Seeking advice about depleted air units

[jwolf]

For background, I am playing my first campaign, as Allies, game currently in late January 1942. Through a combination of Japanese attacks and my own poor management, many of the air groups from Malaya, Singapore, DEI, and the Philippines have been either completely wiped out or nearly so. This applies to both fighters and bombers. Some air groups have no planes at all, only a few pilots drinking coffee or perhaps something stronger. Many other air groups have only 1 plane or some other very small number. So I have some questions about what to do with this air force.

1. Is it true that many small air groups are worse than one larger group with the same number of planes? That seems to be my experience, but I'd like to know. For example, consider 10 air groups with 1 plane each as opposed to 1 group with 10 planes, supposing equal experience, morale, etc.

2. If I disband the completely depleted groups (that is, the ones with no planes) does that simply release the pilots into the general pool? Is there any other effect?

3. If I disband some of the very small groups, would their planes be available in order to fill out some of the other groups a bit better? If so, that may or may not make sense strategically but I would like to know what my options are.

4. I've grown fond of the Catalinas, and as the Japanese ring tightens I intend to move these units to Australia and perhaps ultimately to other places. Are any of the other air groups from this area worth saving? It seems that many of them will be withdrawn anyway (if they are still around) sometime later in 1942. BTW I already pulled out the B17s from Luzon, but I lost most of them due to incompetently basing them in airfields that were too small. [:(]

[IdahoNYer]

I find the Allies critically short of aircraft through most of '42. You have to gauge your operational tempo accordingly. I'd recommend pulling squadrons with few available planes to the rear areas and use them as training squadrons. Keep your good avail pilots in the reserve pool, and load up the squadrons in rear areas with replacements for training.

Some squadrons when disbanded/withdrawn will put the planes/pilots back in the pool, some don't. It will say when you elect to disband/withdraw. You can also set some units to return later after disbanding.

To me, you can never have too many squadrons training pilots. I try not to disband if at all possible.

[Anthropoid]

Two related questions:

1. Is it being disbanded/withdrawn in a base with the units HQ that determines if they go to the pool and can be reformed?

2. Why do you get Political Points back for disbanding/withdrawing sometimes and not others? Is it only for units that are due to be withdrawn.

Based on what I've been able to gather so far, I think IdahoNYer is outlining a very reasonable set of operating principles. However, some exceptions: US starts out with a lot of air assets in Luzon that cannot be changed to any other command, and so they cannot leave the island. Given a choice between disbanding / withdrawing or leaving them parked on the runway for Japan to destroy (and get victory points) seems pretty obvious that disbanding them is the wise choice.

[wdolson]

After all these years I still get Disband and Withdraw confused. One removes the unit for a shorter period of time with the pilots, the other for a longer period of time and the pilots are released into the pool. If an air unit is scheduled to be permanently withdrawn with planes and pilots, withdrawing it early will lose planes and pilots. If it is not, there are many factors that determine what happens. If there is another unit operating the same plane at the same base, the two units will merge. If there isn't, the planes will go into the pools and the pilots will be released to the pool if you do the longer removal. The unit will eventually reform in the national main base if it wasn't meant to permanently go away.

I find in the early going as Allies, I'm often merging units to keep a few up to strength. It is also necessary to hold back a lot of units and train pilots. The Allies have few well trained pilots in the first year and I always have a lot of units 100% training to try and keep up. The pointy end of the spear ends up being pretty small as a result.

Bill

[HansBolter]

Both the B-17s and the fighters are worth releasing form the PI.

The fighters withdraw in June and the Bombers a few months later, but this is a critical time period when airframes are thin.

It's worth the PPs to buy out the airframes form the PI and get them to Australia which is devoid of fighters at game start.

I personally avoid disbanding units that don't have withdrawal dates. Makes me fell like I'm voluntarily drawing down my force.

So what if the squadron only has 2 airframes left. I move it to a quiet location and use it for training until a new airframe becomes available to upgrade it to.

Managing pools is essential for the Allies. You need to learn to assess each airframe type by looking at the total number of planes of that type you will receive.

The plane pool interface shows you how many of each type you will bet per month, but to see how many months each production/replacement run is you need to click on the name of the plane type to look at the plane data screen.

