newbie questions

[joe6778]

Very good. Thanks.

[joe6778]

I'm getting a better handle on some of the game mechanics thanks to all of your help.
 
I had better success transporting my ground units by sea when I send the ships in smaller groups.
 
In scenario 3, it's very slow going moving my ground units overland on New Guinea to attack Japanese bases/units, and I can't move heavier units by air.

[marioa]

Please i have a question: Can transport aircraft with troop's paradrop mission's been escorted by fighter?
Thanks in advance.
marioa

[Kingfisher]

ORIGINAL: marioa

Please i have a question: Can transport aircraft with troop's paradrop mission's been escorted by fighter?
Thanks in advance.
marioa

I'm not 100% certain, but based on my own experience as well as reading the numerous AARs, it would appear that transport missions do not trigger an escort. To be sure your transports are protected I would suggest assigning one or more fighter squadrons to LRCAP on the target hex.

[bigred]

The australian divisions are all air moblie. The us divisions can not air trans the 105mm cannons.

ORIGINAL: joe6778

I'm getting a better handle on some of the game mechanics thanks to all of your help.

I had better success transporting my ground units by sea when I send the ships in smaller groups.

In scenario 3, it's very slow going moving my ground units overland on New Guinea to attack Japanese bases/units, and I can't move heavier units by air.

[joe6778]

Can someone explain the aircraft replacement schedule? What do "rate" and "pool" represent?
 
I'm still perplexed with how UV handles CAP: I had an equal amount of planes intercepting as escorting, and only one Japanese escort was destroyed to one US interceptor damaged and one destroyed. Swarms of enemy escorts and bombers keep attacking Lunga with minimal resistance. What's the point of even flying CAP with these kinds of results? Its very frustrating.

[xj900uk]

'Rate' is the number of replacements built by your off-map factories per month. eg if your replacement schedule shows that your (say) F4F's have a replacement rate of '60', that means 60 new planes are being buit per month by your off-map factories, and filtering through (which is about 2 per turn).

'Pool' is the amount of new planes that have arrived in the theatre but not been assigned to units on the map, for one reason or another. Usually it is automatic, but sometimes factors prevent this (ie all your squadrons of that type already up to strength) or some part-squadrons do not seem to get replacements (ie the remnents of a carrier squadron that made it to dry land).
Sometimes planes are in the pool but can not be assigned to under-strength squadrons because of lack of replacement pilots (there are no numbers for these) coming through - try checking back in a few turns to see if this changes

Re CAP, that's a real frustrating quandry, because you can have dozens of planes on CAP but fail to intercept and shoot down many of the opposition at all. However, this represents RL carrier battles particularly in '42, where for the US in particular their CAP usually wasn't that successful, either through being in the wrong place, at the wrong altitude, or perhaps most common of all poor FDO-communications usually through teh intercom being completely blocked with chit-chat. Thus they tended to miss the vast bulk of the incoming Jap raids.

By 1944, thanks to experience, training, and better FDO-communications discipline (and finally using pre-set frequencies), the USN CAP got a lot better at detecting, intercepting and destroying incoming raids

[joe6778]

Thanks for the clarification.
 
It seems that air-to-air combat in the game is lacking. How can you defend your assets when, even when dedicating lots of planes to CAP, and even if large numbers of CAP planes actually take part in air-to-air combat, few enemy planes are shot down or damaged?
 
With a week to go in scenario 3, I'm trying to protect Lunga and I have forced the Japanese troops from Lunga, but they're sending waves of bombers with upwards of 70 Zeros escorting. I have already lost the Hornet and I'm losing the scenario by 500 points. It's very frustrating when they can destroy planes on the ground, ships, and the airfield with little or no resistance.

[borner]

There is a lot about the game system that takes some getting used to. My personal "favorite" is TF going off on their own to lord knows where. However, the attempt was to try and make combat more realistic, and not just automatic numbers crunching. For the most part I think the attempt was a success. Also keep in mind that until the F4U and F6F arrive, allied fighters are not going to be as effective as you would expect. Also, even when there is a great number of fighters on CAP, some bombers can get through, as often the escorts could keep the defenders busy. In your example, what are the ratios of attacking to escorting fighters?

[xj900uk]

Yes, CAP on both sides was actually quite ineffectual at times, the US didn't get their act together until 1944 with proper training of the FDO's, better communication and above all some RT discpline.
The Japs, although equipped with the excellent Zero fighter at the start of the war, had no radar until later on (and never in enough numbers or reliability) to inform them of incoming strikes and were forced to rely on eagle-eyed spotters, and also a large number of the Zeros' carried no radios (to keep their weight down and improve air-to-air combat ability) so there was no way of directing them anyway save by flags and light signals

[joe6778]

ORIGINAL: borner

There is a lot about the game system that takes some getting used to. My personal "favorite" is TF going off on their own to lord knows where. However, the attempt was to try and make combat more realistic, and not just automatic numbers crunching. For the most part I think the attempt was a success. Also keep in mind that until the F4U and F6F arrive, allied fighters are not going to be as effective as you would expect. Also, even when there is a great number of fighters on CAP, some bombers can get through, as often the escorts could keep the defenders busy. In your example, what are the ratios of attacking to escorting fighters?

It varies, but there were times when Japanese bombers attacked UNescorted, and the CAP still didn't inflict any damage. Plus, I don't know why the air-to-air dialogue box gives details such as "VS## climbing to intercept", "bouncing bombers", or "Wildcat attacking Zero at range 1" only to have nothing happen. It seems to be a waste of time.

[xj900uk]

Early on the US CAP was often put at the wrong altitude and was completely ineffectual, especially when deployed against torpedo bombers. The US believed the Japanese would use similar tactics and attack-modes to those deployed by the TBD, which was completely wrong as the Kate (and it's successor, the Jill) were both used in a long slow dive from about 5-6000' feet down to wave-top height at the release-point to take advantage of their superior diving speed.
It is worth noting that later in the war, from mid-'44 when the Jill started to appear in sufficient numbers, it could get to over 400 mph in its diving attack and from this point on was virtually uncatchable