Slitherine

A question about Minsk '41: Will the mere presence of one of the "observation" bombers over or adjacent to a Soviet airfield prevent activation of Soviet planes there, or must the airfield hexes be occupied by ground troops in order to prevent activation of Soviet aircraft?

IIRC they activate on the edge of the map anyway. I think I only saw an aircraft spawn at an airfield once, and I had already occupied it at the time

Yep, that's how it works. The Soviet aircraft didn't spawn at the actual airfields but at the end of the map. I guess the number the AI is able to deploy is a function of the number still under Soviet control at the beginning of its turn. Not many, in my case--those paratroopers sure came in handy.

Where oh where did they get all these bloody planes?....I thought they didn't start mass produce till mid '42?....this scenario is like sticking a pole into a hornets nest..(the ant's I can deal with)...and another thing....OKW shudda warned us about losses in Crete before sending over here...

Post Script:...some idiot on my Staff said he had heard the Russkie's was building a tank with sloped armor....sloped my ass! says I..and tossed his butt outta my bunker.....why build sloped tanks?...what good does that do?...hurmph!....sent him the front!..along with another young dunderhead who said the it MIGHT snow early this year!...I'm surrounded with idiots...!!!...

hmshood

I sent in my recon battalions rapid and deep, and even though I couldn't get everything straight away there was next to no aerial resistance. I'm not really brave enough for paratroopers. I've been too brave with recon though, I lost an excellent veteran who went checking for stuff at Novoanninsky. Guess what? He found too much stuff!

I supplied the bombers with ammunition, which works normally and used them to neutralize enemy airfields, something I wouldn´t dream of doing with core aircraft, since they take heavy losses from AA and enemy fighters. I have no idea if this prevented enemy fighters from spawning, but it reduces their effective range, which in turn allows core tactical bombers to be used better.

Minsk 41 is one of the few scenarios I can use paras successfully. I use the recon Rudel to help find empty airfields and unoccupied towns near airfields. The paras take over the airfield (possibly walking over from a nearby town), everyone refuels and off they go again. Once they get to the recon bombers, these get refuelled and rearmed and start conventional bombing duties.

In most other scennarios, if I start with three paras, I'd often be relieved to have even one survive. Are they high risk tropps or am I doing something wrong?

German Fallschirmjager have a low ground defense (5) with a 6 soft attack and 4 initiative. Contrast that with Wehrmacht Inf (ground defense 8, soft attack 4, initative 2) and Gebirsjager (ground def 7, soft attack 5, init 2).

So Paras hit fast and hard, but if they are attacked, they can crumple due to low ground defense.

Good points Endur.
Looks like I need more durable troops to cope with my generalship!