Hi Rico,
It depends on which mission / campaign to be honest, because its down to how the missions are designed.
If you take the Georgian Hammer campaign, the basic workflow (for the .1 missions anyway) is this:
- your objective is to CAS for 2 moving elements of armored vehicles, so you should understand 1) where they start, and 2) where they are going too....so you must check the "missions planning" before starting (or use F10 ingame) to determine the initial location and intended path of the elements you are defending.
- Get airborne and head to the IP...
- Asses the location of enemy Air defense threats / air threats by using your RWR and your AWACS...
- if there are immediate threat in the Area (SAM spikes, or closing bandits), then use your F10 radio menu to call in the appropriate support (SEAD for SAM threats, CAP for air threats).
- Once you feel relatively safe at the IP (and probing slightly, but not too far north), check in with the appropriate JTAC (depending on where the friendly ground units will go shold determine which area JTAC you check in with)
- Complete the JTAC missions as best as possible ... Make sure you also use your wingmans weapons.
- Once the "path" is clear of enemy tanks etc, use your F10 menu to request the friendly units begin to advance.
- Rince and repeat for the second phase (the units will stop at a mid point, and you will need to clear and then request that they advance again)
- Keep your eye out for moving armor approaching the friendly units...if necessary call in the F10 CAS units to assist.
It can take over 1 hour to complete this type of mission...the mission is successful when both friendly armored units reach their goal without being destroyed.
The key things for these missions are:
- to use your wingman...you will not have enough ammo to complete solo
- to use the support flights when necessary (the SEAD, CAP and CAS flights on standby really can make the difference)
- you can keep you eye on the friendly unit progress using the F10 map (some people consider this cheating, but I don't)