Armored Brigade 2: How to Use Air Support

by Fernando Diaz / Articles, Misc. Guides / 25 Sep 2024

To call in aircraft, choose the aircraft sortie from the Air Support window menu. There is a random delay before close air support arrives. Fixed-wing aircraft may not be available after they leave the map. Rotary-wing aircraft (other than Running Fire) will never be available again once they leave the map. Aircraft will leave the area if they take heavy fire, are damaged, or run out of ammunition.

Fixed-wing CAS are armed with iron bombs, napalm, and cluster bombs, among others. These airplanes fly in towards the designated waypoint to attack ground targets within the smaller circle, while anti-aircraft units are engaged within the SEAD circle.

Helicopter entry points over hover points, Battle Positions (BPs), and Target Reference Points (TRPs) need to be established before engaging the enemy. During the battle, when helicopters are called, they will fly to the first BP and observe their TRP. The player can order them to change BR HQ units, and the player character can use the HQ CAS command to call helicopters on the map for support. If an on-map helicopter is available, it will fly to a position near the caller and engage enemies there.

The blue arrow marks the entry position, and circles denote the BPs: the active BP is a solid circle, and other positions are dashed circles. While setting the TRPs, the weapon range and maximum helicopter LOS range are shown as circles. A red line means there is no LOS to the mouse cursor position from the BP’s maximum pop-up altitude.

Helicopters employ pop-up tactics when in a BP. They vary their height between 8 and 50 meters, or less if they can maintain LOS to the TRP without having to pop up to 50 meters. While in a BP, helicopters can be commanded to reposition to another location within the circle. Open the Air Support menu, highlight the flight, and left click inside the BP circle. The new position can be anywhere within the circle, but the closer it is to the center, the shorter the command delay. Positions at the edges of the circle take longer, as shown with the yellow arrow.

Scout helicopters will report sightings to their owner. If two or more opposing flights are on the map with suitable weapons—air-to-air missiles, for example—air-to-air combat can occur. Aircraft will attempt to engage hostile targets automatically.

Aircraft Improvements in Armored Brigade II:

Low-altitude loft bomb delivery: The aircraft are now able to execute a pull-up maneuver at low altitudes with the ability to loft bombs at a pre-calculated point. This technique minimizes enemy air defenses by not having to make a direct flight over the target. It also provides for releasing bombs from greater distances, thus enabling aircraft to turn before entering a dangerous zone.

Helicopter running fire attack: This is a rapid pop-up and peek or bump maneuver while the helicopter is moving forward. Upon entering the map or airspace, the helicopter climbs to low altitude at maximum speed, deploying countermeasures (such as flares if available). The helicopter then makes a slow dive toward the target, executes an aggressive turn away from the target after completing the attack run, loses altitude in a sideslip-dive maneuver, and returns to terrain flight altitude to clear the danger zone. This method furnishes more responsive support but exposes helicopters to considerably greater risk, especially against modern defenses.

New bomb weight categories: Bomb weight options now range from 50 to 500kg (previously 250kg). This provides more choices for ordnance selection and offers more flexibility for modders.

Reworked rocket attacks: The strikes of rockets now rely more on the area effect, making them perfect for saturating big areas with firepower. This is very effective for dealing with dispersed infantry or lightly armored targets, as it helps in disrupting and demoralizing enemy forces more effectively.

Fernando Diaz

Fernando is doing what he always did, sharing his honest opinions about games whenever he can. The difference is now he is writing and not talking about it.
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