Tips for success
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Long time lurking, but I’ve just about had it with my “you suck at this” attitude. I need help guys. I’ve read the manuals and watched the videos, but 9 times out of 10 I get a failure in missions. My problem I’ve noticed is I always feel rushed or feel I don’t have enough time to find the enemy and then deploy the weapon. I always end up burning circles above the target area trying to find and guess where the bad guys are and eventually burning actual circles by an air threat shooting me down (SAMs, stealth mig-29s). If I make it back to base most of my ordinance shows miss.
Maybe it’s bad judgement on my part? I don’t really know. I hope this isn’t a Ron White situation where “you can’t fix stupid”.
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As far as finding ground targets if its a strike, dead/sead etc use the Data Cartridge and set target steer points. I ususaly set them in priority order i.e. if my last mission steerpoint is SP 11, I set my First target steerpoint as #12, then 13, 14 etc in descending order. This way I know EXACTLY where that SA-2 launcher or depot building is.
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It can also vary by mission type what you have to do and its not always obvious. For example, I did a sead escort mission and destroyed the sam radars but failed because an artificial idiot decided to low level dive bomb with a jdam and got hit by a manpad. When you do an escort mission you can not lose a plane in your package to enemy aircraft , shoot down 5 planes , and get failure(instead of a medal as you would in real life) because in the act of defending your charges you missed a waypoint. Each mission type has a list of requirements that aren’t documented and have to learned. Here are the ones I know of.
Sead Escort - don’t lose a single plane in package to any kind of air defense(don’t do this with ai wingman).
Escort - don’t lose a plane to enemy planes and hit all waypoints in at least the target area.
Cap - be on station on time and don’t go far from the cap waypoints or leave before you time to be off station.
strike, oca, cas strike, and sead - hit your target.
Intercept - shoot down (by either you or any other friendly unit) the specific enemy group. -
If you need info about enemy SAM radars and other radiating things you can use HAD page (you will usually need HTS loaded to use this, but you can load HTS even without HARMs).
If you need info about enemy air threats just call AWACS (press Q and select “request picture”). AWACS will give you position of nearest threat. AWACS will also warn you if there is a pop up flight.
You can detect air threats using radar in RWS mode (it gives better coverage than TWS).
To find ground vehicles on the move you can use GMT radar mode. You can then use TGP to identify targets you locked on the radar.
To find sea targets you can use SEA radar mode.
Use RWR, it cannot give precise location, but at least you have azimuth and type of the threat. Remember to enable naval mode when flying over water otherwise enemy ships will not pop up on RWR.Use your map and pre planned threats/target waypoints, but always remember that recce is not perfect and they may miss some enemies so be ready for surprises.
Also some SAM systems (like SA-8, SA-6, SA-11 ETC, even Hawk) can move, this makes PPT less useful against them. -
As far as finding ground targets if its a strike, dead/sead etc use the Data Cartridge and set target steer points. I ususaly set them in priority order i.e. if my last mission steerpoint is SP 11, I set my First target steerpoint as #12, then 13, 14 etc in descending order. This way I know EXACTLY where that SA-2 launcher or depot building is.
If you need info about enemy SAM radars and other radiating things you can use HAD page (you will usually need HTS loaded to use this, but you can load HTS even without HARMs).
If you need info about enemy air threats just call AWACS (press Q and select “request picture”). AWACS will give you position of nearest threat. AWACS will also warn you if there is a pop up flight.
You can detect air threats using radar in RWS mode (it gives better coverage than TWS).
To find ground vehicles on the move you can use GMT radar mode. You can then use TGP to identify targets you locked on the radar.
To find sea targets you can use SEA radar mode.
Use RWR, it cannot give precise location, but at least you have azimuth and type of the threat. Remember to enable naval mode when flying over water otherwise enemy ships will not pop up on RWR.Use your map and pre planned threats/target waypoints, but always remember that recce is not perfect and they may miss some enemies so be ready for surprises.
Also some SAM systems (like SA-8, SA-6, SA-11 ETC, even Hawk) can move, this makes PPT less useful against them.Thanks for the tips guys.
One thing about preplanned steerpoints is that works great for non-mobile targets using jdam. What about columns? Do I rely on GMT and declare? Also, what is the best way to deploy CBUs? Every time I use them I get a miss. I seem to do okay with obvious targets like runways. But when it comes to fights in the air and finding targets for CCIP mode, I would do better to stay in the barracks. Locking up bandits is like roulette, you may find the aggressor but most of the time I get shot down before I find their targets on the radar.
