Lt. James Cater

You're a braver man than i. The moment that those Mig 31s came on the scene, i would have slammed the throttles to the fullest and headed for the weeds.

That answers a whole lot of questions i was about to ask in the near future. I'm still going to use hard setting, I love the challenge.!

Use the Hartmann method. Get in so close that the target fills your sight then let loose with your guns.

That is a great way to introduce someone to these sims. You can rack up the kills in a Hun but you do have to keep an eye out for the rest of your squadron.

The approach i use i've posted many times before... Swing east north of Yen Bai, head over to Thud Ridge, go full power and dive down to the weeds on the east side of it, head straight for downtown, go full burner at pop up point to get to roll in altitude, roll in, drop bombs. Getting out is really something. You can head for the Red river and try to make the hills or you can go on the long trip out over the water. It doesn't matter if you are low or high. Either way, if something goes wrong you are in deep kimchi!

In WOE i've never once had a problem with SA2s despite multiple launchings. When i got shot down the first time my flight path was between several Soviet bases and the ECM was effective despite about 12 SAMs being fired at us. The problem was two SA6 sites that were located dead ahead a few miles of the initial point. They fired three times and got two of us. In WOV, ECM is no guarantee, but makes a remarkable difference to the odds concerning your survival.

In WOV any trip up North is to be taken with the utmost seriousness. No matter where you go you stand an excellent chance of getting shot down. Even if you avoid the SAMs, the horrors of countless triple A just waiting for you to get low and slow is enough to give one pause before setting off.

I'm looking for info concerning others' experiences with this missle. In WOE, two campaigns have come to an end due to this SAM. In both i was carrying ECM pods but obviously it did little good since i was shot down. Worse is that my squadronmates got the chop too. One i was actually keying in orders to send him home when he was hit. The range, height and bearing to the site were so similar in both cases that i figured i'd come here and ask if anyone else got nailed hard by this SAM and can ECM help defend against it. For some reason it seemingly has my number and i wonder if the ECM is having any effect. In both campaigns i was flying F-4s successfully until going on deep strike missons.

I really don't equate SEAD with your typical strike mission because it's a unique thing. Having to spend a prolonged period of time in the target area to make multiple passes at triple A sites is sure as hell not my idea of fun at all.

If anyone doing strikes want to live long enough to complete their tour, i'd suggest you repeat the above to yourself endlessly and act upon it.

Just off the top of my head i would suggest a better wingman. I just finished a WOE campaign in which one of the squadron was quite the ground attack type. Needless to say, whenever close support came around he racked up so i slotted him as wingman whenever it was a crucial time. Another suggestion is a lot of smaller bombs. If you have no real clue and are basically making your approaches via WAG, lots of 250 and 500 pounders gives you more of a chance to hit the target. Unprofessional as hell but results are what matters!

Awesome! Now i'll get to see what fighting on the other side is like!

Badger, if it can run on my piece of junk, one foot in the grave Dell Dimension 4400 it can run on whatever you use most likely! These games are really nice, only a true flight sim snob would dismiss them out of hand. Want challenges? Try getting through a tour flying Thuds up North in WOV without losing sleep sometimes. Or taking the Hawker Hunter into battle in WOE. Get em and enjoy! Nuff said, Cater

"Eleanor Rigby" without a doubt! "Help" being a close second with Yesterday a close third.. Funny thing about certain Beatles' song. I much prefer the Jimi Hendrix versions of "Sgt. Peppers' Lonely Hearts' Club Band" and "Day Tripper".

Back when women looked like WOMEN! In this day and age, there are none remotely comparable to her. RIP Betty.

