Battlestations: Pacific/Aircraft Tactics

Aircraft are one of the most powerful units in the game given their high attacking power, mobility, and sheer strength of numbers. As in Midway, players have complete control over an aircraft, much like a flight simulator. Unlike a flight simulator, however, players will not have to concern themselves over things like G-forces, damage to individual aircraft components, and wind direction. Even during the stormiest night missions, players will find they will be flying in a virtual, windless environment. Only vision is impaired during these times.

Planes, however, are somewhat notoriously thin-skinned - they can only take a few hits before going down. Additionally, in a straight fight between a torpedo bomber and a warship, chances are the warship will win (although possibly not before the plane drops its torpedo).

Payloads, like bombs, rockets, and torpedoes, all negatively affect a plane's mobility. Ensure to drop any kind of payload before entering a dogfight, as you will not be able to climb as quickly or turn as sharply when carrying a depth charge or a torpedo. Plane armament can reload in Pacific, so simply dropping your payload will result in only a temporary gain in performance. Players can, during multiplayer and skirmish games, turn off the automatic reloading of aircraft payloads, although this option cannot be turned off for campaigns (after all, with only one bomb, how would you bomb the USS Nevada twice in Attack on Pearl Harbour?)

Aircraft are separated into five main categories, based on what they're equipped with and how they attack their opponents: It should be noted that the throttle control on planes works differently than some other flyers. Setting the throttle to the maximum will cause the plane to accelerate to maximum speed, but pulling it down will result in the plane braking. The issue is that the plane will continue braking until it reaches a speed of 0, during which a novice player can easily stall and crash. It is therefore important, while flying, to slow down while making an attack run, but not slowing down to the point of an unrecoverable stall.
 * Fighters include the F6F Hellcat and the J2M Raiden. These aircraft are designed to bring down other aircraft, and as such are designed to be quick and light. Some of these planes can equip themselves with light bombs or rockets, both of which should be discarded before attempting to dogfight. The rockets come in two flavours - anti-air and anti-surface. As examples, the F4U Corsair carries the latter and the J2M Raiden carries the former.
 * Dive Bombers include the SB2C Helldiver and the D4Y Judy. These planes are equipped with a single bomb to drop on a target. They are most effective, as their name suggests, when coming out of a dive. Dive bombers enter a relatively shallow dive, versus the 90 degree drop dive bombers perform in Midway. This allows them to release their ordnance quicker, but at the same time makes them easier to target from the perspective of the enemy player. Dive bombers now cause noticeable damage against battleships, and can still be equipped with air-dropped depth charges.
 * Torpedo Bombers include the TBF Avenger and the B6N Jill. Planes like these are armed with a torpedo to drop in the water, which will then travel in a straight line toward its target. The TBM Avenger, not to be confused with the Grumman TBF, is a black sheep in this category. It is covered in greater detail in the American aircraft section of this guide.
 * Carpet Bombers are designed to carry a large payload of bombs to simply dump on a target. Examples of this type include the G4M Betty and the B-17 Flying Fortress. Also known by some as level bombers, these planes are designed to attack large and imposing targets. The larger the target, the more bombs that will strike it. These planes have received significant upgrades since Midway, and are now effective against battleships. Additionally, the Japanese carpet bombers - the Nell and the Betty - have sturdier armour than before. Although they are still a sitting target for fighters still, their weapons are more accurate, faster-firing, and they themselves can take more damage.
 * Recon Planes are launched either through a shipyard or from a cruiser. The OS2U Kingfisher and the E13A Jake are examples of this plane type. Equipped with a sonar suite, recon planes can provide a pinch of firepower anywhere on the map, or act as a screen against enemy submarines. Only one recon plane can be launched at a time per ship. More often than not, floatplanes are equipped with either a depth charge or some kind of bomb, while flying boats (like the PBY Catalina and the H8K Emily) carry torpedoes, depth charges, or bombs.

Taking Off
Launching aircraft in Pacific has changed considerably from Midway. Actions such as this are now done through the Support Manager (see the map section for further details). Pressing the Support Manager key will open the support manager. It is then up to the player to choose where to spawn units from. The map indicates where the unit will spawn, and includes both bases and carriers. In some missions, this isn't a unit or building but instead a simple reinforcement point to appear from. This is most common in Duel and Siege maps.

Once a spawn point has been selected, the player can then choose which kind of plane to spawn. Planes are always spawned in groups of three - it is impossible to increase or decrease this number. Launching planes will take planes away from your current stockpile or, in the case of Island Capture, will lower your command point reserve. The launch key will launch the selected unit.

Landing
Landing aircraft isn't as important as it was in Midway. In Pacific, unless otherwise specified, aircraft will respawn their weaponry. This ultimately curbs the idea of crashing aircraft into the ocean to save time, although there are times still in which you may want to do this to quickly free spots up. This will happen most often when you send up recon planes to locate the enemy to decide what kind of units they have - be it ships, subs, or aircraft. You may wish to crash these recon planes to free up the slots for the necessary counter (if your recon plane spots enemy aircraft, you'll want to go all fighters - if all ships, you'll want ships of your own and torpedo bombers, for example).

It is still possible, however, to land. It remains, however, considerably impractical - it is better to simply crash your units rather than have to wait for them to land. This is not a good idea, naturally, when you intend to use these units in the future.

Seaplanes and flying boats can land on the sea. Landing on the sea with a flying boat or seaplane necessitates approaching the sea at an extremely low angle of attack - it is still possible to crash a seaplane or flying boat into the ocean if you approach the ocean at too steep an angle. Successfully landing a flying boat or seaplane on the water yields the Flying Fish achievement.