How to play "Red side" without being obliterated?

[MAF1247]

Hello!

I decided to play some "red side" campaigns (Soviets/Russian). But i found out quickly that the difficulty is extremely higher compared to NATO/US. Ofc i understand that Russian have a tech disadvantage compared to NATO, but still it's incredibly frustrating and i get shot down even at the lowest difficulty like nothing. Sometimes i cannot even reach the enemy on my radar and i get hit by a long range missile. Moreover in Russian campaigns i always get intercepted by like 3/4 SAMs at the same time, compared to NATO were is more difficult to be intercepted by AA. For reference i tried the red side campaigns of NATO FIGHTERS 5 and Black Sea Crisis. 

Considering that i probably have to completely change tactics compared to when i play with "blue" forces, can someone give me some tips or guidance on how to proper play Red side without being destroyed every time? Otherwise it becomes more frustrating than fun.

Thank you

[Flanker562]

Unfortunately it's like that with Single Missions (I played as an Su-33, and next thing you know i have four F-15s barreling towards me with while the game was loading, firing Sparrows). I mean there has to be a reason, and I don't know what TK was thinking, as it looks like he favored the NATO/BLUFOR side more than the Russians, and other "Enemy". I mean I don't know what has to be done, maybe Eagle114th found something (even though he's been radio silent for a while) in the Dlls and the Illuminati got him, or what, but there's no solution other than create a single mission and fly without enemy.

[MAF1247]

4 minutes ago, Flanker562 said:

Unfortunately it's like that with Single Missions (I played as an Su-33, and next thing you know i have four F-15s barreling towards me with while the game was loading, firing Sparrows). I mean there has to be a reason, and I don't know what TK was thinking, as it looks like he favored the NATO/BLUFOR side more than the Russians, and other "Enemy". I mean I don't know what has to be done, maybe Eagle114th found something (even though he's been radio silent for a while) in the Dlls and the Illuminati got him, or what, but there's no solution other than create a single mission and fly without enemy.

I usually do single mission to train myself before campaigns. In single mission however you can reduce the amount of enemy aircraft and decide the positioning, by using the wrench icon down to the right and then edit the mission. 

I don't want completely blame TK, because in vanilla Strike Fighters 2 you cannot play as Red side in campaigns nor piloting red aircrafts, so the game is not naturally balanced. However, whoever made the mods were you can play as Russian air force, has forgot to nerf the blue side. Even if it's not "accurate", because in reality NATO will completely obliterate VVS due to their long range missiles, from a gameplay perspective is frustrating, especially if you play by starting on the ground.

[Flanker562]

4 minutes ago, MAF1247 said:

I usually do single mission to train myself before campaigns. In single mission however you can reduce the amount of enemy aircraft and decide the positioning, by using the wrench icon down to the right and then edit the mission. 

I don't want completely blame TK, because in vanilla Strike Fighters 2 you cannot play as Red side in campaigns nor piloting red aircrafts, so the game is not naturally balanced. However, whoever made the mods were you can play as Russian air force, has forgot to nerf the blue side. Even if it's not "accurate", because in reality NATO will completely obliterate VVS due to their long range missiles, from a gameplay perspective is frustrating, especially if you play by starting on the ground.

Yeah I don't play Red unless it's an edited single mission, like where there's no enemy and just enjoy the scenery as much as possible and just fly around. But that experience and other people commenting on this subject kept me from flying Red jets, even though it would be nice to do something different. Oh well, it is what it is I suppose.

[ravenclaw_007]

i dont know if this will solve the problem but if you open the NATIONS.ini you most likley will find this

[Nation002]
Name=USAF
DisplayName=United States Air Force
Alignment=FRIENDLY
PilotNameList=NamesUSAF.lst
RankList=RanksUSAF.lst
CallsignList=CallsignsUS.lst
Formation.Fighter=USFighter
Formation.Attack=USFighter
Formation.Bomber=USBomber
Formation.Transport=USBomber
Formation.Tank=USTank
Formation.MobileAD=USAD
PilotTrainingStandard=EXCELLENT
GenderRatio=0
DebriefSuccessMusic=DebriefSuccess.wav
DebriefFailMusic=DebriefFail.wav
DebriefKilledMusic=DebriefKilled.wav
SpeechFile=SpeechUSEnglish
SpeechTextFile=USAFSpeechText.cat
Medals=MedalsUSAF.ini
UseFAC=TRUE
ActiveDate=1948
AlternateDecal=USAF_OLD

