My bombers are refusing to carry out their strike missions ...

[glyphoglossus]

Nov 5 was supposed to be an all out attack on Port Moresby's airfield, pounding it out of existence so that when the the invasion force lands on Nov 6, the skies will belong to the IJN.

5 squadrons of Betties, 2 squadrons of zeros for escort, 2 for sweeps.

The sweeps, bless 'em, have been true troopers. Swinging into the saddle and unto the breech, day after day, for the last 7 days. All to no avail because not one of those damned Betties have taken off to fly a single mission.

NOT ONE.

I do not even know if any of the pilots have even been seen on the bases since they got their orders!

LAZY COWARDS!!!

Morale is high, leadership looks good, no overstacking on the base, supply situation is great, ample aviation support.

Or is something else going on that I am missing?

Here are the details for the Rabaul group, where I have 2 squadrons of Betties and 2 of Zeros. Recently had to rotate out the trooper zero squadron pulling the sweeps because they became too chewed up ... true heroes, unlike these useless bomber pilots. Other Betties are in Kavieng and Buka, with much the same situation.

[glyphoglossus]

Ok, figured it out.

The escort Zero squadron had "not using drop tanks" on.

Which means they could not fly the escort mission because Port Moresby was out of range.

Which meant the chicken-livered Betty pilots were too terrified to fly their mission.

Switch on drop tanks, Zeros jump up to escort, and I get 54 Betties on target.

[bradfordkay]

Would you want to pilot one of those flying fuel tanks into battle without fighter escort?

[geofflambert]

I bet they would've gone if no escorts had been assigned. Probably would've been ok with those two groups sweeping.

[BBfanboy]

You better pay some attention to the leaders of your squadrons. Fighter squadron leader with aggression of 24!!!! Air rating of only 43!!! Should have air rating of around 70 and aggression 70+. Leadership and inspiration should be as high as you can get them with the Air/Aggression chosen first.

Similarly, bomber leaders should have Air at least in the 60s and aggression high 50s or better, with leadership in the 60s too.

[Rising-Sun]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

You better pay some attention to the leaders of your squadrons. Fighter squadron leader with aggression of 24!!!! Air rating of only 43!!! Should have air rating of around 70 and aggression 70+. Leadership and inspiration should be as high as you can get them with the Air/Aggression chosen first.

Similarly, bomber leaders should have Air at least in the 60s and aggression high 50s or better, with leadership in the 60s too.

True, also most players over looked the bad weathers too. Now I don't know if one can take off and some don't, happen to me before and not sure what this could be related to.

[glyphoglossus]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

You better pay some attention to the leaders of your squadrons. Fighter squadron leader with aggression of 24!!!! Air rating of only 43!!! Should have air rating of around 70 and aggression 70+. Leadership and inspiration should be as high as you can get them with the Air/Aggression chosen first.

Similarly, bomber leaders should have Air at least in the 60s and aggression high 50s or better, with leadership in the 60s too.

Wow! Thanks a lot for this insight. Really useful. I've just started exploring the leader dimension, and my main guide has been this thread:

tm.asp?m=2350193

which, wrt to both sweep and level bombing, says to prioritize inspiration, leadership, and air, with no other skills having any influence. I am aware that this post is not only out of date, but also based on WitP rather than WitP:AE, but was hoping/thinking that it might still be relevant?

What you say about Air + Aggression prioritized over Leadership/Inspiration prioritized over everything else makes sense, and I shall definitely give it a try! Thank you again!

[rustysi]

ORIGINAL: glyphoglossus

Ok, figured it out.

The escort Zero squadron had "not using drop tanks" on.

Which means they could not fly the escort mission because Port Moresby was out of range.

Which meant the chicken-livered Betty pilots were too terrified to fly their mission.

Switch on drop tanks, Zeros jump up to escort, and I get 54 Betties on target.

Nah, they just ran outta sake and geisha's.[:D]

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: glyphoglossus

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

You better pay some attention to the leaders of your squadrons. Fighter squadron leader with aggression of 24!!!! Air rating of only 43!!! Should have air rating of around 70 and aggression 70+. Leadership and inspiration should be as high as you can get them with the Air/Aggression chosen first.

Similarly, bomber leaders should have Air at least in the 60s and aggression high 50s or better, with leadership in the 60s too.

Wow! Thanks a lot for this insight. Really useful. I've just started exploring the leader dimension, and my main guide has been this thread:

tm.asp?m=2350193

which, wrt to both sweep and level bombing, says to prioritize inspiration, leadership, and air, with no other skills having any influence. I am aware that this post is not only out of date, but also based on WitP rather than WitP:AE, but was hoping/thinking that it might still be relevant?

What you say about Air + Aggression prioritized over Leadership/Inspiration prioritized over everything else makes sense, and I shall definitely give it a try! Thank you again!

