Dedicated transport squads vs Air cav

[mingmong]

First, lets lay down some definitions.

Transport squad - this is a locked squad consisting of as many pilots as there are transport choppers.

Air cav squad - this is a full squad consisting of an officer, a pilot, and most likely a 2 medic 1 rifle 1 LAT squad.

Benefits of transport squads:
- Carries a full squad to the battle, ie 6 men, as opposed to an Airborne squad of 5 men.
- Enables transport capability to be brought to the entire team
- Direct CO -> Pilot contact
- Potential for small-scale uses - eg HAT distribution, Spec ops insertion/extraction
- Possible higher skill level, certainly with the squad leader as he has to volunteer to create the squad
- Possibly enables a relative rookie pilot to be instructed by a more experienced one?
- Issues regarding whether the choppers are for anyone's use are clear

Drawbacks
- Requires communication - SL -> air squad or CO -> SL and CO -> air squad
- Invariably involves hot pickups as infantry squads tend not to spawn at the main base


Benefits of Air cav squads:
- Streamlines command for the CO
- SL has direct control over when he wants to go, instant evacs when necessary
- Voip allows for last minute changes or assessment of the LZ

I think the basic, informal SOP is essentially that of the infantry squad, with the chopper either circling overhead or returning and hovering a safe distance away.

I saw limited use of an airborne squad tonight, and as an idea that has never really been pursued before I took an interest in it. It made things considerably easier for me as a CO, especially on maps like Qwai valley, where mobility is such a crucial factor.

I think that anytime I see a TG pilot I can trust to help pioneer this with, I'll be making Air cav squads as opposed to my signature Infantry ones in order to hopefully expand on it further.

EDIT - In addition, choppers in their present capacity are often simply not used correctly. Without a CO it requires effort from a SL to make an air transport squad effective, and all too often there's a transport squad just circling the map aimlessly while everyone else goes on foot.

[Dirtboy]

Great post ming

I like how you broke everything down. Its good to know, +rep for you...spend it wisely.

[Crawlingeye]

I think that was my "Airborne" squad you're reffering to . The idea dawned on me just last week. I mean, The LB has 6 spots (not enough to transport a full squad with). Allthough if you have the LB in your squad with 6 people you can easily communicate information with the LB. Therfor I think that the blackhawks should be in a transport squad since it has 7 spots while the LB is in an assualt squad/Airborne.

But so far i've been the squadleader when I have done this "Airborne" squad while i've been the pilot of the LB. This means I have to assign a person on the ground to lead the squad while i'm flying as the SL. (I fly because no one else wants to/can)

but being a pilot SL means that they can spawn back at the chopper when they die instead of an RP on the ground.

I have yet to perfect this idea, and I am willing to do this with an experienced LB pilot

/Crawl

[Steiner]

Taking into consideration that I hade the pleasure of being a SM in Crawling's [awesome, an other Swede...] squad last night, I can only argue for Air-cav. It was the first time being in a squad that worked in that way, but from what I had time to experience, it is better than having designated transport-squads due to the mobility and easy communications.

How ever, given that there is different choppers so could there be room for both types. Little Birds for Air-Cav and the BH for transport-squads.

[gerardnm]

I played on an air cav squad on kynang ni last nite.....was excellent. then the chinese heli decised to use ramming tactics (dont know if he was kicked).

I ve also played on jabal in air cav units.....its the best way to use the asset. what the SL did was put ba spawn pt down as soon as over dry land and thereafter we used friendly spawns.

The real plus was we landed at places like dam or bridge capped and the hightailed to city. once there (mec had just capped) the SL put down a spawn and we held up their advance and tried to cap flag (failed due to noob toobin)

We spent the rest of the round as a mobile mine layer and H AT platform. Once an APC was spotted we were looking to blow it in mins.

One of my most enjoyable rounds ever.

I know there's an argument that when a trans squad forms then u gotta join regardless. the air cav formula works much better esp on servers like jabal, kynang.

[dawolf]

I had a squad like that going a few month ago on Qwai and came home with this little(bird) video - in case you haven't already seen it

[mingmong]

I hadn't, and that's a perfect example of how an air cav squad should/would work.

[Terminal Boy]

Excellent idea! I look forward to playing Air Cav sometime soon!

[7ShadesOSin]

Originally Posted by Crawlingeye

But so far i've been the squadleader when I have done this "Airborne" squad while i've been the pilot of the LB. This means I have to assign a person on the ground to lead the squad while i'm flying as the SL. (I fly because no one else wants to/can)

but being a pilot SL means that they can spawn back at the chopper when they die instead of an RP on the ground.

I have yet to perfect this idea, and I am willing to do this with an experienced LB pilot

Crawlingeye,

I was in one of your Airborne squads a couple of days ago. I think the idea worked really well, but unfortunately, we had a couple fo squad memebrs who were not understanding the setup, and were running around the map doing daft things.

Otherwise, from what I recall, it gave us quick insertion to a couple of flags, which is what we needed at the time. It's a great idea, and works really well. The only problem I can foresee see is that the proxy SL who's on the ground leading the squad in place of the real SL who's in the chopper, won't have direct comms with the CO...but I think this is probably outweighed by having a flying RP. And it's a good idea for the SL to put an RP down at game start so that his squad can also use other team's RP's (as Crawlingeye did).

I guess, also, it ties the LB to one squad, since it needs to be ready at all times...but a small price to pay, especially if there are other helos on the map.

[Terminal Boy]

Even with the Air Cav LB being flown by a pilot kitted SM, the SL could still relay CO orders for the pick up and insertion of another squad if the Air Cav squad was busy holding point X for a while?

The LB is ideal for dropping it's passengers short of the objective and then popping up to put in strafing runs while the ground element moves up to assault it.

[gijoe]

the unfortunate thing about air transport squads especially in steel thunder is that u may have to cap some bases before you get the lb or what ever heli it is. Last night i spent the whole round trying to cap a base for the lb while the team was at the base on the other side of the map. It didnt work out so well. I didnt get to fly at all

[Crawlingeye]

Originally Posted by Terminal Boy

Excellent idea! I look forward to playing Air Cav sometime soon!

Feel free to join "Airborne" whenever it's up! ;D

[Terminal Boy]

Originally Posted by Crawlingeye

Feel free to join "Airborne" whenever it's up! ;D

Will do!

[w.WAREHOUSE]

We played with a different version of air cav a few days ago which was fun:
pilot + engineer (BH gunner/repair), officer, 1 medic ,1 rifleman, 1 AT.

Even with only 4 men on the ground, we were able to take flags with the constant support of a BH spotting enemies and laying down suppressing fire from above. As SL I could inform him when CO needed the helo to pick up other squads or when we needed extraction. I could paint hill tops or buildings with attack orders and the BH could lay down pretty good suppression with the minigun. This seemed to work best on al basra and the map with the bridge/dam since there are 2+ BH's and plenty of hills/rooftops with insurgents lurking about.

[Fallosophy]

I'm not really following. How is an Air cav squad different than a squad leader requesting transport from a transport squad?