[Nation215]
Name=Soviet
DisplayName=Russian Air Force
Alignment=ENEMY
PilotNameList=NamesRussian.lst
RankList=RanksRussian.lst
CallsignList=CallsignsUS.lst
Formation.Fighter=SovietFighter
Formation.Attack=SovietFighter
Formation.Bomber=SovietBomber
Formation.Transport=SovietBomber
Formation.Tank=SovietTank
Formation.MobileAD=SovietAD
PilotTrainingStandard=NORMAL
GenderRatio=0
DebriefSuccessMusic=DebriefSuccess.wav
DebriefFailMusic=DebriefFail.wav
DebriefKilledMusic=DebriefKilled.wav
SpeechFile=SpeechUSEnglish
SpeechTextFile=USAFSpeechText.str
ActiveDate=2010
Medals=MedalsRUS_10.ini
AlternateDecal=Soviet_OLD92

 

PilotTrainingStandard=EXCELLENT vs  PilotTrainingStandard=NORMAL , dont know if it helps to set everything to normal so everybody is on the same skill level but maybe worth trying

[Gepard]

One problem is, that western weapons are overpowered, while eastern weapons are underpowered in game. Even when it are basically the same weapons, the western is more accurate and capable. For example AA-2 Atoll and AIM-9B. Its the same weapon. But in game the AA-2 has an accuracy setting of 60, the Sidewinder has 65. The Sidewinder has a bigger launch reliability and a bigger seeker FOV and so on. In game it is the better weapon.

[Wrench]

That's been a a problem with the series since it was first released. It's EXCEPTIONALLY biased to The West. OTH, Eastern forces SAMs and AAA seem a LOT better than their Western counterparts, especially when the ability to network them to search/track/fire control radars appeared.

One of the major points is that we were NEVER supposed to be able to play Eastern/WarPac aircraft. That's why have inferior charastaristics (sp?)

There's been many an attempt over the last 20 years to fix this, with varying results.

[streakeagle]

Aside from any bias in the weapons data, TK's way to make missions more "fun" is to have AI focus on engaging the player. It is one thing if the AIM-7 and AIM-9 perform better than they should relative to Soviet missiles, it is another thing if every aircraft with overpowered weapons aims them all at you. While TK did quite a bit to make a rivet counter like me happy over the years, he still made a lot of decisions that favored gameplay and fun over realism. Early on he decided to make the game only playable from the blue NATO/Western/US side and complaints about player missile reliability were addressed in patches, particularly after the release of SF2 North Atlantic.

If you install SFP1 SP2a (the last major release before Wings Over Vietnam, which marked a major turn in AI dogfighting ability and flight modeling), you will find a given scenario such as 4 x F-4D vs 4 x MiG-21MF plays very differently. The AIM-7s and AIM-9s are far more likely to fail and if you don't have a gun, the MiG-21s have a decent chance. Having played online multiplayer with SFP1/WoX for years, I can say in a 1 vs 1 with player flown F-4s vs player flown MiGs, the F-4 has a hard time winning. The MiG-19 was the best PvP aircraft in the game, having the maneuverability of the MiG-17 and the power of the F-4. The MiG-17 wasn't easy to beat. The MiG-21 was for the most part a fair fight. The deviation between blue and red weapons parameters are but one small piece of the puzzle: it is the AI that really determines the difficulty of a given mission.

[jeanba]

I played a Vietnam 1966 campaign on the red side, à completly différent experience

I was flying à Mig21PF

It was fun , you had to use guérilla like, hit and run tactics

Killing raté was around 5%, not so ahistorical (i got 3 kilos in aronde 20 missions)

Edited Tuesday at 09:13 AM by jeanba

[MAF1247]

 

On 3/2/2026 at 2:15 PM, ravenclaw_007 said:

i dont know if this will solve the problem but if you open the NATIONS.ini you most likley will find this

[Nation002]
Name=USAF
DisplayName=United States Air Force
Alignment=FRIENDLY
PilotNameList=NamesUSAF.lst
RankList=RanksUSAF.lst
CallsignList=CallsignsUS.lst
Formation.Fighter=USFighter
Formation.Attack=USFighter
Formation.Bomber=USBomber
Formation.Transport=USBomber
Formation.Tank=USTank
Formation.MobileAD=USAD
PilotTrainingStandard=EXCELLENT
GenderRatio=0
DebriefSuccessMusic=DebriefSuccess.wav
DebriefFailMusic=DebriefFail.wav
DebriefKilledMusic=DebriefKilled.wav
SpeechFile=SpeechUSEnglish
SpeechTextFile=USAFSpeechText.cat
Medals=MedalsUSAF.ini
UseFAC=TRUE
ActiveDate=1948
AlternateDecal=USAF_OLD

