Campagin tips
-
Yeah. Doesn’t everyone take control of at least 1 squadron they’re going to fly in?
Yes, but many people just fly the default squadron tasked flights (when the ‘set by HQ’ checkbox is checked in the squadron page) rather than fragging all the flight themselves.
-
I suppose you can just disable the AI tasking when you feel like it, and enable it again afterwards. One of my favourite things about BMS though is to do frag packages myself. It allows so much flexibility in which targets I strike, how, when, with what, and just setting up the strike package, oh man, that makes me feel like Napoleon or something
-
I’m not well experienced, every now and then after a new update I restarted a campaign,
currently I am doing the BFB SP campaign, and up to now i played it most active of any I started.
Still I am only at day 2 ~1500.At the beginning I was using the italian ABs to attack ships. After a few flights I saw that enemy tanks pushed far into our northern regions.
At this point I switched between zagreb and Pula, attacked the tanks. I almost always created my own flight (but without modifying the flight plan).
I also took care of other packages and deleted some of them, IMO they seemed like suicide to me (flying through the whole enemy territory for a sead strike - without external tanks)
First I did leave the PAK set by hq setting checked until day 2 ~03:00, then I changed the priority of regions to the borders, and because enemy Tank batt. already pushed far into northern regions, I set Armored Targets and air defense to higher priority.
Later on I started also creating all the flights of Zagreb and pula. But I still try to take every possibility to get up in the air.
If I don’t land, I reload at the last point before the flight and try to change tactics.If this leads me to a successful campaign? I don’t know it yet, every now and then there are again new troops in our northern region, I can’t get them out.
Pushing into the enemy is still hard for me, SA10s or SA12give me a hard time, and they are up to now rarely visible on map, So I can’t create SEAD Strikes on them.
I also don’t know how to defeat EWR Sites, Sead Strikes seem to be not compatible with them, and when I tried to do a Sweep and Sead Escort Package on my desired Area, I totally fail.So I still have to collect more skills.
-
Any tips regarding playing in a campagin? I’ve read a few threads on campaings, and found most of it mentions about adjusting this setting or that setting, but I’d like to get an overall picture of what should be adjusted & what not.
I think the first question to start with is what do you want from a campaign, because from reading other threads I see some people want to fight a campaign like a real war and play the strategy aspect of it taking total control and doing their own tasking, whereas others will write they have never completed a campaign and only play for interesting missions. However, you don’t need to play the strategy aspects to “win”, whatever “winning” really means. My understanding from browsing this forum, is the campaign is to some extent smoke and mirrors - that you win by flying missions with excellent performance, as long as you fly missions at a minimum frequency. A limiting factor is supposedly the AI tends to generate missions to blow up bridges your own troops will need to cross later, which is why the Infrastructure slider is moved all the way down. Supposedly the campaign engine also generates too many naval missions, which should also be turned down.
Personally, I play for interesting missions with ambience (the feel of being in the middle of a theatre with lots of stuff going on) while trying to keep it reasonably real. If that is what you like, then I’d say (a) pick interesting missions and if there are no interesting missions then task one of your own (and bring enough support), (b) avoid suicide missions, bring a reasonable loadout which should pretty much always include two bags of fuel, and never jettison except in actual emergencies. Also perhaps (d) pick or generate missions which give reasonable separation in space and/or time from other missions. Some times the skies over Korea seem to be rather crowded. So you are going on a sweep mission and are looking forward to kill some bandits. However, every friendly pilot and his grandmother is out flying in more or less the same volume, and by the time you reach the bandit they have been shot down by some other flight - again. And (e) focus on your mission; you don’t need to blow every bandit out of the sky; if you are on an A/G mission, then hopefully you brought an escort and can leave it to them. Role-play the mission, trying to be on time, keeping your package alive and doing stuff more or less “by the book” whatever that means; us mere armchair pilots can only make educated guesses about that.
Edit: oh … one more thing, (f) check for enemy air defenses and adjust the flight plan for your mission accordingly (or at least mark threats). E.g. flying an AI generated TARCAP which puts your patrol over an enemy SA-2 is perhaps not the best idea. Tweak the flight plan so it keeps you out of air defense engagement envelopes.
I don’t really care about winning campaigns, because “winning” really only means you consistently played missions with good rating. Which also may not always really mean anything, as mission score may be completely off. You got an excellent score though you know you actually really messed up, or you got a failed mission because though you planned for “one pass and haul a%#” and you perfectly dropped your bombs, they were only sufficient to damage the target and wingmen like to drop single GBUs - so you are flying home with a damaged target and 3 wingmen with a GBU left. Or you got a court martial because your wingman decided on his own to go dogfighting with the Mig-29 that you were turning to re-engage, and was acquired by one of the two AIM-120s you fired.
Whatever your play style, happy campaigning
-
One thing I forgot to highlight - in case of a package mission, I’m sure the push point (rendevous point with the other flight) timing is very important and that timing should be maintained?
