Vietnam: AAA

[Mr_Tayto]

Hi all,

 

My USN Spad Steel Tiger campaign keeps sending me north of the DMZ, which is fine I suppose as when I am it's usually against logistics targets like littoral sampan bases and the like. The problem is the density and accuracy of flak against low-and-slows like the A-1.

 

Out of three missions flown in this campaign, two have had targets in NVN and only one in the Steel Tiger zone, and my last one against a fairly deep base North of Vihn. This mission resulted in me losing the Spad after managing (somehow) to get her back out into the gulf and bailing out in vicinity of the ship:

 

I've played a few fast jet campaigns so far, all of which have resulted in KIA or POW due to flak, but speed and being able to climb makes it feel like less of an issue unless on a bombing run or making an obvious mistake that I've learned from.

 

So my question is, are there any tactics for avoiding flak in slow crates? I'm jinking like mad but took all the fine on the bombing lineup. Also, I took three wingmen to hopefully disperse the flak among us all, but went in first on the target.

[+Gepard]

Don't fly below 1.000 meters or 3.000 ft. Fly as fast as possible and never in straight line.

[Mr_Tayto]

11 minutes ago, Gepard said:

Don't fly below 1.000 meters or 3.000 ft. Fly as fast as possible and never in straight line.

Rewatched a few Devin Horner A-1 videos, and the flak sure seems more manageable at 6000ft, so point definitely taken.

 

When flying F-105s downtown, I did Hi-Lo-Hi profile dive bombing, and that worked fine but it's obviously not an option in a Spad, so I'll try to keep it medium level.

[KiwiBiggles]

Hi Mr Tayto,

I've flown a fair amount with the Sea Fury and the turboprop Wyvern, both pretty slow old birds, and have had pretty decent sucess with diving attacks (bombs, cannons and rockets) from about 7,000 to 9,000 feet and about 2.5 nautical miles separation from the target, to keep speed as high as possible in the rapid-fire flak engagement zone (below about 5,000 feet), followed by an immediate zoom climb to get back above the danger zone again (game difficulty on normal settings).

Of course, if MiGs are about the best idea is to get down in the weeds (preferably away from the flak sites) and get out of Dodge, so you need to deal with the threats one at a time as much as possible. Sometimes you might have to circle back around to the primary target later, using your endurance advantage and some patience. 

Best 

KB

[Mr_Tayto]

11 hours ago, KiwiBiggles said:

Hi Mr Tayto,

I've flown a fair amount with the Sea Fury and the turboprop Wyvern, both pretty slow old birds, and have had pretty decent sucess with diving attacks (bombs, cannons and rockets) from about 7,000 to 9,000 feet and about 2.5 nautical miles separation from the target, to keep speed as high as possible in the rapid-fire flak engagement zone (below about 5,000 feet), followed by an immediate zoom climb to get back above the danger zone again (game difficulty on normal settings).

Of course, if MiGs are about the best idea is to get down in the weeds (preferably away from the flak sites) and get out of Dodge, so you need to deal with the threats one at a time as much as possible. Sometimes you might have to circle back around to the primary target later, using your endurance advantage and some patience. 

Best 

KB

Brilliant, thanks. My next mission after this post was in RP2 again, doing armed recon above a city, I wasn't so lucky on this one and got POWed after losing a wing. For now I've switched back to the somewhat easier(!) life of flying A4s in alpha strikes with lots of F8s flying top cover. I'm still struggling to put into practice bombing, but at least now I have buddies to help me out. Iron hand missions remain my kryptonite, there's a lot of "learning on the job" with this sim.

 

WOK is my next campaign when I inevitably get splashed again.

[EricJ]

You should download The Range map so you can practice strike missions at least. I don't remember if you can do SEAD (I doubt it) , but it's an enemy free map where you can practice to your heart's content.

[Wrench]

there's no air defenses on The Range. I don't even think I placed enemy search radars either!

[Mr_Tayto]

6 hours ago, Wrench said:

there's no air defenses on The Range. I don't even think I placed enemy search radars either!

Awesome 

 

Does it have a carrier for landing practice on? I'm fairly proficient with the A-1 and A-4 now, have limited experience with the A-6, but I'm dreading the F-4!

[EricJ]

You can try putting a carrier in the lake, but that's the only real water area there is. And it's not that big relative for a carrier to move in (it might end up on the land areas), at least I don't think so. Best thing to do is create a free flight mission (Air Defense Suppression mission but no enemy and no AAA/SAMs), but you have to have the Mission Editor DLC or the SF2 Complete to do that.

[Wrench]

For carriers, I'd use the 'waterworld' terrain; it's set up for it. but it has radars and AAA (has some SAMs, but they're easily edited out)

the "water feature" as I like to call it, on The Range is for practice anti-shipping strikes

[Mr_Tayto]

I am struggling to find The Range in the downloads section, does anyone have a direct link they could share?

 

Also, I'm not overly familiar with the mission editor; I have tried to do a South Vietnam "free flight" mission where I have the option of testing out planes for carrier take off and landing, and ideally bomb delivery, but I don't understand what I'm doing when it comes to placing "targets" (usually in friendly territory so I am avoiding AAA and SAMs). I've watched a video but it didn't make it so clear and didn't detail how to place a "landable" carrier.

[EricJ]

Okay what you do is go to the upper right of the Mission Editor screen, and click on the ship icon. If you have SF2:NA or the complete, you should find the NImitz Aircraft Carrier. That's a takeoffable and landable aircraft carrier that the game comes stock with. After you select that place it in the water using the crosshair in the middle of the map (that's where you place objects with). Once you do that,  open the menu for your aircraft, and select the carrier name, and you'll be able to take of and land on that carrier. As for the Range:

 

Edited March 13, 2024 by EricJ

[Wrench]

Beat me to it! Thanks Eric!