How do you manage your squadron?

[+hgbn 91]

When I'm playing a campaign I use my squadron max. I'm in the air with at least half my squadron in every mission. It works great for me and my squadron scores extremely many kills both ground and air. I consider every flight of two aircrafts a element and every element has a lead of an exspirient pilot and a wingman which dont have so many kills. If I get a strike mission I load me and my wingie to the strike and the rest of my flight to combined SEAD/ AIR2AIR and asign my wingman to hit the primary target I go for the primary too and let the rest attack ground. If any air threats are called out in the strike area. I let them go for air attack imediatly. This tatics are working great you'll have a good suply of expirient agressive pilots. I have often ended a campaign with 3 or 4 aces plus some with 4 arial kills.

 

But how do you guys and gals manage yours??

Edited February 18, 2009 by hgbn

[Spinners 15,986]

Food for thought there and I've certainly started using my wingman to attack the primary target and then having a go myself if he has failed or going on to say hello to the nearest Parani airfield . Sometimes when you warp to the action things can be pretty hot and I occassionally pause and assign my assets as appropriate! Getting my wingman to attack my target works well but asking him to cover me rarely works.

[MetalMania 0]

I need to pay more attention to it, because I "manage" to get them KIA a lot! Things heat up, order #2 to cover my six, bag some bogies, "#2 status check". "#2...........?" Gone.

 

Or he's supposed to be covering me, mission accomplished and leaving the area, I'm quite a ways off target and I'm looking around. "Where the hell is he?" I order a rejoin and he's 12 miles away still over the target! Um, you wanna stick with me buddy?

 

And this is gonna sound REAL dumb, but I only recently discovered that you can assign more and specific pilots to your flight! I used to just take whoever was auto generated in the campaign, wondering why I was always going out with only a wingman or MAYBE a 2nd element for a total of 4. Now I know I can put a little more strategy behind it!

 

Question: when you take less experienced pilots, assuming they make it back, do they get "better" over time or just stay at the same level?

[+Gunrunner 314]

Mostly depends on the opposing SAM forces.

 

While going out en-masse is a great way for them to get experience, when faced with SAMs they usually end up being SAM-fodder, so in such cases I try to limit the number of pilots to the absolute minimum.

[gbnavy61 1]

I've noticed the default pilot selection is usually decent. I get a green kid as my dash-2, usually an experienced/senior pilot as dash-3 leading the second section and a not-so-green guy as dash-4. I may swap things out sometimes. I prefer to take pilots who have a few more missions under their belt - maybe ones with a kill or two.

 

As far as size of the flight, four is about perfect for me. It's enough to have a little back-up and flexibility but not too much that I have to worry about managing everybody and waiting for twelve ships to join up. It also gets a little hairy when me and my guys are all 'fangs out' after the same bad guy. The potential for friendly fire and mid-airs goes up significantly. Have yet to have a collision, though there's been several too close for comfort situations, but I have been shot down by a friendly "Fox-2."

[+Dave 2,322]

I go opposite of hgbn. I just started using a 2 ship. I send in my wingman for the target and cover his wing. He does a good job of shacking the target and I scatter any air threats. I am not happy unless I got 2 on my tail and one in my sights. I have them just where they want me.

 

I take of advantage of the smarter AI scatterring when you lob AIM-7's or AIM-120's at them. If they are busy dodging my missiles, they stay off my wingman.

 

The only time I do a squadron in force is when I do a deep strike in daylight. I then take 4 with me with A2G loadout, 4 more with A2A loads only. If I have spares I will load then with ARM and CBU's for air defense suppression.

 

 

I think I go a little overboard on my mission planning.

[jomni 6]

I think 4 planes is just fine for me (when playing stock campaigns).

 

But now I'm playing reds (Paran) with MiG-21's... I noticed that taking at least 8 planes on a mission increases survivability and probability of success. There will just be some freak missions that will take out a big chunk of your squadron though.

 

Squadron management is harder when playing Mercenaries as the cost of arming them is quite huge and not worth the rewards for a successful mission.

Edited February 20, 2009 by jomni

[+Spectre_USA 7]

Copy Dave's response, paste it below.

 

I have the worst luck with taking up a gaggle, I mean I love the idea of having built in CAP and SEAD, but the folks on the fringes just don't listen.

 

The last one of those I tried I had 3 "I'm taking damage" reports in a row. Paused, looked, and 1 got a SAM, another tried to pistol whip a Zeus, and the last bore in

with guns on a tail-gunned transport. Almost half the flight in like 3 seconds.

 

So I take a wingie, let him take his shot, and clean up if he misses, which is all too frequently.

 

With all the enemy AI improvements, the friendly AI seems to have been dumbed down even more than it was...

[jomni 6]

Copy Dave's response, paste it below.

 

I have the worst luck with taking up a gaggle, I mean I love the idea of having built in CAP and SEAD, but the folks on the fringes just don't listen.

 

The last one of those I tried I had 3 "I'm taking damage" reports in a row. Paused, looked, and 1 got a SAM, another tried to pistol whip a Zeus, and the last bore in

with guns on a tail-gunned transport. Almost half the flight in like 3 seconds.

 

So I take a wingie, let him take his shot, and clean up if he misses, which is all too frequently.

 

With all the enemy AI improvements, the friendly AI seems to have been dumbed down even more than it was...

 

Playing at hard difficulty?

Hard makes the Enemy smarter and your Friends dumber.

I stay at normal to balance out.

