Getting an air-assault army to work

[rcp90]

Hey guys, I've been reading here for a while, and I didn't see anything about this.

So, I like playing as the US, and their learning curve is generally kicking my butt, but with perseverance and dedicating myself to only playing higher point games I've become acceptable at handling an American force. But one style of build in particular really has me stumped as far as how to work it.

I was trying to experiment with an Air-Assault style army to work, with helo mounted infantry, lots of gunships and air support. But every part of that is so prohibitively expensive that every loss just plain hurts. It's partially rough because the AI will load up on SAM's of all sorts if you're playing as US as far as I've observed. But in general it's just plain hard to get those units to earn their keep, especially against low-tech nations that bring lots of cheap shoulder-launched anti-air.

So, do you guys have any suggestions?

Thanks

[Wdll]

Yeah, don't try it.
The only time this worked good was when the enemy had no air defence worth while, left.

In game terms, it depends against who you play.
Against the AI it is easier to suppress or kill their air defences. Too easy. The problem/issue is the AI does not move his air defence assets. Send a couple or drones or whatever to locate his air defences, then fire your artillery like crazy.

You can also try to flood their air defence system by having ****load of helicopters and planes move on the same turn. Just make sure after you move a heli and it gets fired uppon, move another heli, not the same.
Basicaly try to make the enemy use all its defence as soon as possible.

Against humans it can get more difficult. Sure, in a single battle you might be able to fool/surprise the human, but in a campaign game that he knows you have invested heavily in such a force, he will take the appropriate measures against your units and neutralise the threat.

[rcp90]

I haven't even tried using it against a human enemy, the AI is still generally slaughtering me! I've had better success against a serious power like Russia, because then SEAD aircraft can at least knock out SOME of their big sams and all that, and since an industrial nation would use tanks that are worth lots of points, the Apaches and all suddenly become a lot more useful. But with my friend I play now, we seem to have a pattern of 1 of us goes high-tech nation and the other opposes him with a low-tech country. So, low tech means lots of shoulder launched missles laying around, and I have a much harder time suppressing them.

thanks for the advice though. I'm just a bit of a stubborn bastard, going to keep pounding my head on the wall till I figure it out, or get a concussion, whichever happens first lol

[Imp]

It can work if expect radar air defence SEAD are vital.
Verses MANPADS the thing is to locate them often the hard way then hit them with arty or smoke out if do not have TI. Use terrain to your advantage like streams etc to fly down dropping smoke where its open. Obviosly no terrain to hide behind is not helo country the more hills terrain feautures the better.
Apart from your Air Cav attack helos I generaly buy in pairs with a scout helo for each.
It tests the water & checks out LOS for targets rather than moving attack helo & finding no shot.
It can work I remember a river crossing in which I let the AI buy my force, nearly all air & arty with a few ground units who made it over the river easy as Air Cav cleared the bank. Vs AI mind & the comment about AI not moving its AA seems wrong to me. Not played it for a while but it moves both SAMs & Mobile AA guns.
The thing to remember is yes they may be fast but really treat as armed trucks so take care on the approach. Vs a human use the if a decent sized map attack one place hopefully drawing his forces in then use your speed to shift to the real attack position. If you can get a hill between the 2 those MANPADS are twidling there thumbs.

[c_of_red]

I like to use Air Mobile forces as either a reserve or as commandos. As a reserve, you normally wouldn't commit them until after you have had a chance to locate your opponents AD. As commando's you need the right sort of terrain. Streams that get you into the enemies rear are the best. There are little things that help, but not much. Put your lowest experienced leg unit in your highest experienced heilo. Put that in fron and fly in trail (one behind the other). That will getthe more experienced heilo shot at first. He has a better chance of surviving, and the loss of that low experien leg unit won't hurt quite as much. After that the #2 heilo takes over, then the #3, etc. Move the first helio a few hexs, then go to the next one, all the way down the line. You are doing this so that if your first helio lives thru it's finding the AD, the next helio will have a lower to hit percentage, since the AD unit won't have a consecutive shots bonus like it would on the first helio. You hope. Count on losing 50 to 75% of your units. So it won't help much, but even a little is sometimes a good thang.

Just an aside; SP is a combined arms game. You will always do better with a combination of forces. All armor or all infantry or all arty is just as bad as all air mobile.

BTW, NEVER fly across a large wooded area or across the center of an open field. Go around the woods and stay close to the trees.

[c_of_red]

I sure botched that explanation. Let me suck down another cup of coffee and see if I can post an answer that makes sense. Flying in trail is the key, I just have to figure out how to explain the mechanics.

[Imp]

What he is saying basicaly is the same as you do with ground units. If one unit is fired on switch units so the firer changes targets. Also & important due to the speed of them alternate moving units keeping them together say in 10 hex moves. That way if someone is fired on you have several eyes to hopefully see it. If move one unit 40 hexes before the next they are probably to far away to see the firer. Remember also just like ground units the faster you go the less you see.

So move & SAM fires if it survives use another unit to draw fire & pull him back.
Now move everyone up to the judged safe point before trying again so next go stationary reasonably near lots of eyes should see him.

As said a lot easier as combined arms helos hunt ATGMs etc ground forces hunt SAMs both try to spot the other unit type. Try Vietnam type terrain dense jungle hard to get a shot on helos. Of course catch 22 is easy to run up beside infantry so being up high protects from them but now makes you a AAA target.

[rcp90]

thanks for all the feedback, i tried a few games to see what i could make work.

first off, i played a 5,000 point game against saudi arabia in the deseert, and I noticed that the open terrain, and the amount of it, seemed to help a lot. I also have 155's and MRL's sitting in my deployment zone, so it's not a true air assault army, but it's closer then it was. Anyway, every time my air got shot at, I would either use SEAD if it was something worthy of it, or if it was just a shoulder-launched team I'd hit them with an MRL of a 155mm. I wound up only landing my blackhawks at the end of the battle, I never really even needed the infantry inside, I just sent them to hunt down empty crews, the apaches and mrl's did 99% of the work

but in a denser and smaller map, USA v PLO, I just got destroyed. so, it's a work in progress.

[Wdll]

Actualy, the more open the terrain the more difficult for you as long as the enemy has some quality air defense. If they can see you from the other side of the map, it's just the quality of their systems that dictate when they will shoot you down, not if. Try to play on a map that has some features, hills, forrests, and try to avoid getting shot at in the first place by using cover to hide your movement. Of course, it again depends, what you are trying to achieve.

[Imp]

Helos do not work well on small maps, there key asset is speed if they cannot get out of harms way they are sitting ducks.