Upgrading Air Units?

[GeneralDad]

Please how do you upgrade air squadrons? Looking around the manual and screens this still baffles me. I am playing the Italian campaign as WA - so for example can I upgrade a P-40 unit to P-47 or P-51?

Thanks,
GeneralDad

[loki100]

There are two options.

One is to set upgrade to auto, here the computer will swop out older planes for new ones along set paths. Some are obvious, eg Lancaster I to III but sometimes it might choose a bit of an odd substitution (esp among the fighters) simply because something else is readily available.

Alternative is to set upgrade to manual. You can then upgrade either from the air unit screen or the commanders report. You can pick anything that matches the broad plane type (so in a fit of madness you can change Lancasters to Stirlings), sometimes its worth downgrading to release the very best planes to your very best exp/morale squadrons. As an eg, if I recall, the Brazilian units turn up with P-47s, I'd shift this to P-39s (an ok plane for a unit with average stats) and give the P-47s to a better trained formation.

There is a but. And I suspect this may apply very much to the Italy campaign.

First new planes have a delay between appearing in the production screen and being available to your units. This partly reflects transfers from the US to Europe. Second, you need to have the planes to upgrade the entire unit. This maybe a problem with the relatively large anglo-american air units and the limited production released to Italy. So best is to check the production screen to check that you have enough 'in the pool'.

[GeneralDad]

Thanks loki100, I sort of have figured out changing plane types. Please if you or anyone else knows of tutorials covering the fine points of managing the air force it would be great to have links or recommendations to them. Studying the screens there seem to be many aircraft in reserve and some pilots not assigned to planes - I have been using the AI to manage air units while I set the air directives. So the AI seems to perhaps need some help with aircraft management.

Another problem is that my air force seems to be slowly draining away, fewer planes available most turns. Some of this seems to be withdrawals of squadrons from the Italian theater - but some may be excessive losses. I often fly only low intensity missions and only in fair or better weather in an attempt to keep losses down, but still I seem to lose a lot more aircraft than the Axis AI, and be slowly draining away my air force. Is this normal for the Italian campaign?

- Also, is there a way to get an estimate of Axis aircraft strength? How do I know I am keeping enough planes to maintain air superiority?

- Any links to tutorials for managing / upgrading the air force and generating effective strategy would be appreciated.

Thanks,
GeneralDad

[HMSWarspite]

Have you found the graphs? You can see a plot of both sides total and ready aircraft.

As for how to run the airforce, are you talking bombers or fighters? Are you monitoring morale and using a rest policy? I rest units with morale less than 60-70. Are you ensuring they have supply? Don’t base them too far forwards if you cannot supply them. If you describe how much management you are doing we can suggest help.

[GeneralDad]

HMSWarspite,

Yes, I just found the graphs last night. Thanks for the tip about morale, I was ignoring it. I am using the AI button to move and manage air bases and units with some intervention on upgrading fighter types. I am setting up my own AD's without AI 'help'.

I am not always sure of what types to upgrade to, especially for bombers and recon units. I need to study the pools more and the aircraft types.

Do aircraft use the same supply depots as ground units?

I don't know how to manually move an airbase – so help there would be really appreciated.

The problem is that in the Italian campaign that I just won was that my air force wasted away over time even with low intensity air directives. So did the Luftwaffe, but the WA needs the air to degrade the Axis line. I seem to get about 125 pilots per turn, my losses seemed to be less than that but still there appears to be a decline in ready air craft numbers most turns. Any pointers to posts/tutorials or help is appreciated.

This is a great game but a more detailed aircraft tutorial video would be fantastic.

Thanks, GeneralDad