inf assault

[gila]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

I find that armored HUMMWV's work great for flushing ATGMs.
Their size makes them hard to hit.

Once the enemy MANPADS run low or out of ammo helos seem to make the best overwatch units, and if they're armed they do well at supression too. I always disable any non AT weapons on helos during the enemy turn so they have shots available during mine. And disable their AT weapons as well if I moved them during my turn (if they moved more then a pop-up during my turn they seldom hit).

Since I commonly play the USMC I usually have a fair number of Scout/Sniper teams which are excellent for both spotting and the occasional sniper shot at ATGMs or MGs.

The real "key" is overwatch, overwatch, and more overwatch.

So an occasional pop-up with a scout helo far back will spot,and then smoke them rascals with arty.

[Cross]

Originally Posted by Lt. Ketch

I don't know how many are fimilar with Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy, but your advice is proven in the series. Not that anybody ever follows it, but it's good advice none the less. Thank you.

Great book, and excellent advice.

Intuitively, it doesn't sound right that you need to be careful - in a turn by turn computer game - not to panic, but you do.

It's all too easy to over react and abandon caution in order to attempt to rescue a situation that went poorly, or take risks hoping for a lucky outcome.

I agree that the way to make a 'come back' in fire fight or battle that's not going well, is to stay calm and make careful and sound tactical and strategic decisions. You can't make these decisions while in panic mode.

I've made some very unlikely comebacks, when I've managed to heed this advice.

[c_of_red]

AFAIK, helios don't see things ( observe, search) as well as leg units. Sort of between a ground vehicle and a leg unit. Or at least that is the way the original SP2 worked. Not sure if that was changed or not during the port to windoze. What little testing I have done says 'no', but an 'expert' told me I was wrong. I think it is confusion created by the term 'spotting'. which in the real world means seeing something but in the SP world it means calling artillery and nothing else. I suppose that helps keep the confusion level down, at least if everyone is aware of the jargon.
A thread at the blitz went past the post limit on this topic. It seems every SP player ( about 15,000 on the 'net, and growing) has an opinion on this topic.
No absolutes in SP. I like to 'hide' my FO's, 2-man scouts, sniper teams and snipers. By hide I mean find a hex with concealment (cover is better, but sometime Mars isn't that helpful), redline your weapons and stay quite as a mouse at an Ally Cat convention. I have had enemy tanks park in the same hex. I have had AH's hovering over an FO while it called in arty.
So you never really know how much of the enemy you are seeing at that moment. Nor do you know how much of your force he can see.
FoW.

[Suhiir]

Originally Posted by c_of_red

AFAIK, helios don't see things ( observe, search) as well as leg units. Sort of between a ground vehicle and a leg unit. Or at least that is the way the original SP2 worked. Not sure if that was changed or not during the port to windoze. What little testing I have done says 'no', but an 'expert' told me I was wrong. I think it is confusion created by the term 'spotting'. which in the real world means seeing something but in the SP world it means calling artillery and nothing else. I suppose that helps keep the confusion level down, at least if everyone is aware of the jargon.
A thread at the blitz went past the post limit on this topic. It seems every SP player ( about 15,000 on the 'net, and growing) has an opinion on this topic.
No absolutes in SP. I like to 'hide' my FO's, 2-man scouts, sniper teams and snipers. By hide I mean find a hex with concealment (cover is better, but sometime Mars isn't that helpful), redline your weapons and stay quite as a mouse at an Ally Cat convention. I have had enemy tanks park in the same hex. I have had AH's hovering over an FO while it called in arty.
So you never really know how much of the enemy you are seeing at that moment. Nor do you know how much of your force he can see.
FoW.

Yup, if you "redline" your weapons it's actually fairly easy to keep units hidden. In fact since I use the CD version I spend a lot of my set-up time assigning ranges and fire limits (via the armor min/max and unit type settings) telling my units who they're allowed to shoot at and when.

And yes, helos are HORRIBLE at seeing (not spotting for arty) non-firing enemy units. But I've found them very good at seeing those units that do fire.

One thing that undoubtedly effects this massively is that I've modified my non-transport (i.e. Light Attack, Attack, and COIN) helo formations so that they have a bonus to their experience and sometimes morale.
My reasoning is very simple. The "best" helo pilots are the ones that fly the attack helos, "average" pilots fly transports.
Given that I play the USMC 90% of the time I'm not playing a pre-set scenario the base morale and experience is already 80 so adding 8 (a mere 10% increase over the base) to this virtually guarentees vet status to my helos. Yeah, the unit cost goes up slightly, but supposedly the game balance isn't effected because the total unit cost for each side doesn't change...I will have less units in terms of total numbers then I would have. So far my testing and experiments are giving me pretty much the results I want and expect.

[DRG]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

My reasoning is very simple. The "best" helo pilots are the ones that fly the attack helos, "average" pilots fly transports.

It's a valid point and somewhere on the to-do list is a note to give some consideration to this idea for ground attack airstrikes and attack helos.

Don

[Suhiir]

Originally Posted by DRG

It's a valid point and somewhere on the to-do list is a note to give some consideration to this idea for ground attack airstrikes and attack helos.

Don

WOW!

Not only do I not get shot for making such a statement I actually get a sideways complement.

>feints<

[Imp]

Come now Suhiir you ladys have a way of doing these things, if by the time Don gets round to looking at it he thinks it was his idea balance will be maintained.
I have come to accept that half of my "great ideas" were never mine at all it just dawns on me later I have been bushwhacked .......again

[DRG]

Originally Posted by Suhiir

WOW!

Not only do I not get shot for making such a statement I actually get a sideways complement.

>feints<

feint (fnt)
n.
1. A feigned attack designed to draw defensive action away from an intended target.
2. A deceptive action calculated to divert attention from one's real purpose. See Synonyms at wile.
v. feint·ed, feint·ing, feints
v.intr.
To make a feint.
v.tr.
1. To deceive with a feint.
2. To make a deceptive show of.

So, I'm curious now what form this "feint" is going to take

I hope I don't faint........

Don

[c_of_red]

"My reasoning is very simple. The "best" helo pilots are the ones that fly the attack helos, "average" pilots fly transports."

Maybe. I think that depends on what you mean by best. My Son and a Nephew are helio pilots. My son is flying Blackhawks now in the DC area. I think his 2 year tour is up this fall,, then it's off to an operational unit. When he was in Iraq, he was a Weapons officer in an Apache. After flight school, he was assigned to the Helio pool that the Pentagon uses. I'm not sure what Squadron that is.
My nephew was shot down twice in Iraw, winning the Silver Star the second time. He flew the bird he was assigned to. He is IP qualified in the 58, 60 and 64. I last saw him about 2 years ago when he was back here recovering after being shot in both legs ( same round. I suggested he change his call sign to 'daily double') In his unit, they don't have a bird for each pilot. More pilots then helios, with a pilot being assigned to a helio by whatever methood the operations officer used. He could be flying a scout one day, a BlacKhawk the next. He said the Apaches were mostly assigned to officers and being a ring-knocker didn't hurt.

[c_of_red]

I haven't played around much with the new range features. I should, since seems to be less risky then redlining. Ever now and then redlining will bite you in the butt. I'm real interested in what looks like the old Squad Leader 'bore sighted' feature. If it works the same way, it would be an excellent way to kick off a layered ambush.