Fly under a unit insignia

September 28, 2026 · feature

Every squadron worth the name painted a badge on its aircraft: a wolf rearing under a zig-zag chief, a pig diving straight down, a fox with a ship in its jaws. Now you can too. Tap the shield beside your callsign and pick your unit insignia. From then on it flies wherever your name does.

All forty unit insignia laid out in a grid on the dark hangar slab: dive-bomber shields with zig-zag chiefs carrying a rampant wolf, a squirrel, a night owl, a sailor hare, a diving pig, a bison, a wolf's head, a rooster, a thunderbomb and a crowned serpent; then a gamecock, a sea fox, a green lindworm, a raven, a red griffin, a hawk, a tusker, a tiger, a panther, a black cat and a circus ape; then the ace of spades, a loaded die, Lucky 13, the green heart, Tell's apple, a bowman, a bomber in the ring, a quick-draw heart, a diamond eagle, a knight's helm, a broadsword, a dagger, a pinwheel, a winged V, the Brickhaven arms, a cloud ogre, a red devil, a bulldog and a gremlin — The whole wall of them. Forty badges, every one yours from your first sortie.

Forty badges, one tap from your callsign

The name box in the hangar now has a little shield beside it. Tap it and a grid of forty unit insignia opens under your callsign, each with a name and a motto. The Rampant Wolf rears up and bites first. The Diving Pig proves that pigs do fly, straight down. The Sea Fox takes ships for breakfast, and Lucky 13 insists luck is a skill. There are no locks and nothing to grind: every badge is open from the start. Pick one, pick none, and change your mind between sorties or in the middle of one.

They come from a proud tradition. The fliers of the 1930s and 40s painted squadron badges on their cowlings and tails: heraldic shields with zig-zag chiefs, snarling beasts, cartoon mascots, playing cards and lucky numbers. Ours are redrawn for the Brick Gulf, bold and flat and chunky enough to read at a glance across a busy sky.

The hangar card with the callsign IRON ANNIE typed in the name box, a Rampant Wolf badge on the button beside it, and the unit insignia grid open underneath with the wolf picked in gold and its motto, Rears up. Bites first, read out under the grid — The shield beside your name opens the grid. Pick the wolf and it's on your callsign before you've even taken off.

Everywhere your name goes

Your badge flies in front of your callsign on the nameplate over your plane, and beside it in the kill feed, in chat, on the scoreboard, on the killcam's shot down by and in the round's TOP GUNS. Off the field, it's in the Hall of Fame and on your pilot page, where it sits big above your name like the patch on a service record. Swap badges mid-sortie and every pilot's view of you changes on the spot.

A crimson Sparrowhawk under the Rampant Wolf badge firing on a smoking cobalt Thunderhead whose nameplate reads Old Scratch beside a Red Devil badge, a crimson wingman marked with the Diving Pig higher up, and the kill feed on the right telling the fight in badges — The Wolf closing on the Red Devil, the Pig high on the wing, and the kill feed telling it all in badges.

Know them by their badge

It changes how a round reads. A glance at the kill feed tells you the Red Devil has just scored again, long before you've read the name. After a few rounds you'll know the regulars by their patch: the raven that always hangs around the wreckage, the knight who never seems to die. And when the killcam shows a tiger badge on the pilot who just got you, you'll remember it for the rematch.

The bots fly under badges of their own, and they suit them. Cumulus Carl comes out of the clouds under the Cloud Ogre, Madame Mayday flies the Black Cat, Sir Loops-a-Lot wears the Knight's helm, and Duchess Divebomb, of course, flies the pig.

The scoreboard with both squadrons' ledgers, every pilot's badge beside the callsign: IRON ANNIE's wolf at the top of Crimson, Old Scratch's red devil and Vesper's raven leading Cobalt — Both squadrons' ledgers, every pilot under their colours.

Pick a badge and fly it long enough, and the other side will learn to dread the sight of it.