Welcome to my gunship. Please keep your arms, hands, and feet inside the gunship at all times. When you enter the gunship, you should be in the gunner seat (F2), NOT the pilot’s seat. That seat is mine, and if you don’t get out of it, I’m gonna shoot you in the FACE with my AT Rocket (Yes it will go through the cockpit glass). I carry an AT so I can shoot you in the face if you don’t know what you’re doing. On the occasions where I have teammates or a competent gunner with me, I will fly as an Engineer, so that I can hover over friendly armor and repair them in the field.
2) What kit should you choose as a Helo Gunner???
I suggest you either pick Engineer, or Support as my gunner, so that we can repair/re-arm ourselves, and others. As double Engineers, we can repair armor very quickly (not ourselves, but other armor like Linebackers or Tanks owned by our team). It does neither of us any good for you to be a Sniper, Assault, or Anti-Tank. None of those 3 kits give us any advantage. If I see you walk up to my helo in a “Guille Suit”, I will shoot you in the face. Any of those 3 classes do us ZERO good.
If you want me to drop you off at their base, to blow up their commander sh*t, then sure, go Spec Ops, but PLEASE tell me that you are doing that. Keep in mind, that there are not many opportunities to do this on most maps, and that enemy chopper spawns 30 seconds after we kill it, so unless you’re on Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, TeamSound, etc., with me, this is not a wise choice. If you want to look like you know what you’re doing, walk up to my Chopper with your Ammo Bag or Wrench in hand, and I’ll know you’ve read my chopper guide and I can count on you.
There is a debate on using the Medic kit as a gunner. As my gunner, don’t do it. I think it is a bad idea, since I don’t plan on hovering over a big group of people to heal them. Let the commander drop supplies on their heads for that.
3) We’ve just lifted off, what do you do now???
Let’s just pray that you have a friend that can fly the helo, and the 2 of you have practiced on an empty server with the TV Missiles. You’re my gunner now and most likely, we’re on a full server. This IS NOT the place to learn how to shoot the TV missile. Host your own server and do that. If you don’t have any friends, load up Sharqui Peninsula, get in the MEC Chopper and go park it on the TV Station and practice shooting things. Hell, park it anywhere you want, just learn on your time, and not mine. Sure this sounds a little harsh, and I apologize. I’m here to play, and to kick some ass, I’m not here to try and teach you how to shoot. Let’s just hope a REALLY good gunner writes a tutorial of the same fashion for all the pilots out there that have no f’n clue what they are doing.
Remember to use the camera view while you’re flying so you can alert the pilot if you see a anything behind you, helo, armor, etc. Default key is C.
4) OMG, someone spotted an enemy HELO…what do you do???
A) He doesn’t see us, but we see him
If swear to god if you spool up that chain gun and start shooting at a full health helo that I’ve snuck up on, I’m going to shoot you in the face the first chance I get. This is something you don’t EVER want to do, and I’m going to explain why. The chain gun on the nose, is good for shooting at a smoking chopper that you want to “finish off”, or for infantry that you want to staple to the ground. If I’m lining up a rocket shot, and you start blazing away on the chain gun, the enemy helo is gonna feel it, see the big red mark on his screen indicating where we are, and he’s going to do whatever he can to out maneuver us. Thus, you’ve completely owned my chances at getting a solid rocket shot, and for that I will hate you and curse your mother.
If he doesn’t see us initially, I’m gonna put you in position for a TV Guided Missile shot. If you miss, and he doesn’t ‘jink’ after the missile goes by, I’m gonna stay lined up for a 2nd TV Guided Missile shot. I’m going to try to give you a rear quarter shot, so you have more surface area to aim for. After 2 tries with the TV and you miss, you’re f’n fired and I’m going in for a rocket run. Chances are, I’m going to at LEAST get that helo smoking, if not dead in that 1 run. Once he’s smoking, open up with that chaingun at any time, keeping in mind that I’m STILL going to try to line up a good Missile shot for you.
He see’s us, and we see himI’m going to do my best to get as much altitude as possible, and get you a downward firing angle on him. It’s tough to shoot up as you know. Do me a favor, when you see the enemy helo, SPOT him for me (Default is Q then mouseclick). Spot him ANY chance you get, cuz that shows up on my radar and helps me maneuver for the kill shot.
