Now, instead of having a huge undifferentiated pile of aircraft and crews which can be mixed-and-matched as needed for each night's raids, both aircraft and crews get assigned to squadrons, which you create at stations each of which belongs to a group. Some effects of this:
- Each squadron operates a single aircraft type, and it takes time to convert them to a different one, during which time they can't go on raids (but at least they do train a bit).
- Remustering (moving) a squadron to a different station also takes time, especially if moving between groups.
- You can grow a two-flight squadron (20 a/c) to three flights, or split off C flight of a three-flight squadron to form the nucleus of a new two-flighter (this is how you create new squadrons). A station can hold up to four flights (so either a three-flight squadron with an Initial Establishment of 30 a/c, or two two-flighters with 40 a/c in total).
- The stations start out with grass runways, which are susceptible to bad weather during winter. Moreover, heavy bombers can't carry their maximum bomb and fuel loads unless operating from paved stations (with concrete runways, peri-track, dispersals etc.). You can upgrade airfields, but only one every 48 days and the airfield can't be in use during that time.
- If a station or group is operating a mixture of types, the efficiency of its maintenance suffers, lowering serviceability rates.
- Since the Pathfinders are just another group (No. 8 Group), you now have control of what aircraft they use, instead of being forced to give them all the Mosquitoes and ⅕ of the Lancs. Want an all-Stirling PFF? You can do that now! (I don't know why you would want to, but still, the option's there.)
- The new Stations and Squadrons UI
This development is taking place on the bases branch, where you can see the design notes/description of the feature.
