FUNKED1

I've always though BF aircraft were silly but I finally broke down and set up my HOTAS rig for BF2 and got some stick time. I found out a lot of things that I hadn't realized when I was Commander of a team with fighters.

Get all the aircrew in one squad. All pilots and WSOs.

Fast movers have no way to IFF on individual soldiers. They CAN do IFF on vehicles and other aircraft.

If an aircrew get an objective from the Commander, and they fly over and pick up a red vehicle target, it's bombs away.

If there is a friendly squad hiding in the bushes next to that enemy vehicle, the aircrew have no way of knowing it. The aircrew is already 100% task saturated on the bomb run, so the spin map is of little use.

So think of jets just like an artillery strike. If you put the airstrike in "danger close" to friendly troops, there are going to be teamkills. But the payoff is that fast movers can do a much better job than artillery against vehicles, and can also clean up enemy troop concentrations.

For their part, aircrew should keep the Commander informed of when they are going to be on target, so the Commander knows when the "artillery" is going to start and stop, and can direct the ground squads accordingly.

Fighters can also beat up on enemy helos. If ground squads are complaining about enemy helos or they are showing up on a UAV scan, the Commander can have the fighters take them out. For an anti-helo mission the Commander should give an attack objective on the map and verbally specify that the target is enemy helicopters, so the fast movers know not to drop bombs.

Anyways blah blah blah
Commanders are probably too busy to do all of this but it's good to think about.

FUNKED1

PS the 2-seat strike aircraft have TV guided missiles. These can IFF much better than bombs. For these aircraft the commander could give a target objective near friendly troops, but specify that precision munitions only should be used.

Phelan Ward

I would like to see commanders start using their air assets better. It's annoying in a blackhawk when every plane is after only you just so they can get 6 kills for the price of 1.

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Tempus

I wish people in planes would actually use them to keep the choppers off the gound units. I see the planes flying all around...meanwhile, the Blackhawk is tearing up everything in sight.

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Battlefield 2/2142 Game Officer
Contact me with server/player/admin issues.




-- Suits are what you wear when doing things you shouldn’t want to do anyway.

FROM THE TACTICAL GAMER PRIMER.
3) Support game play in a near-simulation environment. Where the focus of play would not be solely on doing what it takes to win, but doing so utilizing real-world combat strategy and tactics rather than leveraging exploits provided to players by the design of the game engine.

Mateo

Hear, hear, well said Fred!

Trooper

its fun when i can sit in the mini gun and just run it....spray and kill....mass carnige...i had a great pilot last night RangerSix, steady and slow, That was until i had 45 sniper kills and made tempus mad!

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that sounds like a good idea trooper.
-Vulcan

Mateo

45? I'm surprised Tempus didn't search you out personally!

Trooper

he did after he found me, it was funny....a squad was on top of the tanks and kept going to the edge to shoot, welp i found some trees and hided, i made them so mad they parachuted down and hunted me, after they walked by me 2 or 3 times they found me and killed me, but they whent right back up to the tanks......tempus came and got me a few times,.....i just laught

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that sounds like a good idea trooper.
-Vulcan

Tempus

Everyone was saying "I'm gonna kill that Trooper guy.."

I had to take action.

__________________
Battlefield 2/2142 Game Officer
Contact me with server/player/admin issues.




-- Suits are what you wear when doing things you shouldn’t want to do anyway.

FROM THE TACTICAL GAMER PRIMER.
3) Support game play in a near-simulation environment. Where the focus of play would not be solely on doing what it takes to win, but doing so utilizing real-world combat strategy and tactics rather than leveraging exploits provided to players by the design of the game engine.

Trooper

well if you are going to stay in one spot and keep respawning imma keep snipeing...it was really a score pad i tell you what....45 kills 11 deaths, anytime you wanna do that again let me know..ill be ready!

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that sounds like a good idea trooper.
-Vulcan

FUNKED1

Hit Q and spot the chopper, for starters.

xemu

I've used choppers a few time (on the public servers, even!) to pick off snipers on hills and other solo targets. It would take too long to send a squad off there just to get one man (if they could even find him) but scan picks him up quickly, spot him for the pilot, send the attack order and usually they can deal with the sniper pretty quickly.

Makk

I've been trying to figure out what may be a best setup. All aircrew combined on one squad, or one squad per aircraft (such that commander can order different aircraft separately). Or maybe choppers separate than planes. Bottom line - air crews need to be on separate squads than infantry folks.

octavius

With the right pilot/rio combination, the two-seat strike craft can be devastating. Last night Funky and I tried it out. The TV camera Maverick-esque (was a Sukhoi) A2G missiles were simply amazing. Grab a lock, fire away and guide it in - instant annihilation of just about any armored vehicle with an additional large blast area for soft targets. Not finding any vehicles for a pass or two, Funked cut the throttle and I prepared to fire blindly. Hit dead-center of a flag and ended up taking out half a squad parked in separate corners of the flag area. Much more powerful than an artillery strike (for tighter concentrations of enemy that is -- artillery may serve a better purpose for mental warfare or wide area suppression if anything).

To closely coordinate that extremely mobile firepower with a small CAS style mission can seriously remove roadblocks in a hurry. Commander scans, assesses the situation, sets a waypoint for the strike area, and unleashes the sukhoi madness. 1-2 passes and the friendly infantry and mop up.

oedi_533

I think the key for Squads / Comms varies with type of aircraft:
1 squad per aircraft for:
Transport and attack helos
2-seat strike fighters (SU-34, F-15E)

All pilots in one squad for:
Single-seat jets F/A-18C and J-10.

The biggest reason for this is that the single seat aircraft can be REALLY effective in section (2 of them) rather than running around the battlefield on their own. It also allows them to set up a "chainsaw" pattern of 1 aircraft hitting the commander's targets while the other flies back to rearm and relieve the bombing aircraft. That results in continuous Close Air Support where the commander needs it. If the pilots aren't in the same squad, coordination becomes TOUGH! (trust me, I've tried that one... fly straight and level while typing.. NO WAY!)
Any thoughts on this??