Calling in airstrikes

[PoorOldSpike]

METHOD 1 (vanilla Combined Ops 1.57)
This is for when you've got direct eyeball contact with the enemy, I set up this simple test in the Editor inside 5 minutes, the Editor is the best way to learn all about the game in my opinion.

First place a man (you) on the map, then place an A-10 near him as below, REMEMBER to set the A-10 to 'Flying', it doesn't need waypoints and will circle overhead waiting for you to call it in-

Then place a few Opfor trucks-

Get on the radio to the circling A-10 by hitting 'F2', point at the target you want it to zap, then transmit the order with a left mouse click.

The A-10 will then position itself for the attack run and whammo, it strikes with rockets and gunfire-

NOTE:- Sometimes the A-10 will abort its attack run if it loses sight of the enemy. That's more likely to happen if you order it to strike infantry because they have the habit of running into cover. Also, the A-10 will sometimes attack without waiting for you to call it in (gung ho)

 

[PoorOldSpike]

METHOD 2:- Using Air Recon to locate and zap targets.

I set this up in the Editor by placing an infantryman (the player), and an A-10 (airborne, playable) in the south, and an enemy T-72 tank miles away in the military base up north.

I exit the Editor and begin the game, and run into this house just to show you can direct air ops from indoors or anywhere else if you've got a map and radio-

The A-10 orbits its starting position; note that the T-72 has vanished from the map because it's too far away for the A-10 to spot it-

So I hit 'F2' to open a radio link to the A-10, and click on the mil base to send it flying off up there-

Aha!, the A-10 radios back that its sighted the T-72, and its red icon appears on the map-

Yup there it is smack in the middle of the mil base and is firing at the A-10 with its AA MG, cheek!

Okay, it wants to play rough so I go back to the map, get on the radio to the A-10 (key F2) and click on the T-72 to order the A-10 to zap it-

The A-10 struts its stuff and the T-72 is blown off the map, and the A-10 radios back to tell us-

Yup, the T-72 is toast-

SUMMARY- the test shows that even if you (the player) can't see any targets because you're miles away in a building or whatever, you can order aircraft/helos to fly to any spots on the map to look for bad guys, then if they spot any, order them to clobber them.
Note:- sometimes air units will fire at enemies on their own initiative without you having to tell them (i think it depends on random factors like pilot quality etc), but there's an order to tell them to hold their fire for whatever reason, for example if they're shooting at trucks and you want them to save their ammo to fire at more valuable targets such as tanks.
Sometimes they'll even ignore your orders to fire at a specific target, and fire at something else instead, possibly because they've got a better LOS to it or whatever.

 

[PoorOldSpike]

LASER-BOMBING

The A-10 carries 4x LGB's (below) and can use them against locations (buildings/ factories/ oil tanks/ roads/ control towers etc) EVEN IF THERE ARE NO ENEMY VISIBLE THERE.
(By contrast, it will use cannons and rockets against spotted enemy tanks/ vehicles/infantry etc)

I set it up in the Editor inside 2 minutes. place a man (you), and an airborne A-10.
Place a 'US Army Special Weapons' crate (orange box) nearby. (don't forget it's the crate with the word 'Army' in it, and contains a Laser Marker, as some crates don't have one)

Hit 'Preview' to start the game and toddle over to the crate-

Rummage through it and take out the Laser Marker-

Now go somewhere from where you can eyeball the surrounding area, i climb Vybor chimney, ha ha-

Look around for a juicy target like that building, probably the local enemy Secret Police HQ. Note the A-10 is patiently circling the map-

Click the mousewheel to select the Laser Marker, this is it in his hands-

Point it at the building (note it always has a zoomed view)-

And click the left mouse button to designate it. (you won't see the laser beam but we know it's shining because of that green circle in the middle)

You can hit the numpad 'period key' to zoom to 3rd person view like this if you want to get a better view of things (or even better, hold Alt and pan around with the mouse), don't worry, the laser will stay on the target-
After a few seconds (or a minute or more, it varies) the A-10 pilot radios that he can see the designated target-

After taking a minute or two to line up for his attack run, he comes in and releases a LGB (circled)-

Whammo, the building fireballs-

The building is history. NOW SWITCH OFF THE LASER (left mouse click) or the A-10 might drop another one where you don't want it.
Call him back in later to drop his 3 remaining LGB's on other targets.

Okay, just to recap the Lasering procedure-
1- Sight it on the target
2- Hit left MB to designate
3- Hit numpad 'period', and 'asterisk', then swivel your neck by mousing around to watch the plane come in.
4- Switch off the laser after the strike with the left MB again

 

[PoorOldSpike]

The A-10 carries 4x LGB's (you might want to tick them off on a piece of paper so you don't lose count)

Here are another couple of laser bombings-
FARMHOUSE-

ROAD JUNCTION

SUMMARY-
The great advantage of LGB's is that you can designate anything EVEN IF YOU CAN'T SEE ANY ENEMY UNITS THERE, which makes them great for demolition work against buildings, factories, oil tanks and depots etc.
But be aware the laser sometimes seems not to work (ie the pilot ignores it) if you're designating a spot in the middle of an open field, maybe the soft grass 'soaks up' the beam and makes it invisible to the pilot, I don't know, so always try to designate a harder surface like a building or even a tree or bush etc.
Remember, once you've designated a target, you can hold the 'Alt' key and move the mouse (or hit asterisk numpad) to look around and watch the plane come in, and the laser will stay pointed at the target no matter how much head-swivelling you do.