Pilots - Japan

[Gratch1111]

So how many new pilots are actually "coming"

If I look at the numbers in tracker for instance for the army as Japan its

Repl rate 500
Month 1-3 1489
Month 4-6 868
Month 7-9 560
Month 10-12 578

So that gives if the numbers are somewhat steady, about 160-190 new pilots per month. But I felt it wasnt close to that so I looked now at the first turn of August, how many new pilots would arrive in august and its like 73.

1/ Is that kind of accurate for a month
2/ How am I going to handle that since Im losing way more pilots per month and I expect it to increase as the Allies get better pilots and planes
3/ Is there anyway to increase the number at all?

[RangerJoe]

So how many new pilots are actually "coming"

If I look at the numbers in tracker for instance for the army as Japan its

Repl rate 500
Month 1-3 1489
Month 4-6 868
Month 7-9 560
Month 10-12 578

So that gives if the numbers are somewhat steady, about 160-190 new pilots per month. But I felt it wasnt close to that so I looked now at the first turn of August, how many new pilots would arrive in august and its like 73.

1/ Is that kind of accurate for a month
Yes.
2/ How am I going to handle that since Im losing way more pilots per month and I expect it to increase as the Allies get better pilots and planes
That is something that you have to decide.
3/ Is there anyway to increase the number at all?
Yes, in the editor.

You should see the problem that the Allies have. So many more new pilots plus their skills and experience increase as the war continues.

[Gratch1111]

Thanks

I could have lived with 160-190 per month, 73 is a problem.

I could also see that Japan has 73 in June 42, having 73 i december 42 is bad

[Gratch1111]

As it was Japan had bad pilots, now they will have no pilots, even worse

[Chris21wen]

Your post made me look at pilot training again. In the process I found some stuff that I did not know and/or and or needed clarification. I've now undated the Air Way Guide.

I do not know why you are only getting 73 new pilots if your replacement rate is 500. In all the game I've played and in all the tests I've carried out this has never happened. However, for the Japanese, pilots are not free. They cost both manpower and HI points to produce each month. If your short of either then you will not get you full replacement rate. I can see no other reason for you problem.

To check take a screen shot of the in game Pilot Replacement at the end of the month and then compare it with one taken on the 1st.

If anybody else does please let me know.

[Gratch1111]

Will do but have plenty of Manpower and HI. Its Aug 42 and have 600´manpower and 1,25m HI in the pool

Just to be clear, the numbers I gave was for the Army only and the 73 came from the reserve pool arrival for the army to arrive in august(Due 42/08). Now on aug 2nd the number of new(Due 42/08) pilots left to arrive in august is 69. There are pilots in the reserve pool with no Due date but I assume that is pilots already in the reserve pool?

Am I looking in the wrong place or missunderstanding something?

I use the pick veteran option on the unit page but that yields the same results as looking by way of the intelligence report

[RangerJoe]

Will do but have plenty of Manpower and HI. Its Aug 42 and have 600´manpower and 1,25m HI in the pool
What matters is having the HI and supplies at the end of the game without running out or not having enough, especially the supplies.

Just to be clear, the numbers I gave was for the Army only and the 73 came from the reserve pool arrival for the army to arrive in august(Due 42/08). Now on aug 2nd the number of new(Due 42/08) pilots left to arrive in august is 69. There are pilots in the reserve pool with no Due date but I assume that is pilots already in the reserve pool?
Yes, they are available immediately.

Am I looking in the wrong place or missunderstanding something?
What exactly are you looking for?
The trained pilots are the veterans showing up in the reserve pool with the recently graduated trained pilots not showing up there but who are otherwise available. A picture would help to answer the specific question or questions that you want answered.

I use the pick veteran option on the unit page but that yields the same results as looking by way of the intelligence report

[Gratch1111]

The reason for me not picking the get me 10 pilots is that the game gives me random pilots. Sp lets say I do this is a fighter squadron, I then get bomber pilots, recon etc and when I move them around I loose xp due to them not getting the xp in their original field

I have supplies anough

If I do pick get me 10 pilots they tend to be of lower experience which makes sense, what I wonder is if there is a way to pick less experienced pilots that have gotten, in this case, their experience as fighter pilots. I assume no?

