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So um.....help me out here you guys, I'm of two minds about the way I should use the airpower ( Axis ) in turn 1. Part of me says I should use one round of turn 1 to go after his ( Soviet ) airforce, destroy them on the ground as it were. And THEN conduct ground combats in the second and subsequent rounds.

And part of me says why can't you do both: part of the aircraft can go after his planes and part of them can do combat support so conduct your ground combats during round one and don't waste it.

What do you guys think?

I don't have any answers for you, but I thought I'd add an airforce related question.
 
When playing games where you have good air superiority, how much, and what kind of, aircraft should one put on interdiction as opposed to combat support?

Larry

Even though the Luftwaffe seems indestructible in the opening weeks, it is still possible to over use the air units. With this in mind it is advisable to use the A/C for their most suitable missions with realistic goals.
I prefer to use level bombers on each phase for airbase attacks. I might use only ½ of available strength for such attacks each phase. The Stuka units are very effective on interdiction missions throughout the opening turn. The Red Army has many armored units on reserve status which will be moving towards the front- the Stuka’s punish them every step of the way. Most of the fighter units can be taken off A.S. within a phase or 2 and added to the interdiction force. The He bombers have a very good range and load which opens the possibility to knock out key bridges.
You don’t have to eliminate the entire Red A.F. on turn one. This can be accomplished over several full turns at very little loss to the Luftwaffe. If you use everything on each phase to blast the Red AF, you will soon find your units low on supply and readiness with resulting loss of possible effect on the battle. I really hate to see the crack Stuka units wither away-a time will come where they are of great importance in battling Russian armor. If your Stuka’s are not ready for action, then the load will fall on your 109’s-effective, but not smart as the Red A.F. will resurrect in a few months regardless what you do. You will need those fighters with high proficiency to keep the skies safe for your bombers.
Regarding C.S. missions on turn 1; this should not be required. You have a huge amount of artilery within range and fully supplied. Perhaps some support could be useful to assist AGC South late in turn 1, but this should be of secondary to AF attacks and interdiction.

In the picture below, the Axis has cornered an NKVD unit on the coast and is attacking.  The HQ unit I have depicted in green circles has entrenched and his movement points have gone to 0.  Then the thought occured to me that since he's in range of the NKVD unit he just might contribute to the combat and shouldn't ( since his movement points are zero ).  So I made him mobile so he wouldn't fire in the subsequent combat and thereby burn all the remaining rounds for the turn.  Do you think I made the correct decision or did I screw up again?
 

Larry, in this case, it is safe to leave the HQ in a D,E,F,L, or T deployment, and let it support the battle. Just don't assign it to fire into the battle directly, or else it will burn the turn. However, for indirect fire, the engine is not concerned with how many movement points are remaining. Likewise for all other ranged fire from Artillery, Air and Naval Units.

ORIGINAL: JAMiAM

Larry, in this case, it is safe to leave the HQ in a D,E,F,L, or T deployment, and let it support the battle. Just don't assign it to fire into the battle directly, or else it will burn the turn. However, for indirect fire, the engine is not concerned with how many movement points are remaining. Likewise for all other ranged fire from Artillery, Air and Naval Units.

That is spectacular to know, as I was making this same mistake, always, thank you JAMMY!

ORIGINAL: Veers
That is spectacular to know, as I was making this same mistake, always, thank you JAMMY!

You're welcome, but only my lady friends get to call me "Jammy"...[;)]

I will try and remember to keep it to Jim, then. [:D]

Jammy? [:'(]
Waiting on FiTE T3 from Heinz57 - my air losses as the Russians are about 3K aircraft - seems quite reasonable[:D] Does TOAWIII have the same loss modifiers for aircraft as ACOW or was this fixed?

ORIGINAL: Foggy
Does TOAWIII have the same loss modifiers for aircraft as ACOW or was this fixed?

It's my understanding that the AA values were fixed. I don't know quite what you mean by loss modifiers for aircraft, but I'm not at all sure that they were fixed whatever they are.

Just want to clarify, HQ units have indirect fire capacity, correct? as in, similar to arty units? You can set them to Local Res or TR when they are not adjacent to an enemy unit, and if possible, they might contribute some mortar rounds, etc., to attacks in the vicinity?
 
Also, the Local Reserve command: if a unit does not have a range of greater than "zero" (i.e., must be adjacent to attack) will this command actually do anything?
 
For units like AA, and SAM, is it better to set them to fortify, or to local reserve? Specifically, will they engage with targets of opportunity, or attempt to help out with engagements that are not in their hex, or even further if it appears that their contributions could be useful elsewhere?

ORIGINAL: Anthropoid

Just want to clarify, HQ units have indirect fire capacity, correct? as in, similar to arty units? You can set them to Local Res or TR when they are not adjacent to an enemy unit, and if possible, they might contribute some mortar rounds, etc., to attacks in the vicinity?

Yeah.

Also, the Local Reserve command: if a unit does not have a range of greater than "zero" (i.e., must be adjacent to attack) will this command actually do anything?

The primary function of the Local Reserve deployment is that if a combat occurs within the unit's movement radius during the enemy player's turn, the unit will move towards it at the end of each combat round, so long as the battle continues.

For units like AA, and SAM, is it better to set them to fortify, or to local reserve? Specifically, will they engage with targets of opportunity, or attempt to help out with engagements that are not in their hex, or even further if it appears that their contributions could be useful elsewhere?

Against air targets, the deployment setting is irrelevant so far as I am aware. For ground targets, I suggest you set them to fortified status.