This guide will work in cohesion with my guide on providing proper air support, found here.
CHAPTER 1: DISTURBING THE PEACE
In most games, you should expect to be confronted by enemy contacts when running a proactive infantry squad. At any moment, if you find enemy targets, are engaged by them, or they find you, you must follow basic rules when confronted. First of all, identify your targets if you have the chance. Nothing is worse than an unknown enemy, and simply calling in air support on unknown contacts will endanger both you and your support. While this would seem like a rule that even the simplest of people should follow, I've seen it ignored quite often. Once you have identified your targets, you must make some decisions on whether you should/should not engage, and whether you should/should not call in air support. I will outline what I choose to do when confronted by the following enemies, based on a fairly ordinary squad with a Heavy AT:
- Infantry - Depending on their danger (how close they are, how many they are), I will often ask any support, air or otherwise, to take them out with a gun/rocket strafe if they aren't accompanied by any threats to the support, such as AAs or enemy planes.
- Light vehicles - Unless preoccupied with more important targets, I will call in air support on the target unless accompanied by any threats. in the latter case, I will simply notify the team of it's whereabouts and direction it's headed or try and engage it depending on it's threat to us.
- Armour/APCs - At this point, I will immediately call in for air support and lase targets in order of danger to the plane, then in order of danger to my squad if there are more than one contacts.
- AAVs - If combined with armour, I try to get my HAT to take these threats out first so that air support can take out the armour without fear of any threats. If I am out of HATs, I will attempt to notify the entire team, and request other support unthreatened by these assets.
- Jets - As soon as I've seen an enemy jet, I immediately notify the rest of the team so that the provided intel might help in taking down these dangerous contacts.
Now that you have established what you are facing, have decided whether or not to engage, and have decided to call in air support (which you have, otherwise skip this entire chapter), you must now effectively communicate your targets so that air support might be able to help you. There are 5 things you must do.
- Name all the targets in the vicinity.
- Tell the air support of any threats seen within the last five minutes (an air superiority fighter seen five minutes ago can be as much of a threat to your CAS plane as a plane seen as you are typing).
- Give the air support the coordinates of the targets, so that a properly running air support squad can mark the area.
- Name which targets you will designate first.
- Suggest a route by which your support can approach safely if there are any threats.
CHAPTER 3: AWAITING YOUR SUPPORT
Here's another subject that should be common sense, but can be fatal to any otherwise successful run. Now that your CAS is incoming, check your map and stay in verbal communications if possible. You now need to determine when to stick your lase. Once you've painted a target, the lase should stay on it for 30 seconds. You want to set the lase a few seconds before the air support is inbound, or roughly when they're 1000 meters away. This will allow time for you to send the laser target on its way, and, if unsuccessful, to abort the run. Failing to do so can and will create the following consequences:
- Less ordnances available for later runs, especially with Air superiority Jets carrying only one bomb. This'll mean more refueling runs, and thus a much greater delay between runs, a fatal combination when pinned down by armour.
- Doing a second run means you're support will be passing over the enemy a second time. You've lost the stealth you thought you once had against that unknowing AAV, or you've alerted one that you didn't notice.
- A stray 500 lbs bomb is a danger to everybody. Often seeming to overshoot targets, they can either target a badly placed laser, or may fall "dumb" onto friendly positions.
*NOTE2* If you resend a laser too late (as the ordnance is on the way or just before that), you will experience disastrous consequences. From personal experience, I've gunned in the Cobra on Muttrah where an inexperienced squad leader requested CAS on his painted target, but as we approached and fired the missile he relazed and the Hellfire followed the target box (now in flight and a few meters from the SL), which ended in around 6 teamkills and us losing the game by very few tickets.
CHAPTER 4: EXTRA COMMUNICATION
This chapter is written as an extra step to further help your situation. While it's not necessary, or possible often, it does provide you with much more flexible options. Using external VoiP programs, such as TeamSpeak (TS), Ventrilo (Vent), or the recently adopted Mumble allows you to stay in constant communication with your support. Any immediate commands, such as those calling an abort to the run, are immediately voiced to the pilot, rather than hoping for them to see your ingame text message within a small amount of time.
These applications facilitate your job by allowing you to call off most important information, and many of the key details, much quicker than otherwise, as well. Plus, they get the pilot's immediate attention, rather than a chance that they see the small messages. However, they in turn should not be over used. I encourage any potential spotter calling in CAS to list the most important details, such as the Coordinates followed by keypad, over the ingame text. This allows pilots to get the most important information right in front of them. You can still tell them what coordinates the target is at through VoiP, but seeing a quick coordinate on screen cuts a lot of necessary, and possibly confusing, communication. "D6kp3" is easy to type in, is clearly seen, stays on screen for a while, and is easily understood.
Remember, that while these programs are great and allow much more information to travel through, they are only as useful as the spotter is. I'd much rather have all important information typed in within a minute over the bare minimum communicated within a few seconds over VoiP. But, be that as it may, they are undoubtedly advantageous when you understand the principals of requesting any support.
Chapter 5: Advanced use of GLTD
If you want to get above the basics and become more proficient with your weapon of doom, you should read on. GLTDs have as we now multiple uses already, but using them to their best efficiency is what you want to do. First of all, you'll want to learn how to lase moving targets, especially at a distance. Because the ingame GLTD is limited in speed, you won't be able to send it at the vehicle and hit it at the speed of light. So, what do you do? You lase the ground infront of the vehicle.
- Lazing the ground a few meters in front of a vehicle is strangely more efficient that lazing where the hull aught to be by the time the lase reaches it.
- Even if it lands right on the ground before the target arrives there, I've often seen tanks drive over the lase and pick it up on it's tracks.
- You will get a better indication of how long it takes to get to the target, because if you aim above the ground where the hull aught to be, it may overshoot and land several hundred meters out, giving you a warped sense of it's speed.
Now, onto even more advanced (and often unnecessary) tidbits. Taking out an FOB is often easier said then done. For whatever reason, bombs seem to fail to detonate if there is a lase on the FOB itself. Make sure you laze next to it so that it works.
Next point is a very big point you can and should make use of when the opportunity arrises. Bombs don't distinguish between friendly or enemy lases (unless they are stickied to vehicles, in which case they become either friendly or enemy). Therefore, if you send a lase next to an enemy tank, the enemy bomb will have a chance of hitting it over their own lase. You can use this in multiple occasions:
- Seeing an enemy spotter and lazing him. If he is lazing, you can expect the bomb to be coming fairly soon, and bombs are rather freeminded ordnances that don't necessarily go where the pilot wants them to go.
- If you yourself are being bombed (for instance at an FOB by North Village), you can save yourself by lazing a few hundred meters away , and the bomb will have a chance of avoiding youand going for that, or at least of becoming confused and landing elsewhere.
- If you lack any of your own airsupport, you can always use the enemy's own against them.
If you see any tips that you would prescribe and that I've left out concerning the calling in of air support, please post them. And tell me how you liked my guide
EDIT1: Chapter three added in.
EDIT2: Chapter four added.
EDIT3: Note in Chapter three added.
EDIT4: Note2 in Chapter three and Chapter five added.
but i like this guide. Most people don't even do this, they just shout "Lazing Target" and we're just like "ye man, where is it?!" So ye good guide man...
nice guide
