Planes in the Philippines

[ggeilman]

It is Dec 23, 1941 and I am wondering whether it is worth trying to get any of the planes out of the Philippines. Seems like a lot of points to me. Especially the B17s that will all be withdrawn in 42. Thoughts?

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: ggeilman

It is Dec 23, 1941 and I am wondering whether it is worth trying to get any of the planes out of the Philippines. Seems like a lot of points to me. Especially the B17s that will all be withdrawn in 42. Thoughts?

If at all possible, do so.

[Sardaukar]

B-17s are excellent in Naval Search when you have shortage of Catalinas, so by all means evacuate them.

[rustysi]

It may be better to withdraw those planes early, since they will withdraw anyway. By doing so you will gain PP's.

[HansBolter]

They will be the ONLY fighters you have to defend Australia for the first 6 months of the war.

Sure the fighters pull out by summer, but having them to defend Australia during a very critical period when the continent is otherwise completely devoid of fighters is golden.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: ggeilman
It is Dec 23, 1941 and I am wondering whether it is worth trying to get any of the planes out of the Philippines. Seems like a lot of points to me. Especially the B17s that will all be withdrawn in 42. Thoughts?

Philippines B17-Ds are one of the few allied units that can seriously spoil JFB mood in the first months of war. Their range makes it possible to bomb almost any oil in the DEI theatre as soon as Japan captures it, as well as some major ports. Japan has to divert a lot of resources to counter those guys. And then there is night bombing

[drum_taps]

ORIGINAL: GetAssista

ORIGINAL: ggeilman
It is Dec 23, 1941 and I am wondering whether it is worth trying to get any of the planes out of the Philippines. Seems like a lot of points to me. Especially the B17s that will all be withdrawn in 42. Thoughts?

Philippines B17-Ds are one of the few allied units that can seriously spoil JFB mood in the first months of war. Their range makes it possible to bomb almost any oil in the DEI theatre as soon as Japan captures it, as well as some major ports. Japan has to divert a lot of resources to counter those guys. And then there is night bombing

This is something I am going to try in my next game. In my current game, where I am now at Nov 30 1942, I wish I had earlier fought harder. I did not do mass withdrawals, but I did let the US Army in the Philippines sit static, but I did buy out the B-17s. Next time I won't.

[GetAssista]

ORIGINAL: drum_taps

ORIGINAL: GetAssista
Philippines B17-Ds are one of the few allied units that can seriously spoil JFB mood in the first months of war. Their range makes it possible to bomb almost any oil in the DEI theatre as soon as Japan captures it, as well as some major ports. Japan has to divert a lot of resources to counter those guys. And then there is night bombing

This is something I am going to try in my next game. In my current game, where I am now at Nov 30 1942, I wish I had earlier fought harder. I did not do mass withdrawals, but I did let the US Army in the Philippines sit static, but I did buy out the B-17s. Next time I won't.

But you do buy them out specifically for their usefulness (in human games of course, don't bother against AI). Else they would sit on Clark and repair ad infinitum under Japanese bombings. Their strength is range AND mobility.

[geofflambert]

ORIGINAL: HansBolter

They will be the ONLY fighters you have to defend Australia for the first 6 months of the war.

For a moment I thought you were referring to the B-17s. They wouldn't be the ONLY fighters, just the best.

[Mike Solli]

What's that saying? The Allied 4E bomber is the best fighter they have. [X(]

[jdsrae]

Allied attack bombers make great “fighters” too.
IJ fighter pilots seem to prefer to attack them from the front, straight into the teeth of multiple strafing guns…

[ggeilman]

I am getting as many warhawks out as possible also but they are going to have to transfer from base to base in a lot of transfers. Some of them don't even have drop tanks, grr. Getting a few Cats, too.

[Moltrey]

Also note Ggeilman that a couple of the P-40 squadrons at Clark have excess pilots. Not only that, but the setup has most of your BEST pilots greyed out (not actively flying). It is up to you to decide if you should use these fairly experienced (for U.S.) pilots to fight the Japanese in the Philippines... or send them to the reserve pool or elsewhere to get some more training and form the core of your future Army pilot pool.
I am sure others will pitch in their opinions on this. Personally, I use them to blunt the Japanese in the PI, but some will die to the better enemy pilots. It's a tough call.

[huda0816]

In my game against the AI I bought the B-17s out and left the fighters in the Phillipines. They got a lot of kills and eventually became elite pilots. After the fall of Clark with only Manila and Bataan left I evacuated all pilots by submarine (Sent them to the reserve pool) and disbanded the fighter wings. They are now training the new pilots in the States.

[rustysi]

In my game against the AI I bought the B-17s out and left the fighters in the Phillipines. They got a lot of kills and eventually became elite pilots.

Don't count on this in a PBEM game. There're lots of things you may get away with in an AI game that won't 'fly otherwise'.

[ggeilman]

Christmas eve and running into a log jam with planes coming out of Singapore on Java. There is only so much room on the airfields to transfer them to Australia and they all have to go through one airbase, Denpasar. 10 ready B-17s in Darwin so far and now a squadron Blenheims. One squadron of Warhawks will spend Christmas in Darwin, wiii!!!

[RangerJoe]

ORIGINAL: ggeilman

Christmas eve and running into a log jam with planes coming out of Singapore on Java. There is only so much room on the airfields to transfer them to Australia and they all have to go through one airbase, Denpasar. 10 ready B-17s in Darwin so far and now a squadron Blenheims. One squadron of Warhawks will spend Christmas in Darwin, wiii!!!

You can overstack the airfields just be careful if they can be attacked.

[Ian R]

Have you discovered that if you let the rump of those squadrons be destroyed on the ground (take out all the pilots) that you can buy them back - and they come back without a withdraw date?

I have the 34th FS flying Mustangs in 1945 - it started life as the 35th PG/34th PS at Clark field, with a June 1942 withdraw date. It is the P-35 Squadron.

And before anyone demands another pro Japanese house rule, this is obviously intentional on the part of the designers - they built in the designation change.

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: Ian R

Have you discovered that if you let the rump of those squadrons be destroyed on the ground (take out all the pilots) that you can buy them back - and they come back without a withdraw date?

I have the 34th FS flying Mustangs in 1945 - it started life as the 35th PG/34th PS at Clark field, with a June 1942 withdraw date. It is the P-35 Squadron.

And before anyone demands another pro Japanese house rule, this is obviously intentional on the part of the designers - they built in the designation change.

I wouldn't jump too quickly to that conclusion re the intentions of the devs.

The entire air OOB was developed when destroyed air units couldn't be repurchased. The dev who did that work was no longer involved when the resurrection was subsequently introduced.

It might, just sayin', that when the ability to resurrect dead LCUs was introduced post AE release, the dev with overall responsibility for the land OOB, still remained with the team. You can't repurchase dead LCUs which were scheduled for withdrawal.

Alfred

[Andy Mac]

Alfred is correct I wasnt overly happy with the buy back of destroyed units but finally got comfortable with it for 4 reasons

1. So many un natural acts were happening to rescue fragments it was the lesser evil
2. Aus and Indian units impacted are kindo of self correctign - rebuild the 11th Indian Div feel free you will be short of most CW devices to replace combat losses
3. japanese LCU's destroyed tend to be later in war where its a choice to replace them via industry or save points for other units
4. It helped the AI be more competitive