4.33 campaign versus 4.32 campaign
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Hi all
I’ve recently upgraded to a SSD and reinstalled 4.33 to my hdd and decided not to reinstall version 4.32, in which I was on day 10 of the default Korea campaign rookie level.
I started a new campaign in the default Korea theatre on Veteran difficulty, thinking it would be the same experience as in 4.32. Boy was I wrong!!
I’ve flown several DEAD missions and some AI missions and each time I’m swarmed by enemy aircraft within 20 mins and ended up getting shot down. Most missions there is no escort and I’m loaded up with bombs and external tanks. Not the best load out for dogfighting!
I’ve considered restarting the campaign on Rookie level just so I can have a decent chance of completing a mission.
Any tips from the pros?
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Hello Captain. In the early hours of the campaign, I avoid the suicide SEAD missions. Adjust the PAKs to cover vital areas above your troops and airbases. Doing this will lessen the missions up north. Treat all A-G missions as if you are going to be jumped… know where to flow out to draw them into friendlies.
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I’ve noticed in the 4.33 Israeli theater I was getting jumped all the time in my Hornet when loaded up for DEAD or strike missions by Egyptian F16 or Mig 21’s, but I’ve found if I do BARCAP missions which aren’t really my cup of tea, that I could really thin out the enemy aircraft during later A/G mission… I was at first taken down many times , even when taking my time and letting package go ahead of me to thin the herd of enemy fighters. There was just too many. Now after I did many BARCAPS and shot down many Migs and falcons , it’s much more enjoyable to just cruise in to the target area and do your job…( with a few fighters still bugging you but much more manageable)
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I posted a few of my thoughts on the campaigns at SimHQ, you can read it here
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/4332736/falcon-4-campaigns#Post4332736
Mods feel free to remove if I just violated any policy.
I think you’ll be fine with Vet level campaigns, but there are plenty of things you can do to shift the odds in your favor. Most of it involves becoming hands-on with the campaign, particularly in sliders, PAKS and mission fragging. I find the more involved you get, the safer it will be, especially on the Blue side of the FLOT. Promotions and medals might not be important to you in any way, but if you’d like to see your pilot gain grade, don’t play on low challenge ratings, it’ll take you forever.
Which campaign are you flying CC?
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I’ve flown several DEAD missions and some AI missions and each time I’m swarmed by enemy aircraft within 20 mins and ended up getting shot down. Most missions there is no escort and I’m loaded up with bombs and external tanks. Not the best load out for dogfighting!
I touch on it a bit in that thread I linked to, but the early hours of any F4 campaign are most important. In my opinion you want to do two things right off the bat. Fly early and get a good rating. What I do is frag myself an early mission, so early that I’m taking off within 10 minutes of unpausing the campaign. It depends on which campaign I am flying to a certain extent, but the most common first mission for me is to frag a zero-time BARCAP or interdiction and load my two-ship with four slammers and two HARMS each. I’m looking to take out radars, and if things go well you can hit four with your section. Then, after the HARMs are gone, stooge about and see if we can get the slammers off the rail. One key here is the HARM. You mention carrying bombs. Later on that sort of loadout is fine, but early on during the Wall-O-MiGs carrying HARMs instead allows you to successfully prosecute your DEAD mission but with stand-off capability, making it more survivable and if you fly a high show you probably don’t even need to cross the fence.
In the first hour the skies are mostly empty. So you can get up and get you HARMs off with little interference by Red air. By setting the mission up as a zero vul time BARCAP or interdiction it is easy to get a good rating since you don’t have a specific target requirement. Getting this good rating in the first hour is key for the events that are about to unfold since pilot rating is linked to Blue performance overall.
As Quasi-Stellar alluded to you sort of want to hang about near the FLOT early on until such time as you’ve broken the Red air superiority. So consider flying mostly air-to-air or stand-off missions early on.
I’ll make one more point as I could discuss this endlessly. You can add escort to your mission if you choose, put up sweeps or CAPs near your target, or better yet just frag your own packages if you need to make it more survivable.
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stay outside the BDZ of as many airfields as possible and pay attention to guard, in particular “sentry 1 aircraft launch activity detected bulls xxxxxx” which will tell you if they are launching fighters near you.
otherwise normal procedures apply, get in and get out fast. don’t go too deep or you are going to eat 2 squadrons of interceptors, in which case the best idea is to TWS and then bail as fast as possible.
the other problem you could be having is the suicide trips to pyongyang day 1 hour 1, in which case adjust PAKs.
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Cik, your post about bulls reminded me of something that might help the OP. Early in the campaign you can place a PPT above the active red airbase with its initials. Jot down from the OOB what threats will launch from there. In the UI move the Bulls to where you want and note the approx location of the PPTs. In the mission, AWACS will give the calls, using CEN mode on the HSD , you can quickly see what threat is launching from wherever.
