Air group management: what does the gaem do and not do?

[mrchuck]

Currently reached 1961 in my Germany game.

An observation that the battles get less and less interesting as the jet age dawns, since what it often boils down to is surface divisions scurrying for wherever CAP might be while jet squadrons bomb whatever is spotted into scrap. But this is probably realistic enough.

More concerning perhaps are several other things. I have attached a save. Incidentally the saves seem to have moved with the latest update from the RTW install/Save area to Documents/My Games in Users. Was this intended?

1. Despite expanding all my air bases, I don't have anywhere near the maximum number of air units on them. e.g. Wilhelmshaven, which has been capacity 100 since it was possible in around 1950, has just 12 planes. Emden has 20/100 and so on.

How do I influence this?

2, Repeatedly getting the message concerning carrier training capacity, but I have no idea what to do about it so I'm Ignoring it. Screenshot attached.

Screenshot from 2024-03-15 09-41-16.png (262.14 KiB) Viewed 924 times

What is the player supposed to do about this? I have no clue.

3. Most alarmingly, after noting that GB was hammering my fleet every time they poked their noses out of port, I was wondering why my air force wasn't doing it to them. Found that we were still running 1940s propeller types everywhere and I've started changing them manually. Should this be necessary or something not working properly?

Some messages about upgrading would be nice I even if I have to do it myself. I kind of assumed that the upgrades would be done automatically. Does a jet medium bomber appear at some point? I have been upgrading these to JA anyway.

The manual says this should all be happening automatically but it doesn't seem to be.

At any rate now my air force is pounding their stuff into scrap so I feel a bit better.

You will see that this is a weird navy for 1961 with four ancient BCs still in service, though now loaded with heavy SSMs which make them still surprisingly useful. Unlike the more modern stuff, they do not fold up after a couple of missile hits or I would have got rid of them ages ago. I always thought the the BBG as exemplified by the Iowas was a good idea given the very indifferent showing of aluminium ships in the Falklands War, but there you go. Perhaps with rail weapons they will return.

4. Will I then need to manually scrap (or mark as obsolete?) old aircraft as well?

[WLRoo]

1 It looks like you need to expand the number of squadrons at each base, or put more aircraft in there.

After each unit or base, you see a number in brackets - (X/Y/Z)

X is aircraft currently on hand

Y is aircraft assigned

Z is total capacity

So if X is lower than Y, you're waiting for aircraft to be allocated

If Y is lower than Z you need to add air units


2 Stop adding air units to land bases with 'Carrier Trained' enabled. - at least until you have built some more Carriers.


3 That doesn't sound correct, but the game prioritises your oldest squadrons for upgrades which leaves your newer squadrons with old equipment - is that what happened?

[thedoctorking]

It is also possible that you haven't been developing new types of aircraft. You have to go to the aircraft types window and request proposals for a new model of aircraft for a particular type (Fighter, Jet Attack, etc.). Then after a while some companies will offer you new models of plane in that aircraft type, you choose one, and then after another wait, that type of aircraft becomes operational and then your squadrons can request them. I'm thinking that what you have done is not manage your air force.

One thing that you might do is create air squadrons and then put them (and their bases) on reserve during peacetime. Another thing is to have big bases but keep them empty in peacetime (maybe except for a few patrol planes) and then when war breaks out or is about to break out, you create a bunch of new squadrons to fill up your bases in the area where you expect fighting. I usually keep a couple of squadrons of each type on active status so that new plane models can be operational and prove their abilities (the abilities you see when you select the plane model are not always what you are going to get when you actually fly the plane - advertising, you know).

[EvanJones]

Simple solution.

Go to Air Groups in the main menu. Right-click on the base lacking planes. Choose the Auto-add aircraft option. This will add new air groups (and/or may expand existing groups). You can then adjust your group from there as to number, role, etc.

[EvanJones]

And, as the doc says, you can create empty airbases in strategic points and transfer your existing air groups to them in time of war. That way you need far fewer air groups and will save $$$ in maintenance.
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