Allied airgroups riddles

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wga8888
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Allied airgroups riddles

Post by wga8888 »

Per rules, British air groups may not upgrade prior to May 1 1942; Dutch July 1 1942. Are Australians considered British or may they upgrade (limited by upgrade path)? A dozen air groups with Wirraway III are not combat worthy as is. Seems anything such as Hurricanes would be an improvement.

I have some US airgroups assigned to CenPac in Pearl with CenPac HQ in the base. One has 23 planes with max of 24 (P40) but will not accept another plane. Other groups exist as well where not up to full strenght, planes are in pool, am in HQ command range. Several USAAF group have max of 72 Fighters, may or may not ever get there.

I have US Phillipine P40s now assigned to SWPac in Port Moresby of in Cairnes that also are not taking replacements. In both cases I have planes in the pool.
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BPRE
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RE: Allied airgroups riddles

Post by BPRE »


Yes, the Australian air groups can be upgraded immediately (once you have enough replacement aircraft).

Most likely you don't have enough supply available to upgrade. You need 20000 in the base of the air group but if you have less it's still possible if you are in transfer range of the groups HQ and the base of the HQ has at least 20000 supply.

Problem is that I'm not always able to make it work even though it should and sometimes it works even though I can't see that it should. Maybe I should add that this is when there isn't 20000 supply at the base of the airgroup. I don't think I ever had a problem when I had the supply.

Hope that helps
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RE: Allied airgroups riddles

Post by wga8888 »

Thanks, I will look at the supply situation. I have enough Hurricane II to upgrade one Wirraway group, will see where supply is sufficent and work to correct any shortage. . Also I am not sure what to do with B18 Bolos and P26 Pea Shooters. Will not let me upgrade, perhaps as P39s and B25s respectively are not yet available in the necessary numbers.
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RE: Allied airgroups riddles

Post by BPRE »


Are you playing with PDU on? When I checked the Wirraway groups at start now none of them upgrade to Hurricanes. One goes to A-20B Boston, a few to Vengeance I and the rest to Boomerang IIs.

/BPRE
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RE: Allied airgroups riddles

Post by wga8888 »

I will have to check next time I get a new turn from opponent. Most show what they will convert to, planes like you stated which I currently do not have, but that do not upgrade option if on . One gives me list of planes in pool but does not let me convert them. I am more intriqued by the B18s and P26s sitting in West Coast or Pearl that I cant seem to convert and understrength planes that will not take replacemetns. I check and find Pearl is under 20000 supply. I have no B18 on the west coast but in Pearl, Johnston, and Anchorage which also lack 20000 supply. I also noted a lot of damaged planes in Brisband and found the root cause of 0 aviation support.

I have some optimization to do.

In my AI upgrades, I have player defined upgrades off.

My next challenge is finding path of bases to get my 45 plane B17 group in San Diego to Southeast Asia (the default HQ).

What is your view of plus and minus of using player defined upgrades vs human opponent or AI.
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tankboy
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RE: Allied airgroups riddles

Post by tankboy »

I always save the turn to another file # just before I end it. This allows me to open it back up and do my research and plan ahead for the next turn.

Ref. Wirraways - you can convert them as soon as you have enough replacement AC and supplies. I normally rail move them to Brisbane or Sydney, convert them and then rail move them out to the front line the next turn. They then become operational 1 - 2 AC a turn. I turn them into Hurricanes and then try to keep them more than 11 hexes from where Zeroes may be based. They work well in N. Oz before the Japs make it to Koepeng/Lautern or in Townsville. They work reasonably well against bombers but are useless against Zeroes.
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RE: Allied airgroups riddles

Post by BPRE »

Hi,

I use the same technique as tankboy. I save the turn normally and then I End the game and save it again in another position to send to my opponent. Not unusual that something unexpected happens during the turn and you want to go back and see what your input was. Usually it turns out that I missed/forgot something :-)

As you've probably noticed you won't get the Boomerang until 43 so until then you'll have to live with the Wirraway's. They can harm ships with their bombs and if you find some ground units without any air protection they can be useful. I think that's about it. They're good for training Zero pilots also :-)

You can fly the B17s to Australia if you haven't lost some of the islands in between. From Australia to India you need bases in the East Indies/Malaya if I remember it correctly. Beware that if you use the absolute maximum transfer range I think it's much more likely that you will lose more planes to Ops losses. Better rest them between each jump and make sure you have aviation support. You might like to divide the group and move them separately. Without bases you just have to transport them by ship.

As for PDU on or off I think that using PDU on against the AI is close to cheating. It's got enough problems anyway without you being able to optimize your aircraft upgrades.

I've played one game as Allies against a human with PDU on (my opponents wish). I think that it helps the Japanese more than the Allied player at start at least. He quit end of February 42 so I don't know after that. As an Allied player you have the problem that you can not control the production so converting everything to one aircraft type probably leads to a shortage of that aircraft.

As Japanese player it's very tempting to have it so you can get rid of the useless Nate's etc but it's more of a challenge to play without it. Even useless Nates and Wirrawys can be useful under the right circumstances.

/BPRE
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RE: Allied airgroups riddles

Post by engineer »

One other cause where the game will refuse aircraft reinforcements is a straggler, a fragment that is elsewhere. Sometimes if you are rushing a group across the airbridge from Pearl to SWPAC or you've evacuated a group from Luzon, but have a damaged plane left behind in Manila or Clark, then your squadron in Oz will be short a few planes and you won't be able to fill it out until you get that straggler back with the main formation.
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turkey
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RE: Allied airgroups riddles

Post by turkey »

You can ship the B17's from Oz to India using AK. Best to split the unit into its three sub units in case of sub attack though.
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