What do I do with the Axis air force in the Stalingrad to Berlin campaign?

[Brandon_37]

I don't know what to do with the Axis air force in the Stalingrad to Berlin campaign.

I don't know how many planes/groups i should have per air base.
I don't know what range they should be set at.
I don't know how far from the front lines the air bases should be.
I don't know whether I should send the recon, bombers, and transports to the reserve so I can disband more airbases for manpower, or if the manpower is more useful keeping them flying.
I don't know what the air doctrine should be, and what the percentage to fly should be.

currently I'm thinking I want to get rid of transports and heavier bombers like the HE-111, but keep the recon and the dive bombers, and of course keep all the fighters. I think I'm going to set all the air doctrine to zero except for ground support and ground support escort. I will set both of them to 100, and minimum to fly will be 50%. I will send everything to reserve on the first/second turn to make reorganizing easier. I could really use the help of someone who is actually good at this game because I don't want to get slaughtered. Thanks.

[xhoel]

A lot of your decisions depend on wether you are playing a human opponent or the AI. Which one is it?

Here is my advice to you:

-You should strive to have around 3 groups of bombers on rails per airbase, further back to the rear. Aim for 120 planes per ABs. Dive bombers and fighters should be positioned close to the front, but not too close. Keep them on rails. The most important thing when determining how many planes an airbase can hold is the Air Support that the air base has. The Air Support need changes as you move air groups in and out. You should always stride to keep the "needed Air Support" lower than the "Air Support that is present at the AB" otherwise your planes won't repair properly and many will get reserve status.

Don't worry about range settings, put them to fly on all ranges: range should show the * sign.

There is no set range that ABs should be kept from the front but you usually want to place your ABs on rails. Keep them at least 8 hexes from the front (unless they are fighter ABs) as the enemy will bomb them if you put them to close. Use empty ABs near the front as staging ABs.

YOU SHOULD NOT DO THAT!. All air groups are useful and you need all of them in order to survive the war. Only send units to the NR if their morale is low or if they have a lot of damaged airframes. You don't have to deploy every airgroup to the front but keep rotating them as their morale gets lower.

DO NOT DISBAND AIRBASES. They give very little manpower and you don't get any extra ones. In 1942 you are in no need of extra manpower and even if you were, disbanding every LW air base wouldn't be of much help.

Put the percentage to fly at 5.
Recon Escort off.
Fighter Intercept 150%.

The other settings you can change as you like.

Do not get rid of the transport fleet or the heavy bombers, they are very useful in the right hands. Do not put everything on 0. You can put GS at 150% and GS escort to 50%. Do the same for Ground Attack. Turn GS on when you are attacking a difficult position and turn it on at the end of your turn so they will fly during the Soviet turn and help on the defense.

Sending everything to the reserve will save you a lot of headache and help with reorganizing. Don't stress about it to much. From what you have written you are new to the game, or at least new to the air war. Let go of the idea that you want to "fix" the LW and that you need to learn every aspect of the air game in a short amount of time. It will only hold you back. Get the basics right and learn as you go along. You will get a feeling from the game about all the questions that you asked as time passes but I understand that it is a daunting process.

I recommend you to read the 8MP AAR where the great Telemecus has gone into detail about the air war. You can read the AAR here: tm.asp?m=4250683

Read the manual, the updated one made by Chris21wen: tm.asp?m=4529371

Be sure to ask questions about things you don't understand. The community is a helpful one and will reach out to you.

Best regards,
Xhoel

[wkuh]

Thanks for question and answer; will try those settings.

[Brandon_37]

Wow, that was a really detailed answer. Thanks. I still have one question though. Their fighters don't really do anything to my ground forces, or at least not much, so why would I want to do fighter intercept? or is fighter intercept my own fighters, intercepting their planes?

[xhoel]

My pleasure! Fighter Intercept refers to your fighters intercepting enemy planes. Feel free to ask if you have more questions.

[Brandon_37]

Brandon_37

Ah good thing you told me it was intercepting all enemy planes, I was going to set it to zero haha. I dont have any more questions but thanks for the help.

[xhoel]

Glad I could help!