About initiative in the movement and search phase, it is said that formations lead by a vet, an ace or a hero get a +1 for each characteristic.
If a formation is led by a green or a recruit, this formation have no initiative penalty ?
Recruits cannot be formation leaders. So no modifiers for them.
The only modifiers are positive ones, to improve tactical positioning initiative, but at the scale of leading formations around, I judged that regulars and greens could follow orders and lead formations around as easy as the next guy.
So no modifiers for regulars or greens. This was deliberate.
I felt that veterans, aces and heros would have some exceptional knowledge and experience in having formation level encounters and will react quicker giving them a better chance to position their formations in time relative to others to start combats.
Individual aircraft milling about on their own are not penalized whether recruit green or veteran. They are only worrying about their own skins, not considering how to maneuver formations around.
remember that at the Op-scale level, it is blind mans bluff. The formations are not generally aware of each other, even though the players are. So maneuvering into encounters is more random luck. Again, I chose to allow veterans aces and heros a benefit. But no one gets a penalty.
Its a different skill set I am writing rules for than the situational awareness considerations of a dogfight.
No oversight by the designer. If you disagree, feel free to impose house rules.
:-)
JD
(https://fighting-wings-games.groups.io/g/main/message/17545) 11/11/2014