Air Group Morale/Fatigue management

[Buck Beach]

I would like input from the Veteran players regarding how they manage the US fighter air groups, especially as it relates to those poor unfortunate souls having been chosen to defend Port Moresby during the early war. When do you fly them, rotate them back to Australia, set the CAP rate, etc. I hate to throw up a group with a 35 morale as cannon fodder against a hundred plane raid (of which 2/3 are fighters). Is more better or should the low rated standown and watch their fellow groups get slaughtered.

Also, do you limit the CAP flights when the runway is chewed up worse than hamburger.

Any pointers will be appreciate it.

BTW, dad was at 13 mile base for about 2 years being sent there when the 8th Photo Sqd was transferred from Townsville in 9/42 (as a support grunt). He remembers only one 100 plane raid the whole tour. The game sends 3 plus per week (or it seems).

Anyway, love the game even with its faults.

[spence]

I get that remnant Kittyhawk sqdrn out of there on turn 1, send them to Townsville and let them rebuild for about 2 weeks. I keep the other Kittyhawks in Australia for a week or so on Rest until I need some escorts for the bombers. The poor P-39 guys left in PM I set on 30% CAP. They can't do much about the raids but that way I don't lose them all either and it seems their morale stays in the 40s-50s anyway.

Because of the low CAP setting most of the fighters that fly fly escort on offensive missions which tends to slowly increase their experience without adversely affecting their morale.

Depending on the situation I try to keep the P40s and P400s out of Port Moresby for as long as possible: when they do go in I pull the most damaged P39 sqdrn out.

I try to keep at least 2 sqdrns in Oz on Rest/0% training or 20-30% CAP depending on if there's anything floating around to protect.

I've never done a **** thing with the Wirraways sqdrn(s).

[Bodhi]

I've never done a **** thing with the Wirraways sqdrn(s).

Has anyone found any use for the Wirraways?

Bodhi

[bilbow]

Has anyone found any use for the Wirraways?

Bodhi

They are excellent in low-level naval attacks against transports and barges.

[Bodhi]

They are excellent in low-level naval attacks against transports and barges.

Thanks bilbow, I'm new to this so all help appreciated. I currently have Mitchels, Marauders and Havocs doing that duty. Maybe I should let the Wirraways get a piece of the action. Is that something something that the others are better at? (They're doing a fine job at low level decimation of the Japanese merchant fleet I'm loath to experiment.)

[crsutton]

I would like input from the Veteran players regarding how they manage the US fighter air groups, especially as it relates to those poor unfortunate souls having been chosen to defend Port Moresby during the early war. When do you fly them, rotate them back to Australia, set the CAP rate, etc. I hate to throw up a group with a 35 morale as cannon fodder against a hundred plane raid (of which 2/3 are fighters). Is more better or should the low rated standown and watch their fellow groups get slaughtered.

Also, do you limit the CAP flights when the runway is chewed up worse than hamburger.

Any pointers will be appreciate it.

BTW, dad was at 13 mile base for about 2 years being sent there when the 8th Photo Sqd was transferred from Townsville in 9/42 (as a support grunt). He remembers only one 100 plane raid the whole tour. The game sends 3 plus per week (or it seems).

Anyway, love the game even with its faults.

Best to heed Mogami's advice. Most important and something I tended to ignore at first is unit morale. Best way to ensure that poorer allied pilots and planes will not get murdered by Japanese fighters is to keep the morale high. This is done by sending planes back to large malaria free bases and resting them. Get the morale up over 90 and they will do a good job. Rotate them back as needed.

As the Mogami man pointed out in a previous post. Most Allied players try to stick it out in PM from the get go. They can do some early damage-especially to Lae but morale never really gets very high and when the scads of Japanes planes begin to arrive, the low morale allied pilots will die quick and fast. Best to send them back from PM right away. Rest them until the morale get up there and then use them where needed.

[RevRick]

When, and if, you manage to weather the ridiculous 100 plane raids (75 A6M2, 25 A6M3, 4 G4M) usually against ships in my experience (and those Betty's must have the IJN equivalent of Davey Crockett, because they all seem to get torpedo hits) - use the Whirraway in PM to make shipping into Buna a real pain. The P-400's are all but useless except for one squadron - and then you really can't risk it too very much because of the replacement rate. Since the IJN seems to also excell in unescorted raids against Cairns and Townsville against even CAP supported shipping - keep a goodly number of fighters there and attrite the Bettys and Nells, at least in part, when they fly into that airspace.

