PWCG Tip Of The Day

[PatrickAWlson]

How do you get the most out of PWCG.  Starting this thread to share.

 

The Journal.  I have a feeling this is infrequently used.  The journal starts is a record of each mission - your combat log book.  Each entry starts with the PWCG generated combat report.  What might not be as well known is the Narrative section.  The area under Narrative is an editable text area.  It is there for you to add you description of the mission, just like real AARs.   Whatever you type gets saved.  

 

I find it can be fun to look back and see some of the details.  

[TacticalOni]

I've been doing this in my "moar immersion" P-38 campaign, first mission was to bomb a bridge, Narrative section mentioned flak in areas and that we observed the span drop
Next mission I reported increased burning in a town we flew past before. It's kind of interesting to try to see things from a pilots perspective "would reporting this have helped someone make better war plans"

[[808_BOB]_RlCK]

We frequently check intel reports on other squadrons. Gives you a rough estimate of the fighting force of the enemy as well as possible enemy aces out there.

[UlyssesCockmore]

I used to use the journal a lot when flying solo campaigns to create the story of the pilot.

 

Now that I've switched to primarily playing co-op campaigns with friends, getting the best out of PWCG for us really means having a consistent and interesting mission generator, with consequences, pilots we can get attached to, and where we can see the changing shape of the war in the air.

 

We've also taken to using a spreadsheet outside of PWCG to keep a track of 'extra' victories for pilots using the 'Probable' and 'Shared' accounting system to add a bit more flavour.

 

We claim a 'Probable' where an enemy machine took heavy damage, trailing oil, fuel, water, etc. but wasn't seen to crash, and 'Shared' will be fractional, if we both attack the same enemy machine. We put in 'Probables' as known overclaiming in PWCG, so they show up as denied claims intentionally to try and mimic the practice of the time i.e. 56 squadron claiming seven JU-87s shot down on one day in 1940, whilst records show only two lost.

 

After a week's worth of flying for 56 Squadron in 1941, it looks something like this:

Edited October 11, 2022 by UlyssesCockmore