Air Vehicles

Attack Helicopters

AH-1Z Super Cobra / Wuzhuang Zhisheng-10 / Mi-28 Havok

Attack choppers are going to be devastating forces on most battlefields, especially when they have both a primary and secondary gunner aboard. While difficult to control, attack choppers possess a number of threats that make them feared among both infantry and vehicle soldiers. The pilot will have at his disposal armor-piercing missiles that fly straight ahead of the chopper; these need to be aimed a bit below your target when you're flying forward, to account for your movement. It only takes a few of them to blow up a tank, however.

Video Walk-through

Anti-tank kits can take down even distant helicopters if they happen to hover for too long.

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Having an able secondary gunner, however, can transform the attack choppers into pure death-dealers, thanks to the rotating turret that's put under their control. This large-caliber machinegun can kill most infantry troopers in one or two shots, and the tv-guided missiles, albeit difficult to aim properly when a helicopter is moving fast, are essentially one-hit kills on anything they hit, including tanks. Of course, attack choppers are a bit more prone to getting hit by anti-air assets than jets air, and can even be taken out by anti-tank rounds if you happen to hover in place for too long. As you pass over a battlefield, you can expect enemy infantry to be calling your position out with a good amount of frequency, so keep an ear out for the lockon sound, and be prepared to launch chaff to throw off incoming missiles. Enemy fighters can rather quickly destroy you with either their AA missiles or their frontal guns, so keep moving if possible.

Transport Helicopters

HH-60H Seahawk / Zhisheng-8 / Mi-17 Hip

Transport Choppers are intended to shuttle men around the battlefield at top speeds. You can fit a lot of men into a transport chopper, which make them ideal for getting an entire squad out of the base at the beginning of a round. The main drawbacks to transport choppers is that they're rather cumbersome, making them an easy target for enemy anti-aircraft, and the pilot possesses no weapons. The only offensive capabilities here come from the miniguns mounted on either side, which are perfect for striking down enemy infantry and light vehicles that you happen to spot. Aiming these can be difficult when the helicopter is moving rapidly, however.

Soldiers inside the helicopter can also use their weapons and equipment if they're not in one of the minigun slots. If you're hovering low over an enemy-controlled base, then feel free to chuck out your grenades or C4 while you're still in the relative safety of the helicopter. We say "relative" because you can, in fact, be killed by enemy fire that enters the hold of a helicopter while riding in it. Also note that if you happen to be an engineer, you can hop into one of the rear seats of a helicopter and repair it in mid-air by aiming your wrench at the floor.

Jets

Jets are perhaps a bit easier to handle than helicopters, although flying them well is much, much easier if you happen to have a joystick with a throttle on it as opposed to using a mouse and keyboard. They're not impossible to fly with a mouse and keyboard, but you'll have to constantly lift your mouse and reposition it to achieve 180-degree turns unless you crank the sensitivity way up, and if you crank the sensitivity way up it'll be more difficult to line up for bombing runs. If you plan on being my wingman anytime, then, you'd be well advised to pick up a cheap joystick and practice with it on singleplayer Operation Clean Sweep matches.

Jets can be deadly in the right hands, but you won't help your team if you jump into a machine you can't handle.

There are usually going to be two variations of jets to choose from, at least on the larger maps. There are air superiority fighters, which possess six air-to-air missiles and two ground-target bombs, and versatile jets, which usually pack four AA missiles and five bombs. The versatile jets are generally more coveted, as you can rack up some insane kills by bombing enemy bases, but even the two bombs equipped on the fighters are enough to get your kill count up, since you can easily reload your bombs by flying over a friendly airstrip.

Bombing requires a bit of skill, however, mostly due to the fact that you have to compensate for your forward momentum by dropping the bombs before you pass over the target area, which takes practice to get used to. If you don't want to have to lead so much, you can try divebombing, which has you come in high and swoop down low over your target, reducing the amount of lead time required before you drop the bombs, and allowing you to drop them in a more concentrated area, but which will require more time than just dropping them from a level flying altitude.

Sea Vehicles

Well, when we say sea vehicles, we really mean sea vehicle; the only boat you're going to be running around in anytime soon will be a fast insertion boat, capable of holding a half dozen men, but only containing a single machinegun for offense and only lightly armored. There are aircraft carriers in the game, but they can't be moved from their default positions. (Which is probably a good thing, given the propensity for poor players to beach them in BF1942.) The rigid inflatable boats, however, can be useful on maps with water, since they'll allow you to skirt the main roads and head behind enemy lines, as many players discovered on the Gulf of Oman map in the demo.