Observation on Japanese v Allied Pilot Quality

[String]

Well, I'm not too sure how many shore based squadrons the USN gets at the moment (can't check the game as there isn't one on this pc) but you can use all of your USN squadrons to train pilots for your carriers, even if they aren't flying the aircraft types the carriers carry.

For EUBanana, you can send pilots from squadrons to the general reserve, from where the other squadrons in the same nation can pull them. Sadly, as the USMC and USN are considered different nations you can't use USMC squadrons to train carrier pilots . Perhaps a patch can adress this as AFAIK usmc pilots were used on carriers.

The pilot transfer process goes like this. Open the squadron pilot screen and hover your cursor over their name, the popup will tell you which click does what. There is a difference because you can send high-exp pilots to tracom while you can't do it with low exp ones. Use the click which sends them to general reserve.

Now go to the other squadron that needs pilot replacements and click on the "request veteran" option. A list of pilots should appear, with some of them assigned to the previous squadron. Click on the pilots you want to bring to the new squadron and they should arrive in a number of days indicated by the delay column.

Now there is a catch, they won't become active automatically. When the delay reaches 1 you need to activate them yourself through the pilot screen. If you don't they will dissapear to somewhere after a while (a week? A day? I don't know atm).

Where they dissapear I do not know, perhaps they will come back in 180 days, perhaps they dissapear forever, I have no idea, I haven't been able to figure that one out yet. I lost about 20-30 good pilots that way before I finally found out about that "feature" .

This feature is rich in micromanagement but it's a great way to really get the good pilots into the squadrons you want them in. If you wish you could just create an all out "ace" squadron from one of your early F4U units and use it to utterly devastate the japanese. Or well, whatever you wish.

Now using the training command won't give your pilots high exp, doing real missions will. High exp, however, will reduce the fatigue the pilots take as well as ops losses and various other small things that aren't covered by the specific skills. Basically you also want high exp in addition to the high skill for your front line units, especially carrier units.

Now the Japanese have a nice advantage here. Recon and transport units, especially the latter. Just flying supply missions and recon will gradually increase your general experience level the way that usual training never will. After they have high exp transfer them to the other training squadrons and train them in the skill they need, then transfer them to the frontline. It takes more time (as it should) but will provide true top notch pilots.

The USN might be able to do the same if there are any USN transport or recon units available. IF there aren't you could just use pilots from PBY squadrons, flying extensive naval search should also up the exp levels. Sadly you're also going to need all the good PBY pilots you can get.

[Mike Scholl]

ORIGINAL: PaxMondo

ORIGINAL: vonTirpitz

I believe that the USN alone lost more aircraft (and pilot trainees) in training squadrons than they lost in combat during the war. Add that to my score! [:D]

Pretty sure I also read that somewhere as well.

US "non-combat losses" were a hair over 60% of their total losses, and Japanese "non-combat losses" just shy of 67% of their total losses, if memory serves...

[EUBanana]

ORIGINAL: String

Very helpful post, thanks.

However I must be doing something wrong as I see no general reserve option? have a look at this. I got an ace, McGarry, but he apparently can't go anywhere aside from being stood down.

[EUBanana]

Mm, different squadron, different options.

I assume the 'send to group reserve' is the one we want.

[EUBanana]

I also notice when you do 'request veteran' you can lift veterans direct from other squadrons. you have 'patrol reserve', 'fighter reserve' etcetera which I assume are unassigned pilots who go into the pool based on their best skill rating, but as well as those you have pilots apparently already assigned to squadrons.

So perhaps you dont need to send them to the reserve at all, you can just pull them right out of a squadron somewhere else? though it'd be hard to tell which squadrons are good to be stripped unless you have a very good memory.

[EUBanana]

...and furthermore does it not take veterans automatically based on the choice of where you draw pilots from?

The options appear to be

Reserve
Replacement
TRACOM
Any

I assume replacement is green but trained pilots coming from your pilot pool.
I assume TRACOM means green and untrained pilots with diabolical experience.

So what is 'reserve'? Is that your pool of rotated veterans?

[EUBanana]

Assuming my assumptions ([:'(]) are correct, I guess the way to do this with fairly minimal micromanagement is the following procedure...

Your front line squadrons where you want your best pilots - set their source from which they draw pilots from to 'reserve'. So they only draw veterans.

Your rear line squadrons, like those Lancer squadrons on the West Coast - set their source to either 'replacement' or 'TRACOM'. Have them set to train whatever skill you want.

Every so often check those training squadrons, send any pilots with the skill you require to the group reserve, and draw fresh pilots to be trained.

At the front hopefully you don't have to do anything, as any pilots will always come from the group reserve.

Doesn't sound too onerous to me.

...Is this correct?

[EUBanana]

Roberts DT is an air skill 70 pilot twiddling his thumbs in an Airacobra squadron in Sydney.

I sent him to the group reserve.

Now when I switch to an embattled P40 squadron in Bengal I click on 'request veteran'. Roberts DT is there. However while looking at the veteran screen I change it from viewing 'any' to viewing 'reserve'. Roberts DT is indeed in the reserve, listed as 'fighter reserve', presumably as his main skill is air. So I could select him as mentioned previously.

Unfortunately it looks like that pilot source thing is wrong, as when I click it onto 'reserve' somewhere near the front and then get pilot, even though Roberts is the only pilot in the fighter reserve, I don't get Roberts, I get some chap called Vebber who is green as grass.

[String]

I'm not too sure about the various pilot draw options. But I do know that:

Replacements gives you pilots from the pilot training pool

TRACOM gives you pilots from your training command, to where you can appoint 90+ exp pilots to increase the amount of pilots out of flight school every month.

