Combined Arms

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It is called Digital Combat Simulator — not Digital Flight Simulator — and this module allows for that distinction to make a small amount of sense. Combined Arms is (almost) all about commanding and controlling mobile ground units. The “almost” part comes in because, while that is the mainline feature, that command functionality also extends to AI aircraft.

In terms of actual gameplay, Combined Arms gives you access to a couple of new roles that mostly come into play in multiplayer, and to some optional additional functionality for pilots. Specifically, missions can assign the roles “Game Master,” “Tactical Commander,” “JTAC,” and “Observer” — the latter being somehow distinct from picking the observer coalition as opposed to the A or B side. These roles simply offer different levels of control over ground units on the F10 map, along with different levels of map filtering:

• Game Masters can see and command all air and ground units on the map, and also directly control all mobile ground units.
• Tactical Commanders can command air and ground units for a specific coalition unless otherwise specified.
• JTACs can directly control ground units, but cannot issue commands to entire groups.
• Observers can see all units, but cannot command or control any of them.

In addition, mission designers can offer pilots the ability to command (and control) ground units at an access level similar to the Tactical Commander, and assign exactly which units can be controlled this way. This means leaving the aircraft to its own devices while the pilot fiddles with the F10 map, or abandoning it to AI control to go drive around in a ground vehicle instead. Thus, unless the aircraft has a sensible autopilot and/or proper waypoints set up for an AI to follow, using these options will often avoid in a loss of an aircraft.

Commanding ground units

Unit command interface.

With Combined Arms installed, the F10 map gains a two more UI features: a tiny tank icon that lets you take direct control of certain vehicles, and a fold-out command tab connected to the usual information window. Besides location and unit data, this tab lets a commander set the formation, ROE, alert level, as well as setting routes and targets to attack.

In this as in some of the aspects of directly controlling ground units, it helps to have a basic understanding of how to set up units in the DCS Mission Editor since these options work the same way and use the same terminology.

Setting routes

Setting a route is a pretty simple and intuitive, but comes with a couple of quirks.

• LClick the “Set path” button.
• LClick a series of waypoints.
• RClick to set a final waypoint, and to complete and activate the route.

Red waypoints denote an off-road route will be taken. Successive waypoints placed on top of a road will have green markers, and the units will calculate a road path to follow between them. When travelling off-road, the group will try to maintain the assigned formation (“FORM” dropdown). Both on and off the road, individual units will prioritise maintaining formation over maintaining the set speed, but the group will pull ahead of a unit that is slowed down due to damage. Similarly, on the road, they will maintain their position in the queue, and the speed of the vehicle in front of them, unless the unit in front of them breaks down due to damage.

It should be noted that when driving on roads and around buildings, this means that entire groups can get stuck because a single units gets hung up on a turn or on the corner of a building. New manual routing (or better yet, direct control) will usually be needed to entangle them from such a situation.

Setting targets

Like setting routes, setting targets is fairly simple but with a few quirks. The actual targeting is easy — just click “Add target” and then pick a target. The tricky part comes when it seems like the units are not firing, or when they just refuse to stop firing.

It is possible to queue up multiple targets by repeatedly picking Add target and picking a new unit to shoot at — the AI will try to engage and destroy those target in exactly that order. This means that, until an earlier target is dead, a later target in that list will not be engaged even if the former is parked in a bunker on the other side of the continent and the latter is sitting out in the open 10 meters away. At this point, one might want to remove a target from the list, which can be a bit finicky. If the “Remove target” button is showing, click it, then click the target to be removed from the list. If it is not showing, then first select the target to make the button appear, then click Remove and finally click the target again.

Even with everything set, the AI will often seem reluctant to engage unless and until the target is well within firing parameters, and what the AI considers those parameters to be is often a lot more restrictive than what a human would — doubly so if any actual restrictions have been set. That is just DCS being DCS.

Driving ground vehicles

Have you ever driven a vehicle in a Battlefield game? Congratulations: you now know how to drive in Combined Arms too. Mostly.

From the F10 map, select a unit and press the little tank icon at the top of the screen to jump into that vehicle. Use WASD to drive and turn it around, X and Z to shift gears, and H to engage the hand brake. The mouse controls turret rotation and elevation (if it exists) — the relative position between turret and vehicle will be shown in the compass rose in the upper right corner.

If a path is set, either using the command functions described above or set up beforehand through the mission editor, C engages the autopilot that follows the current route. Other units in the group can be controlled via the radio menu (default key \) and by pressing G and pick a spot for them to drive to.

Of note is the different view options available:

• F1 for turret view.
• LCtrlC for driver view.
• Ins for third-person (“Isometric”) view.
• B for Binocular/JTAC view.

As always, third-person is handy for getting a wider perspective on the surroundings, and it is particularly useful during reloads as it lets you look around even though the turret is usually locked in a loading position during that period. Third-person view also helps keeping track of airborn targets as they fly overhead — the regular turret view will be too zoomed in and too limited by traversal speed to keep up with fast-moving aircraft at high angles.

Targeting

Targeting can almost always be done visually, but most vehicles and weapons also offer targeting assists or even outright lock-ons for guided weapons. For arching-fire platforms like artillery, this is particularly useful — even necessary — at longer ranges. Simply put your crosshair over a target, press Enter and if it is within range, yellow targeting brackets will be shown while the correct firing solution is calculated.

Once done, the brackets turn red, and a circular targeting cue will appear to identify the correct elevation to hold in order to hit. Shift the crosshair to this point and fire. This also works for, for instance, radar-guided AAA gunnery and similar weapon systems.

For some weapons, such as laser- or wire-guided missiles, no elevation needs to be held. Instead, the targeting brackets simply signify that the target is within range and can be fired upon. For these weapons, the crosshair guides the missile in-flight and needs to be held on the target until impact.

Finally, some systems — in particular IR missiles — have internal guidance mechanisms that work in a similar fashion. Commonly, these will automatically begin the locking procedure if a viable target is detected under the crosshair, and the target must then be tracked until the lock-on completes and the weapon can be fired.

Acting as JTAC

Lasing mechanised infantry

Links and files

• DCS: Combined Arms in the DCS shop.