[RangerJoe]

The reason for me not picking the get me 10 pilots is that the game gives me random pilots. Sp lets say I do this is a fighter squadron, I then get bomber pilots, recon etc and when I move them around I loose xp due to them not getting the xp in their original field

I have supplies anough

If I do pick get me 10 pilots they tend to be of lower experience which makes sense, what I wonder is if there is a way to pick less experienced pilots that have gotten, in this case, their experience as fighter pilots. I assume no?

Pick your own pilots, they can be selected by type and then by the skill set needed and the experience desired.

[Chris21wen]

The reason for me not picking the get me 10 pilots is that the game gives me random pilots. Sp lets say I do this is a fighter squadron, I then get bomber pilots, recon etc and when I move them around I loose xp due to them not getting the xp in their original field

I have supplies anough

If I do pick get me 10 pilots they tend to be of lower experience which makes sense, what I wonder is if there is a way to pick less experienced pilots that have gotten, in this case, their experience as fighter pilots. I assume no?

Pilots are not selected randomly but by exp from one of the five pools.

When a pilot leaves training he is placed in the replacement pool. These pilots have no specilization e.g. They are not F jocks or bomber pilots etc, just pilots. They are given a specilization the first time they join a group.

When you use Replacements to select a pilots it always picks from the replacement pool first picking pilots with the highest exp first. As they are selected by exp and not skill you can get pilots better suited to a different aircraft specilization than the group. Whenever a pilot joins a group he always takes on that group specialization.

When you send pilots back from groups they go into the reserve as specialized pilots hence there's five specialized reserve pools, f, b, pat, rec and tr.

When you use reserves to pick pilots they are choosen from the specialized pools but they are still picked based on exp within that specialization. This is one of the reason why dedicated training groups are essential, to created specialized pilots. If you run out of reserve pilots in any of the five spec pools it then picks from one of the other spec pools. This will result in loss of the old specialaztion. E.g. Fighter pilots in bomber groups etc. Don't know how it choose which and don't care. No other pool is used.

Using Any picks from replacements, reserves then trainees (Japan only) in that order. TRACOM is never used otherwise it's the same as above.

Requesting a veteran allows you to pick any pilot, reserve, group reserve, group or TRACOM and specialization plays no part.

To answer your question on choosing less experieinced pilots, yes there is. Load a training unit with raw pilots then you can use request a veteran to select them from that unit. You can of course send them back to the reserve and provicing there's not a whole lot of more experience pilots use reserves to pick from.

Experience tends to be lost when assinging pilot out of speciality. I don't think any is lost from replacements or within spec! Exp can also be lost within a group if you change aircraft type.

[BenurH99]

So how many new pilots are actually "coming"

If I look at the numbers in tracker for instance for the army as Japan its

Repl rate 500
Month 1-3 1489
Month 4-6 868
Month 7-9 560
Month 10-12 578

So that gives if the numbers are somewhat steady, about 160-190 new pilots per month. But I felt it wasnt close to that so I looked now at the first turn of August, how many new pilots would arrive in august and its like 73.

1/ Is that kind of accurate for a month
2/ How am I going to handle that since Im losing way more pilots per month and I expect it to increase as the Allies get better pilots and planes
3/ Is there anyway to increase the number at all?

Shooting down planes is how a pilot gains more experience. At Midway, all the pilots went into the water. Don't let that happen to you in battle. Japan was never prepared for aircraft carrier battles because they never trained their pilots well. They thought they were superior and that with the PH in 1941 they would win the war. This is reflected in WITPAE.

[Tanaka]

So how many new pilots are actually "coming"

If I look at the numbers in tracker for instance for the army as Japan its

Repl rate 500
Month 1-3 1489
Month 4-6 868
Month 7-9 560
Month 10-12 578

So that gives if the numbers are somewhat steady, about 160-190 new pilots per month. But I felt it wasnt close to that so I looked now at the first turn of August, how many new pilots would arrive in august and its like 73.

1/ Is that kind of accurate for a month
2/ How am I going to handle that since Im losing way more pilots per month and I expect it to increase as the Allies get better pilots and planes
3/ Is there anyway to increase the number at all?

