How to increase life time in Armchair Aces campaigns?

[vonOben 55]

Hi

I've been flying "dead is dead" Armchair Aces campaigns now for about 6 months, staring in August 1915 and flying for Germany.
Now it's March 1917 and it's tough staying alive, the Entente have good planes now and the Nieuports and Spads are tough opponents for me and my flight in Albatros DIIIs.
My flight members have harder surviving now compared with earlier in the war, and there are not many pilots alive in the end of the month.
I usually select 3 AI pilots for my flights, and I try to protect them the best I can but it's hard when we are heavily outnumbered and often are a few of them killed early in the engagement.

So how do you increase the possibilities to survive longer for you and your flight and the enjoyment of the Armchair Aces campaigns?

S!

vonOben
 

[Nicholas Bell 117]

Hi

 

I've been flying "dead is dead" Armchair Aces campaigns now for about 6 months, staring in August 1915 and flying for Germany.

Now it's March 1917 and it's tough staying alive, the Entente have good planes now and the Nieuports and Spads are tough opponents for me and my flight in Albatros DIIIs.

My flight members have harder surviving now compared with earlier in the war, and there are not many pilots alive in the end of the month.

I usually select 3 AI pilots for my flights, and I try to protect them the best I can but it's hard when we are heavily outnumbered and often are a few of them killed early in the engagement.

 

So how do you increase the possibilities to survive longer for you and your flight and the enjoyment of the Armchair Aces campaigns?

 

S!

 

vonOben

 

First, I don't have a good answer.  But I feel your pain.

 

I've cut the training level by more than half for the Allies (10s and 20s).  Helps a little.  But German casualty rates are always too high.  Flying for the Allies the casualty rates are more realistic, and with single gun fighters it's extremely tough to even get a kill against the Germans.  I've also noted before that the German AI pilots perform maneuvers when I'm flying against them that I don't see when I am flying with them.  And those same Allied AI pilots which shoot down my German wingmen every mission, can't score a single kill when I am flying with them.  One might think that which ever side the player is flying for is handicapped by the program by making the other side better.   Possible?

 

My inelegant solution is to roll a die to determine if the pilot was actually killed, wounded or just fine when shot down.  I hexedit his status to reflect "reality".  This is standard practice in boardgame or miniature flight wargames which I used to do many decades ago. Although not directly related, I was reminded of this by Pat Wilson's Campaign Generator for IL-2 BOS which allows one to set a percentage value for pilot survival due to dumb AI crashes due to hitting the ground inadvertently.    The point being is that just because the computer program kills your wingmen, doesn't mean you need to accept it.

 

And for what it's worth, despite the excellent AI which actually knows when to disengage in WOFF, the casualty rates are also ahistorically high.  In some of their "competitions" players have devised elaborate house rules which are self-imposed while playing a campaign.  These include capping the number of kills one can score in a mission (no matter how many actually won), and forcing some many days of not flying after scoring a victory, for example.   There's been more than one thread over at SimHQ asking about where the bloody is in bloody April - other than for the Germans! 

 

Replicating historical results for the Germans seems to be a common problem.  Flying for the Allies is perhaps more realistic given the losses they actually suffered.

[vonOben 55]

Hi Nicholas

 

Thanks for sharing your experience!

 

I'm unsure what you mean by this:
"I've cut the training level by more than half for the Allies (10s and 20s)."

 

Best regards

 

vonOben

[Nicholas Bell 117]

I'm unsure what you mean by this:

"I've cut the training level by more than half for the Allies (10s and 20s)."

 

Sorry.  This is what you get when I write during lunch at my work desk!  I meant Experience, not training, which I set to 10 or 20.  I know it seems unfair, but my experience is that the difference is not all that horrible.  Plus they still get random ace pilots among all the misfits, and they certainly will ruin your day while flying an Albatros.

[vonOben 55]

I suspected that was what you meant. I've also reduced the Experience but only to 50-60 and that has made no significant difference.
I'll try to reduce it your way.

 

Thanks for the tip, much appreciated!