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I have been playing around with flight levels for Army fighters stationed at PM, trying to find an altitude that gives them the best advantage against incoming raids. I have set them to 15000 ft, in an attempt to improve their results. Anyone have any thoughts on this?[&:]

Aircobras, ie. P-39's and P-400's, don't have supercharger. Their preformance drops above 10'000 ft. Futhermore you open your base to low level fighter sweeps, where your planes are destroyed to field strafing Zeroes. Keep flexible, don't stick to single tactic.

That is right, Mix them up. I frequently send my bombers in at low altitude if a base is has light AA protection. Fighters at 15,000 feet will rarely intercept low level bombers. Try to layer your fighters. Fighters at 6,000 feet will pretty much intercept lower bombers. P39s are good for this as your target is generally bettys. Torpedo bombers always attack at low altitude no matter what the initial altitude is so your fighters need to be low.

for Carrier defense, I try to have 1/3 of my fighters at 6,000 feet and 2/3rd at 12,000.

ORIGINAL: Tuli Vapaa

Aircobras, ie. P-39's and P-400's, don't have supercharger. Their preformance drops above 10'000 ft. Futhermore you open your base to low level fighter sweeps, where your planes are destroyed to field strafing Zeroes. Keep flexible, don't stick to single tactic.

Correct varry your hight especially against Pbm apponents, use your Wirraways to cover townsville and cairns etc from long range betty attacks. use the Aircobras for cap only when you have to keep them a lower alt as Tuli says the will suffer at or above 10,000 ft zero's will slaughter them. Best to keep them for killing shipping, use the warhawks and f4 if you have to, to fly cap just remember to rotate units out of PM to rest and rebuild the squadren or they will get decimated. Its hard in the beginning to defend PM, you some time have to leave it with little or no fighter cover at all just ship shed loads of aa in there and make your apponent bleed every time he raids.

Yeah, set mixed levels. I always set my P-39/P-400 CAP level at 1000 if there covering a port (to deal with torpedo attacks) and 5000 if its an inland base. I step my P-38, P-40, P-47, Spits and Boomerangs from 15000 to 10000, depending on whats available. For my naval assests I also try to vary the altitudes, depending on how many VF and VMF squadrons are available.

And a big warning for all new players. If the Japanese hold Lunga and you are docking carriers at Noumea, you better put lots of cap up. At least four squadrons. If I am the Japanese player, I recon all Allied ports in range of bettys and if carriers are there and cap is light-well, guess what I'm gonna do. Bettys and Nells have incredible range. There is nothing worse than getting your carriers bombed in port. If you are resting in port. Take the airgroups off the carriers and use them for CAP. CAP, CAP and more CAP!!!!

ORIGINAL: crsutton

And a big warning for all new players. If the Japanese hold Lunga and you are docking carriers at Noumea, you better put lots of cap up. At least four squadrons. If I am the Japanese player, I recon all Allied ports in range of bettys and if carriers are there and cap is light-well, guess what I'm gonna do. Bettys and Nells have incredible range. There is nothing worse than getting your carriers bombed in port. If you are resting in port. Take the airgroups off the carriers and use them for CAP. CAP, CAP and more CAP!!!!

Brisbane and truk are the only safe ports on the map period! Betties, Nells, Hudsons and B17 and 24(flying from PM and Lunga) all have stupidly long ranges and night port attacks can be deadly.... and rather inconvinent...

I seem to fly a high CAP of around 27000 ft or zero's and 28000 for most allied fighters. It seems like this helps my planes jump the other planes. This also helps the Japanese later in the war if you can get a height advantage on later allied planes. It seems most of the time your CAP has to climb anyways.

ORIGINAL: Bobthehatchit
Brisbane and truk are the only safe ports on the map period! Betties, Nells, Hudsons and B17 and 24(flying from PM and Lunga) all have stupidly long ranges and night port attacks can be deadly.... and rather inconvinent...

Wrong. Gili Gili can hold 4+ airfield. And Betty will make it from there to Brisbane. There is only ONE port safe from LBA, Truk. This means, that if USN player wants to have usable port in game, he kind of have to follow real life strategy. It's Operation Shoestring time!

Interesting. I haven't tried elevating CAP higher than about 13K ft. I'll have to try it. I've done OK, though still taking losses. My Wildcats seem to be doing better (see Wildcat Woes thread). [8D]

I do have a question for Bobthehatchit: What the H*** is an ISDII?

Imperial Star Destroyer

Thanks. I'll take the Galactica with a full air group of Vipers.

ORIGINAL: tabpub

Imperial Star Destroyer

Mark II, more guns more armour faster! COME GET SOME!

ORIGINAL: Desertmole

Thanks. I'll take the Galactica with a full air group of Vipers.

Against Tie Advance model fighters and Simatra Bombers, Gunships and Blastboats! You'll Loose!

ORIGINAL: Tuli Vapaa

ORIGINAL: Bobthehatchit
Brisbane and truk are the only safe ports on the map period! Betties, Nells, Hudsons and B17 and 24(flying from PM and Lunga) all have stupidly long ranges and night port attacks can be deadly.... and rather inconvinent...

Wrong. Gili Gili can hold 4+ airfield. And Betty will make it from there to Brisbane. There is only ONE port safe from LBA, Truk. This means, that if USN player wants to have usable port in game, he kind of have to follow real life strategy. It's Operation Shoestring time!

Ouch! Forgot about that, no escorts though....