[Nation215]
Name=Soviet
DisplayName=Russian Air Force
Alignment=ENEMY
PilotNameList=NamesRussian.lst
RankList=RanksRussian.lst
CallsignList=CallsignsUS.lst
Formation.Fighter=SovietFighter
Formation.Attack=SovietFighter
Formation.Bomber=SovietBomber
Formation.Transport=SovietBomber
Formation.Tank=SovietTank
Formation.MobileAD=SovietAD
PilotTrainingStandard=NORMAL
GenderRatio=0
DebriefSuccessMusic=DebriefSuccess.wav
DebriefFailMusic=DebriefFail.wav
DebriefKilledMusic=DebriefKilled.wav
SpeechFile=SpeechUSEnglish
SpeechTextFile=USAFSpeechText.str
ActiveDate=2010
Medals=MedalsRUS_10.ini
AlternateDecal=Soviet_OLD92

 

PilotTrainingStandard=EXCELLENT vs  PilotTrainingStandard=NORMAL , dont know if it helps to set everything to normal so everybody is on the same skill level but maybe worth trying

Ok, i changed it. But i change the difficulty of the campaign it can influence this data?

[MAF1247]

On 3/2/2026 at 3:35 PM, Gepard said:

One problem is, that western weapons are overpowered, while eastern weapons are underpowered in game. Even when it are basically the same weapons, the western is more accurate and capable. For example AA-2 Atoll and AIM-9B. Its the same weapon. But in game the AA-2 has an accuracy setting of 60, the Sidewinder has 65. The Sidewinder has a bigger launch reliability and a bigger seeker FOV and so on. In game it is the better weapon.

This is actually realistic. WarPac tech has always been inferior to NATO, with minor exceptions. Problem is that from a gameplay perspective the enemy AI always focus on you instead of the bigger picture, so you find yourself with an inferior aircraft against 4-5 enemy superior fighters. Nobody could survive that. The western SAM in the game it's also much more lethal then red side.

[MAF1247]

19 hours ago, streakeagle said:

Aside from any bias in the weapons data, TK's way to make missions more "fun" is to have AI focus on engaging the player. It is one thing if the AIM-7 and AIM-9 perform better than they should relative to Soviet missiles, it is another thing if every aircraft with overpowered weapons aims them all at you. While TK did quite a bit to make a rivet counter like me happy over the years, he still made a lot of decisions that favored gameplay and fun over realism. Early on he decided to make the game only playable from the blue NATO/Western/US side and complaints about player missile reliability were addressed in patches, particularly after the release of SF2 North Atlantic.

If you install SFP1 SP2a (the last major release before Wings Over Vietnam, which marked a major turn in AI dogfighting ability and flight modeling), you will find a given scenario such as 4 x F-4D vs 4 x MiG-21MF plays very differently. The AIM-7s and AIM-9s are far more likely to fail and if you don't have a gun, the MiG-21s have a decent chance. Having played online multiplayer with SFP1/WoX for years, I can say in a 1 vs 1 with player flown F-4s vs player flown MiGs, the F-4 has a hard time winning. The MiG-19 was the best PvP aircraft in the game, having the maneuverability of the MiG-17 and the power of the F-4. The MiG-17 wasn't easy to beat. The MiG-21 was for the most part a fair fight. The deviation between blue and red weapons parameters are but one small piece of the puzzle: it is the AI that really determines the difficulty of a given mission.

Yeah, i hate when to make the game "challenging" the devs programs the AI to focus almost exclusively to shoot down the player, sometimes exposing themselves to be shot down themelves by my wingmen because they left their side uncovered. But it's extremely frustrating because in real life, during aerial war there is no focus on a "single aircraft", unless this carry a nuclear bomb to drop. I saw this problem also on IL2 Battle of Stalingrad where basically you are the "main villain" of the entire enemy airforce, because they are capable to catching you even when you are miles away from them. In the community they called them the Stalker Fighters because no matter what you do, they will risk even to run out of fuel or being shot down behind enemy lines only because they are programmed to destroy YOU and only YOU. For years people complained, but 1C never listened. 

On strike fighters 2 the AI is actually less aggressive, but still frustrating. In the end i think that when you play with red side on SF2 you need to change completely the way you approach the air warfare, otherwise you get always shot down. The problem is how to do it?

