Air calvary

[nickhunter13]

The air calvary (helicopters) is probably the best part of America in VGO. While we all know what their purpose is, how do we use them? Any awesome assaults or great kills showing off teamwork (and micro) of air-ground ops using air cav. I would love to see some great screenshots of this stuff. That way we have cool images and we could better explain our tactics (and we could get some new promo images for the mod ). I personally like using a group of hueys (maybe 10), loading them each with 6 marines, 1 M60, 1 LAW, 1 Medic, and 1 grenadier. They all head off to a target and blow anything away. Good support ideas include A1 strikes on nearby trees (if a cluster), F105's on hardened targets (like the opening of a base), M110's on hardened targets or AAA, and the towable guns in skycranes to add to the exictement of establishing a new support base one step closer to the enemy. Wow, I wrote a lot.

[LoneWolf]

This is the village after 4 Thuds were sent in:



...and then came my helicopters:

[Handgun_Hero]

I am a very big user of Helicopters in VGO. Ordinary Huey is good when you want to ship in reinforcements to a village very quickly. The cobra is a very good counter to enemy helicopters. The Huey gunship is very good for clearing infantry out of villages. Plus vehicles are defenceless to helicopters, being no Anti-Air movable units (thought M.U.T.T.s in real life could when fitted with different missiles, such as heatseekers.) The chinook is good when you want to move large numbers of men quickly. The skycrane is good when you want to move tanks across dangerous grounds.

Then of course, we have the littlebird. Without its vision your snipers and vehicles would never survive. Plus it makes for good use of finding a target for your M110!

[Pathfinder]

Dont forget they can be cheap distraction targets during a helicopter attack or raid.

[Handgun_Hero]

That too, make all their F-4s waste their missiles on them while you mount a Thud attack. 

[AntiSocialKindaGuy]

I use UH1-G and OH6 religiously, with 3 of each on the field at all times. OH6 makes an amazing spotter for the M110, and the UH1-G is cheap and easy to get hold of - meaning you have a rapid response to any assault, which is the main advantage of the US: mobility.

[Jackseno]

Got some pictures for you
http://hosting03.imagecross.com/image-hosting-01/3859Aircav.jpg

and also a great air cav related war story for you here.
So it's VGO's Mapper Nuka5 and myself locked in fierce battle with 2 of Anti's crazy hard AIs on outposts, yeah I know what you're saying, players vs AI is boring and easy, but this wasn't easy and definitely not boring.

Our battle plan was as follows: I secure the village the AI will go for first and concentrate all my resources in to holding it. Nuka would take the villages the A.I wouldn't go for and use the funds to provide support to me.




So this is around half way through the game, both A.I are going full pelt at the village from the north east and the south east. It was clear that my village was going to be overrun if something wasn't done.





A Huey comes in to drop off some reinforcements to buy some time while Nuka gathers some air support, artillery units on the ground fire on the trees to disrupt advances.





Air cavalry arrives in the form of a Huey gunship and a cobra gunship, but the A.I has plans of it's own and is moving a flame tank up from the south. While the Cobra gets to work on mowing down the incoming infantry, the Huey takes a couple hits from AA and from the several missed trails it's clear that the area is now a no fly zone. But the A.I is still advancing up with infantry and armour support. What to do?
Well, Nuka can either pull out and save half of his air support which he spent alot of money on, or he can stay, risking his Cobra and stop the tank.
Well he chose to stay, took a hit from AA, nailed the tank with rockets, and pulled out just narrowly missing another missile.





This proved invaluable to our effort and I was able to re-secure the village, with the help of a gunship.
 we later went on to win the game (and the war!  )

[AntiSocialKindaGuy]

When the NVA get's AI, you'll have to see if you can stop the waves of T34's

[nickhunter13]

 

O crap, that will be awesome (if the numer of tanks used doesn't crash my laptop or slow it to an unreasonable rate).

[LoneWolf]

I build this fleet of Hueys, full with mostly Marines to overrun the enemies base on the Map Alluvial (?) Soils.


And this was my protection force:



But the base was already badly damaged, thanks to Artillery, B-52 and F-105 strikes..


As you can see here, there wasn't a lot left to destroy for my soldiers..

[Handgun_Hero]

Air Cavalry is one of the most important parts of the USA. The Huey transport is a very effective means of moving troops quickly. The UH1-G is a very effective early support and assault helicopter. The Cobra is extremely powerful, and is the only helicopter capable of attacking other helicopters. Finally, the OH-6 Loach is without a doubt the best scout in the entire game.

If your entire force is made up of helicopters (and infantry of course) it is easily understandable.

[LoneWolf]

Another nice AirCav Pic I came across as I was making the "Airstrike pictures":

[Handgun_Hero]

Man you sure love your napalm (note all the scorch marks over the terrain.)

[nickhunter13]

I did worse (but forgot to take a snapshot DANG IT!).

[Pathfinder]

My first game against the NVA AI 5 words Air Cav FTW 

Arty = Neutralized Anti-air

Oh and Bloody Job well done on the map Jackson and Great work on the AI Anti.

(Freaking photo bucket screwed up the quality im going to use image shack from now)