Aircraft Rest

[BK6583]

For the Allies I think this function maybe broke. I've rested AC units that were in the high forties. A WEEK later they've increased sometimes just a few morale points. We're talking a WEEK of rest here!

[GeneralDad]

I have had some problems with this as well. Right now I am having trouble keeping the tactical air forces flying even though I only fly them three days a week. Losses have been running fairly high so the LW is fighting hard. My only consolation is they lose more AC by a significant amount than I do & sometimes by a lot.

I don't know how I keep enough planes flying for D-Day.

GeneralDad

[loki100]

For the Allies I think this function maybe broke. I've rested AC units that were in the high forties. A WEEK later they've increased sometimes just a few morale points. We're talking a WEEK of rest here!

There is a substantial random element to the morale gain, so sometimes units won't recover that quickly. You do have some that are relatively low experience as well which hampers recovery.

ORIGINAL: GeneralDad

...

I don't know how I keep enough planes flying for D-Day.

GeneralDad

You have to be very disciplined and about 3 (pref 4) turns before the invasion your entire FB force goes to rest. You'll need to keep using your LBs as they should be demolishing every rail yard, port (& vweapon site) in N France and the Benelux region. Start pulling off the strategic bombers from the Reich to add to this effort. About 2 turns before the invasion, stand down the 2 engined tactical bombers and just rely on the 4 engined ones for hitting France.

Then everyone is nice and ready for what will be a single turn blow out. You'll find the turn after, a lot of low morale formations. this is maybe the one time in the game when you may need to make them fly if they are around 50 or better. After about 4 turns of this the tactical airforce is going to be badly weakened with a lot of wrecked formations. Hopefully they have done the key job they have in the game.

[EddyBear81]

I use the same tactic as loki.

In fact, I always manage the threshold for "Rest" very carefully :

- Regular turns I rest everyone below 49 (yes, it's a little bit aggressive)
- During key offensives, I lower it to 39
- During summertime rain turns, I make it to 59 or 69 (so I "save" some for better days)
- Few turns before D-Day (or key offensives), I push it to 69
- For D-Day and following turns, I lower it to 20 (basically everyone flies, except the "19", which I consider as shot-up units)

(and possibly small adjustments from this baseline)

I feel it is very important to manage the sortie rate, and to bring the maximum air effort when needed. Being "average" all the time will do you no good.

[Gunnulf]

I think what is happening here is that it's simply simulating that if you give the RAF a weeks rest they will just go on a massive boozy bender for a week, get little actual sleep and be just as fatigued afterwards.
If you do the same for a British Infantry Division it's even worse and you'll notice anything up to 5-10% reduction in troop numbers to simulate losses to arrests and VD, fatigue rises by 25%, although on the plus side you'll see up to 50%-75% jump in morale. On balance though it's probably best to keep them busy on the front line.

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: Gunnulf

I think what is happening here is that it's simply simulating that if you give the RAF a weeks rest they will just go on a massive boozy bender for a week, get little actual sleep and be just as fatigued afterwards.
If you do the same for a British Infantry Division it's even worse and you'll notice anything up to 5-10% reduction in troop numbers to simulate losses to arrests and VD, fatigue rises by 25%, although on the plus side you'll see up to 50%-75% jump in morale. On balance though it's probably best to keep them busy on the front line.

which of course is why you should never, ever, allow those RN taskforces to just hang around in port ....[;)]

[Gunnulf]

Yes, if you leave 2 TFs of either nation in the same port at the same time they both disappear due to brawling and the port receives 50% damage. I learnt that the hard way!

[BK6583]

Well I'm still adamant that the rest function for Allied aircraft takes way too long to recover morale and is broke.

[soeren01]

ORIGINAL: BK6583

Well I'm still adamant that the rest function for Allied aircraft takes way too long to recover morale and is broke.

I never have this kind of problem. I am flying omnly units with 60+ morale (50+ from invasion to end of 1944). Heavy Bombers 3-4 days a week, everyone else 7 days a week. Usually more than 60% of my airgroups have a high enough morale to fly.

[BK6583]

Well then I'm doing something wrong. My Tactical aircraft are my biggest problem morale wise. Per one of the tutorials it recommened flying multiple interdiction missions with area coverages of one, two and four hexes (three interdict missions). This usually but not always results in some pretty decent results. I wonder however if that's too much? I'm still back to my original gripe - it should not take two weeks (two turns) of rest to get units with morale in the 40's back up to the 60's.

[cfulbright]

How low is their morale after one turn of use? If it's 10-15, then it will take two weeks to recover. If the FB's are dive-bombing into a hex with high AA ratings (you can see this by click Shift-O twice), their morale will crater, as will losses.

Cary

[BK6583]

Yes I'll grant you that - a/c in the low teens, twenties, or thirties should take a while to get up into the 60's morale wise. What I have repeatedly had issue with is a/c in the 40's taking up to THREE weeks rest to get back up to the 60's. How much champaign and caviar does it take to become 'rested'??

[cfulbright]

ORIGINAL: BK6583
What I have repeatedly had issue with is a/c in the 40's taking up to THREE weeks rest to get back up to the 60's. How much champaign and caviar does it take to become 'rested'??

That shouldn't be, unless your bases are very close to enemy units, or are damaged, as happens in invasion hexes.

Cary

[BK6583]

There we go. Guess I need to go back into the manual. Over the course of this game I have repeatedly moved my tactical aircraft as close to the front line as possible to maximize the number of sorties they fly. What is the impact you reference above to these aircraft?

[LiquidSky]

What I like to do is to have two different types of aircraft used for my more intensive interdiction/ground striking missions. For example, I will retrain the hurricanes as bombers and give them rockets. I have several squadrons of them in an air HQ. Another Air HQ gets the typhoons. One turn I fly the typhoons...the next I fly the hurricanes. And they rest when they don't fly.

Also...don't fly the mission *every* *single* *day*. They don't like that. Set the mission parameter to be Tue-Thur-Sat....or even just Wed-Sat. If there is a single history making event going on....like D-day...then you might fly Mon-Wed-Fri-Sun. For the Americans you can do something similar.

If the target is going to be Flak intensive..then your pilots will suffer more. You can check out the flak ahead of time with the O hot key (Ctrl-O?)

As the Germans I was never shy about using Flak in cities near probable interdiction areas....especially the free to move RR Flak.

But by far the best control you have over what kind of morale hit your squadrons will suffer is by how often they fly.