Quote:
Originally Posted by Ostfriese
I'm just stunned by the number. In nine months your opponent has wasted a year of aircraft production, and that was in an advantageous position. How bad will this become once your aircraft get better and far more numerous?
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I'm trying to have a conversation with him about that--pilot training specifically. He hasn't given me a lot of numbers, but he mentioned an experience level for at least some of his squadrons in Thailand was about equal to the Canadian pilots that just got there. That's surprisingly low considering those squadrons should be veterans of the campaigns in Malaya or Luzon. But he hasn't answered me about pilot skills, which is more relevant to training (experience is more from actual combat).
I'd like to at least confirm that he has some sort of system in place for pilot training, where he's using his rear echelon squadrons to train up his pilots before sending them to the frontline. Not doing that could explain what we're seeing, and if he isn't doing that, then I'm being given a major advantage that I shouldn't have. My inexperience is coming into play here, never having played Japan against a human, I'm not entirely sure what pilot attrition rates should look like. When I played against the AI, by this part of the war I had no issues having enough qualified replacement Army pilots, while the Navy was under enough pressure that I would occasionally have under-qualified pilots in lower-priority theaters. For example, the carriers would all get first priority, any land bases actively in an air campaign would be next, but the guys in bases assigned to escort Betties in places were I'm just trying to lock down sea lanes might get pilots that I would like to have trained a bit more, but are still competent to fly the mission.
This is what pilot training should look like, per a common strategy guide. I don't follow it exactly, but I'm not far off.