[EUBanana]

ORIGINAL: String

I'm not too sure about the various pilot draw options. But I do know that:

Replacements gives you pilots from the pilot training pool

TRACOM gives you pilots from your training command, to where you can appoint 90+ exp pilots to increase the amount of pilots out of flight school every month.

Mm.

Perhaps reserve means something else in this context then. [&:] I do remember when AE was still in development that you were going to have the option to pillage your half trained pilot pools, hence the 1-3 / 4-6 / 7-9 months training bands. I guess reserve in that context implies pilots who are partially trained?

The plot thickens a bit as the numbers in brackets are way lower than the pilot pools screen implies. I see Reserve (49) for example, but looking at the pilot pool, US Army has over 600 pilots in it - not 49.

[sven6345789]

if you want to send pilots to the general reserve, left click once to send him to group reserve, then left click on the pilot again to send him to general reserve. You must have more pilots than planes in the squadron though.
Group reserve means that the pilot is available for the group only.
If you have as many pilots as planes, you cannot rotate the pilots out of the unit.
at least that is how i understood it.

[Smeulders]

For the USN you can use Kingfisher squadrons to train you DB pilots and the Catalinas for Torpedo training. Not quite realistic, but it does get the job done.

EUBanana, take a look at the 'pilot management' addendum. It should be somewhere in your WITP folder since the last patch and explains quite a bit about all the pools.

[Chickenboy]

ORIGINAL: EUBanana

Roberts DT is an air skill 70 pilot twiddling his thumbs in an Airacobra squadron in Sydney.

I sent him to the group reserve.

Now when I switch to an embattled P40 squadron in Bengal I click on 'request veteran'. Roberts DT is there. However while looking at the veteran screen I change it from viewing 'any' to viewing 'reserve'. Roberts DT is indeed in the reserve, listed as 'fighter reserve', presumably as his main skill is air. So I could select him as mentioned previously.

Unfortunately it looks like that pilot source thing is wrong, as when I click it onto 'reserve' somewhere near the front and then get pilot, even though Roberts is the only pilot in the fighter reserve, I don't get Roberts, I get some chap called Vebber who is green as grass.

EU Banana,

You're almost there. Instead of just leaving whatshisname in "Group Reserve" go back to his now grayed-out name and left click one more time. Doing so will now place him in "General Reserve". This is more useful to draw him from later.

[EUBanana]

ORIGINAL: Smeulders
EUBanana, take a look at the 'pilot management' addendum. It should be somewhere in your WITP folder since the last patch and explains quite a bit about all the pools.

Ah yes, I see it in the manuals folder. thanks.

[Athius]

The 49 indicates the avarage experience level, not the number of pilots.

[WLockard]

ORIGINAL: Smeulders

For the USN you can use Kingfisher squadrons to train you DB pilots and the Catalinas for Torpedo training. Not quite realistic, but it does get the job done.

EUBanana, take a look at the 'pilot management' addendum. It should be somewhere in your WITP folder since the last patch and explains quite a bit about all the pools.

they only problem is that are going to be listed as Patrol Reserves. So if you use them as Db or TB pilots they will take an experience/skill hit.

[Smeulders]

ORIGINAL: WLockard

ORIGINAL: Smeulders

For the USN you can use Kingfisher squadrons to train you DB pilots and the Catalinas for Torpedo training. Not quite realistic, but it does get the job done.

EUBanana, take a look at the 'pilot management' addendum. It should be somewhere in your WITP folder since the last patch and explains quite a bit about all the pools.

they only problem is that are going to be listed as Patrol Reserves. So if you use them as Db or TB pilots they will take an experience/skill hit.

First time I heard of that, but it can't be helped. Either you do it this way and take the exp/skill hit, or you take them straight from the pool and get worse pilots. Doesn't really bother me either, it only seems fair that switching from kingfisher to Dauntless isn't "free".

[erstad]

Even if they run out of pilots that graduate from flight school, there will be endless supply of exp/skill 10-15? pilots

What's the basis for this statement? I haven't seen anything in any of the documentation that suggests it's accurate.

[Q-Ball]

OK, so the thread became a series of training tips, which is OK, I just want to hopefully steer this back to the original point.....

So, sounds like we agree? That Allied pilot quality will converge with Japanese pilot quality for most of the game? (Well, we can't say for sure until we get there, but it does SEEM that way)

If so, is that OK? And maybe there are two answers; one for history, the other for play balance?

I can certainly comment on what WITP was like: I had virtually unlimited production of Franks late in the war, over 800/mo rolling off the lines. By bombing the Chinese, we also had about unlimited supplies of 70+ exp. pilots. I would hoard up a pile of these units, and send 1000+ planes at once at the US....where hundreds would then get quickly killed off anyway, for not a big result. Back to square one and repeat the process.

So, WITP, in a roundabout way, kind of simulated the futility of the Japanese late-war air position, just in a different way than historical. Is AE going to be a repeat? Not sure.

[Smeulders]

Well, exp is hard to get up with training, so their may remain a difference there between the Allies and Japanese, the question is how much of an impact that will have. I've read somewhere (might have been your AAR) that exp primarily affects morale and fatigue, so it may be hard(er) to keep the lower experienced Japanese pilots in the line without them refusing to fly due to morale and taking higher losses because of fatigue. Not sure if the effects are strong enough for that though.

Edit : I just looked and it seems that the exp for Japanese pilots from the training pool is in fact about as high as for the allies (except Navy). The questions then are.

1) Can the Japanese get enough "training" units to train all of those new pilots, allies most likely can.
2) How likely is it that the Japanese will lose more than the 190 pilots per branch in a month. If this starts happening, then they'll have to use not yet graduated pilots, which may be painful.