[Caesar 305]

If there's a lot of bandits, little AAA/SAM activity, I take more planes (4-8); with fewer bandits, less planes. If there's a lot of SAM activity, I don't care how many bandits there are, I take either 2 or launch alone and unafraid. I'd rather not loose half my squadron in one mission.

[GreyCap 0]

If there's a lot of bandits, little AAA/SAM activity, I take more planes (4-8); with fewer bandits, less planes. If there's a lot of SAM activity, I don't care how many bandits there are, I take either 2 or launch alone and unafraid. I'd rather not loose half my squadron in one mission.

 

How do you guys know how much SAM activity there will be in a target area? I don't remember seeing any pre-flight SAM intel anywhere.

[+Dave 2,322]

Playing at hard difficulty?

Hard makes the Enemy smarter and your Friends dumber.

I stay at normal to balance out.

 

Since we learned that the other day I have done the same thing.

 

Might want to try that Aaron.

[+Gunrunner 314]

GreyCap> Well, usually it depends on the year you're playing, the campaign, and learning it the hard way through previous missions... once you know enough, you see where the mission will lead you and the potential SAM opposition.

[Slartibartfast 153]

I generally go up as a Fourship... My Wingie goes with bombs for the primary target the second pair go with SEAD/Air to Air and I go loaded for everything... F-4 for example Pair of ARM's Winders and Sparrows and maybe Mavericks or Bombs for the primary target just in case my Wingie misses and Mav's as they are great for dealing with Zipper guns without gunfighting them....

[Dreamstar 3]

I normally fly single ship.... just me all on my lonesome

[Viggen 644]

#2 goes for the primary, once he's killed it I send him home.

#3, 4 go for A2A.

 

If I'm playing as the Soviets that doesn't change. But if none of them get a kill then I shoot them down my self, for their "Betrayal to the Rodina"

[+EricJ 4,244]

I go opposite of hgbn. I just started using a 2 ship. I send in my wingman for the target and cover his wing. He does a good job of shacking the target and I scatter any air threats. I am not happy unless I got 2 on my tail and one in my sights. I have them just where they want me.

 

I take of advantage of the smarter AI scatterring when you lob AIM-7's or AIM-120's at them. If they are busy dodging my missiles, they stay off my wingman.

 

The only time I do a squadron in force is when I do a deep strike in daylight. I then take 4 with me with A2G loadout, 4 more with A2A loads only. If I have spares I will load then with ARM and CBU's for air defense suppression.

 

 

I think I go a little overboard on my mission planning.

 

I've had to actually start doing that, as the DS map.... too much Red Air, and I can manage three more, just as long as I arm them correctly. Trying to do a strike mission with a half-brained wingnut who doesn't cover your six (good pointer, started noticing that quite alot he's not doing jack for me), but I can at least have a dedicated escort flight rather than hoping they get cycled on the map....

[Syrinx 13]

I prefer to take as few a\c as possible for the mission.

 

I can trust me.

 

I can't always trust the friendly AI and from bitter experience I end up covering my wingman more than he covers me and that's not right, is it.

 

This isn't a critique on the AI really, like anything you learn to live with it and just get on with the mission at hand.

[+Spectre_USA 7]

Since we learned that the other day I have done the same thing.

 

Might want to try that Aaron.

 

My ODS is on normal "campaign difficulty."

 

So you mean if I was to do hard, they'd have to be reminded to breathe on occasions?

 

Wow...

 

[Gr.Viper 131]

In SF2 when I tell my ace wingie to clear my tail I see a fireball in rear mirrors pretty quickly. The scariest moment was seeing him fire AIM-7 at me head on. Turned out he was shooting Fresco right on my tail. Didn't even see it before that.

 

I don't do much squadron mangement when playing some big air force. Mercs are different thing: good planes cost money: experienced crews cost time, so I try to risk as few of them as possible.

[MigBuster 2,884]

Mission dependent really - sometimes take a few as personal air escorts :) - but mainly its just a 2 ship to limit the amount that get blown out of the sky.

[GreyCap 0]

GreyCap> Well, usually it depends on the year you're playing, the campaign, and learning it the hard way through previous missions... once you know enough, you see where the mission will lead you and the potential SAM opposition.

 

Ok, I remember a few months ago somebody made a map for WoV with most of the SAM locations. Can't seem to find it now, but it's a great idea. 

[Caesar 305]

Yeah, air threats are seeable on the map (estimates) but SAMs are a matter of experience. With the DS Mod, I first flew with a four-ship formation. Then I saw how many SAM sites lit up and decided through most of the campaign to fly either two or one-ship. I think the first three missions I used a four-ship regardless to try to get as many kills as possible, and only lost one guy to an SA-3 on day 3 (right after he bagged a Fulcrum). I'm pretty deep in right now and only just recently lost another squadronmate while in a two-ship formation after we got lit up by an SA-8 site. After he got shot, I hit the SAM site with my gun. I've been shooting SAM and radar sites regularly now, full burner, One-Pass-and-Haul-Ass, Baby! stuff so the AAA doesn't have a chance to go active and splash me using one or two-ship flights.

[Emp_Palpatine 501]

For reccon missions, I fly alone.

 

Others, it depends. I prefer two ships for strike/CAS missions, as the second element always wanders doing nothing; but in case of heavy -or anticipated- ennemy air activity, 2 elements: Wingy and I flying A2G and second element as an escort.

 

I rarely use more than two elements, but thinking about it, it's quite true that it increase friendly's survavibility.

 

Sadly, I'm usually a widow maker as a flight leader.

I usually lost wingies in more than 50% of my missions. I always try to minimize their losses, but the AI being what it is...