I do not know what changes the developers may have made in the leadership model when developing WITP-AE, but since some other things were changed substantially I would not be surprised that there were changes in the leadership stuff. I will try to find Alfred's latest guidance on the subject.

As for my advice - be warned that I am heavily influenced by my observations of what seems to work in many of the games I have played against the AI. Sometimes I misinterpret the reasons for success or failure, but sometimes I feel vindicated too!
I approach the leadership equation from several angles:

Technical (Air, Naval, Land)- good leaders understand their craft, so high marks in the relevant skill are important.
Leadership - that force of personality that keeps the unit focused on the job so that they learn faster and do the correct thing in combat
Inspiration - the ability to get the troops to believe they can do very difficult things like withstanding enemy attacks when all seems lost
Aggression - the belief that your unit is better than the enemy and the tendency to take offensive action persistently.
Administrative - knowing how to work the system to get what is needed - Important for HQs and to some extent Base Forces

I look for an appropriate balance of the factors depending on the type of unit. A Base Force leader for example, does not need great leadership or inspiration or aggression, but should know Admin very well and should know how to be an efficient LCU.
By the book definition of the leadership factors a Carrier TF commander or CV captain needs Naval skill much more than Air skill, but when I look at the historic figures who were carrier captains or admirals they all have very good Air ratings - so I try to pick carrier leaders who have both high Air and moderately high Naval Skill. They also get good aggression, but less so than DD captains who are always in the thick of it and are expendable.

So just think about what the job likely entails and look for the best fit you can get. Be aware that some leader pools (like Commonwealth ship captains) are just dismal for the allies - you are stuck with some duds but you don't need to make them the TF leader because you can have a British or American ship lead the TF.

[Yaab]

The manual may not cover this, but AIR skill for fighter group has following effects:

- it is linked to number of fighters taking part in a mission. At start, most Allied fighter leaders in Pearl Harbor have low AIR skill. If you leave them in place and the Japs attack the next day, your CAP will be weak. Change the leaders to ones with better AIR skill and your CAP will be stronger. This will happen with identical CAP settings.

-there is a roll against this skill, checking if the unit will fly a given mission. I have seen best Jap fighter units not showing up for a SWEEP mission, even though the weather was great and other units flew their missions. What happened was, I had a leader in the unit with AIR skill in 20s. After the leader change, the unit performance was consistent with orders.

-high AIR skill in bomber unit and the escorting fighter unit, will augment the chances of the escorts showing up, and showing up in bigger number.

[glyphoglossus]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: glyphoglossus

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

You better pay some attention to the leaders of your squadrons. Fighter squadron leader with aggression of 24!!!! Air rating of only 43!!! Should have air rating of around 70 and aggression 70+. Leadership and inspiration should be as high as you can get them with the Air/Aggression chosen first.

Similarly, bomber leaders should have Air at least in the 60s and aggression high 50s or better, with leadership in the 60s too.

Wow! Thanks a lot for this insight. Really useful. I've just started exploring the leader dimension, and my main guide has been this thread:

tm.asp?m=2350193

which, wrt to both sweep and level bombing, says to prioritize inspiration, leadership, and air, with no other skills having any influence. I am aware that this post is not only out of date, but also based on WitP rather than WitP:AE, but was hoping/thinking that it might still be relevant?

What you say about Air + Aggression prioritized over Leadership/Inspiration prioritized over everything else makes sense, and I shall definitely give it a try! Thank you again!

I do not know what changes the developers may have made in the leadership model when developing WITP-AE, but since some other things were changed substantially I would not be surprised that there were changes in the leadership stuff. I will try to find Alfred's latest guidance on the subject.

As for my advice - be warned that I am heavily influenced by my observations of what seems to work in many of the games I have played against the AI. Sometimes I misinterpret the reasons for success or failure, but sometimes I feel vindicated too!
I approach the leadership equation from several angles:

Technical (Air, Naval, Land)- good leaders understand their craft, so high marks in the relevant skill are important.
Leadership - that force of personality that keeps the unit focused on the job so that they learn faster and do the correct thing in combat
Inspiration - the ability to get the troops to believe they can do very difficult things like withstanding enemy attacks when all seems lost
Aggression - the belief that your unit is better than the enemy and the tendency to take offensive action persistently.
Administrative - knowing how to work the system to get what is needed - Important for HQs and to some extent Base Forces

I look for an appropriate balance of the factors depending on the type of unit. A Base Force leader for example, does not need great leadership or inspiration or aggression, but should know Admin very well and should know how to be an efficient LCU.
By the book definition of the leadership factors a Carrier TF commander or CV captain needs Naval skill much more than Air skill, but when I look at the historic figures who were carrier captains or admirals they all have very good Air ratings - so I try to pick carrier leaders who have both high Air and moderately high Naval Skill. They also get good aggression, but less so than DD captains who are always in the thick of it and are expendable.

