6.0 CHAPTER 6
by Brooke
This chapter explains how to capture airfields and other structures, carrier operations, the use of vehicles, and gunning in bombers. It also explains Air-Warrior etiquette (i.e., how not to piss people off too much -- or, looked at from another point of view, how to piss people off greatly).
6.1 CAPTURING AIRFIELDS AND OTHER STRUCTURES
If you want to capture an airfield, it works differently between Air Warrior III and the other versions of Air Warrior. In Air Warrior for Windows and the Mac, one needs to destroy the control tower (the tallest building) and all ack and then drop a C-47's worth of paratroopers (eight) on the airfield. The field becomes available immediately upon capture. You can destroy all airfields, but you can capture only neutral ones.
In Air Warrior III, you need to destroy the airfield first (see section 5.6) and then to drop a C-47's worth of paratroopers (eight) on it. You won't be able to use the field after capture for about an hour, while it is repaired. You can destroy and capture all airfields except the main airfield for a country.
In Air Warrior III, you can also capture some factories, refineries, and depots just as you can capture airfields (i.e., by destroying it and then by dropping troops on it). If you capture such a thing, after about an hour-long repair process, it helps the resupply of nearby captured airfields.
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6.2 CARRIER OPERATIONS
Carriers (sometimes called "CV's") can be difficult to take off from, especially in a fully fueled, fully bomb-laiden F4U Corsair. In that plane, you should use full flaps for takeoff, WEP (war-emergency power), and don't raise the tail of the plane during your takeoff run -- keep it down so that the nose of your plane will be angled up as you leave the deck of the carrier. Handle the controls very lightly after takeoff -- you will be right on the edge of stalling. Raise the gear after you are airborne, and raise the flaps little by little as you gain airspeed. If you can take a fully loaded Corsair off a CV, you can take off in anything.
Landing is even more challenging. You need land within the white stripes at the end of the CV in order to catch the arrester cables. Practicing landings on CV's will make you much better at landing in general.
Any plane can be landed on a CV and in any direction, as long as you hit the white stripes. This presents interesting possibilities if you are near one and in big trouble. Even if you're in a bomber, coming in sideways to the CV, you can land if you hit the stripes. I've used this on occasion to land while being shot at. CV's have a nice ack, too.
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6.3 VEHICLES
Tanks and jeeps aren't used much outside of historical scenarios. Flakpanzers (FP's) are, though. They can be quite deadly to airplanes. Tanks are occasionally used to kill FP's or to shut down an airfield by coming close enough to shoot airplanes that take off. Tanks are difficult to kill except with other tanks.
Vehicles aren't all that complicated. To use one, you start the engine and put it at full throttle, just like you do in a plane. Then you use the "a," "s," and "d" keys to shift -- "d" upshifts, "s" puts the vehicle in neutral, and "a" downshifts. You steer it with the stick. To get from the driver's seat to a gunnery position, you type "<Esc>jg<Enter>"; to get back to the driver's seat, type "<Esc>jd<Enter>". Be careful when cornering at high speeds -- you can roll some of the vehicles.
In vehicles, some guns rotate and change elevation by using the stick only. In others, you need to use the "a" key to rotate a turret to the left, "d" to rotate to the right, "e" to elevate the gun, and "c" to decline the gun -- then you use the stick for the fine movement of the gun.
To use a vehicle for airfield defense, it's best to move away from the runway and buildings because, if the runway or buildings get bombed and if your vehicle is nearby, you will get blown up. If you can manage to have a driver and a gunner, you can keep the vehicle moving and shooting at the same time, and it is thus much harder to hit (especially by dive-bombing). FP's are best for airfield defense from aircraft. Tanks are best for airfield defense against other vehicles.
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6.4 GUNNING IN BOMBERS
If you have a choice on which position to take for gunning, the tail or upper ball turrets are, in my opinion, the best positions. From there, you can fire on any plane that is coming up from behind for a shot on the bomber. Also, if you are flying in a bomber that can also be used offensively air to air (like the A-26), you can have fun in dogfights hitting fighters that are trying to stay with the bomber in a turn.
The commands to move around among the various gunnery positions are "<Esc>jt<Enter>" (to jump to the tail-gunner position), "<Esc>ju<Enter>" (to jump to the upper turret), "<Esc>jl<Enter>" (to jump to the lower turret or, in the B-17, to the left waist gun), etc. Not all planes have all positions, so sometimes you might get a message like "that position is unavailable." The B-17 has the most positions: "<Esc>jt<'Enter>" (tail), "<Esc>jl<Enter>" (left waist), "<Esc>jr<Enter>" (right waist), "<Esc>ju<Enter>" (upper), "<Esc>jb<Enter>" (lower ball turret), "<Esc>jn<Enter>" (navigator's gun), and "<Esc>jc<Enter>" (chin). You can get back to the pilot's position with "<Esc>jp<Enter>". When playing online you are unable to leave the pilots position and go to a gunners position.
Sometimes, your joystick (or mouse) will swivel the turret as well as move the gun up and down. Other times, you have to use the "a" (left), "d" (right), "e" (up), and "c" (down) keys to swivel the gun, just like in vehicles. Check this out right after you take off so that you know how to move the gun once you get into combat.
