I've been flying some campaign missions lately. But there's one issue that I'm having a little trouble with. That is Friendly Fire.

I know how to lock up an aircraft and declare it to AWACs to get feedback on whether its Friend or Foe. Does the same steps apply for ground targets?

I ask because on a couple of my missions, I've gone to the debrief screening thinking I did good only to get a "Dereliction of Duty" pop up msg. But it doesn't tell me exactly why. I suspect it's because of locking up friendly ground troops and firing on them. Today I realized there battle area had color code in the top map (red vs blue areas). And the area I flew over had a tiny part that was still blue (my side).

So I should use AWACs to ID ground targets via Declare, or do something else?

Jonathan

sure, just remember a "boggie" return is a hostile ground target and on aircraft it's a unknown.

I've heard AWACs reply with either Friendly or Bogey. Hearing Bogey for ground target seemed strange. Yesterday, I also discovered that I could display ground targets on the main map for the campaign.

I really should try and read the manual completely thru from page 1 to 716. See you all in 3 months.

yeah i only somewhat recently realized I could declare ground targets I'm embarrassed to say. Does wonders eh? I figured bogey meant unknown, presumably enemy, definitely not a friend.

1 - Lock on to a target, air or ground,
2 - hit "q"(awacs radio menu) then "2"

I was also courtmartialed a couple of times for friendly fire...

Actually, you don't even have to be locked on. Just having your radar cursors hovering over a blip is enough. Saves a little time. Thought sometimes the blip moves in the second it takes to hit q, 2 and they will say nothing up. Still easier to sort targets in your head when you dont have to lock onto each one to find out. Just keep moving the cursor to new contacts till they say its not friendly. I tried to fly a mission on 3 beers last night. Went fine until I turned into lawn dart trying to dive away from an AA missile from a Mig. "Pull up!" is sometimes more than just a suggestion.

Another related question. At the start of a campaign, there are ground unit icons on the map. During the campaign, will these ground units move around the map?

Oh yes! They will move to attack enemy units and capture areas, and the icon on the map moves to reflect their new position.

Another thing to look for is the FLOT line. Be very careful engaging targets close to the FLOT line as they can be friendly but anything from 5 to 10 miles and beyond it are almost always enemy. Always check with AWACS if unsure though.

You can also get friendly ground units to move manually. Double click on them and you'll get a circle. Drag that circle to give them a waypoint. Just a note though, the campaign command structure will over-ride your commands from time to time.