Attack Helicopters and LOS

[Rodger Samuel]

The treatment of helicopters and LOS seems to require suicidal pilots. Helicopters -- rather than increasing their altitude to allow seeing over terrain obstacles -- must approach obstacles, exposing themselves to close-range fire.

Certainly, helicopters are noted for their Nap-of-the-earth flying technique, but, once enemy contact is expected, attack helicopters do not continue hugging the ground, rejecting the observational advantages altitude conveys.

In the game, however, attack helicopters are nearly useless. They can't fire at targets they can't see, and, except for perfectly flat terrain, they must approach until they're nearly on top of their target before they can see it. By this point, they are subject even to small-arms fire, which they wouldn't be if they stood off and viewed the battlefield from a height sufficient to see past a one-story building. Instead, in the game, Level One obstacles provide an impenetrable block for any targets any distance beyond it.

One or two blind hexes beyond such obstacles would be fine, but the idea that the helicopters are so low that obstacles to LOS affect them just about the same as ground units seems wrong. As it is, I stopped purchasing them in generated battles, because the LOS rules and their inherent fragility make them useless.

Seems like something should be done to lessen the LOS handicap suffered by helicopters.

 

[Stéphane Tanguay]

Stangely enough, my impression is that a chopper is quite a battle changer, with a lot of mobility and firepower, especially if the opposition does not have any AA weapon. It can stay away from the battle until an enemy unit is spotted, fly in, fire at point blank (nulifying the -2 for attacking while flying) and then move out of harm's way. It is quite eays to stay out of range of small arms, because their range is divided by two against a flying helicopter, and non-guided OFT weapons (like RPG) can't affect flying helicopter).

Unless you are playing in a very crowded battlefiled (such as in Day of hroes), you can usually position your chopper to get a clear LOS to your target with your unlimited movement capacity. Also, remember that choppers are always one level above the terrain they are hovering/flying above so, basically, they are always at least on level 1. They can thus see above even a level-1 obstacle (with a degrading/blocking shadow if said obstacle is not close enough). And if they are flying/hovering above a level-1 obstacle, they are considered at level-2 and thus can see above ANY level-1 obstacle, with one degrading/blocking hex only behind the obstacle.

You can certainly try to allow chopper to fly at higher altitude and see the impact on the game.