Tweet
A Chopper Pilot’s Guide to being a good gunner.
(The clean version)
By: Strega
1) Cockpit Familiarization:
Welcome to my gunship. Please keep your hands, arms, and feet inside the gunship at all times. When you enter the gunship, you should be in the gunner seat (F2), not the pilot’s seat. I will fly as an Engineer, so that I can hover over friendly armor and repair them in the field.
2) What kit should you choose as a Helo Gunner?
I suggest you either pic Engineer, or Support as my gunner, so that we can repair/re-arm ourselves (if we land), and repair others while hovering. As double Engineers, we can repair armor very quickly (not ourselves, but other armor like Linebackers or Tanks owned by our team). It does neither of us any good for you to be a Sniper, Assault, or Anti-Tank. None of those 3 kits give us any advantage. If you want to look like you know what you’re doing, walk up to my Chopper with your Ammo Bag or Wrench in hand, and I’ll know you’ve read my chopper guide and I can count on you. There is a debate on using the Medic kit as a gunner. As my gunner, please don’t do it. I think it is a bad idea, since I don’t plan on hovering over a big group of people to heal them. Let the commander drop supplies for that.
3) We’ve just lifted off, what do you do now?
Use the camera view while you’re flying so you can alert the pilot if you see a anything behind you, helo, armor, etc. Default key is C.
4) Someone spotted an enemy HELO…what do you do?
A) He doesn’t see us, but we see him
Please do not ever spool up the chaingun on armor of any kind. This is something you don’t EVER want to do. The chain gun on the nose, is good for shooting at a smoking chopper that you want to “finish off”, for infantry that you want to staple to the ground, or while the TV missile is recharging ONLY if he already see’s us. If you are waiting on a recharging TV missile and he still doesn’t see us, STAY AWAY from the chaingun…PLEASE. If I’m lining up a rocket shot, and you start blazing away on the chain gun, the enemy helo is gonna feel it, see the big red mark on his screen indicating where we are, and he’s going to do whatever he can to out maneuver us. Thus, you’ve completely ruined my chances at getting a solid rocket shot or even you getting you another good TV shot. This is not a good thing.
If he doesn’t see us initially, I’m gonna put you in position for a TV Guided Missile shot. If you miss, and he doesn’t ‘jink’ after the missile goes by, I’m gonna stay lined up for a 2nd TV Guided Missile shot. I’m going to try to give you a rear quarter shot, so you have more surface area to aim for. After 2 tries with the TV and you miss, I’m going in for a rocket run. Chances are, I’m going to at LEAST get that helo smoking, if not dead in that 1 run. Once he’s smoking, open up with that chaingun at any time, keeping in mind that I’m STILL going to try to line up a good Missile shot for you.
B) He see’s us, and we see him
I’m going to do my best to get as much altitude as possible, and get you a downward firing angle on him. It’s tough to shoot up as you know. Do me a favor, when you see the enemy helo, SPOT him for me (Default is Q then mouseclick). Spot him ANY chance you get, cuz that shows up on my radar and helps me maneuver for the kill shot. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get used to spotting things, this is going to make us a GREAT team in the Helo. The more I see, the better we both do. Please don’t hesitate to shoot him in the face with a TV Guided Missile. He’s no doubt coming straight at us and thinking the same thing. Initially, most don’t jink very much to try and get out of harm’s way. I love a gunner than can hit the long distance nose to nose shot.
Ok, let’s say you’ve missed your TV shots and we’re now tangled up in a maneuvering nightmare. Feel free to chain him any chance you get, but keep in mind that this entire time, I’m trying to line you up for another TV Guided Missile shot. That Missile is deadly, and 1 shot kills anything in the game. Airplanes, Helo’s, Armor, people, etc. Use it to OUR advantage. Please not the ‘OUR’, as we are a team, and only do well if we work together. The better you gun, the better I fly, the more we help our team. I don’t plan on dying…..much.
5) Someone spotted enemy ARMOR…what do you do?
Please refer to section 4A regarding our initial sighting of the enemy. Do NOT, I repeat DO NOT open up on full strength Armor with the chain gun. You’re gonna let him know we’re there..that is bad. So much of this game is based upon the element of surprise. That’s how I like to fly my chopper. I want them to have to look at the top left of their screen to see what happened in disbelief. Chances are, if he see’s us, I’m gonna maneuver out of his line of sight, and circle back around, and catch him from the side he has his back too.
I’m gonna give you 1 chance to hit with the TV on a ground target. That thing is loud when it hits, and you miss, you’re not gonna miss by much if you are a decent gunner. The Armor is going to hear it, and look for us. I am immediately going in on a rocket run the INSTANT you fire that TV. If you hit, that’s awesome, if you miss, well, I won’t.