As gunner, your job is also to watch for enemies approaching. The visibility in bombers is often very bad, so your input helps the pilot -- on the intercom (the "`" key or if you have VOX use the "SHIFT Q"), let him know what's up. Rear visibility for pilots is especially bad in bombers.
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6.5 ETIQUETTE
I know what you are saying: "Emily Post was no Air-Warrior pilot." So what's this section on etiquette, anyway? Well, there are some things that you can do in Air Warrior that will really piss people off. I figure that I should explain them -- not so that you won't piss people off (that's your choice to make) but so that you at least won't piss people off unintentionally. Also, practicing Air-Warrior etiquette will usually cause you to be considered a real stand-up kind of guy, a true man's man of Air Warrior (even if you happen to be a woman), and some people like being thusly considered. So, with the reasons out of the way, what are the big gaffs one can make in Air Warrior?
During a battle, bailing out of a plane that can still fight. This is the mark of a true sissy. The Air-Warrior credo (heretofore and henceforth unstated) stipulates that a pilot should, if possible, hold on to the bitter end. Now, if your plane gets shot up and loses an engine, ailerons, or elevator, or if you have run completely out of ammo, bailing out is OK because your plane can't fight anymore. Actually, in the case of an engine failure or running out of ammo, a true pilot's pilot would still stay in the fight, diving for speed when needed, possibly going for a forced landing while under attack when completely out of altitude, or trying to get the enemy to crash, trying to get into a situation where it is possible to disengage, or holding on for help to arrive. However, bailing out in these cases at least won't qualify you as (too much of) a sissy. Bailing out is even OK if your plane is fine, but no enemy is engaging you or chasing you. Most importantly, though, if your plane is shot up but still flyable (even if it is losing fuel or oil) or if an enemy is still chasing you (whether or not he has yet caught you), you should stay in the plane, even if you are vastly outnumbered. One of the most loathsome acts in Air Warrior is to run away from an enemy for a long period of time and a great distance only to bail out when the enemy finally closes to firing range.
Bombing the crap out of the enemy when he is heavily outnumbered. Let's say that there are 4 A-landers up and 16 C-landers. With such lopsided odds, the C-landers should not be bombing A-land airfields. Why not? Isn't this war? Yes, but with such odds, there is little the A-landers can do to stop the bombing onslaught, and when enough A-land airfields are disabled, the outnumbered A-landers are likely simply to log off, leaving the C-landers with no opponents. Not much fun, eh? If you're so eager to bomb that you don't mind that there isn't enough opposition to make it challenging, you might as well go bomb some neutral fields or targets that don't matter to the A-landers' choice of planes or airfields. A better choice is to switch countries so that you can help even up the odds.
Sometimes, there are only a few people up. In such circumstances, it's not couth to jump an enemy right after he takes off. If it's only 1-on-1 with no one else around -- let the guy get at least a little altitude and airspeed before you jump him. A truly chivalrous pilot will adjust the circumstances so that he and the enemy engage at the same altitude and similar airspeed. If it's 2-on-1 with no one else around -- you should definitely let the enemy get up to your altitude and airspeed. Let him know on the radio that you're giving him some time to do so. He might say that he doesn't care and that you can come attack him at any time. In that case, as you dive in on him to deliver his certain doom, you should note to yourself how truly manly and virile he is.
Diving into a 2-on-1 fight, making it a 3-on-1 fight. This is more of a fine point. Most pilots accept 2-on-1 odds (even against them), but 3-on-1 is usually overkill -- 4-on-1 is definitely overkill. Your time is better spent covering your comrades in the fight by keeping a watch for other enemies showing up. Your comrades in the fight generally won't be in good position to deal with another enemy diving into the action -- but you can be. You can also call out warnings that more enemies are showing up, and you can engage a newly arriving enemy before he has a chance to dive into the action, spoiling his attempt to assist his hapless buddy. If the fight becomes a 1-on-1 while you are keeping watch, feel free to dive in; or if one of your countrymen in the fight calls for help, you should dive in regardless of how lopsided the odds are in his favor.
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6.6 CHAPTER 6 EXERCISES
6.6.1 CARRIER OPERATIONS
Practice landings and takeoffs from a CV (carrier) using an F4U Corsair with 100% fuel and 2 bombs loaded (if your Air-Warrior program supports bombs).
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6.6.2 PREPPING AIRFIELDS
Take up an A-26 and practice prepping an airfield for capture. In Air Warrior for the Windows and the Mac, practice bombing the ack and then the tower, all with one A-26 mission. If you can't find an airfield with an ack, let a corner of the runway be your simulated ack target. In Air Warrior III, take up an A-26 and go bomb acks, towers, fuel tanks, etc.
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6.6.3 VEHICLES
Drive around all of the vehicles, seeing which ones you can roll by going at top speed and turning hard. Jump to the gunnery positions and practice firing at things.
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6.6.4 AGGRESSIVE BOMBER FLYING
Take up an A-26 and fly it as you would a fighter. If your Air-Warrior program supports off-line missions, go up and have some fights. Get a feel for how careful you have to be in order to keep from ripping the wings off of your A-26. (Remember that the wings come off if you pull more than 6 g's.) If your program doesn't have off-line missions, practice some of the ACM exercises in the A-26.
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