AH Mk.1 Apache
Bri’ish predator
Teapache
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1. INTRODUCTION
I want to share with you the diamond of the British top tier and the only reason why I have not yet dropped this nasty donation junk, which by misunderstanding is called the game.This helicopter offers unique features and gameplay and in general quite an interesting vehicle.Who am I? Toxic jerk and a sick person, as you can clearly see from my account. Why should anyone listen to me? First of all, I worked hard and made cool pictures. Secondly I have a relatively decent stats on this heli so I understand some basic things at least and you probably should give me a try. For example, for the last hundred games:Next, we’ll go over most aspects of this chopper, look at its current state at GRB , look at its weapons and modules, and decide what we even want to do in an average game.I didn’t do any special tests and so almost everything you will read below is purely my personal, subjective experience.
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2. HISTORY
Short: UK bought an apache longbow and install new engine and Starstreaks on it.
Long: In the early 1990’s, the British government identified a requirement for a new attack helicopter. In 1993, invitations for bidding were issued, with responses including the Eurocopter Tiger, Bell AH-1 SuperCobra, AH-64 Apache, RAH-66 Comanche and A129 Mangusta. The Apache was selected, with a contract for 67 signed in 1996.In 1998, Westland produced the first prototype WAH-64 Apache under license from Boeing. The first delivery into service was made on 16th January 2001 with the final delivery in July 2004.When the requirement for the Apache had been formalized, the assumed threat was a large conventional assault from the Eastern Bloc. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Apache was refocused on concepts of flexibility and rapid response, including amphibious attack missions.The Apache suffered delays entering service due to complications with the modifications made for British service. Issues such as lack of secure communication and damage from firing Hellfire missiles were identified but corrected prior to the Apache entering service.Main differences between the British Apache and the American AH-64D:
- Engine «Rolls-Royse» RTM322;
- Improved missile defense;
- CRV7 unguided rockets, instead of Hydra 70.;
- Improved fault diagnosis systems.
Apache is equipped with two Rolls-Royce Turbomeca RTM322 engines, replacing the original General Electric T700-GE-701C engines, each has a thrust of 2100 hp, which together provides the helicopter to accelerate to a maximum flight speed of 365 km / h and the ability to cover distances of more than 540 kilometers.During its service, the AH Mk.1 Apache attack helicopter was actively used in Afghanistan and Libya, where it was able to prove itself successfully enough.
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3. WEAPONS
The helicopter doesn’t have any variety of weapons, but there are 2 things that make it stand out from other meta helicopters: radar and Starstreak.
Image 3.1 — Available weapons⠀3.1 Radar AN/APG-78 and RWR
Your irreplaceable companion and assistant. There are 3 modes: AG, AA and SRC MTI. SRC MTI sometimes can be usefull, because it is looking for moving targets. Here is an example how SRC MTI work . AA is the best one. It brings great utility, because it makes it much easier to find your next kill. Plus it helping vs smart donkeys who want flank you from the side or rear. It has the following characteristics:- Range — 8км
- Search zone - 360o x 20o
- Scan time - 6 seconds
For better understanding of the borders of its work, please look at the Image 3.1.1.:
Image 3.1.1 — Radar coverageRadar see quite well even near the ground, so all sorts of rats on helicopters (mostly Chinese helicopters) have a very small chance to sneak up on you undetected. Airplanes are more difficult. Unlike helicopters, they are much more likely to fly out of range of your radar, mostly at altitude, and therefore you still need to periodically just check the sky with your eyes for the presence of airplanes.
Regarding the weak point of the radar, i.e. the 6 second gap. Can an plane have time to take advantage of that 6s gap? Yes and no. On the one hand, as we can see in Table 3.1.1, in the worst case the plane will have time to fly 2km and will still be at least 6km away from us. On the other hand, the closer the plane is, the more chances it has not to get into our scanning zone, especially on maps like red sands, where thanks to mountains planes can not fly near the ground and fly high enough. Plus the enemy can just constantly fly behind hills, mountains and there’s a good chance that your radar won’t spot it early enoug fot you to have time to take counter-action. Therefore, we should also constantly scan the sky with our eyes and thermals.
Table 3.1.1 — How far the plane can fly in 6 seconds
V, Km/h S (6s), m 600 1000700 1167800 1333900 15001000 16671100 18331200 20001300 2167Nobody can see your radar unless it’s another apache so don’t worry about enemy RWR. You have best RWR in game (can see even tracking radar of Pantsir) and can see everyone.
