Wind Wraiths Standard Operating Procedure

Note: This is not an exhaustive document, but more a series of guidelines. When in doubt, ask a Wind Wraiths officer.

Our Mission: Air Superiority by any means necessary. Aircraft and anti-air ground-based platforms are our primary tools.

Unit Practice is supplanted by Mechanized Monday, or alternately once a month when called by PM.

Piloting / Gunning Skills are not always covered during WW practice. Instead we recommend you attend the Ghost Flight Academy, or ask for some one-on-one time with an officer or pilot you admire. See the Important Intel forum for details.

Mandatory Join the FEAR Social Group by visiting this page and clicking on the Join Group button.

Recommended loadouts: Coordinate with your platoon lead (PL) and squad lead (SL) to ensure we have a good balance of Air-to-Air and Air-to-Ground platforms. The focus is on anti-air and anti-vehicular guns, though when there's no air present, anti-infantry is acceptable. As always, the PL's orders take precedence.

Things to Remember

• Don't Chase - You will be assigned to a target area by your Squad Leader. When attacking an enemy target, do not leave the target area. If you must, do not stray more than 1 hex away from the target area. Don't get led into an ambush!
  
• Stay on target - If you are assigned a target ("Alpha, take out those Prowlers to the North"), stay on it until you're done. Don't get distracted.
  
• Don't over-commit - always be able to fall back without getting taken out. A good rule of thumb is: when you hit 50% damage, pull off and rearm/repair.
  
• Stay Frosty / Don't Fixate - It's easy to shut out the rest of the world and focus on a single target. Keep your head on a swivel and maintain battlefield awareness. Free look is a great tool for this.
  
• Fly High - When not attacking a target and piloting, stay within 100m of flight ceiling. This will keep you out of range of ground-based AA, and above most other enemy air.
  
• Turn Right - If you're approaching a friendly head-on, always give way by turning right. "Remember: right is Right, left is Wrong!"
  
• Rearm Under the Pad - If you're in a Scythe, and you need to rearm on an air pad, try to rearm underneath it. Leave the top for Galaxies / Liberators.
  
• Spend your resources (SPUR) - Resources cap out at 750. Remember to refill your grenades, mines and other consumable infantry resources.
  
• Conserve your resources - Remember: aircraft and tanks are expensive and come with timers.
  
• Waypoints - in Wind Wraiths, the Platoon Waypoint (Gold) is always a safe fallback/form up point. The Squad Waypoint (Green) instead designates your current target. This is so that squads can be split across targets as necessary. Use your Personal Waypoint (Blue) as you see fit.
  
• Combat Air Patrol - or "CAP" is a short-term assignment for a small group of 1-3 aircraft. Missions include scouting, bombing and strafing runs, area of denials and screen defenses. All CAP missions are expected to run 5 minutes or less. Assignment to a CAP is at leadership discretion and is expected to rotate so as to give all Wraiths the opportunity.
  
• Enemy Warpgates - Avoid at all costs. In fact, WW will not accept air-based targets from GOTR command within 1 region of an enemy warpgate unless we're on the ground.
  
• Phantom Guard - PG are our bretheren in FEAR and have the most expensive resources in the game right now: Magriders. We will always prioritize calls to provide PG air superiority over other GOTR units.
  

Communications

• Listen to your Squad Leader - the Platoon Leader will give orders to the Squad Leaders, but don't take action until you hear your Squad Leader give the order. They may ask you to take a special route, or form-up somewhere far away (like the Warpgate) first.
  
• Tac Chat - This means "keep audio comms on tactical comments only." No talking about your dinner, your sexual escapades or debating the latest game mechanics changes. Wind Wraiths is always Tac Chat during official events unless otherwise stated.
  
• Clear Comms - If an officer calls Clear Comms, shut up. Officers are on multiple radio channels and are probably calling Clear Comms to speak to "higher means." Officers will tell you when it's OK to talk again, usually no more than a minute or two.
  
• Vehicle Chat - Make use of the Flight Crew 1-6 channels in TeamSpeak to talk with your pilot/gunner crew. If you need help with this, consult the Important Intel TeamSpeak thread or ask someone on TS.
  
• WUTU - acronym for "Wait Up, Team Up". It basically means "stop mindlessly zerging in one at a time, we're going to team up and do this the right way". If you hear WUTU, then STOP and form up with the rest of the group. Pronounced just the way it looks.
  
  Specific kinds of WUTU:
  • WUTU - always at the Platoon Waypoint unless otherwise stated. This is usually the FOB or other safe form-up point (FUP).
    
  • Warpgate WUTU - always at the VS warpgate
    
  • Alpha/Bravo/Charlie/Delta Squad WUTU - at your respective Squad Waypoint unless otherwise stated.
    
  • (A/B/C/D) SQUAD: GROUND WUTU AT <X>: When a Squad Leader sees his/her squad becoming ineffective due to timers, he/she may call a GROUND WUTU. All pilots are expected to get to the ground as soon as possible (suicide/heroically if appropriate), take up ground-to-air roles (turrets, rockets, Skyguards, MAXes) and defend the given location. Once everyone is off of timer, the SL will probably call a squad Warpgate WUTU and get everyone back in the air.
    

  [*]Call your tails - give the number of tails, your location and altitude. Leave out your colour/number, the type and faction of enemy, and your plane's condition.

  Example: "2 tails, south of Alpha Squad waypoint, 600"

  Example: "1 tail, inbound to FOB, low"

  When accepting the call, simply say "On it." No need to say anything else!

  If you don't hear anyone else on it, take it yourself. Hey, it's a free kill!

  [*]FOB - our Forward Operating Base, an ammo Sunderer with nearby engineers / AA resources.

  If we have a FOB up, always use it for your rearm/repair, give these guys all your XP love!

  Example FOB radio calls:

  • FOB on the move
    
  • FOB at Platoon waypoint / N of Allatum outpost / Grid J8
    

  [*]SABRE - our one and only infantry action during raids. If the command staff orders a SABRE action on a tower, Amp Station, minor facility etc. then Wind Wraiths is to temporarily disembark from their ships and capture the point to stop a ghost cap. If there is a small presence at the facility then we are to clear it out and retake the point. SABRE is a short-term action and is not and will not be used heavily. Once the objective is done we are rushing to get ourselves back into the air. This may happen at an average of once a night for around 5-10 minutes if it has been asked by command or deemed necessary by the CO and is also a means to keep us in action as we wait to acquire more aerospace points when the unit as a whole is low.

  [*]One-liners from Command - Here are example things you'll hear from our officers during raids:

  • "WUTU NOW" - means ASAP, not when you die next!
    
  • "I need # more Libs / A2A Scythes / A2G Scythes / AA" - respond if you are ready to switch with "<name> switching to AA"
    
  • "360 Defense. Alpha North, Bravo South" - we're defending a location, move to your assigned squadrant.
    
  • "Dive Bombing - form up at Platoon WP, head to and bomb Squad WP, break left/right and return to Platoon WP" - as it sounds. Directions will be provided to keep you away from flak nests.