I wanted to share my ideas about about gunship squads in BF2142. Most of these ideas were formulated while playing BF2 but they seem to transfer over. I might be pointing out the obvious but my experiences on public servers prove that common sense isn't very common.

I have found that using gunships in a defensive role works best. If I am not hunting other air assets I usually patrol my teams flags where I have a better chance of being supported by friendly AA turrets. In BF2142 gunships are especially vulnerable and flying over an enemy flag without ground support is very dangerous. Many times when I've been on the ground I'll be at a flag and see that another flag is going down or see that someone spotted an enemy at an undefended base. I hate knowing that we are losing a flag and that I can't get there in time to do anything about it. With the gunships speed you can respond very quickly to enemy threats. You can defend a lot of ground for your team and you won't have to worry about a lone soldier taking back a hard won flag.

I have seen TG players use dedicated air squads very effectively. They usually consist of a a pilot and a gunner. I have had some interesting experiences being the third member of the squad. If you have a sniper in a place where he can see a number of flags or likely paths to flags he can be very helpful by by spotting targets and giving directions to his squad mates in the air. He can relay valuable intel and possibly help cut off an attack before the enemy even gets near the flag. Just spotting targets on the mini map is great but if the spotter uses VOIP they can give very clear directions. The spotter could also coordinate shooting infantry out of AA before the gunship flies over. This will help the air squad defend more ground effectively. A good sniper should try to be set up in a place before the action starts. Running across the map to get set up wastes time. If you are in a gunship squad your pilot can quickly fly you to your destination and then have the gunner spawn into his seat. I have never tried with more than one sniper/spotter but maybe if you had a gunship squad and a sniper squad you could put the two together and see how that works. Does anybody want to try?