SimHQ.com - Air Combat Zone - Cooperative Multiplayer

The briefing needs no introduction from me: this is where the player learns about the mission objectives, potential threats (whether surface or land based), support units available, and any other information that may be relevant to the mission (for example, divert airfields etc.). Let's take some of these in turn.

Mission objectives. Let's get one thing straight right away — the purpose of any given mission isn't to shoot down or blow up as many bad guys as possible. The purpose of the mission, and the criteria by which the mission will stand or fall, is set out in the mission objectives. By way of example, let's assume that the mission objective is to protect, against air threats, a flight of B-52s on their way to a target. In our example, we'll assume that there either are no ground based threats or — to the extent that there are any — that there are other friendly forces taking care of them prior to the arrival of the B-52s. Our job, in other words, is purely to protect the B-52s from enemy aircraft sent up to intercept. A few minutes into the flight, you're informed by AWACs that group of enemy fighters are closing on the B-52s' at two o'clock — in other words, coming at the bombers from their front right. You're leading a group of four F-15s, and you immediately launch yourselves towards what turn out to be four MiG-23s. Your group kills one before the other three turn and flee. You feel the natural temptation to pursue: but should you? These aircraft could turn around at any time and continue their assault. Think for a second before reading on, and make your decision.

Surely the answer here has to be a resounding "no". Again, this goes back to the mission objective which isn't to kill as many enemy fighters as possible. Should your flight go charging after the MiGs in our example, you may well find that another enemy group approaches the B-52s from a different direction — and by now you're 70 miles away from the B-52s and unable to respond in time. Sure, you might get your four MiG-23s, but the two MiG-31s successfully shot down all four B-52s. Your group has bagged two thirds of the bad guys, but you've still lost. So... mission objective, mission objective, mission objective. Keep it in mind, and live by it in the game.
Enemy threats. Here, intelligence is important. You need to know what each platform that you're likely to come up against is capable of doing. It is only by knowing the limitations of each threat that you will be able to react against and defeat it. For example, are the SAMs facing you high or low level systems? Knowing this can have an impact on the mission profile, since one is hardly likely to fly NOE (nap of the earth) if the route to the target is protected by low-level SAM systems and mobile air defense platforms such as the ZSU-23-4. Likewise, the likely direction and make-up of any air threat, such as MiG-31s or SU-27s, is likely to dictate a ground attack aircraft's route to the target — snaking through valleys will be much more important where air based threats are on the prowl looking for you.
Know your target area. Falcon 4 is great for this. F4 provides a feature whereby the player can see a 3D make up of the target area and the surrounding geographic features. This can be very useful when deciding on routes to the target (if flying a ground attack mission) or identifying routes that may be taken by opposing ground attack aircraft (if flying an air-to-air mission). As we mentioned above, "snaking" through valleys can be a very good way of "losing" yourself in the ground clutter and hiding yourself as much as possible from the enemy's radar: so such features should always have close attention paid to them.
Listen to the others you're flying with. The attitude on leadership seems to vary from group to group. I've flown with some groups who have a very rigid command structure where dissent and other opinions aren't really tolerated. Likewise, I've flown with groups where no command structure exists at all, and what you really have is a collection of individuals doing their own thing, only loosely working towards the same goals. The answer, I believe, lies somewhere between the two. No one has the monopoly on good ideas — or good mission planning — and where possible it's useful to have a group debate on tactics and the best way to achieve a mission result. The political philosopher J. S. Mill once said that freedom of speech is useful as it serves to promote the clash of ideas and, through this, the emergence of the truth. Well, I'm not sure there is any absolute truth in mission planning, but there certainly are better ideas and worse ideas. Group discussions hopefully help promote the former and weed out the latter.

Another useful purpose of such discussions at the briefing stage is team building. By having an inclusive briefing, a team atmosphere can be promoted whereby each member of the mission feels as though they have contributed something useful to the mission. This will hopefully pay dividends when it comes to working together as a team throughout the mission. Team building and team spirit is a theme which I will return to during the remainder of the article.

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