If somehow, we both miss, I’m gonna leave him alone for a moment, and he’s gonna think we went back to re-arm (sometimes). Well, we’re not, I’m hiding behind a hill about to poke my chin over the top, so you can hit him with a TV Guided Missile. This is generally how it works, not always….If you see me hovering for no apparent reason, chances are I’m setting you up for a shot. This is where being on voice coms really helps. Communication wins matches, if you don’t have it, you’re not gonna do very well, but we’re gonna do our best in any case.
6) We’ve taken some damage, and we don’t have a base to repair.
Hopefully I’ve been smart enough at some point in time to request supplies in a remote location that we can go hover over. Or in the likely event that our Radar, UAV, or Artillery have supplies near them, that’s where I’m gonna go. If not, I’m gonna find a place for us to land. If you’re an Engineer, get out and help me repair so we get it fixed, FAST. If you’re in Support Kit, get out and toss some ammo on the ground below us. Then get in the Pilots Seat (F1), and keep the rotor turning. Once we are FULLY repaired, get BACK in the Gunner Seat (F2). This REALLY helps out a lot, if we get in trouble, we can get off the ground quicker if the rotor is up to speed.
7) Flag Capping
Sometimes it's important for a helo to swoop in and take an enemy flag. I swoop into a flag area and I'm going to keep turning 360's around that flag, looking for enemies. Now, it is your job to do a few things. FIRST thing I'm going to do, is point you at a LineBacker, Tank, LAV, Tow Tripod, etc. Pretty much in that order. Work your threat order TOP DOWN, unless you have friendlies there to jump in those vehicles. If I point you at a Tank, and I hold it there, I'm not doing it to show you my skills at hovering, I want you to kill it, NOW. You do that, and I'll buy you a cupcake at the Officers Club when the map is over. Good rule of thumb is this. If you can blow it up, DO IT, cuz most of that stuff down there could turn us into Swiss cheese in about 4 seconds if an enemy gets into it. Since the 1.03 patch, they made changes to the way flags are capped when hovering in a helo. Now you only get the credit for the pilot capping the flag. So if you want to snag a flag 'faster', the gunner would need to jump out to cap it faster. A word of caution...Please do not get out of my Chopper, it does me no good to have you on the ground if we start taking fire.
8) Conclusion
I make mistakes, and so will you. As long as you appear to know what you are doing, you can miss a lot of shots as long as you are trying, and you appear to be getting better.
Good luck, and see ya on the playing field!
-Strega
Look for me ingame as "NOVA|Strega"
The original post can be found HERE.
(The clean version)
By: Strega
1) Cockpit Familiarization:
Welcome to my gunship. Please keep your hands, arms, and feet inside the gunship at all times. When you enter the gunship, you should be in the gunner seat (F2), not the pilot’s seat. I will fly as an Engineer, so that I can hover over friendly armor and repair them in the field.
2) What kit should you choose as a Helo Gunner?
I suggest you either pic Engineer, or Support as my gunner, so that we can repair/re-arm ourselves (if we land), and repair others while hovering. As double Engineers, we can repair armor very quickly (not ourselves, but other armor like Linebackers or Tanks owned by our team). It does neither of us any good for you to be a Sniper, Assault, or Anti-Tank. None of those 3 kits give us any advantage. If you want to look like you know what you’re doing, walk up to my Chopper with your Ammo Bag or Wrench in hand, and I’ll know you’ve read my chopper guide and I can count on you. There is a debate on using the Medic kit as a gunner. As my gunner, please don’t do it. I think it is a bad idea, since I don’t plan on hovering over a big group of people to heal them. Let the commander drop supplies for that.
3) We’ve just lifted off, what do you do now?
Use the camera view while you’re flying so you can alert the pilot if you see a anything behind you, helo, armor, etc. Default key is C.
4) Someone spotted an enemy HELO…what do you do?
A) He doesn’t see us, but we see him
Please do not ever spool up the chaingun on armor of any kind. This is something you don’t EVER want to do. The chain gun on the nose, is good for shooting at a smoking chopper that you want to “finish off”, for infantry that you want to staple to the ground, or while the TV missile is recharging ONLY if he already see’s us. If you are waiting on a recharging TV missile and he still doesn’t see us, STAY AWAY from the chaingun…PLEASE. If I’m lining up a rocket shot, and you start blazing away on the chain gun, the enemy helo is gonna feel it, see the big red mark on his screen indicating where we are, and he’s going to do whatever he can to out maneuver us. Thus, you’ve completely ruined my chances at getting a solid rocket shot or even you getting you another good TV shot. This is not a good thing.
If he doesn’t see us initially, I’m gonna put you in position for a TV Guided Missile shot. If you miss, and he doesn’t ‘jink’ after the missile goes by, I’m gonna stay lined up for a 2nd TV Guided Missile shot. I’m going to try to give you a rear quarter shot, so you have more surface area to aim for. After 2 tries with the TV and you miss, I’m going in for a rocket run. Chances are, I’m going to at LEAST get that helo smoking, if not dead in that 1 run. Once he’s smoking, open up with that chaingun at any time, keeping in mind that I’m STILL going to try to line up a good Missile shot for you.
