Looking for some guidance and advice on Axis Air turn 1

[XTRG]

Hello all,

I'm eagerly anticipating the upcoming PBEM with myself against NightPhoenix,

It will be my first, and as such i'd appreciate someone who could donate some time to help me get up to speed one more with the games air mechanics and what works and dosen't work for the Axis,

not looking to powergame, just to set the game up for a campaign through hardship and pain!

(my pain, i'm sure Night will thrash me, but it's not like i play the winning side anyway),

feel free to inbox me here,

thanks!

XTRG

[jasonbroomer]

The pre-programmed orders are pretty good.

Some simple things can be done to enhance it:

cancel the recon - it doesn't help airfield bombing
change the bomb load out to small bombs

More advanced things might include:

Naval Patrol to isolate Ventspils in the Baltic (I presume that you will be capturing Riga and Liepaja)
Adding fuel tanks to fighters to escort attacks on airfields deeper in Russia (perhaps at a lower priority level so these missions fly later in the day)
Focusing attacks on airfields with fighters (Soviet bombers will fly unescorted and as a result die with their pilots)
Increase number of strikes on Odessa to 4 (requires escorts)
Long range attacks on Crimea airfields

I'm finding that the air war is largely an irrelevance anyway as the game goes on. AS tends to disrupt between 5% and 10% of the enemy in a battle - a marginal gain.

The most important things for the air war are a) NP to isolate ports and b) air supply (try air resupplying your panzers in the middle of their moves at airfields. Air supply will bring fuel levels back up to 85%, no greater. This really makes a difference to the unit's MP allowance in the following turn)