Airborne assaults

[moose1999]

I'm finding it very difficult to conduct airborne assaults on enemy occupied bases.
The transport planes just won't fly the mission - I put them on troop transport, but during turn resolution they revert to supply transport instead and no paratroopers are dropped.

I've only managed to drop paratroopers on an enemy base once, and only the first drop worked. The subsequent turns the transports again refused to fly the mission - which left my first batch of paratroopers that did drop the first turn to be slaughtered by the enemy as they were hopelessly outnumbered.

Dropping paratroopers on a base where some of my units are fighting already doesn't work either.
It's not untill the base is taken that I am able to drop any paras. Which kind of defeats the purpose of having paratroopers as I can drop any unit (after considering loading restrictions) on a base I already own...

So, anybody know how to get your paratroopers to drop?

[m10bob]

Best is to drop them on a non-occupied hex, in a clear terrain....I use them for interdiction, drop them on a roadway between an enemy hex and his supply feed.

[moose1999]

Oh, I didn't think you could drop paras on non-base hexes.
Gives me a whole new set of tactical possibilities - will try this immediately!
Thanks for the tip.

EDIT: Doesn't work for me. I can only set a base-hex as target for a para-drop...

[Miller]

Same problem for me, tried to get the 1st and 2nd raiding sentai to drop of the 1st and 2nd Inf raiding paras over Akyab and they refused, always defaulted to supply transport the next turn with no troops dropped. In the end I had to fast transport them in[8|]

Strangely though I had managed to drop a unit on Port Blair a few weeks earlier without problems. In both cases range to target was within normal, not extended radius, units set to "Combat", I also tried "Move" but no joy. Is this a random problem?

[BaitBoy]

As I recall from WitP, transports will refuse to fly if there are enemy fighters in the area. Could this be a problem?

[moose1999]

Yes, enemy fighter presence could be a factor, actually.
Would make sense if you had to gain air superiority over an enemy base to drop paratroopers there.
Does the game model air-superiority over bases - and how?
And how would I go about gaining air-superiority over an enemy base?
Lots of Sweep missions or should I close down the airport with bombing raids?

[bruin]

Yes, I've been completely unable to do any form of para assualts on even unoccupied bases, not sure of what I am doing wrong at all.

[oldman45]

Range is a factor also make sure you are dropping paratroopers. I grabbed up some Aussie commando's and they would not do a drop.

[JeffroK]

ORIGINAL: oldman45

Range is a factor also make sure you are dropping paratroopers. I grabbed up some Aussie commando's and they would not do a drop.

In this case, would it be because they are not paratroopers??