Questions on airmobile units

[voroshilov17]

Hello everyone!

First of all, I have carefully read section 11.6 of the manual where this is explained, but when I start playing, I have some questions about airmobile.

First, in tactical/operational terms:
What is the tactical difference between the use of airmobile transport and airborne transport?
Airmobile units, for example, can embark anywhere on the map as long as there are transport helicopters within 200 km.
Unlike airborne units, airmobile units are not subject to scattering or drop attrition when disembarking in enemy territory.
Are there any other differences in their use in combat that need to be taken into account?

Second, in terms of the mechanics of the game itself:
Section 11.6 says, “Any helicopter unit providing airmobile transport for a unit has its movement allowances reduced to zero for the turn.” But I don't quite understand this when I play. I mean, I have several airmobile battalions and I embark them one by one... but it's not the case that every time I embark a battalion, a helicopter unit completes its movement allowances. It's more like after embarking a few. And this is where I fail to understand the mechanics... how many battalions does it take to complete the helicopters' movement allowances? Based on what? How can I take this into account or understand it?

Thank you very much in advance!

[Telumar]

[...]
Unlike airborne units, airmobile units are not subject to scattering or drop attrition when disembarking in enemy territory.
Are there any other differences in their use in combat that need to be taken into account?

None that I know of.

Second, in terms of the mechanics of the game itself:
Section 11.6 says, “Any helicopter unit providing airmobile transport for a unit has its movement allowances reduced to zero for the turn.” But I don't quite understand this when I play. I mean, I have several airmobile battalions and I embark them one by one... but it's not the case that every time I embark a battalion, a helicopter unit completes its movement allowances. It's more like after embarking a few. And this is where I fail to understand the mechanics... how many battalions does it take to complete the helicopters' movement allowances? Based on what? How can I take this into account or understand it?

Thank you very much in advance!

I could not replicate this behaviour of transport helicopter units. Try the Bong Son 66 scenario (Modern - Asia) - on the bottom of the map there is a row of hexes that contain one transport helicopter unit and several airmobile units. The transport helicopter unit's movement allowance is zeroed as soon as you move the first airmobile unit.

I dont know which scenario you had open when you encountered this, but maybe you had several transport helicopter units available there and only after the first transport unit's airmobile lift was expended the next unit (the one that you observed) took over and provided its lift capabilities? In Bong Son 66 turn 1 there is only this one unit with lift capabilities.

Screenshot 2025-10-07 212858.png (166.49 KiB) Viewed 298 times

[voroshilov17]

I could not replicate this behaviour of transport helicopter units. Try the Bong Son 66 scenario (Modern - Asia) - on the bottom of the map there is a row of hexes that contain one transport helicopter unit and several airmobile units. The transport helicopter unit's movement allowance is zeroed as soon as you move the first airmobile unit.

I dont know which scenario you had open when you encountered this, but maybe you had several transport helicopter units available there and only after the first transport unit's airmobile lift was expended the next unit (the one that you observed) took over and provided its lift capabilities? In Bong Son 66 turn 1 there is only this one unit with lift capabilities.

Big thanks for your Reply!
I tried the 'Hungary-Romania 2000' scenario. he point is that I airlift the first unit (the air transport unit still have all movement allowances), then another unit...or maybe another one and that's when randomly(?) movement allowance of an air units gets zeroed. It's like I don't know why does this happen randomly or is accoridng to a mechanic

[Telumar]

It is not entirely clear to me what you mean with "a random unit". So I opened the Hungary-Romania 2000 scen in hotseat and clicked myself to turn 4 when the Romanian airmobile/airborne units are released.

I airlifted the three airborne units via heli transport (yellow circle and arrow) from the location with the orange circle where a transport helicopter unit ist stationed, too. The first transport unit to have its MPs zeroed was the one located with the airborne units (orange circle). When i lifted the third airborne unit the transport helicopter unit in the red circle had its MPs zeroed while the ones further away still retained their MPs as they did not contribute to the airllift (blue circles). Try for yourself, you should get the same results.

The mechanic is that the game looks for the nearest transport unit from the unit you want to lift and then zeroes the MPs of this unit as the lift takes place. When its airmobile lift (visible in the unit report) is used up, the game looks for the next nearest unit with airmobile lift ability and so on. The airlift ability is the weight that can be transported (see unit report of the airborne units how much they weigh).