It's funny, but I've had CV task forces within four hexes of Shortland with heavy CAP up trying to take out some of the shipping at Shortland and also entice the air group at Rabaul to take a crack at a good number of fighters - and they haven't even sniffed at it. They have literally flown withing thirty miles of it on a raid to Lunga, and have bombed the #&&^$(# out of Port Moresby, but haven't even made one attempt at the carriers. Maybe because I have four of them in good shape in two task forces causes them to shy away. But my cynical and somewhat jaundiced mind wonders more if the game knows that the CV's are there with a heavy CAP and will take on the soft skinned AP/AK TF's to avoid possibly lossing a few fighters. It is really weird when you wish the Betty's would come after your carriers....

[cave_45]

I use the P-39's on low level shipping raids. They make a huge mess of barges and ap/ak's. They also keep a high morale, and take few losses. I use the best Kittyhawks, and the P-400's on CAP, about 40% at 8000 for the kittyhawks, and 7000 for the p-400's.

Evdently they have no chance against 100 Zeros, but I ship in a good Base force, 1xAAA batt and 2xAA battalions to try to damage, or increase the damage to the nip bombers.

The other bonus of this is that, with the P39's gaining experience all the time, when they turn, or upgrade to P38's, they have great experience, and therefore become Zero eating machines .

Owen.

[crsutton]

I use the P-39's on low level shipping raids. They make a huge mess of barges and ap/ak's. They also keep a high morale, and take few losses. I use the best Kittyhawks, and the P-400's on CAP, about 40% at 8000 for the kittyhawks, and 7000 for the p-400's.

Evdently they have no chance against 100 Zeros, but I ship in a good Base force, 1xAAA batt and 2xAA battalions to try to damage, or increase the damage to the nip bombers.

The other bonus of this is that, with the P39's gaining experience all the time, when they turn, or upgrade to P38's, they have great experience, and therefore become Zero eating machines .

Owen.

Sometimes you will have a Japanese opponent that will use massive fighter sweeps. These can be deadly if your planes are operating at a morale or fatique disadvantage. Sometimes killing at a 4-1 ratio. I find that the best defense is to do nothing. That is, let him sweep unopposed. He might lose half a dozen zeros or more to operational losses. Keep an eye on his base. If he is massing zeros then there most likely are few bombers there, so you do not have much to worry about.

A cute trick is to wait for him to launch a massive sweep, Then hit his base with heavies on the following turn, or better yet mediums at low level. I like the mediums going in at 100 feet if their morale is good. Chances are your opponent would have his zeros resting after the sweep as their fatique will be very high. You can really wreck some zeros this way.

Remember, even in the goosed up scenario #19, Japanese pilot skill levels tend to drop fairly steadily with attrition. As the Allied player, put your planes in the best postion to shoot down a few Japanese planes without taking heavy losses yourself. If you are trading planes or say losing 65% to his 50%, then you are on your way to winning. Best way to do this is to choose your fights and keep your morale as high as possible.

If you make it into Novemember with reasonable losses, then you can expect to see the tables turning.

[goodwood]

A quick question what is a good level to fatigue under. for to function efficiently 25 or less? and what is the reference to fatigue levels in the manual?
Ron

[Mike_B20]

Fatigue and morale are absolutely critical when it comes to results in UV.

You want fatigue as close to zero as you can possibly get it and morale as close to 99.

A difference of ten points to your opponent in either area can be the difference between a glorious victory and total and ignominious defeat.

[goodwood]

So in real terms its not just a ceiling on your fatigue figure, but a good guy vs bad guy number, the lowest number in fatigue gets decisive advantage on the dice roll? This being an unknown quantity for the enemy, it's imperative to keep your fatigue down as low as possible or as the operational situation allows u to. Is that a fair analysis of the fatigue setup?

[bilbow]

So in real terms its not just a ceiling on your fatigue figure, but a good guy vs bad guy number, the lowest number in fatigue gets decisive advantage on the dice roll? This being an unknown quantity for the enemy, it's imperative to keep your fatigue down as low as possible or as the operational situation allows u to. Is that a fair analysis of the fatigue setup?

That's fair except for one thing. Fatigue represents also the wear and tear on the airplanes, so all else being equal you will have more operational losses with higher fatigue units.

[mogami]

Has anyone found any use for the Wirraways?

Bodhi

Hi, When enemy bomber groups make their check to see if they will fly to a target with CAP they do not check what type of fighter is flying the CAP. Wirraways do a fine job preventing attacks. (They don't do so well if the strike is escorted) So you may never see the benifit (since the strikes do not launch) To test. Place a few ships in a base with Wirraway CAP. Rasie and lower the CAP and note when the Japanese strike.
They also make good anti ship units. (I use fighters at 3k)
Also less then 9 fighters on CAP is the same as 0 fighters on CAP (9 or fewer fighters will sheldom even engage the incoming strike and it will never prevent one from launching)

[Bodhi]

Thanks Mogami, lots of useful info there.

I guess this has has been discovered in dribs and drabs by the long-term players. Don't suppose there's a central gold-mine for all this great information?

