Renaming Air Counters

[WarHunter]

Next mod project will be renaming air units. The Excel worksheet shows 1345 counters. The majority are for 6 major powers. Renaming of the air units is my way to link Naval admirals, Air force generals and many lesser known people to the game. In the same way the land HQ's inspired me to rename the land units.
What id like to know is if the following examples are acceptable to anyone who might be interested in using the mod.

Going to concentrate on these nations first.
Japan
USA
USSR
CW
Italy
Germany

After they are done, i should be ready for a long nap in a white room. But no rest for me. On to France, China and minor nations.
If anyone is feeling helpful, especially with regards to minor nations, or the naming of any air units. I would be eternally grateful.

Little known facts tied to a person or aircraft or unit. Feel free to share. I'm sure among all the counters to be renamed, there is room for your suggestions. My only real concern is how some aircraft graphics can be compromised by naming. With that in mind, some flexibility is required.

Thanks for the time.

[Shellshock]

Cool idea. Denotes a little personality to the units. [8D]

[warspite1]

WarHunter - please see below for some suggestions. I have named all the VC winners + a few others I thought of (Pilot whose torpedo hit the Bismarck and the leaders of the two waves that attacked Taranto).

In most cases the aircraft are those that the individuals flew to win their VC. There are a few exceptions caused by the counter mix e.g. there were two VC winners that flew Catalinas (but there are no CW Catalinas) - so I have put them in Sunderlands.

Would have been nice to get the nationality in too but again, apart from the Canadian Lancaster pilots, that has not been possible for the Aussie, Kiwi, Irish, South African and other Canadian due to the counter mix.

Hope this is useful.

Battle – Garland V.C – 12 Sq
Fairey – Gray V.C – 12 Sq
Beaufort I – Campbell V.C – 22 Sq
Blenheim I - Trent V.C - 15 Sq
Blenheim IV – Edwards V.C – 105 Sq
Blenheim IV – Malcolm V.C – 18 Sq
Boston IV – Newton V.C - 22 Sq (Lend Lease Aircraft)
Corsair F4U-1 – Gray V.C – 1841 Sq (Please use 1944 Counter)
DC.3 – Lord V.C – 271 Sq
Halifax III – Barton V.C – 578 Sq
Hampden – Hannah V.C – 83 Sq
Hampden – Learoyd V.C - 49 Sq
Hurricane I – Nicolson V.C – 249 Sq
Lancaster I - Reid V.C – 61 Sq
Lancaster I – Jackson V.C – 106 Sq
Lancaster I – Nettleton V.C – 44 Sq
Lancaster III – Gibson V.C - 617 Sq
Lancaster III – Swales V.C – 582 sq
Lancaster III – Palmer V.C – 109 Sq
Lancaster X – Bazalgette V.C – 635 Sq (Canadian Counter)
Lancaster X – Mynarski V.C – 419 Sq (Canadian Counter)
Liberator B-24H – Trigg V.C – 200 Sq
Manchester – Manser V.C – 50 Sq
Mosquito XVI – Cheshire V.C – 617 Sq (Bomber Counter)
Stirling III – Aaron V.C – 218 Sq
Stirling I – Middleton V.C – 149 Sq
Sunderland – Cruickshank V.C – 210 Sq
Sunderland – Hornell V.C – 162 Sq
Swordfish – Esmonde V.C. – 825 sq (Please use a non-carrier air counter)
Swordfish – Moffat – 820 Sq (Please use a Carrier Counter)
Swordfish – Williamson – 815 Sq (Please use a Carrier Counter)
Swordfish – Hale – 819 Sq (Please use a Carrier Counter)
Wellington I – Ward V.C - 75 Sq

[warspite1]

A couple more:

Hurricane - Frantisek - 303 Sq
(depending on the source, this Czech was top or at least one of the top aces during the Battle of Britain).

Seafire – Reynolds – 893 Sq
(the only Seafire FAA ace of WWII).

[warspite1]

WarHunter I have a load of Japanese Zero, Kate and Val pilots too if you want them?

[WarHunter]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

WarHunter - please see below for some suggestions. I have named all the VC winners + a few others I thought of (Pilot whose torpedo hit the Bismarck and the leaders of the two waves that attacked Taranto).