Table 3.1.2 — RWR threat list
Name on RWR Primary user Radar M19 MiG-19 RP-1, RP-5 M21 MiG-21 Sapphire-21, CD-30 M29 MiG-29 and SU-27 N019, N010, N010M F3 F-3 Demon AN/APQ-51 F8 F-8 Crusader AN/APQ-94, AN/APQ-104 F5 F-5 Tiger II AN/APQ-159 F14 F-14 Tomcat AN/AWG-9 F16 F-16 Fighting Falcon AN/APG-66 [All], AN/APG-68 [All] F18 F-18 Hornet [AV-8B Plus] AN/APG-65Q F4 F-4 Phantom AN/APQ-72, AN/APQ-100, AN/APQ-120, AN/APG-59 104 F-104 Starfighter AN/ASG-14, NASARR, US R21G M1 TRF Tornado F.3 AI.24 [All] HRR Harrier [Sea Harrier] Blue Fox TRG Tornado GR.1 ARI 23274 4050 S.O.4050 Vautour IIN DRAC-25A, DRAC-32A M3 Mirage III Cyrano Ibis, Cyrano II MF1 Mirage F1 Cyrano IV M2K Mirage 2000 Thomson CSF RDI, Thales RDY A32 A32 Lansen PS-42 J35 J35 Draken PS-03 J37 Saab 37 Viggen PS-37A, PS-371A, PS-46A J7 J-7 [J-7D] JL-7A J8 J-8 Type 1492, Type 208A MSL ARH Missile ~ S125 Volna-M SAM 4R-90 Yatagan RLD Roland and FlarakRad Roland TA, Roland TT 2S6 2S6 Tunguska 1RL144 TA, 1RL144 TT 9K3 9K330 TOR 9K330 TA, 9K330 TT S1 Pantsir S1 1RS1 PG9 PGZ09 PGZ09 TA, PGZ09 TT ADS ADATS ADATS TA ASD ASRAD ASRAD TA CRTL Crotale Crotale TA, Crotale TT SNL Santal Rodeo 2 9P7 Khrizantema 1L32-1 AAA Various old AAA DR-VC-1A, Rooikat TA, 1RL33, 1RL34, AN/VPS-2, M247 TA, Gepard TT, Marconi S400 ⠀3.2 Thermal and zoom
I just needed an excuse to put this video in:
⠀3.3 Hellfires, cannon, unguided rockets
Everything you need. There’s nothing more to say.3.4 Starstreak
This thing makes us one of the helicopter kings, not a weak trembling creature like some AH-64D. A unique AAM that have to be guided manually. Require a direct hit, which requires a good ping. From a hundred and above problems begin.
Image 3.4.1 — Difference between AH-64D and AH Mk.1What you need to know about the missile:
- Can kill SPAA, IFV and even MBT
- After 5 - 5.5 km the missile loses as lot of maneuverability. It becomes almost impossible to destroy a supersonic plane flying perpendicularly.
- If the enemy is coming at you, it is almost useless to use a missile closer than 3 km. If the enemy is flying away from you, then closer than 1 km. If the enemy is flying around you, then closer than 1.7 - 2.2 km.
In image 3.4.1 you can see a comparison of Starstreak with others AGM и SAM:
Image 3.4.2 — Graph of S(t) for missiles
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4. THREATS AND COUNTERACTIONS
⠀⠀4.1 A tier-list of possible threats
Now let’s look at our opponents. Assign each a different threat level in Table 4.1.1. The labels will be as follows: S - They are the hunter and you are the prey; A - Dangerous, but can be outplayed; B - Little threat; C - No threat. Threat in ideal conditions is a 1 on 1 duel under equal conditions (like both player equal in skill, know about each other and etc.) and partially squadron battles. Threat in GRB is average gaming exepierince.
