Newbie to Balkans
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Hi all
Having just recently completed my first KTO campaign, and rightly saying “I can do that…I just choose not too!” I am asking for any tips/advice/common sense for the third campaign in the Balkans Theatre?
So far, it is going well, but it’s only Day 1 so…
It’s a nice graphical change from Korea and I haven’t had any drops in fps.
Thanks
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Yo !
Regarding the strategy for this campaign, it is very close to what you encountered in the KTO campaign. If you played the classic KTO campaign and not the strong one, the first you’ll notice will be the increased difficulty for the BVR. You’re now pretty much equal and sometimes underpowered against some AI aircraft.
I know that during the classic KTO campaign I was paying less attention to the ennemy airfields because they were not launching big threats against my flights. Now it’s different. I’d rather plan my mission having in mind how to reduce the ennemy power. Can I reach this ennemy airfield ? What kind of threats is it able to launch ? Can I bomb it ?
For the rest it’s pretty close to what it was for KTO, nuke the sam, destroy the radar and other targets of interest, support your ground troops.
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Which one is the third campaign? Under Siege? That’s the easiest one, and if you’re dedicated on the ground, this one can be won in less than 24 hours. You need to run an intense interdiction/CAS effort to clear the roads to the objectives, but it’s doable.
Be wary of traditional Red airframes deployed by neutrals and allies. Don’t want any Courts Martial.
Balance of Power is the big one. This is rather like KTO’s Rolling Fire in scale. The Red air threat is manageable, but the low level SAM threat is extreme. Lot’s of more modern IR stuff. Plus the dreaded SA-6. I have a long history with this system. And it’s personal
Powder Keg, proceed at your own risk. I find this one has issues, but your mileage may vary.
As always in the Balkans, the player really needs to get involved in tasking defensive air coverage. The ATO does a poor job of it.
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Cap, I suggest Battle for Balkans
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The one difference between BTO & KTO is the distances you must fly. In KTO, the FLOT is much closer to the airbases you fly out of it. In BTO, most bases are waaaay up north (Aviano) or on the other side of the Adriatic Sea. So you will either need load up with extra fuel or master aerial refueling. Other than that, Opfor Air is a bit less of a threat than KTO. Most of FRY’s aircraft is old or ground attack.
Terrain is a bit more mountainous than in KTO, which makes ground attack missions a bit of a challenge. And if real time weather is included, you may find that you cannot complete a mission because clouds obscure the target area.
Ground force numbers are about the same in both theaters, but be aware that FRY does possess SA-6’s! These are mobile, so are very hard to track, and are deadly if you venture into their threat ring!!
Hope this answers your question. BTO is a favorite of mine just for the challenges of what it has to offer: Mountainous terrain & long duration flights. :thumb:
Cheers
Jolly -
Well, I am flying out of the southern most base in a F16CM-50 mount. I have found the distances from here to be not bad. External tanks don’t seem to be necessary for now.
So far, the air defenses are manageable, though I did get hit by an SA-6, I believe. I got a warning from my wingman and about five seconds later, I was admiring the scenery from the view of my parachute! I though it was just SA-10’s that were sneaky
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^^ exactly…
the viper would never go into battle in RL without at least a centerline (rare at that); 95% would be 2 bags.
''even for experienced players to hold on to the boom with a full CAS Loadout on the wings. ‘’
not with practice and MP practice
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Well, I am flying out of the southern most base in a F16CM-50 mount. I have found the distances from here to be not bad. External tanks don’t seem to be necessary for now.
In the first day or 2 of the war you should be able to get by with just external tanks, but once your forces begin to push inland it will be more & more difficult to prosecute the mission on just 12,000 lbs of fuel. Especially if you happened to get jumped by some lucky MiG-21 or G-4. So remember where friendly airbases are on the “right side” of the Adriatic, just in case. OR, like MorteSil mentioned, start practicing Aerial Refueling. :plane:
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AAR skills are useful, but for all of the Balkans campaigns I’ve flown I have never used it once. It comes down to a combination of which base you choose to fly out of and where your target is. If you want to fly out of Aviano and hit targets around Belgrade you will need more gas no doubt. But it’s possible to avoid this too. In addition, you can hotpit refuel.
Check out this AAR/post I made from my first try with hotpit refueling in the Balkans during one of our online BoP campaigns. Doing this sort of shuttle mission allowed me to fly a fairly long mission ( around 500 miles round trip) loaded with four eight-fours and no bags. And it’s fun. A really cool aspect of BMS.
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4356560/re-simhq-balance-of-power#Post4356560
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AAR is a critical skill to master and keep current and should be practised at every chance whereby integrity of mission and safety of self permits.
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AAR is a skill to master and should be practised
Fixed it for ya. The rest is hyperbole. Maybe if you were addressing a class of USAF recruits it would be a true statement. For folks flying BMS? Not so much.
If players want to use AAR in this sim, that’s great. But to call it critical is overselling it. It’s true I don’t care much about it, since it isn’t needed. I’ve done it, and occasionally I do it again. To ‘keep current’ I guess. I have finished more than 100 F4 campaigns over the past 20 years and have never used it once in a campaign mission. That’s a low number for a critical skill.
Listen, I know this won’t be a popular position on this board and I expect blowback. But the fact remains it isn’t as critical as some make it out to be.
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Listen, I know this won’t be a popular position on this board and I expect blowback. But the fact remains it isn’t as critical as some make it out to be.
Same here, well over a hundred campaigns finished through many theaters. NEVER once used AAR for any reason other than curiosity……then I blew the Tanker up of course!!! Don’t keep proficient at it either and never will!!!
C9
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The Viper has crappy loiter time as it guzzles gas like the Saturn 5.
In my experience over 2 decades, if you’re on an on call CAS, for example, or if you want to take off loaded heavy with mud stores and short bags, or if your takeoff is delayed, tanking is important. And what if your flight gets jumped by bandits and you have to jett your bags?
How realistic is hot pit refueling at the runway threshold? I have also found that online multiplay guzzles more gas andso often needs a tanker to get all the human players home.
Right, carry on…
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Fixed it for ya. The rest is hyperbole. Maybe if you were addressing a class of USAF recruits it would be a true statement. For folks flying BMS? Not so much.
If players want to use AAR in this sim, that’s great. But to call it critical is overselling it. It’s true I don’t care much about it, since it isn’t needed. I’ve done it, and occasionally I do it again. To ‘keep current’ I guess. I have finished more than 100 F4 campaigns over the past 20 years and have never used it once in a campaign mission. That’s a low number for a critical skill.
Listen, I know this won’t be a popular position on this board and I expect blowback. But the fact remains it isn’t as critical as some make it out to be.
There should not be any “blowback” at all from anyone. In Single Player, absolutely. Multiplayer in an organized wing that flies missions as real as possible, different story: it’s a perishable skill that needs to be maintained to perfection or the mission can end up in an abort due to timing. Just different ways of flying the sim - one way is not better than the other way, hence the beauty of the sim/BMS
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You guys … CHEAT