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strike, oca, cas strike, and sead - hit your target.
That explains why I dominantly get a success with strike and OCA but failure with everything else.
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Suggest you fly with others as wingman for a time.
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Suggest you fly with others as wingman for a time.
+1 to this. Join a wing. They’re a goldmine of knowledgeable, helpful people, and you’re likely to make some great friends as well. It has made me a 100x better pilot than I would have managed on my own.
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+1 to this. Join a wing. They’re a goldmine of knowledgeable, helpful people, and you’re likely to make some great friends as well. It has made me a 100x better pilot than I would have managed on my own.
Suggest you fly with others as wingman for a time.
Unfortunately I did try this and with the amount of checking flights and little time I have to coordinate times to fly together, this didn’t work out well. Nothing against virtual wings, but that just isn’t a viable option for my personal lifestyle.
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Informal/casual multiplayer can be had on at least 2 online servers. Get to know some regular flyers and arrange specific times to hook up for flights with those that seem most likely to be of help.
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I used to feel rushed also which was one of my worst mistakes, try to not rush use the tools like weapons planner and really get familiar with mission planning, print out maps or use a tablet to help organize info. Information overload is your worst enemy.
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I used to feel rushed also which was one of my worst mistakes, try to not rush use the tools like weapons planner and really get familiar with mission planning, print out maps or use a tablet to help organize info. Information overload is your worst enemy.
Yeah, that’s my Achilles heel. Too much going on at once. I’ve tried altering the FP in the mission planner where the IP and TGT wp were further spaced, but that just opened up the other wp being out of wack and then I have other flights in the package not jiving with mine. Then I hit the keyboard and smack the monitor and just fly it as previously planned.
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Turn off the locks before moving the steer points. Red lines will go white again before take off and you can of course adjust the times/speed manually if you wish so your time on target or ip still matches escort.
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mission planning, and mission briefing. Even if you are flying solo, still take the time to make a plan, and then brief yourself on it. Run down everything in order. Decide what is going to happen at each stage of the flight, before you even step to the jet. Have a plan.
You have to be flexible, but failing to plan is planning to fail.
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Turn off the locks before moving the steer points. Red lines will go white again before take off and you can of course adjust the times/speed manually if you wish so your time on target or ip still matches escort.
Yeah, I know I can do that. Frustrating though you put in the work to get shot down by pop up flight that you didn’t really expect to be there. I don’t know, I think I need to be persistent and just stay the course. Hopefully it will get better.
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Simplify your training in tactical engagements and practice one thing at a time until you are good at it. If you have hard time finding vehicles then set up a few battalions like artilery that don’t shoot back much and practice finding and hitting them with different sensors and weapons over and over again. Set some stationary and some movers. Practice staying above 10,000 feet at first. Then try different battalions that shoot back and learn how to stay out of their range, find them and hit them. Keep the flight distance short, or even start in the air so you can focus on learning just one part at a time.
Same thing with air to air. Learn one area at a time through repetition.
Then when it gets all combined in a campaign mission, you will not be as overwhelmed.
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You can also find a lot of information on YouTube. There are several different groups that have done weapons deployment tutorials. It sounds like you have the flying part down ok, but the SA and planning part need some work. And I have found that talking with a second party can increase your knowledge greatly. Use TeamSpeak with some of the online server groups like Falcon Online, there are people there that can help out.
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I’ve finally stepped into the WDP world and that tool is superb. I can’t wait to actually use it on a mission soon. Probably won’t be until Tuesday or Wednesday.
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Update. Just have done two different missions in campaign. Both success. However one was just to strike a bridge with SEAD and ESCORT flights. Easy.
The other was a BARCAP. Took off and sentry is already assign me bandits to reap. After dispatching the SU30s I go on mission and on station. About 3 mig19s try to violate my airspace and quickly take them down and return to station. Waited for patrol to end and RTB. Funny though on vectors to land I get 2 SU30 coming from north. They try to engage, but turn around and head back. Good thing because we only had three heaters left between myself and my wing. Total kills 3-3.
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Are there any tips for deploying CBUs? Settings, delivery profiles, common strategy?
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