The following is the advanced almost ready for inclusion in the ruleset draft of the forthcoming 1920 rules revisions. Please post questions and comments here.

Summary of Changes:

1. Submarine rules tweaked so that it is clearly understood that a submarine may carry any mix of mines and torpedoes at a 1-1 ratio. Ie, if the table says a sub may carry 20 torpedoes and 20 mines, that will mean that it could carry up to 40 torpedoes and no mines, or no torpedoes and 40 mines. This is to allow for more customization.

2. Current regime of buying individual aircraft and building aircraft tech specific bases is supplanted with a new system whereby aircraft are purchased in units similar to army units, and airfields/airbases persist similar to naval infrastructure. Full text of that is below.

The following would replace the aircraft rules found here: http://www.navalism.org/index.php?topic=278.msg28842#msg28842

Aircraft

Aircraft may be purchased in units as small as a squadron. The approximate manpower of each unit size can be found in the table below. In general terms, "small" is a single engine aircraft, "medium" is a twin engine aircraft, and "large" has 4 or more engines. The Moderators will be empowered to rule where a specific design fits in these classifications. Note that the manpower of air units is counted against per-nation military manpower caps (see army rules for details of these):



Aircraft unit acquisition costs in $ and BP are dependent upon the tech level of that unit, as are their maintenance costs. Aircraft units may not be upgraded from one tech level to the next. Rather, they may be scrapped, and if desired, their scrap value used for the acquisitions of new units of a newer tech level. The scrap value of an aircraft unit is:  0.15 * unit's original dollar/BP cost. The player earns back this value in the half-year following completion of scrapping.

Cost to construct air units:


Upkeep of air units:

Because aircraft are fragile and temperamental machines, it is not possible to maintain them at anything but wartime footing.



The fighting value of air units may be considered using the army unit artillery rating value according to this table:

Fighting strength of air units (in units equivalent to army artillery ratings):


Airfields
The Most basic airfield is simply an improvised strip, which may be constructed by the aircraft unit planning to use it. This has no cost, but these improvised fields have no permanent support capability. Units operating from these fields must have support from a permanent airfield for doing things like engine and airframe overhauls. Or in other words, while an improvised field can be constructed anywhere, to support a unit of aircraft more than one half-year, a permanent field must be available.



Aircraft Unit/Airship Equivalency
Airships and aircraft may be based alongside one another. Airships still require additional fixed infrastructure (in the form of airship hangars). From 1920, airships must be based at a permanent airfield.

Airships are equivalent to aircraft unit size for the purpose of determining how many airships and aircraft may be supported by a given airfield according to this table:



Naval Aviation
Aircraft to be carried by or supported by ships are bought in units just as all other aircraft, and must be purchased separately from the ships they are planned to be operated from. Aircraft carried afloat do not require a shore base.

Transition from old Aircraft rules to new

Players for which it is convenient to reorganize their current aircraft into aircraft units according to these rules are encouraged to do so. Any new aircraft acquired in 1920 or after must be purchased according to these rules.

Existing airfields are all convertible to type 0 airfields under the new rules. Existing airship bases are also convertible to type 0 airfields. The Moderators believe there are no airship bases supporting more than 1 aircraft squadron's equivalent of airships. If the Mods are mistaken, please PM all three during the transition with your specific circumstance so we can work out what the resulting infrastructure should be.

Aircraft purchased previous to the transition may be scrapped as units in the future, according to their costs from the new rules.

QuoteExisting airfields are all convertible to type 0 airfields under the new rules.

What of the existing 1913 airfields? All those who have one have spent 0.5BP on it.

Some of that BP may be applicable to 1913 aircraft units theoretically purchased at the same time.

This is the thorny part of the transition. A new type 0 airfield has no BP cost of course, but before new aircraft had no BP cost. I think as I wrote about airship bases, if you have a specific circumstance such as this, pm the mods and we'll figure it out.

Current airfields should be at least Type 2s, at least the 1913 ones.

Considering the number of planes I have, I would most definitely have Type 3 fields. Same goes for RRC.

I have 600 planes, and 4 fields...I can't support what I have on Type 0's. Type 1's would do....

Quote from: TexanCowboy on June 03, 2010, 02:34:23 PM
I have 600 planes, and 4 fields...I can't support what I have on Type 0's. Type 1's would do....

This is useful data. If everyone else could post their current number of aircraft and current number of airfields, that would be very helpful.

If you have a large number of non-single engined aircraft and/or airships, please note that as well.

I have 12 1913 Airfields and 5800 airplanes.

Of them 1150 are multi-engined airplanes.
Of that 1150; 800 are double engined aircrafts and 350 are five-engined aircrafts.

Cool...I have 4 1910 airfields. Out of that, I have 600 planes, 200 multi-engined.

Quote from: Logi on June 03, 2010, 02:54:21 PM
I have 12 1913 Airfields and 5800 airplanes.

Of them 1150 are multi-engined airplanes.
Of that 1150; 800 are double engined aircrafts and 350 are five-engined aircrafts.

My initial reaction to this figure included water coming out of my nose. Having wiped that off the keyboard, I'll quote the Wikipedia article on the Royal Flying Corps:

Quote
by the start of 1919 the RAF had 4,000 combat aircraft and 114,000 personnel.

Using 28.5 men per plane (from the RAF figures, the basis from which the personnel estimates above came from), that would make the RRC's airforce 165,300 men strong. Where is the RRC in relation to it's total manpower cap?

Is mine too ridiculous?

The RRC has a 189,500,000 large national population that are, unlike the British, all Chinese ethnically and located in relative proximity.

So apparently the airforce is 0.087% of the total population of the RRC. Big whoop.

Quote from: Desertfox on June 03, 2010, 02:09:29 PM
Current airfields should be at least Type 2s, at least the 1913 ones.

Quote from: Walter on June 03, 2010, 02:24:43 PM
Considering the number of planes I have, I would most definitely have Type 3 fields. Same goes for RRC.

And for Orange.
According to the new rules I would have 18.75 Squadrons per airfield.

I have 4 newly upgraded 1913/16 airfields with 1200 single, 200 twin and 100 big aircrafts. (Thats a long-range a normal bomber-unit and 3 fighter groups for cover)

I also have 10 type 2 zeppelins and hangars, I don't understand yet what that means.

Well, talking manpower:

If Romania could fully mobilize, it could support 675,000 men in uniform (13.5 million *0.05). You have 8 corps, which equals 400,000 men. Your airforce would account for ~11,000 or 12,000 men. So depending on your navy*, you're at least under the conceivable manpower limit.

Still in 1920, not having fought a war which required the extended mobilization of huge airforces, 600 aircraft seems like a lot for a nation such as Romania. I don't suppose we can put that genie back in the bottle now.

* we should be tracking manpower limits of navies, but we haven't yet dreamed up a neat way to do that. If we do, it'll probably just be total tons of commissioned shipping multiplied by some constant, and not using SS's crew size figures at all.

And you havent seen the size of the Japanese Air Force yet...

New Switzerland:

3 -1913 Airfields

1,840 aircraft (~1,200 single, 500 twin, 200 heavy)


New Zion:

4 - 1910 Airfields
4 - 1913 Airfields

600 Single engined
55 twin engined


I saw the Swiss airfields as Type 3s while the Zionite ones as a mix of 0 (1910) and 1/2 (1913).


I do not like the Squadron/Wing/Group divisons. I would much prefere the cleaner method we have now, with everyone splitting up their planes as they see fit.