Airborne Ops

[Longshanks]

In 1.08.02 I am trying to airdrop a Soviet Airborne unit. It is located in a hex with an active air base that is in supply on a railline. There are two transport units of 18 Li-2 each. The para brigade is Ready and is stacked in the same hex.

The manual gives a rather complicated set of instructions.
1. In movement mode, select the unit to be dropped. (OK, done)
2. Immediately select air transport mode. (OK, done)
3. The air base will be bordered blue. (yup, it is), with the airborne unit bordered yellow. (yup, it is).
4. Shift-left click on target hex (yup, and it's 13 hexes from the airbase, btw).
5. The 'Pick Air Units for Mission' window will display. NOPE! This doesn't happen. Nothing happens. The process doesn't work and I can't figure out why. Not enough Transports? Timing? Bug?

Would appreciate some advice on this. Thanks!

[loki100]

theres a few other rules which are not immediately clear.

one is the unit you are trying to drop has to have at least 50 experience. I think this is not on average (ie as you see in the commanders report) but for each element type (ie you need to look at the detail for each unit). I've been caught out by this in the past, esp for that cluster of Airborne brigades that are deployed at the start of 1942.

This is probably the most unintuitive bit of WiTE, but one other idea is to click on a hex next to the airbase, that will help resolve if you have any/sufficient aircraft

[Longshanks]

very helpful, thanks. One of the two available brigades has 51 or better exp for each of its elements (overall 55 according to Comm. Screen).

Can't tell about the adjacent hex trick but a total of 36 Li-2 may not be enough for a unit with 2,648 men (which is the best non-partisan unit in my entire Red Army, based on morale and experience, btw). It'd be nice to know the minimum aircraft needed before embarking on this process I think.

[loki100]

Another rule to remember is you need to be dropping within 8 hexes of a supplied unit

its not easy but you can work out if you have enough capacity.

To work out supply, if you look at the air unit will show you max load. Looking at my current game Li2 have a max load of 6617 per plane. So a 20 plane unit has around 13,000 capacity and you need at least 4 in the unit (to meet the 2000 minimum capacity rule - 16.3.5)

the problem is the cost is at the element level, so for eg a 41 rifle/sapper squad has a load cost of 6 (& I have 85 in a full strength airborne brigade). So that is 180*6 ~ 1100 and the rest seems to come to around 8-900. So that implies an airborne brigade needs about 2000 capacity but you should see the actual load cost of a unit when you select the air transport routine

The whole process is complex, but I fear can no longer be changed. Doing airdrops in WiTW is both easier to set up and more realistically constrained

[Longshanks]

The total "load" of all elements of my brigade is 1944. Even one of the Li-2 units carries a load of 119,106 (18 planes), so if I'm following you correctly, this should be more than enough. There is a "mystery" stat on the brigade called "Transport Cost." Its value is 404, and I assume that has to do with rail or ship movement and not Air Transport Mode, although the terminology is confusing.

The target hex is 5 hexes from the nearest supplied Soviet, tracing through unoccupied (but enemy controlled) German hexes. If I just trace the absolute shortest path, it's 4 hexes to my supplied unit.

It's blizzard weather ... would that be an obstacle?

In short, I still can't figure out how this works, but I sure know a lot more about it now!

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: Longshanks

The total "load" of all elements of my brigade is 1944. Even one of the Li-2 units carries a load of 119,106 (18 planes), so if I'm following you correctly, this should be more than enough. There is a "mystery" stat on the brigade called "Transport Cost." Its value is 404, and I assume that has to do with rail or ship movement and not Air Transport Mode, although the terminology is confusing.

The target hex is 5 hexes from the nearest supplied Soviet, tracing through unoccupied (but enemy controlled) German hexes. If I just trace the absolute shortest path, it's 4 hexes to my supplied unit.

It's blizzard weather ... would that be an obstacle?

In short, I still can't figure out how this works, but I sure know a lot more about it now!

yep, thats why I make so little use of this option. Some people seem to have really mastered the secret but I find it so hit and miss I'd never want to rely on it working

and, you're right, just to confuse. Transport cost has nothing to do with air transport but is the cost in shipping or rail pts to move the unit that way

[randallw]

The process of making the drop changed from the original version, maybe in the 1.06 patch family I vaguely recall. Could be very wrong on that.

[Longshanks]

You are correct, sir! Changed quite a bit. Apparently this is in the updated manual, which I thought I was reading. I'll try it tomorrow.

[Longshanks]

For those that may be interested in this, here are the steps that were revised in 1.06:
1) go to Air Transport mode
2) left click on the hex containing the airbase and airborne unit(s)
3) verify the units to be dropped are selected
4) shift-left click on a hex near the airfield (an air transport icon appears)
5) this will bring up the Air Units Mission Window (this doesn't happen)
6) close this window to see the highlighted hexes where the units can be dropped
7) shift-left click on a hex where the unit is to be dropped
8) this will bring up the Air Units Mission Window

This process does not work in 1.08.02, at least on my machine.

However, if I left click on the icon that appeared in step 4, hexes do highlight. Unfortunately, they are only hexes that are where I already have units. This seems to be a result of being in air transport mode rather than anything having to do with an air drop.

If anybody can get air drops to work in 1.08.02 I'd sure like to see how they did it. Otherwise, it's bugged.

[morvael]

Will try to make a drop from my old save and will report the results.

[morvael]

Setup at start of turn:

[morvael]

Made sure all stacks were deselected.
Clicked Air Transport mode button.
Clicked stack with airbase and brigade.
Clicked on airbase to deselect.

[morvael]

I admit I couldn't get the "preview" thing to work, so I went a direct route.

Shift-Clicked on target hex. The tooltip for it shown "AIRCRAFT IN RANGE".
Strike list appeared.

[morvael]

I selected a lot of groups to be sure brigade will be dropped in one sortie (reduces losses).

[morvael]

When I clicked LAUNCH the mission was executed, and a report appeared:

[morvael]

The unit was in place:

[morvael]

Ok, on a second try I managed to see the highlight. I didn't expect it to be covering so large an area. After shift-clicking near airbase and closing the strike window by using [X] button I got:

[morvael]

Shift-left clicking again near Legnitz made the strike list window appear again, and I was able to make the drop as before:

[morvael]

...so the procedure works as described. Maybe you have problems with having not enough transport units, too low supply, too weak airborne unit, railhead too far away?

[morvael]

By the way it can be seen that at least one thing is broken - the battle report numbers do not add up (and on the battle report details tab all values are 0). But I guess we can live with that when the drops themselves are working and the final results are not crazy.