In most cases the aircraft are those that the individuals flew to win their VC. There are a few exceptions caused by the counter mix e.g. there were two VC winners that flew Catalinas (but there are no CW Catalinas) - so I have put them in Sunderlands.

Would have been nice to get the nationality in too but again, apart from the Canadian Lancaster pilots, that has not been possible for the Aussie, Kiwi, Irish, South African and other Canadian due to the counter mix.

Hope this is useful.

Extremely useful

warspite1,
Thank you does not adequately express my gratitude. The names for the pilots are exactly what i look for.
I might have stumbled across some of them, but never really all of them. /salute

Zip up the "load of Japanese Zero, Kate and Val pilots". Send in a reply or PM. You have saved me countless hours of research. I can get these air unit counters renamed with little delay.

Take a moment and check the attached document for any errors.

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: WarHunter

ORIGINAL: warspite1

WarHunter - please see below for some suggestions. I have named all the VC winners + a few others I thought of (Pilot whose torpedo hit the Bismarck and the leaders of the two waves that attacked Taranto).

In most cases the aircraft are those that the individuals flew to win their VC. There are a few exceptions caused by the counter mix e.g. there were two VC winners that flew Catalinas (but there are no CW Catalinas) - so I have put them in Sunderlands.

Would have been nice to get the nationality in too but again, apart from the Canadian Lancaster pilots, that has not been possible for the Aussie, Kiwi, Irish, South African and other Canadian due to the counter mix.

Hope this is useful.

Extremely useful

warspite1,
Thank you does not adequately express my gratitude. The names for the pilots are exactly what i look for.
I might have stumbled across some of them, but never really all of them. /salute

Zip up the "load of Japanese Zero, Kate and Val pilots". Send in a reply or PM. You have saved me countless hours of research. I can get these air unit counters renamed with little delay.

Take a moment and check the attached document for any errors.

warspite1

I don't have squadron details as such - I have carriers that they flew on during key battles so I could give you for example:

A6M2 – Itaya - Akagi
A6M2 – Sato - Kaga

Is that okay?

[WarHunter]

Perfect! I can figure out the carrier division by what CV they flew off.

[warspite1]

WarHunter please see below. All Carrier Divisions except 5 are from the Midway operation (source: Shattered Sword) and CarDiv 5 is from Pearl Harbor (Source: Osprey).

Land based air - the Zeros were to have operated from Midway had the invasion worked, the Betty is from the Genzan Group (part of the 22nd Air Flotilla) that sunk Force H (Source: The Sinking of the Prince of Wales and Repulse).

For the Romanians I think most of the high scoring aces flew Bf-109's but Vizante was the exception - with many of his kills in the IAR 80. For the second ace I took the alleged top scorer (as I do not know if any other of the aces kills were achieved in the Romanian fighter)(Source: Third Axis Fourth Ally).

Japanese (Land Based Air)
A6M2 – Kofukuda – Midway Exp Force
G3M2 – Maeda - Genzan

Japanese (All Carrier Planes)
A6M2 – Itaya – Akagi
D3A1 – Chihaya - Akagi
B5N2 - Murata - Akagi
A6M2 – Sato - Kaga
D3A1 – Ogawa - Kaga
B5N2 – Kitajima – Kaga
All above Car Div 1

A6M2 – Mori - Hiryu
D3A1 – Kobayashi - Hiryu
B5N2 – Kikuchi - Hiryu
A6M2 – Suganami - Soryu
D3A1 – Ikeda - Soryu
B5N2 – Abe – Soryu
All Above Car Div 2

A5M4 – Hidaka - Zuiho
B5N2 – Matsuo – Zuiho
No Car Div for Zuiho at Midway

A6M2 – Kobayashi – Ryujo
B5N1 – Yamagami – Ryujo
A6M2 – Shiga – Junyo
D3A1 – Abe - Junyo
All above Car Div 4

A6M2 – Sato - Zuikaku
D3A1 - Sakamoto – Zuikaku
B5N2 - Shimazaki - Zuikaku
A6M2 – Kaneko - Shokaku
D3A1 - Takahashi – Shokaku
B5N2 – Ichihara - Shokaku
All above Car Div 5

Romania

IAR 80 – Vizante – Grp 6 Van.
IAR 80 – Serbanescu – Grp 9 Van.

