Light Helicopter Designs

[George The Ork]

I have two pretty decent light Helicopter designs, a recon heli 20 tiles range, and a tac bomber heli 16 tiles range with very small missile pods and mgs.

However as my current war has played out I feel like having un-armed recon helis is kind of a detriment as with a secondary large wing of recon aircraft I am never short of spotting abilities. My recon planes are now being armed with mgs for supportive airstrikes and to help build on their design. And as things go I have new medium helis with medium missiles that are essential to cracking enemy medium armour formations.

So I'm essentially going to end up with 2 kinds of the same small heli as mgs and very small rocket pods are pretty easy to equip on such craft.

So if one becomes an armed recon unit, and the tact bomber role is being essentially replaced by new medium helis, what is a good idea for the second small heli design? Not like I can equip AA missiles on them, even if the enemy AI had aircraft anyway. They are otherwise too small for any real work as traditional high explosive bombers or air transports.

Suggestions? Thoughts? Just ditch the lesser design and more or less merge them into one tac recon kinda craft? Thanks for your time!

[CHOO CHOO]

No idea. I always find that there are too many aircraft chassis and too few roles; especially since you can't even filter which ones go into which units together. Having two helicopters of the same chassis type? You're already in more complex territory than anything I'd want to get near.

[George The Ork]

Lol to be fair in this game my goal was to get complicated!

I have two ultra light aircraft designs: ULAR (Recon, now with MGs and turbo props) ULAFB (Outdated fighter bombers with only 10 range, but very cheap and armed with basic 500kg bombs. Swarm fighters that I intend to never turn into jets for making highly cost effective swarms.)

Two light aircraft designs: LAR (Unused as it needs a tier 2 airfield, turbo props at 20 range and my largest recon aircraft that I might pair with medium bombers when I get turbo jets as a spy plane.) LAFB (Unused as it needs a tier 2 airfield, a jet but with only 10 range as it was an older design, armed with rockets and missiles so kinda expensive as I have no heavy industry yet.)

One medium with another in development: M1AFB (Unused, Turbo propper with 20 range, heavy AA missiles and rockets. The future of do all aircraft but too expensive right now.) and the soon to be M1ATB (Turbo Prop with MGs and 5k of HE bombs for the scary looking MG ARMY GROUP the enemy just summoned to my doorstep. Hope I have enough metal for all the munitions this heavy B is going to need.)

Two light helicopters: LHR (As above a 20 tile range dutiful scout that I think could use some teeth to help develop.) LHTB (16 tile range, one of the first aircraft I made this game, armed with a MG and very light rockets, great vs neutrals and troglodytes but showing their frailty vs flak cannons, massed MGs and how they just can;t cut down tanks fast enough.)

And one medium helicopter: MHTB (Only 10 tiles range, helicopters struggle as I am not sure they get a buff from turbo props, but range enough to fire MEDIUM rockets into enemy assault guns and crack the hardest part of their army. MGs on them for fun as you can never have enough dakka!)

So yeah a little complicated. When I take losses I reinforce directly to the unit stack as the planes sit at well serviced airports where my truck/train stations are, and the helicopters sit on the roads. It's not so bad really as my naming scheme clears up the differences when you might otherwise have to determine what the ever loving hell a 'Hopper IV' is and how it differs to a 'Spitfire II' and so on with the default names.

[ulzgoroth]

Personally, I didn't think it was worth developing more light helicopters after my first one. They can't carry heavy enough weapons to be good at ground attack, and are additionally too slow to be good at air combat. For an attack helicopter I'd always choose medium or heavy. And a transport copter would certainly go as heavy as possible.

Thus if I was going to make a second light copter...I'd make it an absolutely stripped-to-the-bone scout, maximizing cheapness and range. I probably would actually make it unarmed because weapons light enough to not hurt performance aren't going to give it any useful strike capability.

But what I'd actually do is not develop one at all.

EDIT: I could be wrong, but I think against enemy heavy armor precision bombs beat rockets. They're much heavier, but they can achieve much higher attack scores.

[George The Ork]

That is a fair perspective!

[ulzgoroth]

Also if you don't have heavy industry, the machinery for a light helicopter engine seems like more than the aircraft is really worth.

[George The Ork]

I'm using the engine that costs only the one machinery so they aren't TOTALLY cost prohibitive along with salvage. But yeah its one of the things stopping me from going ballistic on the helicopters, for fun.

Make half my military into helicopters and bomb them all back to the stone age!

[Lumpy283]

I make my recon assets light to medium heli and thopter with rockets and no ata. They are decent armor strikers and cover your recon as well

[George The Ork]

Yeah that was along the lines that I was thinking. Although do note that a MG does provide a little extra ground attack for very little weight unlike ATA missiles which are much heavier for a little additional ground attack.

Rockets also provide a little extra ATA attack too! So can be a nice thing to attach to fighter bombers who need to be doing both.

[Lumpy283]

Fair enough, I usually keep my designs as trim as possible but you make a good point, I do run a fighter bomber thopter that can do a similar task but that is usually later in the game when I am building a concerted air force. Do you arm your transports?

[George The Ork]

I haven't gotten around to transports yet so I don't really understand them.

[ulzgoroth]

My heavy jet strike fighters with AAMs and rockets both have done some useful medium strike work for me...as have my lighter jet fighters with AAMs only, because apparently air to air missiles double as ground attack munitions.

That I consider somewhat important because I haven't seen any enemy air units fielded, so if I'm going to have fighters I need to have them useful for something else too.

[Lumpy283]

I have yet to see enemy airforce but plenty of defense. I think that there is an issue with the AI over-weighting air defense over superiority. Regarding transports, they require a good deal of stable infrastructure, I tend to use thopters for transport because a decent transport plane requires a huge investment in airstrips, and helos tend to fit better as light strikers and recon. I am going to take both of yalls ideas and run with them though and see how they work for me.

[George The Ork]

Sure! Just figuring out the kinda stuff I want/need for my own airforce.

Light helicopters/Thopters seem like a great choice for an armed recon unit, it won't be killing anything serious but should still be fairly cheap enough for swarming recon and attacks. (I would think something like that is a must, assuming you can afford the machinery.)

And for aircraft, sticking to a propeller/turbo props so they DON'T cost machinery and no missiles means, I think a metal/rare metal only design for a cheap fighter bomber scout kinda thing.

Getting a T1 airfield set up in a new zone isn't too bad and is fairly cheap for the effect of supplying all your vtols and keeping a stack of ultra light planes ready to go. So I'm thinking of setting myself out some 'tie fighter' style swarm ultra lights, as they can't have rockets or missiles anyway. Very cheap and disposable.

[Lumpy283]

hmm I was thinking of trying a similar technique with tier 2 airfields

[George The Ork]

Yeah! I mean airfields aren't very expensive, it's just they don't do much if you aren't actively using them.

Having massive airfleets of recon and bombers is great! Assuming you can afford the munitions cost because by the gods...