This guide is meant for mostly pilots that know how to fly. You should be very comfortable with your controls, whatever they may be, and with the abilities of your gunner. This is not a guide about how to hit things with rockets or how to work the tv missile, if you need help on those things you can pm me.
There is a guide with an identical title to this in the wiki, but it isn’t really tactics but maneuvers. Don’t bitch if you don’t want another helo guide, I was bored and thought it might help some people I’ve seen fly on pubs so they can take down tank whores that are killing me. Pretty selfish.
Planes
If there is a good jet pilot in the air, and I mean really good, he will screw you over every time. For everyone else however, there are some really simple tactics that will help you avoid him every single time that no one seems to get.
Unless you want to fight him, AVOID him
This means stay low, using cover as much as possible, and always trying to keep track of him even when he isn’t paying attention to you. Example: Kubra Dam, you need to cross the Dam with a pilot in the air. Well don’t be dumb and fly over the damn, that gives you a good 150-200m of unnecessary altitude and absolutely no cover when you could go right through one of the many holes in the damn giving you excellent cover and keeping you that much closer to your armor or infantry targets. Don’t EVER fly straight up over 150m with a good jet pilot in the air, it’s a death wish.
He’s got a lock on me, what now?
The best thing you could do right now is to find some cover if you can do it quickly. If you are already close to the ground and flying quickly as you should, then this shouldn’t be too hard on maps like Dalian or Kubra, but if you are up high or on a map like Zatar, then it’s time for aerial maneuvers. Turn in some direction immediately, this is the first thing to hopefully get their first few shots to miss and get them to try and track you. I find the best maneuver that works well against bullets, missiles, and slow flying jets are to do a hammer head right towards their face. That is a quarter barrel roll, then pull back on the stick until you are facing their direction, and then right yourself. It gives you some side to side movement and closes the gap between you and them more quickly. If the jet is flying really slow then at the end instead of righting yourself you may want to instead do another quarter barrel roll and then pull back again to finish your loop, avoiding the plane and giving you a nice shot at his tail pipes. Flare release timing is also crucial. You don’t want to release the flares as soon as you hear a tone, but wait until you get a solid lock-on tone. The ideal is to release flares right before the first AA missile hits you, to avoid that missile however many he may be able to get off in one pass, making him waste missiles while hopefully missing you.
I want to take that sucker down!
If you can take a back shot to a jet it is generally easier, but they have to be going pretty slow so they shouldn’t pose much of a threat. For this reason I will focus on head-on shots.
To take down said jet whore, you do want altitude. Eliminate all other threats first, like mobile AA and enemy chopper to make sure they are down. Then try and find the jet, while pretty much going straight up right in the middle of the map. The object of this is to let the enemy jet find you, so make sure you know what you’re getting into before you do it. Once you find the jet, always be sure to know where he is, if not visually, jet pilots will generally make large sweeping passes, and come back about 60 degrees to the left or right of where he left your view, sometimes more but generally not less. Once you have the jet coming on a nice long pass, line up so where ever you would normally aim to let your gunner hit a target is fairly high above the nose of the jet and drop flares sooner than you usually would. You need to talk to your gunner to get used to lining him up for jets and go with that, and you need to drop flares sooner because there is very little movement while your gunner is getting a shot off and the AA missiles have a nice straight shot at you, so you need to get the flares a good ways from you more quickly than usual. Once your gunner gets a shot off, do something, usually a barrel roll, to get missiles off you and avoid a mid-air collision with a dumb pilot.
To the gunner (or the pilot if you are soloing) remember the hit boxes lag behind the jet, so if the jet is coming down at you aim to go right over the jet or even better aim below the jet and come up giving you the best chances of hitting it. Other than that, all you can do is pray.
Choppers
Cover
If you are reading this guide, you better know how to take down another chopper pretty damn well. The biggest thing that I see is people not using cover at all. The absolute number one sure-fire way to dodge an enemy tv is to put something hard between you and it. Again using the Dam Kubra as an example, you can strafe past one of the holes, getting a shot through the hole and then continuing to the other side, getting a shot off while only being exposed for a few seconds.
Make him suicide
Another tactic to use if your gunner sucks on a very tight map like Sharqi is to drive them into the ground. Try to get a height advantage and go straight nose down on them, firing rockets in front of their nose, and keep driving them back. If anyone does this to you a good counter is to turn and swing yourself under him, so you are looking at the enemy finish his dive while you have a nice shot at his underbelly.
Ground Targets
COVER
The most important thing when dealing with ground targets is using cover. Buildings, cranes are good, and if you get low enough even palm trees can hide you and break an AA lock. On a map like Sharqi there is no reason you should ever be more than 100m from a good piece of cover.
Altitude
IF you know all air threats are down, altitude is pretty darn good assuming your gunner can take out a mobile AA or stationary AA with a tv missile every time. Usually I will get up high to see any targets, take down any armor, and then get back down to check a flag or on enemy air vehicles.
Misc
Communication ftw – Always try to be on TS or Vent with your gunner, or at the very least Voip so you can coordinate attacks or verbally spot things for each other.
Speed – Keep it UP. I don’t know why people like slowing down so much, especially on Ghost Town or Sharqi. There is going to be infantry everywhere, many of which probably have AT rockets. IMO these maps are meant to be flown low and fast, though it poses a problem when you start lagging.
