[c_of_red]

I most strongly disagree about the 'meat bombs'. Paras have their place and time. They just must be used in quanity. I NEVER drop less then a battalion and NEVER on the first turn. I prefer to wait until my opponent is thourghly committed on the firing line, then I drop the paras on his rearmost v-flags or on his arty park. 90% of the time When I drop 70 to 80 para squads in his rear on turn 18 of a 25 turn game, I can hear the screams 2 time zones away. The problem is keeping my main forces alive long enough to put the knife in his back.
By waiting until the later stages of the game, the AD is pretty much wore down and or out of ammo. Like anything else in SP, its a combined arms deal. If you don't have air support, you don't buy paras. Plus it helps to have as many small mortars (81's or 83's) as you can get without skewing your force structure. Every time you get a sign of AD, drop some mortars on it. Normally a few dozen air craft will swamp the AD. That means when you load your air transport atthe start of the game, you need to plan out your fight right then and there. You can do that most of the time with a para-drop, since you will have the initative for that turn. The transport planes enter in roster order, unless you want to juggle them around, which isn't a very good idea. So you want to put your better units ( experience and anti-tank units) in the later arriving aircraft. I like to concentrate my drops, although there are circumstance where a dispersed drop is better. That is mostly on a map with shotgun flags and rough terrain.
It's costly, since you will need 9 companies of elite troops, which will set yuou back a ways. Plus the transport and some SEAD to ride shotgun. I figure 4 to 5 K points for a drop. So you need to be playing a 10K point battle to even think about it. I have never lost a battle where I got my paras on the ground. I did tie one once, but that was against a wily old vet and he still hasn't quite forgiven me. The very best part is that from the next game on, your opponent will be looking over his shoulder for those devils in baggy pants.
Plus it's a hoot to watch the replay.