Use of German air assets on turn one

[Icedawg]

I'm having great difficulty getting the most out of my air units on turn one, so I'm posting this to seek some advice.

My current approach has been (in order) to:

1) Air recon enemy airbases
2) Transfer level bomber units to front line fighter bases (ie: move the KG 77 units to the airbase with the JG 54 units)
3) Bomb enemy airfields close to the front
4) Tranfer a single fighter unit to each of the bases with the Stuka units (to serve as escort in ground support missions)
5) Begin my ground assault

The two problems I am encountering are both related to #2.

Problem #1: After transfer, the selected level bomber units don't seem to want to fly airfield bombing missions. In a typical strike I will select 60+ bombers (usually a full KG), but only a handful (2-5) will actually fly. I've tried setting the air doctrine screen's "percent required to fly" to 5% thinking that the units are too far below their max aircraft numbers, but that didn't help. I've combed through the manual, but can't find anything indicating a penalty being applied to air transferred units (other than a small % added to their mileage), so the transfer itself can't be the issue.

Problem #2: In desperation, I opened a new game and did not do any transfers. The selected air units flew planes in much larger numbers, but most of the time, I couldn't get the units I wanted to use to show up in the air unit selection window. It drove me nuts to have a full KG with 70+ bombers a few hexes behind a forward fighter base with 100+ fighters and for the life of me, I couldn't get the KG I wanted to fly the mission with this fighter base as the assembly hex. Other bomber units located 20+ hexes away were included, but not the guys located 3 or 4 hexes away! This makes no sense. Why are the bombers not listed in the selection window when they are only a few hexes behind the assembly base?

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I am getting highly frustrated with the air mechanics of this game. I absolutely love the ground combat/movement system, but find the air model to be somewhat lacking (or maybe it's just ignorance on my part - not the first time and definitely not the last [:)] ).

[marty_01]

If you haven't already, have a look at the 1st Turn German air attack methods tutorial posted by ComradeP. It's pretty good:

tm.asp?m=2642052

[Icedawg]

ORIGINAL: marty_01

If you haven't already, have a look at the 1st Turn German air attack methods tutorial posted by ComradeP. It's pretty good:

tm.asp?m=2642052

This is a nice guide, but it doesn't really address the problems I brought up in my original post.

[Farfarer61]

You can destroy 5000 planes with minimal losses and no escort - why the frustration? there are a few bases faaaar away that might have been reached if the system was perfect. When the AI will wipe out the Crimean air force for you T1 with a a couple of clicks, thats OK by me. You do a few hundred planes better by being 100% manual.

[Mynok]

I don't worry about which groups are in the selection list. I just pick the ones I want and send it on. Like Farfarer, I'm easily able to kill 4-5k Soviet planes on turn 1 without worrying about it.

[Caranorn]

I had the same problem and realised what was causing it. Your fighter bases on turn one don't have anywhere near enough ammunition for your bomber squadrons. So once you transfer the bombers and fly one mission you will probably be out of ammo on that base...

[Icedawg]

ORIGINAL: Caranorn

I had the same problem and realised what was causing it. Your fighter bases on turn one don't have anywhere near enough ammunition for your bomber squadrons. So once you transfer the bombers and fly one mission you will probably be out of ammo on that base...

Thanks for the explanation. I guess without ammo/bombs it's a bit tough to bomb an enemy airfield.

[Icedawg]

ORIGINAL: Icedawg

Problem #2: In desperation, I opened a new game and did not do any transfers. The selected air units flew planes in much larger numbers, but most of the time, I couldn't get the units I wanted to use to show up in the air unit selection window. It drove me nuts to have a full KG with 70+ bombers a few hexes behind a forward fighter base with 100+ fighters and for the life of me, I couldn't get the KG I wanted to fly the mission with this fighter base as the assembly hex. Other bomber units located 20+ hexes away were included, but not the guys located 3 or 4 hexes away! This makes no sense. Why are the bombers not listed in the selection window when they are only a few hexes behind the assembly base?

Hey, I found a work-around for this problem last night! If I set all air units to "night missions" and then set only those I wish to use back to "no night missions", the air unit selection list only shows those units. This is a bit tedious, but it worked 100% of the time when I tested it last night.

[Icedawg]

ORIGINAL: Mynok


I don't worry about which groups are in the selection list. I just pick the ones I want and send it on. Like Farfarer, I'm easily able to kill 4-5k Soviet planes on turn 1 without worrying about it.

I'm a bit OCD however. Knowing that I could have destroyed just one more enemy plane and/or saved one of mine would drive me nuts.

To give you an idea of how much of a perfectionist I am, in WiTP AE, I organized all of my xAK TFs by type and tonnage. Only ships of the same class are allowed in the same TF and the tonnage of the TF must match the maximum docking capacity of the port. I transfer individual pilots around to try to make elite units, only base air units with their parent HQ and only perform operations using LCU's of the same command (ie - no 16th Army units supporting 14th Army units). I guess it's no wonder it takes me a month or two to plan my first turn!