How to assault a village with helicopters

[void1984]

Hi

I am playing USMC Vietnam campaign.
I am supposed to take a village with a helicopter ride. In 15 turns, so I can't land at the distance.
What should I do to land there successfully?
When I approach I don't fear AA guns, because they fire from far away with 5-7% chance to hit. My problem is infantry and snipers. When I fly I can't see them and then they fire from 50m and always hit me. I have no idea how I can evade them.

[Griefbringer]

Do you have spotter planes available? If yes, then send those to check your planned flight path and landing zone. They should be able to spot at least some of the enemy in the area - but don't expect them to find everyone. However, they are a bit vulnerable to flak, so it might be a good idea to suppress known enemy AA positions with a bit of artillery before flying them in.

As for the snipers and infantry hiding in the bushes, if you are in a hurry then you might just prepare yourself into taking some hits from them. For this purpose you might want to lead with a few expendable light helicopters (with no passengers inside) - once they draw the enemy fire (and if lucky, survive and spot the firer) you can then either fly around that enemy or use your gunships to suppress it so you can just fly straight over. Also, you might want to drop some artillery on likely enemy hiding places before flying over them.

Just remember that your brave men will be extremely vulnerable when unloading from their helicopters - one well placed MG can reap quite havoc amongst them. Therefore you might want to use your artillery to drop a ring of smoke rounds around the landing zone to make it safer to unload. If necessary, have your infantrymen pop a few more smoke grenades once they land.

And remember, do not tarry in the landing zone too long - you want to have your men away and spread out a bit before any mortar rounds will start landing on that area. Just remember that the cunning Charlie might have placed some minefields on the potential landing zones, which might hinder your movement - as well as any craters you might have caused by pounding the area with large caliber artillery.

[void1984]

Thank you for your deep reply.
I will check once again if any spotter planes are available in 1967.

I was given 3 light helicopters ideal for taking surprise hits.
I have 15 turns to take the village, so I can't afford to locate enemy's flaks first turn, wait 3 turns to fire at them, fly there in next 2 turns, because I will be too late.
I have to fly full range of 81mm mortar, over 3km, so I can't suppress the enemy all the way there blindly, I also use my artillery to lay smoke around Landing Zone.

[void1984]

I have tried your advice.
Spotter plane didn't found any enemy troops, but drained all flaks out of op-fire and located few of them.
My 3 light helicopters probed which ways are safe to approach. They were destroyed, but survived a few hits before.
As the flaks were silent I destroyed those known with gunships.
After that moving transport helicopters to the smoked LZ was easy.

It seems that for helicopters a high altitude doesn't give less chance to be hit by nearby enemy infantry.

[Imp]

It seems that for helicopters a high altitude doesn't give less chance to be hit by nearby enemy infantry.

Unless somethings changed would disagree, less chance not no chance

[Suhiir]

Use your light (recon) helos in teams.
Keep one at high altitude (assuming you don't have to worry much about enemy SAMs/MANPADs/AA) and have the other move one hex at a time at low altitude.
Chances are still good the one at low altitude will get shot up, but the one at high will usually spot the shooter.

Once you unload your infantry you can use your transport helos for high watch.

Spotter aircraft, if you have them, are great for draining enemy AA, just don't fly directly over suspected AA locations ! Try to buzz them from about 5 hexes, you'll get hit a lot less.

Split your assault into two groups/phases.
1) Land one group on the flanks to draw fire/suppress the enemy.
2) The same turn - after group #1 has done it's thing - land group #2 on/near your objective.