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Any advice on how to play the airwar. I'm tending not to do too much beyond recon and supply after the first turn and I'm convinced I'm missing plenty?

(05-18-2011, 06:36 AM)typhoon Wrote: [ -> ]Any advice on how to play the airwar. I'm tending not to do too much beyond recon and supply after the first turn and I'm convinced I'm missing plenty?

I tend to do like you do but in the campaign game that I played as the Soviets I paid some attention to my air units. I went in and started manually upgrading my fighter units to more modern types as soon as they were available. Did the same with ground support and bombers also. I also stashed air commands rearward and let them train up and get to full strength and then committed them in groups to areas where I really needed to blunt the Germans. As a German player on the first turn I usually lower the percentage for missions for airfield attack so as to get as many attacks as possible.

As German, I will launch some air attacks against ground units also, at least in the early stages - and even as the Soviets if the German fighter coverage isn't too strong. I figure as German it will run up Soviet losses and for the Soviets it can gain them some experience. But for the Soviets massing air is critical, it seems.

Rick

Thanks guys that's helpful. I am about to start a grand campaign as the russians with my arch nemesis so I need all the help I can get.

(08-11-2011, 05:28 PM)Raver Wrote: [ -> ]Thanks guys that's helpful. I am about to start a grand campaign as the russians with my arch nemesis so I need all the help I can get.

Probably a little late, but....

Turn 1: Send every Russian plane to the National Reserve.
Anyone within range of the Germans is dead anyway, and this way the survivors get a morale-boost. You also get the advantage of getting to retreat your airbases without destroying damaged planes in the process. Not to mention that you get to re-design the structure of the VVS which in the opening phases is...*ahem*... a bit of a muddle.

Other than that.....
The most important air-weapon for the Russians in '41 is their transports.
Get as many transports/level bombers into your VVS airfields and switch them to night-missions. Anything to keep your partisans supplied.
Just be sure to keep them far enough back to be outside German fighter-cover, or they'll get bombed into submission.
Those Il-4s have ridiculous long range, so pull back.

Withdraw your SAD airbases, and if you have surplus APs (you won't), disband them. The computer automatically disbands them throughout 41-42, usually at the most inopportune moments.

Forget about manually upgrading squadrons. The AI does a pretty good job of it, and you have far better uses for your APs.

Never disband squadrons!
Two reasons, both having to do with how the AI rebuilds the airforce.
1. The AI decides whether new squadrons are needed based on number of planes in the pool vs. current squadrons. So if you disband your I-153s, you run the risk of the AI creating another squadron of I-153s instead of those sorely needed Yaks and MiGs.
2. The AI creates airbases based on the number of squadrons in play. So the fewer squadrons, the fewer airbases gets created.
Instead of disbanding squadrons, find some out-of-the-way spot to place them. In '41 the Crimea becomes a parking-space for I-16s in my games.

In '41, pull back. Click an airbase, hit 'Bomb City' to find the max range, then pull back until the frontline is just inside.
Yes, it'll mean your vaunted airforce will have fewer missions due to longer flight times. But it also means that the Germans can't bomb your airfields unless he flies without fighter-cover.

Finally, concentrate without stacking.
Shove 9 squadrons into every airbase, but don't stack airbases, especially within range of German fighters.

And of course, remember to have at least one Recon squadron for every Front. They're worth their weight in gold, especially when you lose track of a Panzer-group. :whis: