In Defence of Canadian Pilots

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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cmunson
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RE: In Defence of Canadian Pilots

Post by cmunson »

Why does the effectiveness of night bombing decrease in late 44? Is this just because of the swarms of German NFs. My understanding is that many human German players disband their NF squadrons because they need the pilots for their day fighter squadrons.

It is due to night fighters. Off topic but I am curious about strategy of disbanding night fighters. The one place the Luftwaffe can dominate late war is at night getting substantial kill rates of 10:1 or more. The lifespan in daylight against hordes or Allied escorts is pretty short. I find Germans late war reduced to holing up in a few places with no drop tanks to try and catch deep raids that my be flying past escort range. Even if good German pilots in daylight getting a 2:1 kill ratio the attrition from that can't begin to keep up with the 35 pilot a week replacement rate. Flying missions with hordes of untrained pilots is just building planes in order to crash them.

It what may be heresy to some I send many of the daylight reinforcement fighter groups to EF to boost CV there.

I don't have an argument against more Canadian pilots if facts bear out replacement rate too low. Something I do that may help Canadians that dates back to pre patch but I still practice is moving the FB's from Italy to southern England a couple of months before D-Day. Here they get Typhoons and rest up for D-Day. I also move all Canadian troops to England so they will be wanting their own air support. Finally, I only play as Allies now with the additional air HQ's. I put all Canadian bombers in their own command so it is easy to have them set out a few turns. I never fly Wellingtons on strategic bombing missions also and the Canadians have a lot of those units so I upgrade or put them in a port buster command.

As for pilot experience, you can go into the editor and see the base levels by calendar quarter for each of the combatants.

I usually play against AI but note even AI doesn't contest daylight raids late in the war. Allied AI does run air units too hard though with no rest and I should go look at their replacement pools sometime.

Good luck over Germany.
Chris
Harrybanana
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RE: In Defence of Canadian Pilots

Post by Harrybanana »

Thanks Chris. But I still don't understand why the German NFs get a kill ratio of 10:1 in the late war? In the early part of my game with QBall (where I am the Germans) it was the British NFs and Bombers that were shooting down my NFs at a rate of about 2:1 or better in their favour. This has been fixed with a recent patch, but they are still shooting me down in close to equal numbers. What changes that results in the Germans getting 10:1 ratio in their favour? And again is this against a human opponent or the AI? If against the AI I suspect that the AI doesn't transfer NFs to Bomber Command from Fighter Command or the TAC Air forces so is at a numerical disadvantage. Also I read a post that the Allies should set their NFs to accept trained pilots only, so I assume most human players do this.

With respect to Canadian pilots, I agree that things can be done to reduce pilot losses. I also agree that this is not a game changer. But it galls me (probably because I am Canadian and my dad was career RCAF) that these special measures have to be taken to keep the Canadian pilots safe. The fact that you also appear to have to take special measures (such as putting the RCAF Bombers in their own command so they can sit out a few turns) to preserve them suggests that this is not just me. Of course, the Canadians did have their own Group (6th) in Bomber Command; but they never had to sit out a few.

But since no one else is posting here that they have to take special measures to preserve the RCAF pilots I can only assume that it is not a problem for others.
Robert Harris
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cmunson
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RE: In Defence of Canadian Pilots

Post by cmunson »

When I reference 10:1 I should clarify I mean axis NF versus allied NF and allied night bombers. NF on NF it is closer to 1:1 although I'm not tracking closely. I've been playing with the patch to NF combat for longer as a beta tester and any comments on NF performance are in reference to post patch. I've only played one human opponent since the patch. Playing allies or axis though it is tough slog at night starting mid 1944. Maybe the axis shouldn't be able to marshal hundreds of night interceptors in one attack but their radar sets improve as war advances.

Night intruder missions help allies some but they are low numbers. AI does put some NF's as escort but playing as Allies I find I lose that war of attrition as allied NF production is low (versus 60+ a week for Axis). Since the patch I only put half of my allied NF's on escort and the rest on intruder missions because as I said I find I can't keep up with the attrition on the escort missions.

I am generally happy with night action now and seems balanced but glad players always digging into things and suggesting changes. That's what makes this game and the support the dev teams gives it so great.



Chris
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LiquidSky
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RE: In Defence of Canadian Pilots

Post by LiquidSky »



In 1944 there is little reason for the allies to bomb at night. The Lancasters can do much better damage bombing in the day, and the Luftwaffe day fighter force is no longer an obstacle to day light bombing. As such, there is little point into having 100's of pilots sitting around at night with nothing to shoot at.

In June? 1944, the Luftwaffe fighter squadrons all get much bigger. It's a good time to fill them with the trained pilots from the night squadrons.

I keep the ZG squadrons as they can flip between day and night by changing the planes....if I feel the need for a small number of night fighters.
“My logisticians are a humorless lot … they know if my campaign fails, they are the first ones I will slay.” – Alexander the Great
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