Fuel supply and air drops

["Possibly" Shalfoon]

Another nooby question...

Playing the road to Smolensk and my mechanized divisions have pretty much run out of fuel by turn 4. What's the best way to shunt fuel quickly to them. I control pretty much all of the area behind me.

How do I make best use of the railways to move fuel?
How do make supply drops by air? Is it worth doing this with fuel and ammunition?

[Kanone]

>How do make supply drops by air?
F9, then Shift plus RMB on division.

> Is it worth doing this with fuel and ammunition?
Its only way to keep your panzers moving.


http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2649216

[Pistolero]

I'm not happy with what I know about air re-supply. It seems to work OK for the first few turns of the game, then not so much after that. I've studied the micro-managing and tried to re-assign the Ju52 groups, etc., but with limited to no success. It also appears to me that taking air re-supply pretty much ends the turn for that unit.

So I don't worry about it too much. I concentrate on every turn hammering as many Soviet airfields as possible; good for 150 to 200 enemy planes a turn at a cost of 20 or so of my own, then getting into the enemy rear areas to chase down airfields and steal their fuel and supplies. Combined with getting the railroads forward as fast as possible, I don't have too many armored units desperate for fuel unless they in turn are temporarily surrounded.

["Possibly" Shalfoon]

Thanks, to both of you, very helpful, I also discovered the bootcamp guide, which is really useful.

Like they say, a panzer with no petrol can't fight.

["Possibly" Shalfoon]

OK I have a further question, when I went to drop supplies that was fine, but when I changed the supply type to fuel there were no aircraft available, so I couldn't drop fuel.

Can you help me? How come I can't transport fuel?

[spurchase1961]

When I have used air drops, most of the drops contain supplies and ammunition rather than fuel to my Panzers. I am using the latest patch version for the game.

Wondering if there is a way to change to fuel drop. Some of my units have enough Ammuntion to have a firework display. I am new to the game and looked through the Manual without any joy, unless I'm looking in the wrong place. Any help would be welcome.

["Possibly" Shalfoon]

If you press shift and do an air drop you can change the drop to fuel. However, it seems only some aircraft can deliver fuel, so I usually try to drop that first.

[spurchase1961]

Thank's tried that.....Should probably looked under the Hotkey's. Seems that fuel...The one thing you really need is very limited.

I have also been putting my airbases on repaired railway lines, in the effort to save on fuel and transport. At first I was following the Infantry and putting the airbases on clear hexes...Within range of the Air-Headquarters. I am still very much learning this game...And have some way to go. Thank's again.

[Pelton]

Send me and email if you want to know how to use it the best

["Possibly" Shalfoon]

Spurchase, yeah its a deep game but that's why it's so good. I expect to be learning for a while yet... I suppose fuel in part is so limited because you need a sh1t ton of it, so it's difficult to transport by air.

[loki1006]

Originally posted by Witch Doctor Trev:

If you press shift and do an air drop you can change the drop to fuel. However, it seems only some aircraft can deliver fuel, so I usually try to drop that first.

only transport planes can deliver fuel, level bombers can move up supply etc - so try not to use up your transports on simple resupply missions.

One good trick is to include an empty airbase (the recon ones are good for this) and stack it with your advanced formations. Use this as the target for your resupply as you will deliver a lot more to the ground than by airdrops.

[Denniss]

AFAIR the target airbase may also be one hex away from the units to resupply/refuel without penalties. Terrain must be suitable for air ops though.

["Possibly" Shalfoon]

Oh yes I recall that, I think in the operation Konrad scenario... forgot, thanks for the reminder.