moving air Groups with the panzers

[Rick402]

im playing GC41 as axis. im advancing at great paces other then the south as with historical advance. im moving my air units up. now are they not getting the supplies they need because of the rail lines not being connected. i have a depot set up but planes are not flying even after multiple supplies being flown in via transports. if its because of the supply issue? then when is it best to move air units and their hqs up?

[Q-Ball]

They are definitely not flying due to supplies. Others are going to be better than me at advising how to move up the Air, but generally, you need to have airbases close to a depot that is taking supplies, and even then those air units are going to compete with the Panzers for desparately needed freight and supplies.

Some general principles I think (and I hope more experienced Axis players chime-in):
--You want to prioritize moving up fighters; they have shorter range, use less supplies, and you always need them
--Bombers use more supplies, so you need to be careful moving them up; for awhile, it may be better to keep them in Germany close to supply sources, even if that flying time increases ops losses
--Sometimes you're just going to outrun your aircover; accept it
--Don't waste valuable supplies on crappy air units; keep the Hungarian and Romanian Air Forces parked in 1941, aside from the first couple turns

[Wiedrock]

I can't remember the exact needs, so one step of 3 or 5 may be too much....but it shoudl work like that.

1. take airfield
2. leave the airfield Hex with your units (2 Hex away, just for safety)
3. fly in supplies once
4. prepare transfer of a AG (so that there is a white dotted line between AG and airfield and you need to execute the transfer)
5. fly in supplies again into the target airfield
6. execute Transfer
7.1. zoom in until you see the dark blue airfield "dogtag".
7.2. Rightclick it and "Resupply Airbase" (you can/may do this several times [it will request supplies over ~30Hex range or so]) - doing the same on "AOG level" often for me didn't work, so I make the Airbase individually.
8. (if 7. doesn't work) fly in more supplies until Fuel/Ammo is filled.

Why do this?
Because this way you will instantly get AIR SUPPORT Crews into the Airfield. Once an AG is on the Airfield and you only then start sending freight the freight somehow will not convert to Air Support Crews (unless i am missing a trick).