Basically the players have two options:
Option 1: You can fly your transports from a rear airbase/depot which tend to have a lot of freight and doesnt strain your depots closer to the front but without escorts and get shot to pieces by reacting enemy fighters since you cannot add escorts from bases so far away and your fighters in the vicinity will not react at all.
Example: I have a fighter air group stationed at Kremechug which is withing range of Poltava where the freight will be sent to. My Transports are located to the rear in the Ukraine and I am flying from a staigning base there that has plenty of freight. Do any of my fighters react to the Soviet interceptors? No, so the transports get shot up. 10 Transport planes lost in this sector out of 80 planes that started the week (12.5% lost), all losses due to preventable A2A combat.
Keep in mind that when on the offensive this is what you will be limited to doing, since the forward depots simply lack the freight needed.
Option 2: Fly your transports from airbases/depots closer to the front, where you have fighters stationed. This will also lead to your planes getting shot to pieces, since after the first flight the fuel in that airbase gets depleted which means the fighters will not fly anymore.
Example: I have set Staraya Russa as a staging base. A fighter group is stationed there so logic would dictate that they would be flying as escorts normally. Nope, after the first mission the airbase is left with 0 fuel, so the fighters can no longer fly which you can see happened in the second mission.
Both options result in your transports being shot down and there is no way you can "win", because of the way escorts work. It would be better to just have this mission work like GS where fighters close to the location fly with the transports if they are not set to rest.