[mogami]

Hi, Every patch released had a list of what the patch added or changed.
Along with the manual you will want to read all these updates. (They are in the zip along with the patch)

[Mike_B20]

Also less then 9 fighters on CAP is the same as 0 fighters on CAP (9 or fewer fighters will sheldom even engage the incoming strike and it will never prevent one from launching)

Btw,this is a good way of suckering an opponent into launching a long range unescorted strike, although a bit of an exploit.
I commonly have fighter squads on 10-20% CAP intercept Betties/Nells and inflict terrible casualties in exchange for the odd damaged and the rare sunk ship.
I've rarely had a problem with them not engaging.

[Tristanjohn]

Also less then 9 fighters on CAP is the same as 0 fighters on CAP (9 or fewer fighters will sheldom even engage the incoming strike and it will never prevent one from launching)

I recently had a lone Wildcat stranded at Luganville (it happened to be out of service when the rest of its squadron transferred back to their CV that hauled out of port) and it went up on CAP each and every time I so ordered it and dutifully engaged incoming enemy bombers.

Now that I think on it, I think I presently have a 9-plane squadron of fighters stationed at Lunga in another game--not sure as I haven't recieved a move back for a couple of days--though it hasn't had to actually intercept incoming bombers for quite awhile as my opponent hasn't bothered to launch any attacks on me in the lower Solomons since the opening moves. (I'm playing the Allies in "Hard Road Ahead" and he's just sitting in Rabaul and Shortland, twiddling his thumbs apparently. )

Anyway, I don't know about 9-planes squadrons but FS with one plane in them will most definitely rise and intercept enemy bombers when ordered to do so.

[mogami]

Hi, I didn't say less then 9 AC would not fly. I said they would not prevent enemy Bombers from flying (fail the CAP check) and they often do not engage the enemy. (Also I was refering to Wirraway groups)



"I commonly have fighter squads on 10-20% CAP intercept Betties/Nells and inflict terrible casualties in exchange for the odd damaged and the rare sunk ship.
I've rarely had a problem with them not engaging. "

Amazing that 2-4 fighters can inflict "terrible" casualties. You'd have to shoot down more Betty then value of sunken ships. (I also allow the Betty attacks but I do my damage with my AA. But I don't out point the Japanese doing this. Pointwise it's a break even deal. But later the loss of Japanese planes and aircrew impacts the battles more then my TF ship content. (I replace lost ships with other ships just like the lost ones. But the Japanese replace their pilots with less effective ones.)

[Mike_B20]

"I commonly have fighter squads on 10-20% CAP intercept Betties/Nells and inflict terrible casualties in exchange for the odd damaged and the rare sunk ship.
I've rarely had a problem with them not engaging. "

Amazing that 2-4 fighters can inflict "terrible" casualties. You'd have to shoot down more Betty then value of sunken ships.

More than 10% of fighters fly to intercept bomber raids (especially if the base has radar).
I find if I set my CAP at 10% then 10% exactly will fly to try and intercept recon missions but approximately 30% fly to intercept other missions...eg I'd expect about 8 Kittyhawks out of 24 strength squadron to fly bomber interception.
I'm surprised you haven't experienced the same Mogami.

Here's an exerpt from an AAR to illustrate one of my latest massacres

Air attack on TF, near Cooktown at 6,53

Japanese aircraft
G3M Nell x 16
G4M1 Betty x 38

Allied aircraft
F4F-4 Wildcat x 20
P-40E Warhawk x 19

Japanese aircraft losses
G3M Nell x 11 destroyed
G3M Nell x 3 damaged
G4M1 Betty x 13 destroyed
G4M1 Betty x 5 damaged

Allied aircraft losses
P-40E Warhawk x 1 damaged

2LT S. Andrew of 7th FS is credited with kill number 5

Allied Ships
AP Wanganella
AP Orungal
AP Harry Lee
SC 644
AP Ormiston, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
PG Swan
AK Etamin
AK Libra


Allied ground losses:
Men lost 26

Attacking Level Bombers:
1 x G3M Nell at 200 feet
3 x G4M1 Betty at 200 feet
4 x G4M1 Betty at 200 feet
4 x G4M1 Betty at 200 feet
4 x G4M1 Betty at 200 feet
4 x G4M1 Betty at 200 feet
2 x G4M1 Betty at 200 feet
2 x G4M1 Betty at 200 feet
2 x G3M Nell at 200 feet
4 x G4M1 Betty at 200 feet

The Warhawks were at 40% CAP 8000 (raised from usual 20% as it was important convoy)and the Wildcats 20% CAP at 5000 feet.
The strengths of the fighter squads were Warhawks 24 and Wildcats 26 (waifs from a damaged carrier).
On a straight percentage basis there is no way so many should have been flying.
The base had a SCR-270 radar set.