Stock WOV Rolling Thunder campaign

[Slant6 21]

When playing a stock Rolling Thunder campaign in WOV (patch 8/30/06), at least "long" and starting in 1965, even when flying an F-8E or F-4B/D eventually MiGs don't show up any more, and I'm reduced to blasting warehouses and fuel tanks over and over and over. Did TK do this on purpose, or is it a bug in the stock RT campaign? Thanks.

[+Gocad 26]

There isn't an endless supply of MiGs. Once they're gone, they're gone...for awhile.

 

And there's no point chasing MiGs when there aren't any, don't you agree?

 

Seriously, it all boils down to the initial inventory, the losses during the campaign (it's dynamic) and the aircraft replacement rate (which is set in the campaign_data)

 

The North Vietnamese don't have that many MiGs to begin with and it's defined that the replacement is quite slow.

 

Besides, MiG encounters were actually quite rare anyway, so flying escort or strike missions without seeing a MiG isn't that far off anyway.

Edited March 14, 2010 by Gocad

[Slant6 21]

Thanks! It makes sense now. I guess I'll be flying RT missions as short--unless I'm driving an A-6A, then not having MiGs around will be nice.

[+streakeagle 866]

If TK made the campaign as historically accurate as possible, you would fly endless Escort missions with almost no MiGs at all. When the North Vietnamese first got there MiG-21s, they had about 16 of them. Operation Bolo shot down 7 of them in one engagement. There were several months of no air combat until new MiGs arrived and new tactics were developed. At various times throughout the war, there was almost no MiG activity at all. So, for air-to-air jocks like myself, a historically accurate campaign in Vietnam can be very boring. I prefer single missions which allow you to duplicate the situations that occurred when MiGs were encountered: F-105s bounced by MiG-17s, MiG-21s popping up out of nowhere behind the strike force at supersonic speeds, and events like Operation Bolo or the slaughter that took place on May 10, 1972 when the Vietnamese learned what the AIM-9G and Top Gun had done for the Navy as well as getting a taste of Combat Tree and the AIM-7E2 when they worked right. The most difficult missions are using hard wing USAF F-4C/Ds with AIM-4Ds and AIM-7Es while following visual ID ROE for Sparrow launches. The AIM-4Ds in the game work about as well against MiGs as they did in real life: almost never. The AIM-7Es are almost worthless within visual range. About the only thing the F-4s can do is stay fast and wait for the MiGs to run out of fuel and disengage, then setting up some AIM-7E shots or if you are feeling really lucky, trying to get an AIM-4D kill.

[macelena 1,070]

The most difficult missions are using hard wing USAF F-4C/Ds with AIM-4Ds and AIM-7Es while following visual ID ROE for Sparrow launches. The AIM-4Ds in the game work about as well against MiGs as they did in real life: almost never. The AIM-7Es are almost worthless within visual range. About the only thing the F-4s can do is stay fast and wait for the MiGs to run out of fuel and disengage, then setting up some AIM-7E shots or if you are feeling really lucky, trying to get an AIM-4D kill.

 

 

 

There is something i find useful about the AIM-4D against Frescos, wich is a range slightly superior to that of the sidewinder, wich allows you to fire from 6 o´clock at a MiG-17 slightly out of visual range if you stalk them. That would be at 4 miles, not much less (Thats WVR, isn´t it?), while the MiG isn´t aware of you and flies straight, you have a narrow window to get into weapons parameters while unnoticed. I tried that with F-101Bs, and worked out, however, it was hard, it took a good interception course to get into weapons parameters without letting them know you are there, and have an eye on airspeed, but that works on AIM-4Ds.

 

Anyway, in the event they notice i´m there, i allways keep my drops on, so i can fly longer than them, as by no way i´m entering dogfight with falcons against MiG-17s, and kill them as they break when they get "Bingo". However, that might result in loosing your wingman if decides to engage on his own. Mine fortunately follows me unless i order him otherwise.

 

As i said, that was with F-101Bs in a what if scenario, but i guess it should work even better for Phantoms.