 [:D]  (not really a group now is it!)

[herwin]

ORIGINAL: lostsm

it's not upsetting. i'm just trying to figure out how to go about it the best way because i've read many threads where the 115% rule is mentioned... so then if I want to overload a carrier, best to just transfer planes into the carrier and not go about to build a new group?

as for the unloading airgroups is a bad idea... why is this? is it just some old bugs, or is the game reassigning planes/pilots or something like that?

one of my fighter groups has a max size of 1 [:D]  (not really a group now is it!)

Sounds like a bug.

[rtrapasso]

as for the unloading airgroups is a bad idea... why is this? is it just some old bugs,

Multiple bugs, and it sounds like one (or more) bit you really you badly!! [X(]

Only way to get up to 115% for the IJN is to transfer some smaller air unit(s) onto the CV. Sometimes you can use units that are normally land-based, but often there are "leftover" units if another carrier is sunk and at least some the aircraft got off.

[Mike Solli]

There are other ways to get to the magic 115% on a Japanese carrier. As you take losses, I assume you disband chutai into your carrier daitai to bring them back up to strength. Do a bit of calculation and disband a chutai of the appropriate size to get the total on the carrier to <115%. If the daitai is over the max, the remaining aircraft will go into reserve, but they'll be ready replacements for the inevitable losses you take.