Myself, I find a few trasport helos useful.
If and
only if the map allows some useful terrain masked insertion routes. (Night can be terrain masking, depending on enemy access to radar).
I do not buy the airmobile coys, as a rule. A separate helo unit of 2-3 does fine. Pax come from the leg grunt comapany I generally leave in the rear, covering my gun line etc. from enemy desants (or deep armour thrusts that get round the main body).
1) I dont use them in the early game much - maybe to fly about deep in my half, if the enemy has no LR AAA assets, and visibility is high. They can scout out moving vehicles etc looking "slantwise" from my lines.
2) In the early game, if the terrain allows it, they can be very useful to sneak an AOP or scout detachment int the rear/flank. Dismount out of LOS, fly the chopper back, and use the AOP or scouts to makee-looksee in his flank or rear. Use them to call down spotted arty fire in his rear zones, and DONT reveal them by trying anythingg ramboesque, unless they stumble over something worth alerting the opponent over. (his HQ at 100 yds, or 6 uragans parked beside 6 ammo trucks within 250 yds say). Better to call fires on these though, than use rifles and reveal your presence (esp vs a human player).
Against a human player 1 above - can cause him to get a bit defensive about his rear zone, and to hold back a reaction force. (In WW2 a similar trick to make the opponent wary, is to have a few tigers, and deliberately expose them to view early on, to induce "tiger awareness" in an Allied player. Now hide your targets and your human opponent KNOWS you have the beasts, but WHERE are they going to appear - puts him in a nicely defensive frame of mind, one hopes!)
3) In the end game - is where the platoon of helos are now useful, to move the defensive leg rifle coy over into the offensive or mop-up mode, as a taxi service.
4) In campaigns, they are useful as air ambulances to get high experience beat up
core crews or squads to the rear.
5) Even if not going forwards, the helo platoon is still useful to reposition ATGM and/or inf-SAM teams, or ammo containers, or to cycle these back to ammo dumps to recharge. Also, mid game - use to reposition your security leg infantry co into covered hide positions to block against possible ememy thrust lines from ambush, or to provide flank security by observation perhaps. (mobile road blocks etc). Also - can be useful to put fresh infantry into an ongoing firefight, here we use the defensive rifle coy as reserves. Land in a masked area near the fight and walk to reinforce via a secure route (LZ too close to the fight could get arty on the chosen position, or be unlucky enough say to find some enemy flankers!). Sometimes - land the leg grunts well to the rear and clear, and use the unloaded APC of the troops currently in the firefight as an airport taxi service for the final leg. Plan it in advance and pull the APC back to greet the helos as they land, of course. Also useful to move AOP teams to better overwatch positions as the battle progresses.
6) Full-on air desant tactics are really only viable into "cold" LZs, or where the enemy AAA is not too sophisticated (a few AAMG and possibly a few inf-SAM of obsolete type). But the LZ WILL need a preaparation with attack/scout helos (even just to verify it is clean), and working the LZ over a few rounds with HE fire before the drop to sanitise it.
7) DONT expose the helos to any significant AAA threat, especially when loaded. Use terrain masking, if the map allows it (fly behind villages and tree lines and contours).
8)(for any battle type) - any AAA assets that do reveal themselves as you bumble round the battlefield, engage with arty assets ASAP. Remembr where they are, for future route panning.
Air desant is not a great deal of use in the face of any main-force enemy, or even a halfway organised one. Crete for example.
It
can be useful against a low tech enemy (e.g. Viet Cong, Mujadeen) if in the assault (lower numbers (points) of defenders). But even then - a "crash bang" insertion can be costly if you choose an overwatched LZ or happen to choose an ingress route which has all his AAMG covering it, so you SHOULD scout out the planned approach line and DZ for a few moves with recce/attack helo teams before deciding where the slicks should go. (slicks to stay waiting in the rear and preferably behind masking terrain while you scout with other assets).
There is
no place in modern warfare for jumping out of perfectly good aeroplanes on big handkerchiefs. This should only be contemplated in areas with nil or almost nil enemy presence. (In other words, where the drop will be mainly "administrative" in nature). Not unless you like the enemy to have a bit of target practice. Again - see Crete. See D-Day for a successful use of the paper hankie method (Drop where the enemy generally is
NOT, bar a few sentries etc and
do it at night!
.
The big force-multiplier with helo transport is really the repositioning of your rear-line or reserve assets (e.g artillery or mortars say). They are really just fast trucks!.
Cheers
Andy