All right wise guys! Seeing as Christmas is near, who knows how many out there might just pick up these sims and sooner or later find themselves here. Even if i read about the war in Vietnam since i was a kid i sure as hell wish i could have gotten more specific intell when i first started in WOV. For example, a hill i used to use as a nav marker and a shield to avoid SAMs was smack next to a SAM site with all the attendant AAA. I got zapped twice over that same terrain feature. I didn't find out about the site until i did some recce work and found it. Head NE from Than Hoa and there is a stretch where you are under heavy 100mm fire for a rather prolonged period. I know the first time i flew that route i almost jumped out of my skin when the flak started going off around my plane. Dense flak areas rarely get mentioned around here. Using Jaeger's settings, high altitude AAA is no longer harmless. IN WOE i know the geography but have little clue as to the lethality of the target area. Perhaps someone can fill us in a bit? It's been a while since i last flown but i remember getting shot down once by ground fire due to my stupidity and ignorance of the area i was flying over. WOI i have yet to get but so far here only a single mention of an area to watch out for.

Everyone has at least one. A target that makes your hair stand on end when you draw it. For me, my top hairy target is Kep. The location alone makes it a white knuckle experience. With no notable terrain features to mask your approach, multiple SAM sites and loads of triple A have a wonderful chance at you from altitude all the way down to the deck. What makes it even worse is that it's in the Hanoi area meaning that you are going to get hosed hard the closer you get. Of all the targets i can think of, this one is just as bad when egressing. Hanoi is THE king kong of defenses. However, if you fly out of Thailand you can take advantage of Thud ridge to avoid the worst of it. If you swing north of Yen Bai and come in low and fast along the ridge you can get to your pop up point pretty much unscathed. Once you climb though, all hell breaks loose. If you come in at altitude expect the worst. One route i sometimes take is an approach from due west of the city. Once near the foothills (especially one i call "SAM Knoll)i KNOW that flak will be coming up and at least two SAM sites will launch at my strike. Can't do anything but cope with it. Egressing can be a nightmare here too. It's a long way to the hills or the water if you take critical damage. Haiphong is similar to Kep but with only 4 SAM sites to deal with. Unfortunatly, they are closely deployed and so their coverage is tightly overlapped. There is an airfield north of Than Hoa that i forgot the name of but it has 3 SAM sites in the area that are incredibly agressive. Navy pukes should be careful while heading north off the coast. It's a given that you will be engaged should you wander too close to the beach around there. So let's hear yours.

Thanks for the great link! Thats how it's always been. Attack-counterattack, measure-countermeasure, et al.

I've been wanting to fly MIGs in a campaign for ages. Just as i was going to look around for some stuff to download my comp got zapped and i'm grounded. Guess i'll ask around to get ready for when i'm ready again.

Thanks for the info. From what i found out, it's a E/IDE drive type setup. I'm going for a simple install and go via the recovery disc i have. Spybot is pretty much the first thing i always download and i'm big on free scans also. A few months ago i was big into Zonealarm for their firewall and antivirus suite but have used Comodo a lot recently. This Dell (an ancient 4400) i'm posting with is impossible to use for current gaming. My T-3120 was everything i needed to fly missions and do pretty much whatever gaming i wanted. Only a single game (Age of Sails2) ever failed to run on it. Next payday i'm taking it into town and getting it fixed up. Now that i think about it...I do need a new joystick too. Might as well go to Amazon and check things out. I've have a real feel for the Logitech Extreme 3D Pro since my Mechwarrior days. They might be tempermental sticks, but they've worked for me. My current stick is virtually worn out.

I mainly fly US but have also fought as British, French, German. As a Frenchman, i had the greatest success as far as kills go. 57 to be exact.

Thanks for the info. One thing i am going to do is get the system specs and see exactly which games i have that run well on this comp. The Dell i'm now using is such a dog, it can only be relied upon for basic internet duties.

Ok, I was helping a friend move and in his garage ran across a comp. He said that it's his old one and that it served him well until the H/D went down and that was all she wrote. I gave him an offer but he just said "what the hell" and it was mine for free. So now here i am with an E-machines T-2885 and am wondering what decently priced hard drive i can put into it to fire it up once again. Anyone have a clue? My other E-machine is a T-3120 and i had no problems with it as far as gaming goes until it caught a vicious virus and i screwed it all up with inept repairs. I have yet to take it in to get fixed. Thanks all!

Nice work on the Paras! Perhaps a hint of the future in these sims?