when looking at the squad management screen, theres a yellow link named "Planes" (just right of "Pilots" and "Aircraft Data"). For a typical squad of mine, it looks like the screen at the end. How do I read this screen? Is this material fatigue - and at which values I should get concerned?
It is airframe/engine fatigue, yes, and you do need to be concerned about it. High levels affect ops losses I believe. Fixing it can be slow, particularly with carrier planes.
Each player has their own limits, influenced by events and need for the planes to fly. For the Allies in the early war you have to do what you have to do. For myself I don't worry about numbers in the 20-30s. I worry a lot over 50. Experiment and find your own comfort level.
You will find that the manual is a good, but not always up to date, source of information.
From the manual:
7.4.2.7.1 MAINTENANCE
In addition to a repair state, there is also a ‘maintenance’ state. This is usually representative of non-combat causes (like overhaul, accident, etc) for a plane being stood down. As well as combat damage, planes gain fatigue from use, strain on the airframe, lack of maintenance, etc. When enough fatigue points have been gained, the plane will be automatically stood down for maintenance.A message will be displayed on the screen and in Ops Report when this occurs. Fatigue can be minimized by periodically standing down the group, as this will cause any planes that require repair to be worked on. Repairing also removes some fatigue points as the mechanics will do some needed maintenance at that time. But expect the group to eventually lose planes to maintenance.
There is repair and maintenance. Repair is first, maintenance is second. They go hand in hand.
Planes will gain fatigue depending on what they are doing. Damage and maintenance can sometimes be accomplished overnight without the plane being taken out of service. The game will start pulling planes out for maintenance when the numbers get to be around 60 and above. Not true in every case. You can see planes that are operational with aircraft fatigue in the 50’s as long as they are not damaged. Planes with service numbers of 3 and above can be pulled in the 50’s. You don’t want to let it get that high. The higher it is the longer it takes to repair and the more danger to the aircraft. A plane that has fatigue in the 60’s can take over a week to repair.
In most cases planes are going to get pulled because of damage instead of fatigue.
You can see planes pulled that have a few points of damage and a fatigue as low as 2.
You want to get damage and fatigue as low as you can without compromising the mission.
I like fatigue to be lower than 30. I want damage to be zero. Find you own limits.
Operational loss is a normal occurrence. I use a few rules of thumb to minimize loss.
Rest your air groups. Per the manual you can do that by periodically standing down and/or setting rest as a percentage. I suggest you do both. 20% to 30% rest is a good starting point. Adjust as required.
On the aircraft data screen you can look at the service number; the higher the number the more maintenance that type of plane will require. Planes with high service numbers generally require more aviation support and will be pulled more often. They will accumulate damage faster.
You want to give those plane types more rest and more aviation support.
Try to have the required aviation support at your bases.
You want one aviation support point for every plane.
More is always better, especially for high maintenance aircraft.
For particularly fragile airplanes like the B-29’s you really need
one aviation support point for every engine.
You can also reduce aircraft stress by not flying to the full extent of the planes range.
Crank your range down a few notches if the situation will allow it.
Try to always fly within the planes performance envelope.
Pushing the envelope is for Tom Cruise not a serious theater commander.
This means use extended range with discretion.
This means use drop tank range with discretion.
Watch groups that do a lot of flying. Rotate them out by having a backup group
located close by that can stand in when rest is needed.
Keep an eye on the groups operational/write off loss numbers and increase rest/stand down if required.
Watch out for trouble on your operations report.
If you see planes being pulled out of service or air groups taking replacements
go to that group and check their situation and adjust if required.
Air groups taking replacements means you may be losing planes unnecessarily and you need to find out why.
It’s hard to look at each group but there are some short cuts.
Use your all land based and naval air unit’s screens. (Shortcuts A and N)
There is a column for air groups with planes that are not ready. It can be sorted.
When you see an air group that says something like 18 planes not ready
and 3 ready then you will want to check it and see why there are 18 planes not ready.
And a final one to reduce fatigue:
Don’t stay up all night playing WITPAE.
"A man's got to know his limitations" -Dirty Harry
Once a plane reaches a certain fatigue value, the game takes it out of play for maintenance. Service-level 4 & 5 4E airframes can be agonizingly slow to repair before they are again operational, even 'stood down' at an undamaged level 8/9 airfields w/ over twice the req'd aviation support & in-radius airHQ units. It's hard to keep those B-29s flying!
While the sqn screen might list one of these planes as 2-3 days away from availability, it's invariably wrong. I get somewhat better results by transferring the sqn to another airbase, in which case the remaining fragment seems to repair somewhat faster.
Best antidotes - keep the airgroup maxed w/ 4 reserve planes, don't run an airgroup on continuous ops at 100% unless you're willing to pay the price of extended down-time, & keep an eye on the stats of your aviation support LCUs. Running ops (even Training) from a base w/ insufficient av-support will degrade those LCUs' fatigue & morale, suddenly the airbase is in a death-spiral.
Running a sustained bombing campaign against an invasion or industry target requires careful monitoring of airgroup health. 40-60% Rest would not be unusual.
One follow-up question: If I set a squad to "stand down" on a carrier, they start repairing fatigue of planes. Do they continue to do that when the carrier is at sea? Or do they need a port for plane maintenance?
Carrier planes are isolated from base aviation support, so they do continue at sea. Whether you want to take a squadron offline while at sea is a different question.
Related, when you pull an Air TF into port but don't disband you have to be carful to reset the orders for the squadrons. I have on occasion found my Air TF, in port for two months, has been flying combat levels of CAP all that time and the planes are toast.
I'm not sure what happens when you disband a carrier with the planes left at high op tempo. Never tested that. I suspect it isn't good though.
And a final one to reduce fatigue:
Don’t stay up all night playing WITPAE.
That is funny. But how else is a JFB going to get thru econo boot camp and finally play against the big boys?
Learning this game is like taking a grad college level course and you have to plow through tons of post like this to get the real meat of the game only outlined in the manual.
There is plenty of time to sleep when we are dead.
The Commander's job is to orchestrate and direct the three major dimensions of combat - space, time and force. Shattered Sword, the Untold Story of the Battle of Midway
