Does experience affect air combat much? At all?

[Bylandt11]

According to the manual experience mainly decreases fatigue and increases "survivability" (less casualties from retreat). Air units, however, don't get fatigue and never retreat. So how much does experience affect them? If at all?

Two examples I encountered:
- My Zero A6m5 fighter with 4 stars loses (more casulaties) in a dogfight against a 0 star Hellcat F6F.
- The predicted combat results of 3 star zero against a P40 are exactly the same as a 1 star Zero.

We all know that pilot experience was extremely important in air-to-air combat in WW2.

It's also pretty important in the game. Replenishing elite air units with experienced replacements is one the most important drains on resources.

So is it really worth it? I find it hard to tell the difference between the performance of elite and rookie fighter pilots.

[AgentTBC]

I've actually been wondering this myself. The question applies to Naval units also.

If experience mainly affects efficiency and casualties from retreat it would imply that you should never, ever use veteran replacements for air or naval units. Which are often by far the most expensive units to fix up, so this is an important point.

My gut says that right now you should always use noob replacements because experience doesn't meaningfully affect air/naval combat but I hope I'm wrong because that is an unexpected and not-great thing.

[apec]

I agree, the effect of experience is not fully explained. I asked the same question a few weeks ago but did not get any clear answer

[monkspider]

Hmm, good question! I had felt since the beginning that experience and leaders are more bland and less meaningful than Panzer Corps. That would be disappointing if it was totally pointless in air combat. Anecdotally, I seem to remember my high experience BB of the same class doing more damage than low experience BBs to the same enemy units, so I think in naval combat a difference can be detected at least.

[Bylandt11]

I asked the same question on the Steam forums but got no answer either.

If XP doesn't affect air combat, that's a rather serious flaw. It not only makes XP count for air units useless, it also means that buying elite replacements is expensive but pointless. (As far as I can tell, replacements for experienced units costs x times the price of regular replacements, with x being the number of stars of the unit). I can't imagine the dev's intended this.

[Horst]

The mighty editor can sometimes answer your questions if you dare to use it!

[AgentTBC]

Noice!

[AgentTBC]

That said, that's a really, really, really, REALLY subtle effect. The cost of replacements to get that air unit to full experience is MASSIVE and it buys you going from 2+ 3 to 3 2+? That's very weak. Half the time you'll end up with the same result.

The effect needs to be tweaked upwards significantly.

I'll check Naval next.

[monkspider]

That said, that's a really, really, really, REALLY subtle effect. The cost of replacements to get that air unit to full experience is MASSIVE and it buys you going from 2+ 3 to 3 2+? That's very weak. Half the time you'll end up with the same result.

The effect needs to be tweaked upwards significantly.

I'll check Naval next.

Wow, yeah. I agree, that is very subtle indeed. The effect of experience doesn't have to be as pronounced as Panzer Corps, but that is pretty ridiculously low.

[Bylandt11]

Thank you, Horst. Seems to confirm what I suspected. Hardly any effect. 4 stars difference to go from 2+/3 to 3/2+.

Don't forget the 4 star aircraft will pay 4 times the cost in resources to have its losses replaced. It seems a much better policy to always use regular replacements and to save resources for better equipment. Because that does make a difference.

[Horst]

The xp-bonus on attack/defense is by percent of the base value.
You can see on the example of the battleships how powerful the xp-bonus can become with high base values.

[Profi1968]

Hi,

I made the test with infantry units and the result is

very disappointing:

5* vs green unit 3:2

green vs green 3:3

[AgentTBC]

I tested and experience also decreases the damage your air or naval units take when attacked by an enemy by an enemy. So there is a 0.5 to 1 shift in expected casualties in your favor when attacking AND when defending.

It still doesn't seem worth the massive, massive expense in keeping air or naval units in experienced replacements.

[AgentTBC]

So the verdict appears to be always use green replacements regardless of unit? Ugh.

I will post a suggestion to increase effect of experience.

[Bylandt11]

Thanks, Profi. That's very disappointing as well.

This all makes elite replacements rather pointless. After all, if elite units can't deliver on the battelfield, it also means their "survivability" isn't worth much either. Just buy a new unit. It's cheaper to buy a new infantry unit than to replenish a 4 star unit from half strength to full strength.