Rolling Thunder (A) - Mission 08

[beachav8r 360]

Well, it doesn't get any more hairy than this. Our mission for today is to head "downtown", crossing over the heavily defended Hanoi to the west side of the city. There we will engage in one of the most dangerous missions of the war - suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD) otherwise known as Iron Hand.



Our loadout consists of a pair of Shrike missiles, and CBU-24/B cluster bombs...





Note - these screens are unaltered except for a 2% noise added. The desaturation and vignette are done in real time, in game, by SweetFX.



Stary was kind enough to share this awesome water texture with me..it looks fantastic!



Heading for the coast it is just my wingman and I this time from our squadron. Dozens of other aircraft are pressing toward the coast as well from other carriers...



Keeping the flight director box centered up on the TV display...





The fighters push forward on reports that MiGs are in the area...



And indeed, they are lining up to meet us over Hanoi...





Thuds come in from land bases in the South (or was it Thailand?)...



Scooters crossing the beach...



I radio my wingman to give me some space. The threat receiver (again - I don't know if this year Intruder actually had them) is audio only and it shrieks. In this mission, the blaring whistle turns to something more ominous and I guess that means I'm getting launched on by an SA-2 site. I blunder around the skies and do see a couple missile trails go whizzing by. I turn my ECM gear on and just hope I'm lucky...







While I'm F12 viewing the theater this little truck park comes into view. Wish I could mark it for later...



The AAA and flak over Hanoi is just murderous. I had the house to myself today, so I cranked up the sounds system and the subwoofer was rattling the windows as the explosions hit all around my aircraft. It was really intense...





As we approach our area of operations, I'm a little unsure how exactly to employ the Shrike. I get the primary target padlocked, hit the launch button and my missile roars off. I track it down and it destroys a AAA artillery piece, but I'm not sure that is how it is supposed to work (I thought Shrikes would only go after emitters?)...





I cut my wingman loose and he starts to make a run toward the target area as well..





Things snowball quickly though and he is hit by something. His aircraft crashes just beyond where his cluster bombs are exploding...



It looks pretty horrific...



I pull off, intending to exit the target area to the southwest, but when I query the Tactical Air Controller she responds that "..the mission is still in progress.."

It is then I realize that the "Primary Target" is, in fact, a cluster of a whole bunch of different anti-aircraft units. Oh crap.. The enemy tracers and flak are just unrelenting (I now know what the meaning of "you could walk across the flak" means..) but I roll back in after selecting my CBUs.







I get good hits on several CBU passes, but each time I check with the controller the mission goals are not fufilled...





It is only a matter of time before I'm going to get hit and each time I drop down toward a target I know I'm going to get blasted from the sky..







Finally, I've dropped all of my ordnance and the mission is still not complete. I need a Skyraider! With no choice, I have to head south under the cover of the other aircraft and accept that the mission is not a success...



As I set up the wing leveler autopilot to cruise toward the coast, I hit the F12 key to watch some action. As I'm watching this MiG getting set up to kill this Crusader - it happens: CTD! Argh!!



It is unfortunate that I lose the details of the mission - but at least I don't get penalized as far as getting data written to my logbook. In an attempt to recreate faithfully what happened, I cycle though missions in the campaign until I get a similar one to the same area, and refly the mission. On the second run through I get the same results as far as not being able to bring enough ordnance to the table, but this time m wingman doesn't get shot down. I preserved the outcome though by not adding flights or bombs - so in that respect the mission represents close to what the outcome would have been anyway. My penchant for the F12 key can cause lock-ups occasionally as the camera zips around the theater. My 2008 system might need some updating..







The mission was a real nail biter right up until I decided to head back to the carrier. The flak and AAA was just incredible and the thought of an SA-2 inbound was ever present. This sim has the AAA from Jane's F-15 beat by a long shot..

BeachAV8R
 

[+elephant 36]

[Stratos 3,177]

Great report! I really like the Mig pic shooting at the Crusader, please keep em coming!

