Help a naive player understand air upgrades

[jwolf]

Greetings. New player with my latest frustration, trying to upgrade an AVG squadron in India to Warhawks. Nothing happened for a few days, and finally I noticed a mouseover in the box for this squadron which explained that I need a level 7 airfield. And of course, India has no level 7 airfields (game is currently in late February 42). I've been working on Delhi for about two months and at the current rate it will take roughly another two months to go up from 6 to 7, which means I am stuck until about the end of April.

OK here is my question. I've never been in the military and I don't know how these things are actually done. From a very naive viewpoint, I would suppose you get an airfield, fly the old and the new planes there, sign a few forms, maybe a celebratory toast, and that is that. What is so complex about this process that you need such a high level airfield? [&:]

[HansBolter]

I can't say for certain what level airfield you need but I do know an upgrade WILL occur at smaller airfields.

I have upgraded the AVG in either Chitagong or Calcutta many times.

The real key is the minimum 20k supply at the base.

[bartrat]

In real life new equipment change is somewhat complicated. Training must be conducted on the new equipment (how to repair and use). New spare parts and sometimes new equipment for servicing must be obtained. Then training on the new aircraft (what is new / different). Takes some time and requires some new resources.

[jwolf]

My squadron is currently in Bombay, which has 400K supplies. But its HQ is very far away, in Burma. So maybe Chittagong will do the job although I'm not sure if it has enough supplies.

[jwolf]

Update: Both Chittagong and Calcutta are way short of the supply required; they have about 5K and 7K respectively. There aren't many Indian bases with that much supply: Bombay, Karachi, Columbo, and Delhi. I think that's it. Earlier in the game I did move some supply by sea to Calcutta and Chittagong, but that is (probably) no longer possible.

[jwolf]

More update: OK so the problem as I see it is that my air HQs are generally not where the big supply bases are. But there is one exception, Columbo. This has a lot of supply and an air HQ (though not the right one for the AVG). So I think I can upgrade there. Correct?

[jamesjohns]

As others said, sounds like a supply needed issue.

While not an Air Force guy (ex Army) I always look at the supply need to make upgrades, especially with something as complex as an airplane, as the need for all the spare parts and equipment to keep the plane running. I am no mechanic but sure the vast majority of "parts" from a P-39 won't work on a P-38.

I have no idea how many man-hours of work is need to repair, maintain an airplane for every hour flow, or how many parts need to be replaced for each hour of flying, let alone damage from the rugged conditions of remote air fields or combat, even the wear and tear of flying in combat conditions without damage. I'm sure the pilots mechanically pushed their aircraft as far and hard as they could with a zero on their tail, but would not surprise me if these are measured in hundreds of hours and hundreds of pounds.

Not sure if airfield size for upgrades and HQ range but if so I would think of it as look at it as somehow an abstract of "technicians" not appearing in the game. Ground units have a measure of avaition support; guys to fuel the planes, the first line mechanics to do daily repairs, so forth. But during the war "factory reps" where often sent out to help with new equipment, troubleshoot problems, be a second level of knowledge. Lindberg played this role in WWII, helping troubleshoot many issues the "average" mechanic or pilot could not.

[Theages]

As always have a look in the manual (page 257):