Edit: Thanks you to whichever mod moved it
There is a guide with an identical title to this in the wiki, but it isn’t really tactics but maneuvers. Don’t bitch if you don’t want another helo guide, I was bored and thought it might help some people I’ve seen fly on pubs so they can take down tank whores that are killing me. Pretty selfish.
Planes
If there is a good jet pilot in the air, and I mean really good, he will screw you over every time. For everyone else however, there are some really simple tactics that will help you avoid him every single time that no one seems to get.
Unless you want to fight him, AVOID him
This means stay low, using cover as much as possible, and always trying to keep track of him even when he isn’t paying attention to you. Example: Kubra Dam, you need to cross the Dam with a pilot in the air. Well don’t be dumb and fly over the damn, that gives you a good 150-200m of unnecessary altitude and absolutely no cover when you could go right through one of the many holes in the damn giving you excellent cover and keeping you that much closer to your armor or infantry targets. Don’t EVER fly straight up over 150m with a good jet pilot in the air, it’s a death wish.
He’s got a lock on me, what now?
The best thing you could do right now is to find some cover if you can do it quickly. If you are already close to the ground and flying quickly as you should, then this shouldn’t be too hard on maps like Dalian or Kubra, but if you are up high or on a map like Zatar, then it’s time for aerial maneuvers. Turn in some direction immediately, this is the first thing to hopefully get their first few shots to miss and get them to try and track you. I find the best maneuver that works well against bullets, missiles, and slow flying jets are to do a hammer head right towards their face. That is a quarter barrel roll, then pull back on the stick until you are facing their direction, and then right yourself. It gives you some side to side movement and closes the gap between you and them more quickly. If the jet is flying really slow then at the end instead of righting yourself you may want to instead do another quarter barrel roll and then pull back again to finish your loop, avoiding the plane and giving you a nice shot at his tail pipes. Flare release timing is also crucial. You don’t want to release the flares as soon as you hear a tone, but wait until you get a solid lock-on tone. The ideal is to release flares right before the first AA missile hits you, to avoid that missile however many he may be able to get off in one pass, making him waste missiles while hopefully missing you.
I want to take that sucker down!
If you can take a back shot to a jet it is generally easier, but they have to be going pretty slow so they shouldn’t pose much of a threat. For this reason I will focus on head-on shots.
To take down said jet whore, you do want altitude. Eliminate all other threats first, like mobile AA and enemy chopper to make sure they are down. Then try and find the jet, while pretty much going straight up right in the middle of the map. The object of this is to let the enemy jet find you, so make sure you know what you’re getting into before you do it. Once you find the jet, always be sure to know where he is, if not visually, jet pilots will generally make large sweeping passes, and come back about 60 degrees to the left or right of where he left your view, sometimes more but generally not less. Once you have the jet coming on a nice long pass, line up so where ever you would normally aim to let your gunner hit a target is fairly high above the nose of the jet and drop flares sooner than you usually would. You need to talk to your gunner to get used to lining him up for jets and go with that, and you need to drop flares sooner because there is very little movement while your gunner is getting a shot off and the AA missiles have a nice straight shot at you, so you need to get the flares a good ways from you more quickly than usual. Once your gunner gets a shot off, do something, usually a barrel roll, to get missiles off you and avoid a mid-air collision with a dumb pilot.
To the gunner (or the pilot if you are soloing) remember the hit boxes lag behind the jet, so if the jet is coming down at you aim to go right over the jet or even better aim below the jet and come up giving you the best chances of hitting it. Other than that, all you can do is pray.
Choppers
Cover
If you are reading this guide, you better know how to take down another chopper pretty damn well. The biggest thing that I see is people not using cover at all. The absolute number one sure-fire way to dodge an enemy tv is to put something hard between you and it. Again using the Dam Kubra as an example, you can strafe past one of the holes, getting a shot through the hole and then continuing to the other side, getting a shot off while only being exposed for a few seconds.
Make him suicide
Another tactic to use if your gunner sucks on a very tight map like Sharqi is to drive them into the ground. Try to get a height advantage and go straight nose down on them, firing rockets in front of their nose, and keep driving them back. If anyone does this to you a good counter is to turn and swing yourself under him, so you are looking at the enemy finish his dive while you have a nice shot at his underbelly.
Ground Targets
COVER
The most important thing when dealing with ground targets is using cover. Buildings, cranes are good, and if you get low enough even palm trees can hide you and break an AA lock. On a map like Sharqi there is no reason you should ever be more than 100m from a good piece of cover.
Altitude
IF you know all air threats are down, altitude is pretty darn good assuming your gunner can take out a mobile AA or stationary AA with a tv missile every time. Usually I will get up high to see any targets, take down any armor, and then get back down to check a flag or on enemy air vehicles.
Misc
Communication ftw – Always try to be on TS or Vent with your gunner, or at the very least Voip so you can coordinate attacks or verbally spot things for each other.
Speed – Keep it UP. I don’t know why people like slowing down so much, especially on Ghost Town or Sharqi. There is going to be infantry everywhere, many of which probably have AT rockets. IMO these maps are meant to be flown low and fast, though it poses a problem when you start lagging.
Edit: Thanks you to whichever mod moved it
Last edited by Flaming_Maniac (2007-01-15 13:45:32)
