Unwanter helicopter support fire

[RetLT]

Frequently my helicopters will take it upon themselves to fire at ground units when I am trying to move another helicopter.

Often I am using one to draw fire so that another can make an attack run and by the time the lead copter has drawn the enemy fire, the one I was going to use for the attack has exhausted its shots.

I have turned off weapon systems to prevent this but I was wondering if there was any other way to stop this.

Helicopters seem to be the only unit type that does this.

[Mobhack]

All units will reaction fire against enemy firers, its not specific to helicopters.

You could put a reaction policy in place (if you have the full game) or just turn range down to 1 or 2 with the Y key (quicker than turning weapons on and off).

[scorpio_rocks]

ONLY helicopters seem to reaction fire against enemy NON-firers...

[Aeraaa]

ONLY helicopters seem to reaction fire against enemy NON-firers...

Not only them. Tanks can also fire at infantry that has just close assaulted one of their comrades (and not only by firing at the enemy; some fire a smoke round at their general direction).

[Wdll]

ONLY helicopters seem to reaction fire against enemy NON-firers...

That is 100% not accurate, at least from my experience.
Both friendly and enemy units will shoot at targets on their own, whether they have fired or not.

[Mobhack]

I can't say that I have seen this - so how exactly are you triggering op-fire at units that did not fire at the helicopters?.

[Suhiir]

Never seen a helo fire at something that didn't fire at another helo myself either.

[RetLT]

Picture this:

Helicopter #1 is 5 hexes from 3 enemy infantry units
Helicopter #2 is also 5 hexes away.

Helicopter #1 moves to 4 hexes away and is targeted (units turn towards it) but is not fired upon by the infantry units.

Helicopter #2 will fire on one or more of the infantry units on its own.

I have only seen this against infantry units. I have not seen unwanted fire against vehicles.

I have seen this take place with both attack helicopters and transport helicopters.

[RetLT]

ONLY helicopters seem to reaction fire against enemy NON-firers...

I have seen infantry reaction fire against other infantry units when they were fired upon by an armored unit. Snipers do this often since they can't harm the armored unit.

[scorpio_rocks]

Picture this:

Helicopter #1 is 5 hexes from 3 enemy infantry units
Helicopter #2 is also 5 hexes away.

Helicopter #1 moves to 4 hexes away and is targeted (units turn towards it) but is not fired upon by the infantry units.

Helicopter #2 will fire on one or more of the infantry units on its own.

I have only seen this against infantry units. I have not seen unwanted fire against vehicles.

I have seen this take place with both attack helicopters and transport helicopters.

Exactly this

[Imp]

Helicopters protect other helicopters as described above, though thought only happened at a range of 2 possibly 3 with infantry. Possibly further against a machine gun.
Its a preemptive strike to protect the other helo from being damaged or running and perhaps therefore taking extra fire.
Helos do it far more than other units but I assume thats because they run if taking fire far more than other units & cant fire off a smoke discharger.
Same mechanics as firing first at a missiles firer before it takes the shot to try & at least spoil it.
Easily managed as said by turning weapon range down to 3

[Suhiir]

Yep, I generally keep the weapon range on helos set to 3. They have limited ammo and I usually don't want them performing opportunity fire.

[Mobhack]

Yep - as stated at the head of the thread, set range to something small if you dont want overwatching units to perform opfires.