How to maintain a SUSTAINED air offensive?

Gary Grigsby’s War in the West 1943-45 is the most ambitious and detailed computer wargame on the Western Front of World War II ever made. Starting with the Summer 1943 invasions of Sicily and Italy and proceeding through the invasions of France and the drive into Germany, War in the West brings you all the Allied campaigns in Western Europe and the capability to re-fight the Western Front according to your plan.

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dereck
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How to maintain a SUSTAINED air offensive?

Post by dereck »

How does one keep a sustained air offensive going?

1. How to keep squadrons/groups full with pilots?
2. How to handle fatigue?
3. What is a sustained "intensity" level?

I hate to mention WITP but since I've played that since it first came out it's easy for me to keep squadrons in operation since one can set levels for rest, etc. Not sure HOW to set things in WITW so I don't have to micromanage each squadron/group every turn.

Thanks
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Grotius
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RE: How to maintain a SUSTAINED air offensive?

Post by Grotius »

I'm not sure about (1), but as to (2) and (3): You can micromanage each squadron if you want. I do. I use the Commander's Report (hotkey C) to sort by morale and fatigue, and I use the same screen to set tired/demoralized squads to rest. You can do it right on that screen without looking at each squadron's details. Maybe you already know about that, but I thought I'd mention it as a possibility. It works for me.
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LiquidSky
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RE: How to maintain a SUSTAINED air offensive?

Post by LiquidSky »

Intensity is number of sorties in a day. It gives the cryptic Medium = default, High is twice as many, Low is half as many in the manual, but I am pretty sure I noticed somewhere how many actual sorties that is in one of the info screens

Essentially you can decide what days you fly sorties...and how many sorties that will be per day.


EDIT: Upon further reading, you can manually set the number of strikes per day with STRIKE NUM, which overrides INTENSITY. Curious it can be set from 0 (AUTO) to 999. Which I assume means no rest for the pilots EVER.
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marion61
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RE: How to maintain a SUSTAINED air offensive?

Post by marion61 »

1. Increase their priority rate to 4 and set their replacements to priority in the commander's report, or set it to experienced aircrews.

2. See 3.

3. You can control fatigue with the "intensity" level. If your hot after an objective and want to bomb it as much as possible, then set it to high. When I want to rest my bombers, I set it to low and when they recuperate I set them back to medium until the next time.

Plus I stagger the days that my two air directives from the same HQ perform. In all the time I've been playing now, and I'm no expert, but I've never had a problem with fatigue from aircrews.
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LiquidSky
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RE: How to maintain a SUSTAINED air offensive?

Post by LiquidSky »



You get more then 2 air directives from an HQ. You get Air + Admin divided by 2, round down. For most of them, it seems to be 6 AD's
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marion61
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RE: How to maintain a SUSTAINED air offensive?

Post by marion61 »

I understand how it works, I chose to just keep it to two "bomb city" AD's. The more AD's you have for a HQ, the less they will all fly over a certain target. I'm in a server game right now as the WA's, and I'm getting 15-16 positive VP's a turn from my strategic bombing. When I invade France I'll give 8th AF a ground attack directive, but I don't overload a Air HQ with too many AD's. This also keeps my pilot fatigue at a manageable level.
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Grotius
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RE: How to maintain a SUSTAINED air offensive?

Post by Grotius »

Wow, I wish I were getting 15-16 VPs a turn. I guess I'm concentrating my bombing too much.
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cfulbright
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RE: How to maintain a SUSTAINED air offensive?

Post by cfulbright »

ORIGINAL: dereck

How does one keep a sustained air offensive going?

1. How to keep squadrons/groups full with pilots?
2. How to handle fatigue?
3. What is a sustained "intensity" level?

I hate to mention WITP but since I've played that since it first came out it's easy for me to keep squadrons in operation since one can set levels for rest, etc. Not sure HOW to set things in WITW so I don't have to micromanage each squadron/group every turn.

Thanks
On #1, after you've completed the air phase and before you move on to the next turn, go to the Air Groups tab of the Commanders Report, and then click on "Add Pilots" in the top right of the screen. It will ask you if you want to add pilots to selected air groups, and then if you want to add only "trained" pilots. Click Yes to both. This will fill up your air groups that are missing pilots, up to the number of available trained pilots by nationality.

You want to do this before you go on to the next turn so that the pilots are assigned to their air groups in the next turn's air phase.

Cary
marion61
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RE: How to maintain a SUSTAINED air offensive?

Post by marion61 »

I should be a little clearer, that I'm getting positive VP's a turn because of my strategic bombing, not that I'm getting 15-16 points a turn just from strategic bombing. It get from 7-10 for my strategic bombing each turn.Check and see what gives the best VP's for the time your bombing. There are different VP's for bombing at different times in the game. While your bombing for the VP's, you can also bomb the other targets you want to hit. If those targets aren't VP targets, that's the only drawback.
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Grotius
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RE: How to maintain a SUSTAINED air offensive?

