Promotions in the WC Universe

Sonntag

Spaceman
Anyone who played WC1 knows how fast you were advancing from 2nd LT to Lt.Col in just one year. Well of course, this seems to be MUCH too fast. But is there any realistic rule in the WC universe in how to become promoted? In the German Army, for example, you have to be Leutnant for a certain amount of time (approx. 3 years) in order to get promoted (in peace time, maybe in wartime it definitely goes faster, just look at the german movie DAS BOOT, where the skipper was 31 years old). Anyway, one does not become Lt Col with 22years...
 
I say for every three dozen cats you blow up, you should get promoted. By my count I ought to be ruling the Universe by now.
 
Well, as you pointed out, WC1 was wartime and the rules are different. I do know of one case of an american in WWII that was conscripted and started as a private. He hadn't finished college, but when he was there, he had taken Reserve Officer Training Courses, and because of that "experience" and ability to follow directions but show initative he was moved up to Cpl. then Sgt. and switched over to Officer training before they finished boot camp. By the end of the war he was a Major.

As far as WC1, the promotions were part of the "scoring" system. The goal was getting as many ribbons and promotions as possible. Also, at the time WC1 was written, they could not be sure there would be more follow-ups which is why they had you make it all the way to Major. Then, it took you the two add-ons to make it to Lt. Col., iirc. I haven't played it in a while so I don't remeber if it was right at the end of SM2 when the Colonel tells you he wants you to replace him that you get the promotion to Lt. Col. or if it was earlier.

As far as a real WCU rule, I think Prophecy, the only other WC game (except for WCII, but your rank only changes once) where you start off as a 2nd Lt. is probably more realistic. You only get the one promotion to 1st Lt. And the reason you had the slower promotion track in that game was they assumed follow-ups. :(
 
Well, these things vary from army to army.
In the Israeli army you advance in rank rather quickly during peacetime (well, if you consider our situation now, I wouldn`t really call it peace... :( ).

starting as a private, you can make corporal after 4 months, depending on your job.
You can make 2nd lt. or ensign in a year and 7 months, leutenant in 2 years and 8 months.
In the case of petty officers. you can make sgt. 1st class in 2 years.

I think that`s pretty quick. Nothing compared to WC1, but still...
 
In the USAF one tends to hit LT Col around the 10-15
years of service time frame. 'Course, exceptional people
go up faster.

Be that as it may, one doesn't get promoted simply
for killing things. You get medals for killing
things. There's a lot more to being a
senior-grade commissioned officer than flying a plane,
and you'll be promoted based on that, although
combat experience and decorations definitely push you
to the front of the pack.

Respectfully,

Brian P.
 
Well, Blair graduated in '54 and was a Lieutenant Colonel in '56 -- but that was wartime, and he'd proved himself to be an exceptional leader, something Confed was *desperate* for.
 
Originally posted by Bandit LOAF
Well, Blair graduated in '54 and was a Lieutenant Colonel in '56 -- but that was wartime, and he'd proved himself to be an exceptional leader, something Confed was *desperate* for.

And such a jump is not unheard of in wartime. During
the US Civil War, ISTR Sherman started the war as a
Captain and finished up as a Major General! Custer,
Chamberlain made similar jumps. That war was only
four years long.



Respectfully,

Brian P.


[Edited by pendell on 04-05-2001 at 17:50]
 
Originally posted by Bandit LOAF
Well, Blair graduated in '54 and was a Lieutenant Colonel in '56 -- but that was wartime, and he'd proved himself to be an exceptional leader, something Confed was *desperate* for.
Ok this could well be realistic, as Blair stayed wing leader all of his life, starting from the first mission. We also know that today, all Airforce Pilots have Officer ranks due to the payment, but it still is pretty clear that the pilot officer school is not the same as the officer school for a platoon leader etc, as the requirements are difficult, so it could well be that Blair was promoted so fast as he was a great pilot.
Still it is a bit too fast... Captain might be possible, but Major???
 
Well, come on, the way the wingmen flew, pilots were getting killed all the time.

(By the fifteenth mission, I had lost a lot of my wingmen, and I was awfully sick of it. I downloaded an editor, restored my wingmen, and just resurrected them everytime they died. I was never happier)

I wouldn't be surprised if Blair was promoted like crazy. Blair's kills were far and away above the rest.
 
Originally posted by Nep Parth
Well, come on, the way the wingmen flew, pilots were getting killed all the time.

(By the fifteenth mission, I had lost a lot of my wingmen, and I was awfully sick of it. I downloaded an editor, restored my wingmen, and just resurrected them everytime they died. I was never happier)

I wouldn't be surprised if Blair was promoted like crazy. Blair's kills were far and away above the rest.

Strange. I hardly ever lost any wingman at all, I killed all enemys before they killed my wingmen. But it really didn't make any difference whether you had a Wingman or not.

I always found the enemy to fly better than my wingman, was this due to the reason that they could concentrate on me, or were they simply better programmed?
 
BETTER PROGRAMMED.

Frankly, my wingmen did pretty well until I was promoted to a Scrimitar...which I loved at first (my fondest memory of WC was my first mission with a Scrim. I was bearing down on a Dralthi, it on me, and I unloaded a full load of mass drivers on it. It was killed before it could fire on me...all the rounds hit! I loved the damn thing. Now, I hate it...time flies, eh?). After the Scrimitar missions when I started racking up the kills, my wingmen began to, well, drop like flies.
 
Thats funny. I don't recall ever losing any wingmen unless I puposely shot them down. Out of all the times I have played WC1, I have never lost a Wingman.
 
No one else got promoted fast like Blair because they werent getting the kills that he was, and they didnt have mission succes records like he did, except for when they flew on his wing. Maniac shot down a transport once. A Confed transport.
 
Unless my wingman have *freak* accidents, I kept my wingmen in WC1. But remember, the rank advances were there to make you, as the player, feel special. Of course, in the wider WCU frame, we can see Blair as an exceptional leader, but having him demoted to Captain, shows that he was also human (in that he made mistakes in judgment).
 
Yeah, I remember that Maniac mission (well, you didn't actually fly it, but it was part of the storyline). I guess it shows how desperate Confed was for good pilots, that they didn't ditch Maniac. As far as wingmen go, in WC1 all they seemed good for was keeping enemy fighters off my back so I could concentrate on one at a time. In WC2, your wingmen were better (at least it seemed that way).
 
Well Maniac was pulled off duty for a while after that incident. But theres no doubt that he had the skillz and the kill count.
 
Although his commands were usually a disaster. Take the Morning Star project, for example. One of the three pilots in his unit killed, one crippled, and one a traitor.

Best, Raptor
 
Originally posted by Icedagger
But you could hardly blame Maniac for that. I knew that Minx girl was up to no good from the first!

True. First she's hanging Angel out to dry on a mission and then moving in on Blair. Although, TBH, Blair didn't seem all that reluctant to be moved in on. :D

Best, Raptor
 
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