In the lower left of that screen is the duration in months of the production/replacement run. Multiply this by the combination of the monthly production and replacement numbers to get a total of that airframe.

For example the LB30 is an extra long range version of the B24 (smaller bombload = greater range) that you get very early on in very low numbers.

You will get enough planes to fill out two squadrons, but that will only leave a very small amount in the pool to sustain the squadrons over time by replacing ops and combat loses.

Better to only upgrade one squadron to LB30 and then you will have a sufficient pool to be able to operate that squadron for a longer duration.

You need to go through this exercise with each new airframe as it arrives in the pool.

Plan ahead for what squadrons will upgrade to which airframes by assessing the pool ahead of your current date.

[wegman58]

Before withdraw or disband I ALWAYS release all the pilots to reserve (Not the Group, the other choice).

[Ostwindflak]

If you release the pilots to group reserve, those pilots won't automatically take over an available aircraft spot if for example a pilot flying a mission was killed/wounded in combat will they?

I can't remember seeing it happen as it has been a couple months since I last played my Allied campaign, but what is the tangible benefit of loading up a group reserve? From what I remember I typically had maybe 6 or so pilots in most group reserves and never saw them used.

[m10bob]

Don't forget some of the scheduled units to be withdrawn are lost forever as they are Europe bound.
For a time you even have the famous 56th Fighter Group, and it was loaded with "to be aces" IRL.

So long as you have units in supply, and in their command area, assign depleted units to training,(I put it at 80%)..The pilots will not be overly fatigued and the planes will in time be replaced..

Sometimes if I need those planes RIGHT NOW(!), I might look at all the replacement types in pool and flesh the unit out with an older,inferior plane type for the sake of numbers..(The unit will still get the planes they need when available and the pilots will not be forced to sit around drinking the booze waiting for the REMFS to catch up on replacement.[:D]

[rustysi]

Ooh, ooh, pick me I know.[:D]

2. Why do you get Political Points back for disbanding/withdrawing sometimes and not others?

If you withdraw a unit that's due to be withdrawn early you get PP's.

[wdolson]

ORIGINAL: m10bob

Don't forget some of the scheduled units to be withdrawn are lost forever as they are Europe bound.
For a time you even have the famous 56th Fighter Group, and it was loaded with "to be aces" IRL.

Unless you're playing a mod, I don't think you get the 56th FG. I believe the 57th FG is in game. The 56th was never stationed on the map during the war. They trained in New York to be close to the Republic factory. They were the first unit to get the P-47 and it had a lot of teething problems. They were close to the factory to help with the debugging.

Once the problems with the P-47 were worked out and the pilots were sufficiently trained, it was shipped out to the UK.

Bill

[m10bob]

ORIGINAL: wdolson

ORIGINAL: m10bob

Don't forget some of the scheduled units to be withdrawn are lost forever as they are Europe bound.
For a time you even have the famous 56th Fighter Group, and it was loaded with "to be aces" IRL.

Unless you're playing a mod, I don't think you get the 56th FG. I believe the 57th FG is in game. The 56th was never stationed on the map during the war. They trained in New York to be close to the Republic factory. They were the first unit to get the P-47 and it had a lot of teething problems. They were close to the factory to help with the debugging.

Once the problems with the P-47 were worked out and the pilots were sufficiently trained, it was shipped out to the UK.

Bill

I was thinking I saw the 56th somewhere around Washington state in late 1941..Playing stock number one campaign..I was trying to find some way to bring them to "my guys", but they were locked into west coast forces....I had the option to withdraw them, (and I did)..

OTOH....senility can be my friend..........[:D]

[crsutton]

There have been changes with the withdraw option with some of the later patches. There are a few units on the west coast that must be disbanded and the withdraw option is not there. You can however, strip out the pilots but you will not save any of the aircraft. Most other required withdraws now allow you the option of disbanding instead of withdrawing. If you choose to disband the planes and pilots go to the pool which early in the war might be preferred, or you can withdraw them before the scheduled date and gain PPs instead but you will lost the aircraft if you take the PPs. I generally find that early war I need the planes more than PPs. Well, I need both but the planes are critical. Units that are not scheduled to withdraw or disband can voluntarily do so but I never see any sense in doing so as even a unit with one plane can train pilots and you will need to train pilots. Sometimes I disband or withdraw trapped Chinese air units but that is about it.