Post by Grotius »

Yep, I'm targeting mostly VP targets -- German HI, German Manpower, Fuel and Oil. Also playing whack-a-mole with U-Boat factories; I'm still in autumn 1943. But I don't ever get more than 3 Bombing VPs a turn. Probably because I haven't focused heavily on Manpower; I'm sort of kind of role-playing a "what if Bomber Command didn't target manpower so much" game.
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RE: How to maintain a SUSTAINED air offensive?

Post by dereck »

ORIGINAL: cfulbright

ORIGINAL: dereck

How does one keep a sustained air offensive going?

1. How to keep squadrons/groups full with pilots?
2. How to handle fatigue?
3. What is a sustained "intensity" level?

I hate to mention WITP but since I've played that since it first came out it's easy for me to keep squadrons in operation since one can set levels for rest, etc. Not sure HOW to set things in WITW so I don't have to micromanage each squadron/group every turn.

Thanks
On #1, after you've completed the air phase and before you move on to the next turn, go to the Air Groups tab of the Commanders Report, and then click on "Add Pilots" in the top right of the screen. It will ask you if you want to add pilots to selected air groups, and then if you want to add only "trained" pilots. Click Yes to both. This will fill up your air groups that are missing pilots, up to the number of available trained pilots by nationality.

You want to do this before you go on to the next turn so that the pilots are assigned to their air groups in the next turn's air phase.

Cary

THAT is exactly what I DON'T want to do if I don't have to. THere has to be some way where replacements will automatically be added to groups/squadrons.
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joey
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RE: How to maintain a SUSTAINED air offensive?

Post by joey »

If there is, I would love to know it. I grow tired of having to add pilots myself. It is such a waste of time.
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Helpless
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RE: How to maintain a SUSTAINED air offensive?

Post by Helpless »

Don't do this. This is unnecessary if you don't want to micromanage. Pilots are added each maintenance phase (7 times per air exec)
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joey
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RE: How to maintain a SUSTAINED air offensive?

Post by joey »

Pavel, is there a limit to how many can be added automatically to an air group per turn?
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Helpless
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RE: How to maintain a SUSTAINED air offensive?

Post by Helpless »

There should be no limit.
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marion61
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RE: How to maintain a SUSTAINED air offensive?

Post by marion61 »

Try concentrating on uboat and oil/fuel until Jan. 1st imo, and make sure your Bomber Command bombers are using HE bombs and not incendiary. I've honestly never concentrated on manpower targets, I like to hit the oil/fuel the most. It takes awhile, probably a year or so before your effects are really felt by the axis. Usually within in a year of bombing those targets (not exclusively but at least 2 AD's), axis fighters rarely have the fuel to intercept my ground attacks, and within 6 months their sortie rates will fall and continue to fall till they are doing barely 500 sorties an air phase. The best part about the air war is that it's versatile enough so that you can find your own way of doing it, and still get enough VP's to win.
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dereck
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RE: How to maintain a SUSTAINED air offensive?

Post by dereck »

ORIGINAL: Helpless

Don't do this. This is unnecessary if you don't want to micromanage. Pilots are added each maintenance phase (7 times per air exec)

I have to say that in my experience so far this ISN'T happening. I have even put squadrons on REST, in airfields with 4 supply priority and they still don't take replacements. (Though for the most part the worse units seem to be Patrol units).
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RE: How to maintain a SUSTAINED air offensive?

Post by joey »

I have had some bomber units with a max 72 with 4 pilots. I also have had a number of very badly staffed coastal units.
I assumed it was from my air loses. Reviewing the results, I have noticed that some raids of the mighty 8th were sent unescorted.
This concerns me. Is there a way to stop all unescorted raids, or limit the range or raids? I would fire me with some of the loses I have had!
marion61
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RE: How to maintain a SUSTAINED air offensive?

Post by marion61 »

When your creating air directives for the 8th AF there are two colors (3 if you count red) to watch for. If your bombing area is colored green then your escorts will be with the bombers. If the color is purple, then in that area there will be no escorts. On the path that they take these colors apply also if you have partial escorts on. If you open up your air directive, you can go into the advanced options and turn partial escorts on. I don't suggest flying unescorted missions except for night missions. I don't know if your letting the AI handle your air war, but it's good to learn to do it all manually. There is a lot of versatility in the options and although the AI is good, learning to do it manually will make your game better imho.

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Helpless
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RE: How to maintain a SUSTAINED air offensive?

Post by Helpless »

I have had some bomber units with a max 72 with 4 pilots. I also have had a number of very badly staffed coastal units.
I assumed it was from my air loses. Reviewing the result

What about ready planes? It doesn't fill them above ready during air exec (maintenance sub-phases).
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