1- Is it more efficient to drop fuel to the parent HQ or to individual units?
2- How to maximize the MP boost to individual units?
I have run a few tests to see which strategy is more efficient and see how air drops work in a controlled/repeatable environment (I used turn 3 of the 'Road to Leningrad scenario, human vs human at standard settings). A few interesting things emerged, feel free to chime in if something is missing, as some results had been hinted/mentioned at in the forum already....
A) Spreading drops evenly across *each* motorized unit vs dropping all of them on the HQ achieve similar results, as the HQ spreads the available fuel proportionally to the needs of its units. If you want to significantly boost the MPs of a specific unit..then do many drops
to that unit (duh, but hey it was good to verify it).
B) Air drops help, but expect no miracles: dropping 100 tons of fuel to a 3-divisions Pz Korps HQ gives a 2-5 MP increase to its motorized units, compared to no drops (this assumes a standard 'turn 3' case, where the units trace supply to the parent HQ, start at 15% fuel and the high level HQs are not too far from to the parent HQs to avoid failed rolls). Your mileage may vary depending on the situation.
C) *Multiple air drops to individual Motorized units are the most efficient in term of maximizing the MPs of a spearhead*, as Motorized Divisions require less fuel compared than Panzers. But make sure to attach 'fuel efficient' SUs to Moto divisions, like Flak and pioneers.
D) Some SU units (Stugs,JagdPs, FlammPz) are definitely not fuel efficient! Do not attach them to the spearhead unit if you want them to go far ahead.
E) Overall, GE Motorized divisions are best for exploitation and 'hex flipping', as they require ~ 50% less fuel than Panzers, but one has to be careful to keep them fuel efficient by attaching equally thrifty SUs to them: Flak and pioneers are best, Stug, JagdPz and those cool Flamm Pz will slow them down by increasing their total fuel needs by up to 50%. Similarly for the SU player: Cavalry Corps require almost no fuel, but tank SUs attached to them do. Avoid having Tank Divisions caught in pockets, if possible. Airhead supply needs to be able to supply 5% of what is needed (supply+fuel+ammo 20.2.1) per turn to keep a pocket from going isolated, but a single SU Tank division uses fuel as 60 Infantry ones!
Here is the fuel needs/turn for some GE and Soviet units and their
SUs (at 100% TOE) :
Fuel need in tons/wk
41 GE-PzD 320-360
41 GE-MotD 165-220
41 GE-InfD 20-40
41 GE Flamm Pz Btl 56 (!!!)
41 GE-Stug Btl 26
41 GE-JagdPz Btl 17
41 GE-Pioneers Btl 5
41 GE- MotoFlak 10
41 GE-Flak Mixed 7
41 GE-MG-Btl 5
41 SU-TankD 580
41 SU-MotoD 330
42 SU-42 Tk Corps 215
42 SU-42 Mech Corps 350
42 SU-Cav Corps 8
42 SU-ArtD
41 SU-Rifle ID 10
42 SU-Rifle ID late 41 4
42 SU-TankBde 50
42 SU-TankRgt 38
42 SU-MotoRgt 14
42 SU-Sappers Rgt 1
SU-Almost everything else needs < 10
As a quick reminder the attached image shows where to find the info on the fuel needs
for a unit.
.