Table 4.1.1 — A tier-list of possible threats
VehicleThreat in ideal conditionsCommentaryThreat in GRBCommentaryKa-50ACan cause a lot of problems, but due to the lack of thermal and zoom, it’s quite manageable to fight it.BIn GRB, the average iq of ka-50 players reaches negative values and so they are the main meal of your diet.Су39/25TAWith Vikhres and X-29, can pose a serious threat at range. Sometimes show miracles of survivability by eating a few Starstreaks. But speed is their fatal flaw, so they almost always get easily killed by Starstreaks.BThe situation is similar to ka50. The basis of your diet.Ка-52/МИ-28НМSA good player won’t even leave you a chance to win on most maps. Can easily overwhelm you without letting you leave your cover for the rest of the match.AIn GRB they are quite often as braindead as the ka50. Very rarely play carefully or keep safe distance. Chinese nickname = increases the chances of a good player.Tiger UHT (same for helis with spike)AThe main danger is when you don’t know about their existence, because if you don’t know that a pars is flying at you, it’s impossible to dodge. But once you know about it, it is not difficult to dodge them.SThey are mostly played by maximally cunning, stealthy, careful and patient assholes. They are excellent at keeping their safe distance. It is often very difficult to get close to them normally and you have to play “dodge the pars” until the end of the game. You often find out about their existence when a pars kill you.Any plane with AGMSA plane has a much better chance of winning a duel than a heli, especially if it has AGM. If it attacks you from above, there is almost nothing you can do. Usually a good outcome will be death for both of you, not your victory.AIn GRB they prefer to spend AGM on SPAA and MBTs. So you usually need to deal only with AAM and cannons. Not many people can dodge Starstreak properly. The main thing is to actively monitor the flanks, so as not to miss the guest.Any plane without themSSimilar. For a good pilot, getting close to you is a manageable task. The main problem is that you depend heavily on the spread of the gun in a given situation. It’s a lottery.BIf you spot them in time, it’s likely to be an easy kill.Chinese helicoptersAIf they come closer than four kilometers, you’re dead. СIn 95% of cases radar will detect it. The real danger is only on maps like Red Sands or Vietnam, where they can safely fly up to you from behind the mountains. But even on these maps they very rarely do that.Other helicoptersBCan sometimes show amazing cunning and skill. СFood SPAAADespite the fact that their chance of winning is about zero (unless you make a mistake ofc), they can consume a lot of your time during which you do nothing and your ground will be rolled into a pancake or a plane will arrive. However, some players with radar turned off may catch you when you stick out a lot from cover. But it’s very rare.BUsually food. The main problem they can cause you is that you’ll spend 4 - 5 minutes on SPAA, not 0.5 -1.Proxy and IR SPAABVery rarely can do anything.СFoodMBTСFoodСFood4.2 Counter tactics
VikhresYour most fearsome nemesis. If the vehicle with them is controlled by a good player, you should probably get out the vaseline and get ready to wipe your tears.
Image 4.2.1 — БрИт4нСкUй_П0дС0С met his worst enemy (Be sure to visit Patriot Park if you are in Russia. It turned out to be much better than I thought)Against Vikhres we have 3 ways to fight back: hide and seek, 15m rush and fly around under cover of hill or mountain.Let’s look at the first option. War thunder from the very beginning teaches that often the most patient wins. The one who has been sitting around the corner longer is the winner. There’s no exception here. All we need is to hide until the enemy flies closer. Or at least until he temporarily forgets about us. There is a serious problem in the way of finding a hiding place, because most maps are fields, where there is almost nowhere to hide from the Vikhres. But there is one solution. The gift of God himself, which is consistently present on every map, shown in image 4.2.2. This hangar is beautiful and indestructible. Also, if we stand very close to it, we get into the repair radius. To see us behind this hangar, the enemy helicopter will have to climb to a considerable height, where it will be highly vulnerable, especially to SPAA.
Image 4.2.2 — God’s giftNow the second option. The 15m rush carries some risks, but when it succeeds, the satisfaction is indescribable. It is very simple, but we need certain conditions. We need a long stretch of flat terrain on which we can safely fly at an altitude of less than 15m and that the flight takes place at an angle to the ka52 (to reduce the risk of being hit by the Vikhres). We fly, reducing the distance between us and the kamov to 6 - 6.5km. Immediately after the next Vikhr flew past, sharply turn the helicopter in the approximate direction of ka52 (better before this put a mark on the enemy heli spawn) and launch a couple of Starstreaks. We have only one chance and if you didn’t manage to find Ka52, you are dead. The main drawback is that the method is a bit random. Whether the Vikhr is lucky enough to hit your helicopter or not. The odds aren’t very high, but they are there.
Image 4.2.3 — 15m rushThere is no point in talking about the third option. Everything is clear. The only problem is that it depends on the map.PlanesThere’s nothing particularly interesting to say. The most important thing here is to spot the aircraft in advance, because when they fly closer than 3 km it becomes very difficult to hit with a Starstrike. If a supersonic aircraft flies past you at an angle close to 90 to you, it is almost unreal to kill them further than 5km.If it comes to close combat ( <4km ) I can advise not to spare Hellfires, launching them at the aircraft with a pause of 0.5 seconds. They hit planes, flying in a straight line, very well. Also, the sight of a large number of missiles being launched makes people nervous, and they start doing unnecessary maneuvers because of which they might not be able to line up cannons on you. It is also very good to have at least 1 Starstreak left after a head-to-head draw to launch missile in the back. At the first 4km they are very fast and ez catch up with planes.PARS and SpikesThere are 3 ways to dodge. For skilled one, for moron one, for sorcerer one. I use only the second and third option. A strong player can shake the missile at the last moment with a sharp evasive maneuvers and it will fly past. I can’t do that consistently. I make it simpler. You just start flying at top speed perpendicular to the pars. There’s a 99.9% chance he won’t hit it. The option for sorcerers requires you to be near a helicopter field. Land on the field → you get repaired/recharged → black screen → activate the gellar field and make a small jump through the warp → during the teleport the missile loses sight of you and now you are safe.SPAAThe only challenge is to find the exact location of the SPAA. Then killing it is only a matter of time. To find it, you can use RWR. Just use it to point your nose at the approximate location of the SPAA and then look for it with your eyes. Also do not forget to spam mark on their spawn (they do not go far away) As soon as the location of the SPAA became known, launch the Starstreak or hellfire and kill it. If it is looking at us, we launch Starstreak from cover in its direction, wait 3-4 seconds and then jump out and finish it. Didn’t work the first time? It will work the second or tenth time.See Image 3.4.2 for timings for missile trade.On image 4.2.4 you can see where you should aim:
Image 4.2.4 — SPAA weak pointsIFVYou don’t have to aim at them. Any sneeze will kill them.
