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Hi I'm facing a shortage of carrier fighters, I'm in Jan 43 so the war has been going for 14 months but I'm absolutely starved of replacement Wildcats for my carrier force. I've been really lucky in that I havent lost a carrier but I'm really low on aircraft to man them particularly fighters, many of my units are at 1/3 strength.

Is there something I should have done/be doing to improve the replacement rate of aircraft.

IRW surely by this time the US economy was well mobilised and churning out huge numbers of aircraft that were supplied to the RN as well as the USN & Marines.

Have I missed something basic

H

The Allied player has no real control over its own production. What I done in the past is if I had any land based air units using those airframes, I would withdraw them for sixty days and use those airframes. In a few months you start getting Hellcats. There production is higher....GP

ORIGINAL: Hano

Hi I'm facing a shortage of carrier fighters, I'm in Jan 43 so the war has been going for 14 months but I'm absolutely starved of replacement Wildcats for my carrier force. I've been really lucky in that I havent lost a carrier but I'm really low on aircraft to man them particularly fighters, many of my units are at 1/3 strength.

Is there something I should have done/be doing to improve the replacement rate of aircraft.

IRW surely by this time the US economy was well mobilised and churning out huge numbers of aircraft that were supplied to the RN as well as the USN & Marines.

Have I missed something basic

H

The American economy wasn't saddled with actors who day in and day out conducted massive air operations because it was fun.

In the game, by January 1943 no Allied player should be short of Wildcats to maintain their carrier embarked units.

Alfred

Welcome to the real life simulation of Allied Commanders dilemna in World War 2 !

[:D]

No the game is not a perfect simulation; such complexity would be hard to model. But in this aspect the game does very well.

Your own 'aggressiveness' may have led to your challenge.[8D]

In addition to the challenge with Carrier Fighters you may note challenges in SBD Dauntless 3 production through to early 43, a lack of Tankers to get fuel to every island base you desire, and further challenges as your USAAF bomber squadrons upsize from 8 - 12 in or around August 42.

In addition to the great advice above.

PDU on (??) :

(i) "downgrade" all Marine unit fighters on the west coast/ Hawaii to Buffalo's and turn replacements / upgrades off. It slows down growing training pools but that reflects the Allied challenges in 42 - early 43.
(ii) "downgrade" all restricted USAAF USMCAF USNAF to the lesser airframes such as Dauntless 1's/ Hudsons/ P40Bs etc and again turn off replacements and upgrades. Keep your 7th USAAF in Hawaii flying older airframes and depend on quantity for defense as opposed to quality.
(iii) In August / Sept 42 - If I recall correctly - you start to get your first jeep carriers such as Copahee with 'replacement' squadrons. The replacement squadrons are not technically accurate to history - they are a necessary game mechanic. However you can get them to Pearl Harbor - Canton or Christmas Island (?) - Suva (?) - Australia and set them up in major supported bases where your Carriers are likely to doc for fuel and ammo between missions.

Focus your replacements / upgrades on those units at "the point of the spear".

PDU off (??) :

I much more accurate and better game in my opinion.

(i) not much you can do but learn to be cautious and judicious before tackling the IJN. Don't risk what you cannot afford and marshal your assets based upon strategic priority.

Again focus your replacements / upgrades on those units at the point of the spear.


Don't worry come summer of 1943 when Hellcat and Corsair production ramps up you have a chance to rectify your shortcomings. By summer 1944 you will have forgotten shortages unless you are playing so aggressive that you are loosing assets well above historical rates.

ORIGINAL: Alfred

The American economy wasn't saddled with actors who day in and day out conducted massive air operations because it was fun.

In the game, by January 1943 no Allied player should be short of Wildcats to maintain their carrier embarked units.

Alfred

+1

Thanks thats great to know, I thought I was missing something, I've been a mixture of careful and lucky so far, I've only fought the IJN when I outnumbered them at least 2:1 in carriers and/or had land based air, so far I have managed to pick off the Kaga, Zuikaku, Ryūjō and Zuihō along with 6/12 battleships.

I'm now campaigning in the Solomons, but facing a sortie out of Truk that seems to be at least three fleet carriers, I've got one in dock and five with air groups cobbled together from wherever I can.

Hano, I would add that there is also the FM-1 & FM-2 Wildcats (built by GM) that will be entering production in 5/43 (FM-1) and FM-2 on 2/44. These two variants were primarily designed to fill out the CVE's in the Atlantic & Pacific. I personally prefer to play with 'Player Defined Upgrades' for air units turned on, for two reasons. 1) I think it is more realistic to assume that as the Commander of all my forces (air, sea & ground), that I WOULD have the power to direct changes in air unit TOE's. 2) The setting ON has the ability to reduce the adverse impact of any mistakes in the air units' database (there are some). This is especially an issue for Japanese air units. That's my 2 cents worth.

ORIGINAL: Hano




Thanks thats great to know, I thought I was missing something, I've been a mixture of careful and lucky so far, I've only fought the IJN when I outnumbered them at least 2:1 in carriers and/or had land based air, so far I have managed to pick off the Kaga, Zuikaku, Ryûjô and Zuihô along with 6/12 battleships.

I'm now campaigning in the Solomons, but facing a sortie out of Truk that seems to be at least three fleet carriers, I've got one in dock and five with air groups cobbled together from wherever I can.

In addition to aircraft shortages, many players report a shortage of USN fighter pilots in 1944 when the fleet has umpteen new carriers and the aircraft mix aboard has been changed to 'fighter heavy'. You need to use your Kingfisher or Seagull FP squadrons on the west coast to train fighter pilots for the USN.