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Matrix:

All in all, a great game. I do have a problem though with the plane types at Rabaul in the August 1st through Dec. 31, 1942.

The Zeros that are present at Rabaul on August 1st, 1942 were not A6M3's, but were A6M2's. Without the A6m2's present, the Japanese are **seriously** hamstrung buy the short-ranged A6m3's. Hell, the first A6m2's don't show up until September 7th!

The A6m3's CANNOT reach Tulagi or Laguna. The A6m2's can and did.

I find it hard to believe that the vast majority of zeros located in the SW Pacific in this time period were, as the reinforcement schedual calls for, A6M3s.

Hello...

Rich handles the OOB issues. I will let him know of your concerns.

Michael Wood
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Originally posted by HirooOnoda
Matrix:

All in all, a great game. I do have a problem though with the plane types at Rabaul in the August 1st through Dec. 31, 1942.

The Zeros that are present at Rabaul on August 1st, 1942 were not A6M3's, but were A6M2's. Without the A6m2's present, the Japanese are **seriously** hamstrung buy the short-ranged A6m3's. Hell, the first A6m2's don't show up until September 7th!

The A6m3's CANNOT reach Tulagi or Laguna. The A6m2's can and did.

I find it hard to believe that the vast majority of zeros located in the SW Pacific in this time period were, as the reinforcement schedual calls for, A6M3s.

according to Frank, Guadalcanal, both a6m2 (24) and a6m3(15) were at Rabaul. IIRC the A6m3 had just arrived.

A6M3 Production times

Model 32 - 340 produced from June '42 to Dec '42 (plus 3 prototypes)
Model 22 - 560 produced from Dec '42 to Aug '43.



The Model 32 was the short range version with a bigger engine and clipped wings.

The Model 22 introduced wing tanks and the long wing with folding tips to restore the range lost from the A6M2 to A6M3/32 transition.

Originally posted by zed
according to Frank, Guadalcanal, both a6m2 (24) and a6m3(15) were at Rabaul. IIRC the A6m3 had just arrived.

Yes, I have seen that there were A6M3's at Rabaul, BUT the game doesn't have any of the A6M2's that were present that flew on August 7/8 (which day I can't remember). It was in that battle that Saburo Sakai was wounded in the eye and made his famous flight. That is how I know there were M2s in Rabaul on taht day. This hamstrings the Japanese player.

There will be some A6m2's in the 1.50 patch due in a week or two.
We found the problem.

I hope Vals will be getting the 250kg bomb for their extended range attacks in 1.50.

It is this level of attenion to detail, by both the player-base and the developers, that makes UV (and my expectations for WITP) 2nd to none.

-F-

I wonder if as long as you're perfecting the OB, it might be worth looking at the pilot ratings of replacements, and the manner in which they are distributed. Yesterday I binged on UV and saw some pretty interesting things.

1. Some units are coming in with almost no planes, as little as 4, but many more pilots. Some are coming in with as many as 27 or so planes, but barely have 10 pilots.

2. I expect replacement quality to be fairly low for the Japanes, but I have 2 questions about it. First, I wonder if the flying schools continued to train good pilots, or if all the pilots are being rushed out. It seems unlikely to me that by May of '42 they would have completely scrapped their elite naval aviation programs, but then again I don't know. Also, some of the pilots coming in had ratings in the 20s. I have to say that I find this very unlikely, though again I have not research it carefully. It seems to me that a mix of quality is probably correct, but I'd cut out the really low ratings and probably include a trickle of well trained crews.

Mike

The elite training program fell apart very quickly.

Basically, if you were not in the training prior to the Pacific War, you did not get the whole thing.

American policy was to rotate stateside experienced pilots to training centers. The goal was to make average to above average pilots, and get the survival skills need for OJT to not be blocked by sudden death.

The Japanese system did not involve this rotation of combat veterans back to training bases, thus the experience these guys had died with them.

The reason was the Japanese had a limited war view; they expected a quick and sharp hammer blow by the elite to cut deep enough to make the US give up; essentially bowing to the 'obvious' superiortiy of the Japanese warrior.

Of course, the US view was not conruent with this. They viewed the war as unlimited, and thus they used time as a tool of war, not shock.

As someone else put it, the Japanese came in playing a game of Chess with the Americans. The Americans could put them in check mate, but the Japanes could not do the same. simply because it was impossible for Japan to conquer the US annd aslo impossible for them to blockade and starve the US, while Japan was vulnerable to both.

They depended on scaring the Americans away from the game.

Thing is, we did not play their game.

Read the following from the Naval Institute Press:

Kaigan: The rise of the Imperial Japanese Navy

and its companion volume:

Sunburst: The rise of Japanese Naval Aviation.

Bill.

Hi all,

Just one small correction/addendum...

Originally posted by Wilhammer
The Japanese system did not involve this rotation of combat veterans back to training bases, thus the experience these guys had died with them.

This is true in general but they did withdraw some of their (Japanese) best
pilots back to Japan. Saburo Sakai (with one eye) was training young pilots
when he recovered from injury and few of his fellow aces (Lae/Buna period)
returned as well.

When things got from bad to worse for Japan even they were allowed to return
to frontlines (and most of them ultimately die in combat against the odds). I think
that Saburo Sakai was one of the very few ace survivors...


Leo "Apollo11"

I've heard good things about Sunburst, that would probably be the source. However, that still brings me back to my posting.

1. The assignments of pilots and aircraft are often haywire; i.e., lots of planes with few pilots and vice versa.

2. Again, without serious grounding, I would not expect them to be sending totally unqualified pilots out in mid '42. Maybe not great pilots, maybe some lacking complete training, but when I saw one rated 27 in early June of '42 that didn't seem right.

Mike

Apollo11

I would not call it a correction.

Sending wounded pilots back to recoop and then decide they need to train hardly constitutes a policy.

Hi all,

Originally posted by Wilhammer
Apollo11

I would not call it a correction.

Sending wounded pilots back to recoop and then decide they need to train hardly constitutes a policy.

Bill, I wrote injured Saburo Sakai and his fellow aces from
Buna/Lae period.

This included unjured pilot aces as well (like Nishizawa I think).

I don't have the "Samuraj" book here currently...


Leo "Apollo11"