For God’s sake, shoot him in the face with a TV Guided Missile. He’s no doubt coming straight at us and thinking the same thing. Initially, most don’t jink very much to try and get out of harm’s way. I love a gunner than can hit the long distance nose to nose shot. It sure pisses the enemy pilots off to no end.
Ok, let’s say you’ve missed your TV shots and I’m not choking you to death. We’re now tangled up in a maneuvering nightmare. Feel free to chain him any chance you get, but keep in mind that this entire time, I’m trying to line you up for another TV Guided Missile shot. That Missile is deadly, and 1 shot kills anything in the game. Airplanes, Helo’s, Armor, people, etc. Use it to OUR advantage. The better you gun, the better I fly, the more we help our team. I don’t plan on dying, so help me, help you. Don’t suck.
5) OMG, someone spotted enemy ARMOR…what do you do???
Please refer to section 4A regarding our initial sighting of the enemy. Do NOT, I repeat DO NOT open up on full strength Armor with the chain gun. You’re gonna do 2 things…#1, let him know we’re there, and #2, REALLY **** me off. So much of this game is based upon the element of surprise. That’s how I like to fly my chopper. I want them to have to look at the top left of their screen to see wtf happened. Chances are, if he see’s us, I’m gonna maneuver out of his line of sight, and circle back around, and catch him from the side he has his back too.
I’m gonna give you 1 chance to hit with the TV on a ground target. That thing is loud when it hits, and if you don’t suck, and you miss, you’re not gonna miss by much. He’s gonna hear it, and look for us. I am immediately going to haul a$$ in on a rocket run the INSTANT you fire that TV. If you hit, that’s awesome, if you miss, well, I won’t. =) Hitting a tank with Helo Rockets is like shooting a 12 gauge shotgun at the side of a barn. You’d have to be a complete tool to miss a stationary piece of armor (I’m exaggerating). Hitting moving armor is another story, lets not get into that here, lets just hope you’ve gotten some practice in..
If somehow, we both miss, after I’m done sticking pins in the Voodoo Doll in your likeness, I’m gonna leave him alone for a moment, and he’s gonna think we went back to re-arm (sometimes). Well, we’re not, I’m hiding behind a hill about to poke my chin over the top, so you can spank him with a TV Guided Missile (Don’t miss). This is generally how it works, not always….If you see me hovering for no apparent reason, chances are I’m setting you up for a shot. This is where being on voice coms really helps. Communication wins matches, if you don’t have it, you’re not gonna do very well, but we’re gonna do our best in any case.
6) We’ve taken some damage, and we don’t have a base to repair.
This is just unfortunate and I will most likely blame you. I suggest also shouting obscenities in team chat telling everyone how much they suck for not keeping your base up, hehe. Seriously tho, hopefully I’ve been smart enough at some point in time to request supplies in a remote location that we can go hover over. Or in the likely event that our Radar, UAV, or Artillery have supplies near them, that’s where I’m gonna go. If not, I’m gonna find a place for us to land. If you’re an Engineer, get out and help me repair so we get it fixed, FAST. If you’re in Support Kit, get out and toss some ammo on the ground below us. Then get in the Pilots Seat (F1), and keep the rotor turning. Once we are FULLY repaired, get BACK in the Gunner Seat (F2). This REALLY helps out a lot, if we get in trouble, we can get off the ground quicker if the rotor is up to speed.
7) Flag Capping
Sometimes it's important for a helo to swoop in and take an enemy flag. No i'm not talking about BlackHawk asshaterry...we all know how much that sucks (Unless you're one of the six guys in it). So I swoop into a flag area and I'm going to keep turning 360's around that flag, looking for enemies. Now, it is your job to do a few things. FIRST thing I'm going to do, is point you at a LineBacker, Tank, LAV, Tow Tripod, etc. Pretty much in that order. Work your threat order TOP DOWN. Unless you have friendlies there to jump in those vehicles, blow them the hell up. If I point you at a Tank, and I hold it there, I'm not doing it to show you my skills at hovering, I want you to kill it, NOW. You do that, and I'll buy you a cupcake at the Officers Club when the map is over. Good rule of thumb is this. If you can blow it up, DO IT, cuz most of that stuff down there could turn us into Swiss cheese in about 4 seconds if an enemy gets into it. Now that we have cleared the area, get the hell out and lets cap this flag faster!!
8) Conclusion
I make mistakes, and so will you. As long as you appear to know what you are doing, you can miss a lot of shots as long as you are trying, and you appear to be getting better.
Im just trying to help from my experiences in competition grade gameplay.