[darkarrow 0]

Great report, it is a pity that it crashed, I've gone through 15 missions in the same campaign with the same mods in an A-4 and never had a CTD. I also wasn't able to complete any of the iron hand missions - the parameters for success are too strict - I think you need to destroy more than 50% of the air defenses in the area.

Would it be possible to share the water tiles? They look much better than the default ones in GH3.5.

[+Stary 2,426]

[Antares81 16]

Very good report ... the MOD is good like A-6 mod whit RAZBAM cockpit ,but still miss the real aircraft-carrier of Class Forrestal

[claw 17]

I love these reports. Keep them coming! 

[MigBuster 2,871]

Ace report as always

 

By default its a percentage of a group of AAA/SAM targets - which isn't so bad with the default Flak - but with the more realistic flak becomes less realistic as you find you are the only jet left in NV but have 3 more AAA guns to take out to fulfill game parameters and everyone is shooting at you.

 

This can be altered in the mission editor - I created an F-100F mission and reduced the amount to about 10% - then you can concentrate on suppressing threats to bombers as opposed to just trying to meet your own goals.

[fallenphoenix1986 603]

Managed to complete one sucsessfully a few days back, was dumb luck though, spent most of my time down low jinking around hiding behid hills before levelling out inside of 2 miles for the bombrun.

 

Any chance I could bug you for how you managed to get the "DIANE/CCIP" to work in the Razbam pit, been trying since yesterday afternoon and it just aint happening.

 

Craig

[MigBuster 2,871]

You just need the correct avionics.ini. cockpit ini and files for the cockpit folder - get them from whatever mod  you want to use.

[darkarrow 0]

By default its a percentage of a group of AAA/SAM targets - which isn't so bad with the default Flak - but with the more realistic flak becomes less realistic as you find you are the only jet left in NV but have 3 more AAA guns to take out to fulfill game parameters and everyone is shooting at you.

 

This can be altered in the mission editor - I created an F-100F mission and reduced the amount to about 10% - then you can concentrate on suppressing threats to bombers as opposed to just trying to meet your own goals.

But can it also be altered for campaigns somehow?

[MigBuster 2,871]

If the global values are defines in an ini somewhere then maybe - would need to find them

[Centurion-1 1,228]

I wish there was some way to wholly eliminate SEAD missions vs. AAA, more often than not you find yourself tasked to destroy some AAA guns with a SA-6 and SA-2 site right next door plus a bunch of SA-8s to boot.

 

Oh and nice report as always!

[jeanba 1,918]

I wish there was some way to wholly eliminate SEAD missions vs. AAA, more often than not you find yourself tasked to destroy some AAA guns with a SA-6 and SA-2 site right next door plus a bunch of SA-8s to boot.

 

Oh and nice report as always!

Totally agree, but as far as I am concerned, I don't care anymore about mission objectives and go for the most juicy target

 

 

Another great mission report

 

Stary, can we download the water textures ?

They look great

Edited December 2, 2013 by jeanba

[+Stary 2,426]

surely will upload when back home

[jeanba 1,918]

Thnak you

[+Stary 2,426]

Stary, can we download the water textures ?

They look great

here it is, just save as bitmap and toss into your favourite terrain:

 

[jeanba 1,918]

Thank you, I will download them when back from work

[joshyr 0]

Could I have a mod list please Beach?

[beachav8r 360]

Could I have a mod list please Beach?

 

 

• Strike Fighters 2 - Vietnam
• Green Hell 3.5 + Trees - Stary
• SF2V Air/Ground War Expansion - eBurger68
• CVA-63 Kitty Hawk - MigBuster
• RAZBAM A-6A - Payware
• Formations.ini - SixGun/PureBlue
• A-6 SuperPack - Homefries
• Unified Effects 1.2 - Stary
• SARCASM 1.5 - Stary
• A-6 DIANE CCIP - MigBuster

• Water texture - Stary

• Sunday Puncher's Skin - CrazyhorseB34
• ..and a whole lot of help from the kind people here at Combat Ace...

   

   

Edited December 4, 2013 by beachav8r