Shooting down planes is how a pilot gains more experience. At Midway, all the pilots went into the water. Don't let that happen to you in battle. Japan was never prepared for aircraft carrier battles because they never trained their pilots well. They thought they were superior and that with the PH in 1941 they would win the war. This is reflected in WITPAE.

I would disagree they did not train their pilots well. The problem was that they trained them too well. The pilot program was so strict and difficult that few became pilots. This is why their pilots were so good and experienced initially. They were super elite. The problem was when these pilots died there were no replacements and they had to rush the rest through poorly trained...

[Chris21wen]

Shooting down planes is how a pilot gains more experience.

This is totally incorrect, there are two ways to increase experience, training and flying.

Initially all pilots gaiin exp by training, the higher it reaches the rate of increase slows down to point were no amount of training will impove their experience. In the game this is deemed 70. At this point the other method of training takes over, on-the-job training ie. When they fly. Combat of any kind helping to boost the rate of increase, particularly when a plane is shot down. This is why you have far more F/FB pilots with high exp than any other type because they job is to shoot down planes.

I've got pilots with over 70 experience flying FP yet have never shot anything down.

Screenshot 2025-07-19 074551.jpg (60.14 KiB) Viewed 469 times

[BenurH99]

And what does it have to do with what I have commented about what happened in the Second World War with what you have commented, and secondly, I have not said that you only gain experience by shooting down planes, of course there are other ways to win, you are very careful smart people, you are on the rag and your smart people posts are totally incorrect.

[Cavalry Corp]

It's a big shame in this game that pilots are not also available as CV-trained or not. Japan basically ran out of most of those, that was a crippling issue, it's not that the Navy ran out of pilots. Its a bit too bland to have just the Army and the Navy. That goes for the allies as well; there should be a separate pool of CV-trained.

In my mod, I reduced all pilots' across all nationalities by a fair margin and also reduced the experience of J pilots in early training by a fair amount, from 42 onwards. Their volume picks up in 43, but the entry experience always declines.

Pilots gain exp by doing anything. But for fighters, it seems that CAP and combat add more ( exp and skill) . Bombers do not gain as much for certain. DB and TT bombers do gain...training only brings them up so far, after that at about 70 skill its glacial and exp do not really increase much- that's what I found.

cav

[RangerJoe]

Since fighter pilots tend to fly more actual missions because they fly defensive CAP, they should gain experience faster than the DBs and TBs who wait for an enemy to show up.

[BBfanboy]

DB and TB pilots can fly actual missions on Naval Search to increase that skill and Experience. That does not require waiting for the enemy to show up. But that must be balanced so that pilots and planes are not too fatigued to fly strike missions when the enemy does show up. So many nuances in the game ...

[Sardaukar]

Training is equally important for Allies too.

I use permanently restricted squadrons in West Coast for that. Plus you can train naval pilots in Floatplane units. And later you get CVEs with Replacement squadrons, so can use them to train pilots.

Before those one may have slight trouble training torpedo pilots. Not insurmountable, though, since one can train torpedo pilots with Catalina units. But in ealy war, you might want to have those on Naval Search and ASW.

[RangerJoe]

DB and TB pilots can fly actual missions on Naval Search to increase that skill and Experience. That does not require waiting for the enemy to show up. But that must be balanced so that pilots and planes are not too fatigued to fly strike missions when the enemy does show up. So many nuances in the game ...

That is true but then they can't attack enemy ships for a naval attack mission. I should have been explicit with that in my statement but some fighters with a CAP mission should fly every turn but with the naval strike mission, the bombers may not fly at all.

[bradfordkay]

DB and TB pilots can fly actual missions on Naval Search to increase that skill and Experience. That does not require waiting for the enemy to show up. But that must be balanced so that pilots and planes are not too fatigued to fly strike missions when the enemy does show up. So many nuances in the game ...

That is true but then they can't attack enemy ships for a naval attack mission. I should have been explicit with that in my statement but some fighters with a CAP mission should fly every turn but with the naval strike mission, the bombers may not fly at all.

Are you saying that if I set a squadron to Naval Attack with a percentage of the squadron set to Search then none of the bombers will make a naval strike? That has not been my experience.