Many of the aircraft models in the game were improved as the war went on. The engineers at
home toiled to perfect their designs, creating a constant flow of newer, more powerful models.
In War in the Pacific, Admiral’s Edition™, as these models become available their numbers
will steadily grow in the player’s Replacement Pool. Every day, during the Supply Operations
phase, air units will check for possible automatic upgrading if the unit is set to upgrade. During
the orders phase, an air group that meets the needed requirements will be able to use the
Upgrade Now option to accomplish an immediate upgrade.
There must be a sufficient number of the new model planes in the Replacement Pool to equal
the maximum ready aircraft level for the unit in order for an automatic upgrade to occur.
A player can force an upgrade during his turn as long as there is at least one new plane in the
pool and the conditions below are met.
In addition, one of the following cases must be true (the first true will take effect):
»» The air unit is located at a base with an airfield size of 7+ and the
base has over 20,000 supplies. Supplies will be expended at the base
258
and the unit will receive damaged planes from the pool (they may
repair before the next orders phase during the repair phase).
»» The air unit is located at a base and the HQ that the group is assigned
to is within transfer range of the air unit’s current or upgrading
aircraft type and the HQ is located at a base with an airfield size of
7+ and has over 20,000 supplies. Supplies will be expended at the
HQ base and the unit will receive damaged planes from the pool.
»» The air unit is located at a base and the Command level HQ that the
group is assigned to is within transfer range of the air unit’s current
or upgrading aircraft type and the Command HQ is located at a base
with over 20,000 supplies. Supplies will be expended at the HQ
base and the unit will receive damaged planes from the pool.
»» The air unit is located on a ship in the same hex as a base with an airfield size
of 7+ (TF or at anchor) and the base has over 20000 supplies. Supplies will be
expended at the base and the unit will receive damaged planes from the pool.
If one of these conditions is met, the unit’s current aircraft are placed in the player’s Replacement
Pool, and the unit has its number of damaged aircraft set equal to the maximum ready aircraft
level for the unit or the number in the pool if less than the group maximum level.
The minimum AF size required for the upgrade can be reduced by the presence of HQs.
If the base’s command HQ is within range, the AF size is reduced by the HQ command radius.
Else if an Air HQ is within range of the base, the AF size is reduced by ½ the command radius
if more than 2 or by one.
The minimum AF size is one.
A group may upgrade in their national home base, subject to the above conditions. It acts as
a Command HQ base.
Bases with more than 59% of service or runway damage cannot be used as a source for
replacements.
Automatic aircraft upgrades will not happen in a base where the total aviation support is
less than ½ the aviation support required, as the new planes may not become serviceable.
However, player initiated upgrades can occur.
The number of old aircraft being replaced in the group will be added back to the Aircraft
Replacement pool, but they will slowly reappear with a delay of up to 7 days. A message will
appear in the player’s Operations Report when they arrive. This is an attempt to represent the
time required to repair and service the old aircraft, and to make them combat ready to be sent
out as replacements.

[rustysi]

ORIGINAL: jwolf

My squadron is currently in Bombay, which has 400K supplies. But its HQ is very far away, in Burma. So maybe Chittagong will do the job although I'm not sure if it has enough supplies.

Theages hit the nail right on the head in his post. Now if you want to get supplies to a base and have sufficient supply at another source (ie Bombay) you need to draw it there. This may be accomplished by opening the base screen and clicking on the button where it says supply required. Each increment will increase the minimum supply by 1k. Now the base will try to maintain ~3x the amount shown. So when you set it to ~6/7k the base will attempt to accrue ~20k supply. Remember you need to have bases somewhere in the mix that can spare the supply and that there will be some amount of lost supply in the transfer.

[Barb]

Transition from H81A to P-40E isn't big problem, as it is actually almost the same plane. I can see a simple "check out with new plane" flight or two for the pilot. Something like this could IRL occur on forward airfield, and the transition would be in terms of few new planes arriving to serve along the old ones.

However in the game there are many upgrade paths and many plane types... Switching from P-40 to P-39 would require much more familiarization with new equipment. Transiting to P-38 would require major effort that could last more than month to get unit operational again. Upgrading from A-24 to B-25s, P-40s to P-47s, A-20s to B-25s, or B-26 to B-24s... it is not about just get in there and fly it. And this wouldn't happen at some small forward dusty airstrip.

For the Japan side there are too few paths possible. Getting the new Zero/Oscar model for a unit isn't going to take long, but moving from Nate to Nick, Oscar to Tojo, Sonia to Sally is another thing.

So the decision was taken that upgrade will have to meet certain conditions to happen - these usually include Size 7 airfield (could be lower actual+air HQ in range), 20000 supplies at base or 20000 supplies at base with air HQ in range) - IIRC

[jwolf]

OK I'm trying to parse different alternatives to fix my problem. Current situation: AVG squadron is complete and is parked at Bombay which has a mountain of supplies and airfield level 6. The squadron's air HQ is rather far away, in Burma, and can't be moved very far very fast if at all. However, I have another air HQ available at Madras. Plan is to rail this HQa to Bombay -- should take about 3 days -- and at that point I should, finally, be able to complete the upgrade. Is this correct?

[crsutton]

As an aside. I suggest you begin moving construction units from the US to India as soon as you can. This is a critical weakness in the Indian theater for the Allies. You will get plenty of American engineer units so move a ton of them to India. Won't hurt to move a few large base forces there as well. Likewise if you have low supply in Calcutta or Chittagong, just set them to draw more supply than normal. You have plenty of supply in India to support them. Once you get sufficient supply at a key city you can turn the extra supply draw off and then set the city to stockpile so that supply will not flow out of the base. You should be able to draw plentiful supply to one of these bases in a turn or two.