[WarHunter]

Great book research. I only dream of a collection from "Osprey". If only i had such a library. Sadly mine is obsolete by today's standard. Though i do get some pleasure in collecting them.
[8|]

[warspite1]

So just to be clear - these changes DEFINITELY do not give the games problems (it really doesn't need anymore)?

[WarHunter]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

So just to be clear - these changes DEFINITELY do not give the games problems (it really doesn't need anymore)?

I cannot reassure you 100%.
I'd hope if this was to bring chaos to the MWiF engine, someone would post the bridge is out before finding out ourselves.
If it turns out to be folly. Then we dared greatly and have nothing to be ashamed of.

Yeah /crossed fingers

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: WarHunter

ORIGINAL: warspite1

So just to be clear - these changes DEFINITELY do not give the games problems (it really doesn't need anymore)?

I cannot reassure you 100%.
I'd hope if this was to bring chaos to the MWiF engine, someone would post the bridge is out before finding out ourselves.
If it turns out to be folly. Then we dared greatly and have nothing to be ashamed of.

Yeah /crossed fingers

warspite1

I'd really like to add these as they really personalise the units - its such a great idea.

[WarHunter]

Agreed.

I start up a new game after a couple of days of renaming. Going through the entire setup just to see if anything crashes and to check how the renaming looks. Thats about the limit of my quality control.

The fact is any change i make on the excel worksheet will not work with a saved game. It has to be a new game. In between the complete setup start. I also do just the very beginning and check the "Units in game" for spelling errors and overwrites of factors by letters.

Like life, we pursue a goal and hope we are within acceptable gaming parameters. [:)]

[WarHunter]

A little progress each day. What do you think?

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: WarHunter

A little progress each day. What do you think?

warspite1

WarHunter Can I be picky?

Personally I would prefer the carrier rather than the carrier division but I guess its a space issue? If so, would CD make more sense than CV (which is how the US identify individual carriers?).

Just my 2 cents.

Keep up the good work [&o] If this does not affect the gameplay then I am a definite convert [:)]

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: WarHunter

A little progress each day. What do you think?

warspite1

WarHunter Can I be picky?

Personally I would prefer the carrier rather than the carrier division but I guess its a space issue? If so, would CD make more sense than CV (which is how the US identify individual carriers?).

Just my 2 cents.

Keep up the good work [&o] If this does not affect the gameplay then I am a definite convert [:)]

- warspite1

WarHunter here are two more:

G3M2 - Kondo - Mihoro
G4M1 - Fujiyoshi - Kanoya

These are the other two elements of the 22nd Air Flotilla at the time of the sinking of Force Z. I got the names yesterday from a webiste, but unlike Maeda, I could not independently verify. Gilbert on the WITP-AE forum did so this morning and he knows tons so I am happy its right.

[warspite1]

Also, for the other B29A how about:

B-29A - Sweeney - 509CG

This is the pilot for the second atomic bomb mission.

[WarHunter]

Looks like someone has been busy while i slept. [>:]

Any picky opinions and suggestions are welcome. A little attention to detail is not a bad thing.

For the Japanese, a few guidelines to follow.

1. I think CD for Carrier Division works a lot better than CV. Good call. Its nice and simple.

2. From a historical point of view there were only 5 carrier divisions. What is your feeling about creating Carrier divisions 6, 7, 8 and 9 for unit designations for mid to late war carrier Planes? We can still use known pilot names and match with aircraft as close as possible.

3. All Japanese land based Naval air will have the unit designation of NAG (Naval Air Group).

4. For land based Army aircraft i think using the pre-1944 ACG (Air Combat Group) would work. I like it better than the 1944 change to Attack Units or AU.

5. Tokkō Tai or Tokkō should be reserved for any specific kamikaze or special attack type aircraft.

6. I'd like to use a few IJN admirals and IJA generals who were connected to the Air arm of the air forces.

Your thoughts?

[WarHunter]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

Also, for the other B29A how about:

B-29A - Sweeney - 509CG

This is the pilot for the second atomic bomb mission.

Good call