How to survive naval strike missions?

[koopanique]

Hi,

I wanted to know if you had any tips and tricks on how to survive naval strike missions. In Strike Fighters 2 North Atlantic, in the Single Mission generator, you can choose Strike missions in Iceland and most of the time you will be asked to bomb an enemy carrier.

It's great fun, however the enemy carrier group starts spamming SAMs when we get too close, and evading SAMs seem really hard. I launch flares and try to fly perpendicular, but 9 times out of 10 a SAM eventually finds its way to me. When I hear the SAM warning sound, sometimes after a few seconds it disappears, but no idea what I did to survive. When I die, I then watch the rest of the battle unfold and other allied planes don't fare much better, usually at least one manages to drop bomb on the enemy carrier or one of its escorts, and kinda manages to escape if it's lucky, but most planes get shot down by SAMs as well.

Do you often play naval strike missions? If so, how do you survive them?

(Also, completely unrelated, but do we know who did the music for the game?)

Thank you

[Flanker562]

Honestly, I stopped flying Strike missions on that map for that reason alone. I like a challenge like everybody else, but when you've got enemy fighters and SAMs flying at you, death is inevitable. I don't know what pervaded TK to think that a flight could take out a carrier, and like to know the thought process on that train of thought to be honest with you. I like dropping bombs or missiles on shacks, hangars, and other assorted paraphernalia that normal strike missions entail, not trying to fight a battle group. I mean I suppose Nightshade/PR launches a nuke at it, and wins it, but for the conventional people it's a bitch.

[Nightshade/PR]

Nukes DO work, but there's also conventional Stand-Off weapons that will do the job. The escorts are going to kill some, but if you bring enough planes, kill the escorts first, the carrier eventually succumbs. Harpoons & Exocets work really well.

The game engine usually generates an Alpha Strike, and pulls in a mix of aircraft, fighters, jammers, attack birds, anti-radar birds, and an AWACS, all headed for the Battle Group in question. I usually load my flight (usually 4-8) with a mix of the different available AGM-84 models, and head out on a flight path that puts us off the flight path of the main strike. Once they form up, I take them low over the water and in close formation. We let the other flights get fully engaged with the group, and when the fight out front is in full melee status, the escorts are busy engaging the main force and the SAMS are targeting them, we speed up to get as close as possible before we're actually targeted, and launch everything. I assign the 3 &4 to kill the pickets, and my wingman and I launch on the main target, changing altitudes and position every time I fire. When everyone is empty, it's time to go home. Win or lose, without the Harpoons, we're meat on the table going into their ADIZ with guns only. If we're successful, we'll hear the call on the way back to the boat.

As with anything in this game, practice makes perfect.

Edited 18 hours ago by Nightshade/PR

[Mechman]

Giant flight of planes, select as many as you can. Fly fast, fly low, pop up to launch and then skim the deck and zigzag

 

[koopanique]

Thanks for your answers! So if I "merge" those answers, the main strategy seems to be to let other AI planes (as many as possible) reach the enemy carrier group first, and when the carrier group is busy with those AI planes, fire long range missiles (if applicable), or fly fast and drop the bombs and weave through the AA fire, and then go home as fast as possible

[Nightshade/PR]

That's about it. 

[daddyairplanes]

repeat after me

 

LEE-ROY JENKINS!

[Nightshade/PR]

You Beat Me 2 It!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Flanker562]

2 hours ago, daddyairplanes said:

repeat after me

 

 

LEE-ROY JENKINS!

I mean it's a technique. Not a good one, but it is one.

[Wrench]

indeed, swarm attacks. think Kamikazes around Okinawa. and that's BEFORE any kind of SAM!!!

[daddyairplanes]

9 minutes ago, Wrench said:

indeed, swarm attacks. think Kamikazes around Okinawa. and that's BEFORE any kind of SAM!!!

swarm, hell.

your Hawaii terrain kept sending me into the same damn Soviet convoy off the big island while i was testing FACs 

when your two ship winds up in the middle of 4 Krivaks and 4 supply ships,  hit the throttle, hit the deck, target the cargo ships and hope your wing man makes it out ok 

[Major Lee]

Naval attack style? I can say definitively, that using the "feel the force" technique to put a pair of 750# bombs straight down the smoke stack doesn't work out too well. 
I started at around 7,000', saw the target ship, rolled over and down 60 degrees, pickled the bombs at maybe 1,000', saw the flash, the cockpit dash lit up like a Christmas tree, and I wondered if I was still flying. 
I pulled pulled out with blacked out tunnel vision, avoided a shark by about 20' and made it back, barely...