[MAF1247]

6 hours ago, jeanba said:

I played a Vietnam 1966 campaign on the red side, à completly différent experience

I was flying à Mig21PF

It was fun , you had to use guérilla like, hit and run tactics

Killing raté was around 5%, not so ahistorical (i got 3 kilos in aronde 20 missions)

The red campaigns of early cold war are actually pretty fun and still balanced, because missiles were not still the main weapons and pilots still relied on gun machine dogfighting. I played Korea war mod with the Mig 15 and i never felt in disadvantage compared to USAF's sabres. Actually, some times it was easier, because at the time the Mig 15 was the better aircraft. Red campaigns are fun from the 1950s to last 1960s, then when the focus of the combat pass from guns to missiles, it becomes more and more frustrating, until modern campaign in the 1980s-2000s where fighting against NATO airforces is a nightmare.

[jeanba]

Yes, playing red until early 60's is quite OK

As Streakeagle said, the Mig19 is a beast !

VietNam, from the red side is a completly différent experience as the US completly saturates the player formation, but this is ok

Maybe a Europe 1975 campaign could work ?

No f16, f15, Aim9l, and you can fly late mig21 and mig23

Edited Tuesday at 07:03 PM by jeanba

[Gepard]

5 hours ago, MAF1247 said:

This is actually realistic. WarPac tech has always been inferior to NATO, with minor exceptions.

You may belive this, but in reality it was different. The AIM-9B and the R-3S were the same weapons. They had only a different lable on it. The West Germans captured a East German R-3S missile and after an analysis they stated: Its a perfect copy of the AIM-9B.

After german unification in 1990 the West Germans had a lot to do to analyse eastern weapon technic. The seaker head of the R-60MK missile was comparable with the AIM-9L seeker head, while the R-60 was much more agile and had a much higher load factor. The R-73 missile was stated as one generation ahead to all western IR-seeker missile of its time.

The american and western weapons were superior to soviet export weapons. Thats true. But these weapons were downgraded and less capable as the weapons the soviets had for themself.

 

Edited Tuesday at 08:54 PM by Gepard

[Wrench]

I'd heard a rumor that the export versions weren't as capable as those kept at home. We know some aircraft were downgraded for export (Mig-23s come to mind)

[daddyairplanes]

6 hours ago, Gepard said:

 The West Germans captured a East German R-3S missile and after an analysis they stated: Its a perfect copy of the AIM-9B.

more like a theft. by the Americans or Brits, who could have military liasonh teams travel  all over Germany (as could the French and Soviets)

i remember hearing or reading somewhere that one such team found an R-3S and stuck it in the trunk of their official vehicle. East German polizei were not allowed to stop them, but the West German polizei ticketed them when back on our side of teh Curtain because they didnt hang a red oversize flag off of it!

wish i could remember  where i got that from, but i do know it was before i got married so i heard about it before 99.......

[daddyairplanes]

1 hour ago, Wrench said:

I'd heard a rumor that the export versions weren't as capable as those kept at home. We know some aircraft were downgraded for export (Mig-23s come to mind)

same as the AIM-9P given to many allies when we were using Js

the "exact same thing as Uncle Sam uses" sales for everyone is a recent thing. previously you got a different version (F-4F, F-4E(J) ) or paid top dollar while professing to hate communists (IIAF F-4s and F-14s)

off topic, if the Shah's son takes over when it all shakes out in Iran, does that mean a new order for Imperial Iranian Air Force F-16s?

Edited Wednesday at 01:51 AM by daddyairplanes

[Gepard]

14 hours ago, daddyairplanes said:

more like a theft. by the Americans or Brits, who could have military liasonh teams travel  all over Germany (as could the French and Soviets)

i remember hearing or reading somewhere that one such team found an R-3S and stuck it in the trunk of their official vehicle. East German polizei were not allowed to stop them, but the West German polizei ticketed them when back on our side of teh Curtain because they didnt hang a red oversize flag off of it!

wish i could remember  where i got that from, but i do know it was before i got married so i heard about it before 99.......

The true story was, that east of the island of Usedom was an aerial shooting range, know as "Luftschießzone 1 und 2". This was used by our Air Force and the Czechoslovakian Air Force. This shooting range was over open water and that's why western spy ships had the chance to monitoring this area all over the time.

IIRC it happend in the late 1960th or early 1970th. A german MiG-21 fired a R-3S missile (AA-2 Atoll), but the rocket engine failed and the missile falled down into the Baltic Sea. The West German spy ship was eyewitness. As soon as possible west german frogmen were flown by helicopter in that area with the task to search for the lost missile. At the same time the East German Kampfschwimmerkompanie KSK-17 got the same task. And so east and west german frogmen fought a race to find the missile. With a lucky end for the western side. Their frogmen found the missile, transported it to the spy ship and sent it home to West Germany.

And so the West Germans got a R-3S missile by first hand. Or with other words: shit happens.