MBTYeah you can kill MBT with Starstreak. The most interesting part. However, the real effectiveness of Starstreak against tanks is usually low. Let Hellfire do all the work. We have two problems. The first that we need is a tank standing almost perpendicular to us. And we need it to stay that way until the Starstreak arrives. The second is that Starstreaks are few, and for a reliable kill it is usually better to launch 3-4 at once. Therefore, flanking is not profitable, because you spend all the missiles on 1 MBT, and then you have to fly back to reload. And if you’re flying close to the field, you’ll mostly see the front of the tanks, not their sides.We can identify 3 vulnerable zones. We can see them in image 4.2.3. A hit on zone 1 rarely leads to instant death, but a fire is usually ensured. Sometimes you can meet guys who can’t extinguish themselves. In any case, it’s a stable assist. Zone 2 is the most reliable, because in most cases we will kill through it. Zone 3 is slightly different for NATO tanks and Soviet tanks. For USRR it is a fuel tank explosion, for NATO it flies into the turret through the ammo compartment, nullifying it.
Image 4.2.5 — MBT’s vulnerable zonesTable 4.2.1 — Vulnerabilities of the MBTs
MBT Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3 T-series with Relict —±±T-series with naked sides —+±Abrams +—+Leo ±+—Type ——+Leclerc +++
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5. BATTLE TACTICS AND SUITABLE MAPS
⠀⠀5.1 Tactics
What you can do in the game. I personally prefer the first option:-
Helipad defender. Almost all the time of the game you spend near the field to quickly replenish the ammunition (very relevant for our little stock of Starstreaks). Don’t spare missiles and spend generously. Depend heavily on the map and the position of the pad on it.
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Air defender. We take a position 4-6km from the enemy helipad, so that the path from the enemy airspawn to the battlefield was also somewhere close by → wait → … → PROFIT. Boring. You can do it if you have work and can’t spend a lot of time on the game (it’s like game on SPAA where you mostly watch youtube and rarely look at the radar).
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Camping. Find good spot and there you sit for most of the game, looking at a certain part of the map, waiting for the next victim. It’s super effective on some maps.
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Spawn at the beginning of a match with Starstreaks to kill SPAA and IFV. Often there are no IFV at the beginning of the match. And SPAA too. It’s always better to try to grind some sp for Hellfires.
As a final goal I usually set a 900sp so i could use plane after dying on heli. Although the main point of playing on apache is not to crawl like an earthworm, but to be a beautiful free bird.[justify] My average game is: yolo rush → die or j-out → take teapache regardless if you have sp for hellfires or not → have fun
5.2 Maps
I don’t want to make a tier list of all maps, especially it will be different depending on the style of play. I just have to mention Arctic, which thanks to its field allows you to kill tanks from the first seconds.
Image 4.2.4 — Arctic)))I’ll just describe what makes the map good for me.- Terrain separates the tank map and helicopter spawn, giving a large free zone out of sight of anti-aircraft. Plenty of space to maneuver against aircraft (Example: Red Sands, El Alamein)
- Only 1 spawn. Much easier to fight vs SPAA.
- As little forest and buildings as possible.
For an example of terrible maps we can give Poland as an example: Very little space for maneuvering, because the SPAA sees us at 30-40m+ and you have to fly very low. There are trees everywhere and it is easy to crash your helicopter. You can’t do almost anything vs plane. Since we are flying very low, it is hard to see the ground enemies. -
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6. CONCLUSION
I really wish more people would enjoy this unique helicopter. Maybe there will be more Brits on the team. This helicopter is not the best helicopter in the game. But even so, it’s definitely worth trying to play it. Basically it’s the only good reason to grind the top tier UK so far.3 main rules of the Teapache-
Constantly check the sky for planes. And remember: radar never lies.
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Laser warning or missile launch warning = fly down to cover. (Honestly you don’t always have to do it this way, but in the beginning it’s better to do it this way. Later you will slowly begin to realize yourself what and when you can ignore.)
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Don’t save missiles. A lot of people are sparing them, but I am a generous soul. It is better to use at once 7 Hellfires on 1 MBT or 3 Starstreaks on ka52, than not get a kill at all or die from ka52, because it’s survive and lead the Vikhr to you.
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