B) He see’s us, and we see him
I’m going to do my best to get as much altitude as possible, and get you a downward firing angle on him. It’s tough to shoot up as you know. Do me a favor, when you see the enemy helo, SPOT him for me (Default is Q then mouseclick). Spot him ANY chance you get, cuz that shows up on my radar and helps me maneuver for the kill shot. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE get used to spotting things, this is going to make us a GREAT team in the Helo. The more I see, the better we both do. Please don’t hesitate to shoot him in the face with a TV Guided Missile. He’s no doubt coming straight at us and thinking the same thing. Initially, most don’t jink very much to try and get out of harm’s way. I love a gunner than can hit the long distance nose to nose shot.
Ok, let’s say you’ve missed your TV shots and we’re now tangled up in a maneuvering nightmare. Feel free to chain him any chance you get, but keep in mind that this entire time, I’m trying to line you up for another TV Guided Missile shot. That Missile is deadly, and 1 shot kills anything in the game. Airplanes, Helo’s, Armor, people, etc. Use it to OUR advantage. Please not the ‘OUR’, as we are a team, and only do well if we work together. The better you gun, the better I fly, the more we help our team. I don’t plan on dying…..much.
5) Someone spotted enemy ARMOR…what do you do?
Please refer to section 4A regarding our initial sighting of the enemy. Do NOT, I repeat DO NOT open up on full strength Armor with the chain gun. You’re gonna let him know we’re there..that is bad. So much of this game is based upon the element of surprise. That’s how I like to fly my chopper. I want them to have to look at the top left of their screen to see what happened in disbelief. Chances are, if he see’s us, I’m gonna maneuver out of his line of sight, and circle back around, and catch him from the side he has his back too.
I’m gonna give you 1 chance to hit with the TV on a ground target. That thing is loud when it hits, and you miss, you’re not gonna miss by much if you are a decent gunner. The Armor is going to hear it, and look for us. I am immediately going in on a rocket run the INSTANT you fire that TV. If you hit, that’s awesome, if you miss, well, I won’t.
If somehow, we both miss, I’m gonna leave him alone for a moment, and he’s gonna think we went back to re-arm (sometimes). Well, we’re not, I’m hiding behind a hill about to poke my chin over the top, so you can hit him with a TV Guided Missile. This is generally how it works, not always….If you see me hovering for no apparent reason, chances are I’m setting you up for a shot. This is where being on voice coms really helps. Communication wins matches, if you don’t have it, you’re not gonna do very well, but we’re gonna do our best in any case.
6) We’ve taken some damage, and we don’t have a base to repair.
Hopefully I’ve been smart enough at some point in time to request supplies in a remote location that we can go hover over. Or in the likely event that our Radar, UAV, or Artillery have supplies near them, that’s where I’m gonna go. If not, I’m gonna find a place for us to land. If you’re an Engineer, get out and help me repair so we get it fixed, FAST. If you’re in Support Kit, get out and toss some ammo on the ground below us. Then get in the Pilots Seat (F1), and keep the rotor turning. Once we are FULLY repaired, get BACK in the Gunner Seat (F2). This REALLY helps out a lot, if we get in trouble, we can get off the ground quicker if the rotor is up to speed.
7) Flag Capping
Sometimes it's important for a helo to swoop in and take an enemy flag. I swoop into a flag area and I'm going to keep turning 360's around that flag, looking for enemies. Now, it is your job to do a few things. FIRST thing I'm going to do, is point you at a LineBacker, Tank, LAV, Tow Tripod, etc. Pretty much in that order. Work your threat order TOP DOWN, unless you have friendlies there to jump in those vehicles. If I point you at a Tank, and I hold it there, I'm not doing it to show you my skills at hovering, I want you to kill it, NOW. You do that, and I'll buy you a cupcake at the Officers Club when the map is over. Good rule of thumb is this. If you can blow it up, DO IT, cuz most of that stuff down there could turn us into Swiss cheese in about 4 seconds if an enemy gets into it. Since the 1.03 patch, they made changes to the way flags are capped when hovering in a helo. Now you only get the credit for the pilot capping the flag. So if you want to snag a flag 'faster', the gunner would need to jump out to cap it faster. A word of caution...Please do not get out of my Chopper, it does me no good to have you on the ground if we start taking fire.
8) Conclusion
I make mistakes, and so will you. As long as you appear to know what you are doing, you can miss a lot of shots as long as you are trying, and you appear to be getting better.
Good luck, and see ya on the playing field!
-Strega
Look for me ingame as "NOVA|Strega"
The original post can be found HERE.
Comment