So just think about what the job likely entails and look for the best fit you can get. Be aware that some leader pools (like Commonwealth ship captains) are just dismal for the allies - you are stuck with some duds but you don't need to make them the TF leader because you can have a British or American ship lead the TF.

Thanks, again!

I have actually been trying to track down relevant Alfred-lore on this, but with the borked site search and the difficulty in telling Google that "alfred" is an author and not a content, it is tricky.

I found this:

fb.asp?m=3765765

One eye-opener for me there is that on the leader board, "Land" does not mean "Land-attack" leadership skills even if looking at the air leader board, but rather the ability to conduct LCU operations ... which means it is totally irrelevant for air leaders of any kind. Same goes for "Naval": not naval attack, but rather ship operations. Conversely, "Air" is not just A2A, but air operations of any kind, including land attack. Probably obvious to many of you, and maybe stated clearly in the manual, but I've been trying to emphasize "Naval" for my naval attack squadrons and "Land" for airfield bombing! Duh!


There is also this:

tm.asp?m=3698772

In which Alfred points out air leader's individual pilot ratings are irrelevant to their leadership skill; only the scores on the leader board count: Leadership, Inspiration, Air, etc.

He also says, later (fb.asp?m=3765790), that the actual algorithm/criteria on how leadership scores are crunched are deliberately opaque, but as a rule of thumb:

if it is a LCU, employ a leader with a high land rating
if an air combat TF, a high air rating, otherwise for any other combat TF, a high naval rating
if an air unit, a high air rating

I know that you are absolutely correct about Aggression being important: I saw instant results in response/turn-out when I upped the aggression. Now, while they were much more enthusiastic about getting to the target, my bomber squadrons also got chewed up three ways to next Tuesday over a handful of missions ... but that's another story! I think balancing the Aggression with a higher Air rating might have helped the bomber flights arrive together instead of piecemeal, which I think led to the decimation (or maybe that should be "secundomation": something like 50-60% losses per mission rather than 1 in 10 implied by the "deci" in "decimation").

[glyphoglossus]

ORIGINAL: Yaab

The manual may not cover this, but AIR skill for fighter group has following effects:

- it is linked to number of fighters taking part in a mission. At start, most Allied fighter leaders in Pearl Harbor have low AIR skill. If you leave them in place and the Japs attack the next day, your CAP will be weak. Change the leaders to ones with better AIR skill and your CAP will be stronger. This will happen with identical CAP settings.

-there is a roll against this skill, checking if the unit will fly a given mission. I have seen best Jap fighter units not showing up for a SWEEP mission, even though the weather was great and other units flew their missions. What happened was, I had a leader in the unit with AIR skill in 20s. After the leader change, the unit performance was consistent with orders.

-high AIR skill in bomber unit and the escorting fighter unit, will augment the chances of the escorts showing up, and showing up in bigger number.

Thanks. This is useful! The last bit would have helped me if I had figured it out before my most recent battle!

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: glyphoglossus

I know that you are absolutely correct about Aggression being important: I saw instant results in response/turn-out when I upped the aggression. Now, while they were much more enthusiastic about getting to the target, my bomber squadrons also got chewed up three ways to next Tuesday over a handful of missions ... but that's another story! I think balancing the Aggression with a higher Air rating might have helped the bomber flights arrive together instead of piecemeal, which I think led to the decimation (or maybe that should be "secundomation": something like 50-60% losses per mission rather than 1 in 10 implied by the "deci" in "decimation").

One skill I did not touch on is "Defensive" - which is about the evasive maneuvering to avoid fighter attacks and flak. You can increase it fastest by flying at low levels (1000') during training. Don't use 100' - that only trains strafe skill (although it will train defensive quite well).

[glyphoglossus]

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: glyphoglossus

I know that you are absolutely correct about Aggression being important: I saw instant results in response/turn-out when I upped the aggression. Now, while they were much more enthusiastic about getting to the target, my bomber squadrons also got chewed up three ways to next Tuesday over a handful of missions ... but that's another story! I think balancing the Aggression with a higher Air rating might have helped the bomber flights arrive together instead of piecemeal, which I think led to the decimation (or maybe that should be "secundomation": something like 50-60% losses per mission rather than 1 in 10 implied by the "deci" in "decimation").

One skill I did not touch on is "Defensive" - which is about the evasive maneuvering to avoid fighter attacks and flak. You can increase it fastest by flying at low levels (1000') during training. Don't use 100' - that only trains strafe skill (although it will train defensive quite well).

Nice. Very good to know as well! This would be actual pilot skill rather than leadership skill --- another dimension to consider!