Aircraft withdrawal and gaining political points

[JamesM]

When you withdraw some squadrons early you sometimes gain political points. I have checked the manual but I can not find any information about how this works. Could anyone tell how this works or point me in the right direction?

[Rob Brennan UK]

I bumped into this same phenomena last night. After i clicked 'no' the option was given
to send pilots/planes into the pools. I did an obvious test and yes you can get PP's
from withdrawing air units (earlier than planned i assume) OR getting the pilots and
planes back in the pools. NOT BOTH .. Considering it is march 42 the 17 PP's offered
didnt match the decent pilots i'd get back, bit of a no btainer but nice to have the
option if PP's become desperately short.

Bravo .. nice (undocumented ?) feature.

[Rocco]

I guess we need documentation for the undocumented features.  The people that developed this game know all this, but we don't.  Don't get me wrong, the manual is big and what's there is good stuff, but that manual probably should have been six or seven hundred pages.

[Flying Tiger]

ORIGINAL: Rob Brennan UK

I bumped into this same phenomena last night. After i clicked 'no' the option was given
to send pilots/planes into the pools. I did an obvious test and yes you can get PP's
from withdrawing air units (earlier than planned i assume) OR getting the pilots and
planes back in the pools. NOT BOTH .. Considering it is march 42 the 17 PP's offered
didnt match the decent pilots i'd get back, bit of a no btainer but nice to have the
option if PP's become desperately short.

Bravo .. nice (undocumented ?) feature.

DOH!!! I said yes! didnt know a second option was coming..... GRRRR!!

[Flying Tiger]

ok. How do i get the AC from the units i withdraw to enter the pool? I just get the 'units and pilots will be lost' message! what am i doing wrong????????

[Kumppi]

If there is an air group, in the same base, that flies the same aircraft type as the air group you are about to disband/withdraw the planes will be transferred to that squadron. If there is no such air group the aircrafts may be returned to the pool if within reach of the group's home base.
 
What is meant by home base I am not totally sure, but I think it means the air HQ and/or command HQ the air group is attached to.

[John Lansford]

I had several bomber squadrons in mainland US that had to be withdrawn early in the war.  I hadn't moved them from their original base, but when I tried to withdraw them that option was greyed out.  I ended up having to disband them in order to stop the loss of political points.  I tried transfering some to other bases but the withdraw option was still greyed out.  Some were B-17 units and others were B-18's.  Anyone else find this?

[Mike Solli]

John, I remember reading somewhere on the forum back when the game came out that if you couldn't withdraw, to go ahead and disband.  That would cover the requirement.

[John Lansford]

Mike, I did that since I saw no other option.  I was just wondering why I couldn't withdraw them when they were at their original base.

[crsutton]

ORIGINAL: John Lansford

Mike, I did that since I saw no other option.  I was just wondering why I couldn't withdraw them when they were at their original base.

John,

Dunno the answer but the manual does say that those that cannot be withdrawn need to be disbanded. I am sure there is some design reason for it but it is not stated

[Rob Brennan UK]

I 'think' some air units are hard coded to not send pilots or a/c back into the pools, It's darn hard to spot them, but i 'think' that if there is only a disband option and the units share the base with other similar units then they are lost.

From limited playing i would suggest to any allied player to ONLY put those squadrons that don't disband on replacements and leave all those silly 1 plane groups alone. That said though some limited availability units seem to be very useful (P40's and dauntless/banshee units in OZ that have to go by 15th march) crummy exp but better than nothing and gives the allied played a bit more time to get real a/c into the theatre.

Disclaimer - 'think' = wild guess.

[John Lansford]

Those Banshee squadrons evaporate really fast when thrown into the fighting around Port Moresby; I doubt anyone will have to worry about missing their withdrawal date.  Now the P-40 squadrons that show up, I wish I could keep them; the AI has been sending unescorted Betty flights over Port Moresby to attack my shipping and the P-40's are racking up some impressive kill numbers.  The Bettys now retreat after losing 1-2 planes and my ships are undamaged!

[Canoerebel]

Bump on this thread for the following reason:

In my game with Miller, several B-26 squadrons at Fresno are due to be withdrawn but the withdraw button is greyed-out. IE, I can't withdraw these aircraft. I tried transferring some to San Francisco, but some problem there. I've read through this thread and the best advice apparently is to disband the unit, so I'm proceeding to do that. But I wanted to know if knowledge regarding this "problem" has increased since the last post in this thread. Is disbanding still the way to go?

P.S. The manual is silent on this topic as best I can tell (grrr).

[Halsey]

ORIGINAL: Canoerebel

Bump on this thread for the following reason:

In my game with Miller, several B-26 squadrons at Fresno are due to be withdrawn but the withdraw button is greyed-out. IE, I can't withdraw these aircraft. I tried transferring some to San Francisco, but some problem there. I've read through this thread and the best advice apparently is to disband the unit, so I'm proceeding to do that. But I wanted to know if knowledge regarding this "problem" has increased since the last post in this thread. Is disbanding still the way to go?

P.S. The manual is silent on this topic as best I can tell (grrr).

No withdrawl toggle, disband instead.

PP bonus for early withdrawl, only for non-restricted airgroups.

[jmbraat]

Weren't many of these "restricted" units withdrawn from the West Coast and deplored to Europe?

[LiquidSky]

ORIGINAL: John Mark

Weren't many of these "restricted" units withdrawn from the West Coast and deplored to Europe?

Yes...I deplore them being deployed to Europe

[Sardaukar]

In lot of units (those that have withdrawal date), after you withdraw them, there is message "Planes and pilots sent to pool". AFAIK, those that have withdrawal date but can only be disbanded, represent planes and pilots permanently sent out of the Pacific theatre, pilots and planes are lot.
 
Of course there are normal withdrawal and disband options for units that do not have withdrawal date.