Matrix Games

quote:

ORIGINAL: Joglinks1

You need to add more pilots. It seems once the squad drops below a certain number of pilots you need to add more and then you can continue moving them to the reserve pool

J

quote:

ORIGINAL: xj900uk

I'd like to know how you get pilots out of General Reserve into specific airgroups/squadrons.
Whenever I clik on 'Request Veteran', I am allowed to choose one & then he jsut seems to disappear into the ether.  Where do they go to?

quote:

ORIGINAL: ckammp

quote:

ORIGINAL: Joglinks1

You need to add more pilots. It seems once the squad drops below a certain number of pilots you need to add more and then you can continue moving them to the reserve pool

J

The number of pilots doesn't matter. The restriction is based on whether or not the unit is due to be withdrawn.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Mark Weston

quote:

ORIGINAL: ckammp

quote:

ORIGINAL: Joglinks1

You need to add more pilots. It seems once the squad drops below a certain number of pilots you need to add more and then you can continue moving them to the reserve pool

J

The number of pilots doesn't matter. The restriction is based on whether or not the unit is due to be withdrawn.

Based on experience in my current game, I believe you're mistaken.

If a unit is due to be withdrawn and has a number of pilots equal to or lower than it's establishment strength then you can't send pilots to the general reserve (which makes sense, it stops players evading withdrawal by stripping pilots and planes). But if pilot strength is above establishment strength then the "send to general reserve" option becomes available. As air units can be "overstaffed" by around a third, the solution is therefore to add replacement pilots up to the maximum allowed, then send an equal number of trained pilots to general reserve, and repeat until all the pilots have been rotated. It's even more annoying and fiddly then the training process normally is, but it does work because I was doing it only yesterday.

quote:

ORIGINAL: ckammp

You are correct, if you "overstaff" a squadron due to be withdrawn, the option to send pilots to "General Reserve" appears.
However, in order for this to occur, you must completely fill-out the squadron with planes. In some cases, there are not enough planes being built/in the pool to do this to every squadron. For example: there are 5 squadrons of the 17thBG at Pendleton, all with B-25Bs. No B-25Bs are being produced, so it is impossible to fill-out these squadrons. In other cases, you front-line squadrons need the planes more than units being withdrawn. Thus, the ability to "overstaff" pilots is very limited.
Also, the number of pilots able to be transferred this way varies - I've had B-17 units "overstaffed" and only one pilot was able to be transferred, while in a P-40 unit there were 7 available.
At any rate, there is a far easier way to get pilots out of units being withdrawn. Instead of trying to put them into "General Reserve", just transfer them to "Group Reserve". Then transfer the pilot into a different squadron. This is especially helpful if you are training pilots in a specific skill, and want the pilot to go to a specific unit.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Mark Weston

quote:

ORIGINAL: ckammp

You are correct, if you "overstaff" a squadron due to be withdrawn, the option to send pilots to "General Reserve" appears.
However, in order for this to occur, you must completely fill-out the squadron with planes. In some cases, there are not enough planes being built/in the pool to do this to every squadron. For example: there are 5 squadrons of the 17thBG at Pendleton, all with B-25Bs. No B-25Bs are being produced, so it is impossible to fill-out these squadrons. In other cases, you front-line squadrons need the planes more than units being withdrawn. Thus, the ability to "overstaff" pilots is very limited.
Also, the number of pilots able to be transferred this way varies - I've had B-17 units "overstaffed" and only one pilot was able to be transferred, while in a P-40 unit there were 7 available.
At any rate, there is a far easier way to get pilots out of units being withdrawn. Instead of trying to put them into "General Reserve", just transfer them to "Group Reserve". Then transfer the pilot into a different squadron. This is especially helpful if you are training pilots in a specific skill, and want the pilot to go to a specific unit.

Well fair enough, I hadn't noticed the need to be full of planes as well, I guess my training groups all already were. Now early war Japan seems to have a surplus of obsolete aircraft to "downgrade" training groups to. Can the Americans manage the same thing with those B-25 squadrons? Downgrade two or three to another model freeing up enough planes to fill out the remaining units?

I can see the value of transferring directly out of Group Reserve in a training squadron, but I'm not sure I'm going to remember the right squadron names to transfer from (not, at least, without a lot tedious jumping around the map)!