Also timing over the target should be maintained?If you want to make the comparison to the real life, it is almost the most important. Simply because everything is synchronized and it is the key of a efficient COMAO.
The Push is the TRP = the base of all timings and … the key for deconfliction between flights of the package, but also between preceeding and folowing other packages that are not working on the same freq. and unrelated to preceeding/folowing packages.
Imagine the Push as a common gate, everybody pass via this point alternatively (there are several gates of course) but timmings have to be respected at +/-10 especially at push, because a flight being late could mean the preceeding package delayed (=> need a lot of coordination to give a proper rolex to all players) or could even scrub the entire package (possible lack of playtime … etc …)Remeber aslo, in an AWACS, there is only three guys (or more exactly only two) to manage the mess that an undissiplined pilot could brings (dealing with each MCs) … so … the music is to be strictly respected (at least, as much as possible … This is one of the drawbacks of the COMAO concept.)
-
(e) focus on your mission; you don’t need to blow every bandit out of the sky; if you are on an A/G mission, then hopefully you brought an escort and can leave it to them. Role-play the mission, trying to be on time, keeping your package alive and doing stuff more or less “by the book” whatever that means; us mere armchair pilots can only make educated guesses about that
100% this is one of the best advice and the key of mission (actually task) success. If you estimate that it is a no go… Abort, save your a/c and you wingmen and come later. It is extremely rare to have an absolute priority level. Up to you as a (unfortunately, limited because no control of other package members once in 3d) MC to evaluate the benefit vs risks of your task.
-
Winning a campaign means you won the war and get a fat medal. Managing the campaign for me is interesting and challenging. Learning how to complete your mission though the odds against it are daunting; not engaging aircraft and running from others to achieve your mission goal provides true fun and sometimes you know you won’t make it home. BMS provides scenarios that are extremely challenging being regularly outnumbered while frantically trying to stop the advancing ground attack and saving your forward airbases from being shut down.
-
Some of the best and most exciting missions I’ve flown were the one’s that went pair shaped and we had to abort and fight our way home, strange but true, I get excited when the mission looks impossible, and it probably will be!..…but you can guarantee a great experience.
-
How realistic are the aggressive punch-through OCA or Strike missions compared to “front lines” type mission planning. This assumes a KTO-like scenario.
-
i haven’t dug into the ATO stuff yet, as im too inexperienced to know what needs striking and what doesn’t (assuming airbases first?), som im just flying the tasked missions.
but it sucks, as a lot of them are pointless (fragged to destroy facilities already hit, at 0% opcap, and not repaired., or sweeps to areas with 0 red air for hundreds of miles).
but some are awesome. some of my favs lately are BAI missions, like one yesterday where while attacking ground targets, was fired on by SA15, saw it, defended it (for the first time i felt like i knew what i was doing and maintained vis on the missile and launch site), came back and got it. then evaded AAA all the way back to the FLOT. good times.but yeah, just doing that and seeing how long it takes to win the campaign for the first time. then ill get into the trickery of the ATO and try to win as fast as possible.
-
Just think what are my biggest threats, and where, and managing the ATO from there is a great way to start. You don’t need to strike Mirim AB in downtown Pingpong through the thickest sam belt in history while you’re about to lose Seoul to a huge red groundforce. That’s how I started. Put up as many aircraft as possible, destroy the sam threat covering your flot, hit the ground forces there too and then push them back. It is very rewarding to win.
-
i haven’t dug into the ATO stuff yet, as im too inexperienced to know what needs striking and what doesn’t (assuming airbases first?), som im just flying the tasked missions.
but it sucks, as a lot of them are pointless (fragged to destroy facilities already hit, at 0% opcap, and not repaired., or sweeps to areas with 0 red air for hundreds of miles).
but some are awesome. some of my favs lately are BAI missions, like one yesterday where while attacking ground targets, was fired on by SA15, saw it, defended it (for the first time i felt like i knew what i was doing and maintained vis on the missile and launch site), came back and got it. then evaded AAA all the way back to the FLOT. good times.but yeah, just doing that and seeing how long it takes to win the campaign for the first time. then ill get into the trickery of the ATO and try to win as fast as possible.
I think this is a good attitude. If you manage your campaign you won’t know if you did a better or worse job until you see a baseline result from default HQ management. The default HQ management isn’t to be feared. If you fly enough (and well enough) to keep the invisible bonus on your side the HQ will win almost every time. The only way I’ve really genuinely lost is losing airbases to enemy OCA. Having a setback and maybe even ultimately losing can be just as entertaining as winning (and often more so than winning quickly & easily).
-
i haven’t dug into the ATO stuff yet, as im too inexperienced to know what needs striking and what doesn’t (assuming airbases first?), som im just flying the tasked missions.
but it sucks, as a lot of them are pointless (fragged to destroy facilities already hit, at 0% opcap, and not repaired., or sweeps to areas with 0 red air for hundreds of miles).
but some are awesome. some of my favs lately are BAI missions, like one yesterday where while attacking ground targets, was fired on by SA15, saw it, defended it (for the first time i felt like i knew what i was doing and maintained vis on the missile and launch site), came back and got it. then evaded AAA all the way back to the FLOT. good times.but yeah, just doing that and seeing how long it takes to win the campaign for the first time. then ill get into the trickery of the ATO and try to win as fast as possible.
generally targets in order of priority goes something like LR SAMs at FLOT > LR SAMs at enemy airbases > enemy airbases (runways mostly) > CAS (especially against heavy enemy targets, like 1st tank battalions armed with the best DPRK hardware)
CAS is still very important of course, but generally you perform OCA and sweeps first, to make sure you aren’t going to lose tons of planes to enemy CAPs/sweeps while you’re busy looking at the ground. once you’ve cleared out most of the enemy threats you can CAS until their line collapses and then your ground buddies will push to pyongyang and win. i think my fastest victory was 4 days with a 4man human flight flying around the clock.
not that it’s a race.
i’m playing tiger spirit right now after the aforementioned rolling fire campaign and boy is it different. for one, china seems to have a ridiculous industrial output (of equivalent) i have nearly 50(!) kills, mostly SU-27/30, and they still have several operational squadrons tossing SU-27/30MKK out at me. they must replace them really fast. does anyone know how supply works in particular? i’m kind of curious if they have a massive bonus to it just for being china, because unlike the DPRK they don’t seem to have a massive factory array anywhere in their territory.
-
great advice Cik. No need for strategic strike 200 miles away while the reds are 20 miles from your airbases! Using the PAK’s along the flot and zeroing out all the other PAKs, and those mission types you don’t need right now is a sure way to conduct a winning campaign. Learning how to defeat the SU27 with AA12 sure helps too!
-
Make sure your first Mission is a success… then everything can happen, you will win always
To be honest… after flying 1 successful Mission I can turn of the complete blue ATO, got whole kora captured by DPRK and at the End I have 1 won Campaign in my logs
-
great advice Cik. No need for strategic strike 200 miles away while the reds are 20 miles from your airbases! Using the PAK’s along the flot and zeroing out all the other PAKs, and those mission types you don’t need right now is a sure way to conduct a winning campaign. Learning how to defeat the SU27 with AA12 sure helps too!
i do deep strikes on occasion, for the challenge if nothing else, though much less than the unmodified strat AI. i only hit things that are really important, like high-tier aircraft runways, generally. the AI tasks too many deepstrikes to hit irrelevant stuff like DPRK AAA battalion #203847230945820984028 near pyongyang.
-
they will always task aaa strikes on airbases if not watch all the blue parachutes after an airbase OCA strike. Sometimes I think the aaa is too effective as they hit me at night at 25,000 feet jammer on while I am maneuvering hence I have aaa level in the campaign set at rookie. I also painstakingly edit most loadouts adding fuel tanks, best missiles available and LGB’s. If I don’t take down the SAM’s overlapping my flot I will lose a lot of CAS aircraft and not all the red sams are tasked for strikes like SA10’s. Using JSOW on red ground forces feels like mass murder but then again they are attacking…
-
even on high levels AAA is not that good. if you’re flying in enemy territory there is probably a dozen AAA battalions shooting at you. really, the best way to deal with the ridiculous amount of DPRK AAA is just to fly above it, especially on ingress/egress, just to eliminate the luck factor of the golden BB 100mm that will wreck your plane.
-
I was going to post a pic of an strike on Sunan AB that showed a dozen blue parachutes floating down from F15E, F16 and F4 aircraft so maybe I should change their altitude to above 32k or something. It gave me a sick feeling to see them all. It’s almost impossible from high altitude to identify the aaa radars to take them out though I am not sure how much of a difference that will make. The F-18E or F tasked on a sead escort with jsow’s can mop up all the aaa at any airbase.
-
@Cik:
i’m playing tiger spirit right now after the aforementioned rolling fire campaign and boy is it different. for one, china seems to have a ridiculous industrial output (of equivalent) i have nearly 50(!) kills, mostly SU-27/30, and they still have several operational squadrons tossing SU-27/30MKK out at me. they must replace them really fast. does anyone know how supply works in particular? i’m kind of curious if they have a massive bonus to it just for being china, because unlike the DPRK they don’t seem to have a massive factory array anywhere in their territory.
A very timid strategy that I play is:
1. Defend own territory unti Red wave subsides
2. SEAD/OCA to acceptable risk levels
3. CAS/BAI while striking deep OCA/C3I targetsSupply is kinda borked in current BMS. Each objective has a supply value that it provides but the issue is nearly every building (even bridges) output tons of supply so it’s never lacking. There are resupply, reinforcement, and replacement times as well.