Jayhawk1971

Pincer right, drag the north group towards you or at least towards your flight lead (Hammer). IIRC, I drifted away from Hammer by sheer accident, head on a swivel looking for the potential wild card....which brought me into a good position on the far left flank of both enemy groups. Killed one of the F-5's with a Sparrow, the other F-5 shot Hammer, both F-16 turned towards me (after one of them previously shot one from my other element) just as I was turning into them, got one F-16 with a Sidewinder head-on, blew right through the remaining bandits which gave my remaining wingman the opportunity to shoot the last F-5 whereas after turning back again I got the last F-16 that tried to take it into the vertical (not a bright idea when the good guys still have heaters). The whole engagement didn't last for more than 2 minutes or so. It helps if you are co-altitude or slightly below the bandit when engaging with Sparrows. If all else fails, try switching to AIM-7MH (which seem to have a higher PK than the M at the moment). Also make sure that Jester is managing your countermeasures. I always let Jester manage chaff whereas I release flares. Defeating AI Sparrows is not that hard if you keep maneuvering. Are you using Tacview to analyze your engagements?

Sorry mate, can't help you there. I never used Bailey's profile, so my guess is a good as yours. I've only ever used VAICOM Pro, and otherwise I'm a Voiceattack noob. The best I could accomplish was to set the space bar to a voice command (to verbally acknowledge checklist items in the Zone 5 campaign) .

Get the Tomcat, get the Supercarrier, Zone 5 campaign, and never look back.

The F-14 is mostly even older 1960's technology, developed almost a decade before the F-16 (Grumman got the contract in 1966). Later model Tomcats like the upgraded F-14B and the D did have much better Heads-up-Displays, but these are not in the game (and won't be unless the relevant documents are de-cassified).

My totally unscientific experience has been that AIM-54 seem to have a much higher PK at long range (around 60NM) than at closer ranges (say, around 40 to 20). Also, I seem to be more successful with AIM-7MH than with the M.

Maybe shockwaves indicating an impending compressor surge/stall? I'm not an engineer at all, but that would be a plausible explanation, especially when dealing with TF-30 engines. I've only noticed this bumping sound in the F-14A, but I haven't used the B for a couple of weeks, so it could very well be something completely different.

There is a user made a Vaicom AIRIO command complement for Jester to switch preset radio buttons. You just say "push button x" (x being the corresponding number). Unfortunately I forgot who made that, but I found the relevant post in the Vaicom subforum here on this forum. Pretty much found it via Google search. Edit: IIRC it was this. Works like a charm for me. https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/files/3311045/

Sure thing! Please don't feel pressured by the community, most of us can be very patient (really, I swear.... well, sometimes.....at least on a full moon in February in a leap year.... ). Just happy that we'll get a flyable Intruder. Please call the B/N AI "Tiger"

Would a full fidelity A-6E module be pre or post SWIP? In any case, A-6 would be a most welcome, very iconic companion to the Tomcat!

My favorite Tornado would the the most advanced version (from a systems perspective), the ECR variant. But given that, generally, even decades-old EW technology is still highly classified, I don't see that happening within the next 15 years in DCS. Same would be true for Prowler, Growler, or any other form of EW systems modelling. Unfortunately.

Finished it! Great campaign and great experience. I really do hope you and Bio will consider doing another, similar campaign. We have way too few proper learning tools within DCS: the stock training missions are too bare-bone; everything else you'll have to research yourself, outside of the simulation. IMO "Zone 5" provides a valuable learning experience within the sim, which is also very immersive and a lot of fun. Also, I do feel a little sorry for Dice. So, when do I get to make the Soviets "fear the Bones"? A couple of tiny minor things:

So, I did get the Eagle again, aaaand... he broke the hard deck. I count that as a maneuver kill, and apparently the game thought so, too, because I got the "winning" dialogue after the "knock it off" call. I would have never thought the AI would do that. How does the game determine which opponent you get in event 10? Is it totally random, or dependent on the player's score/performance up to that mission?

I got the F-15C....of course. My conclusion from Tacview: I was actually holding my own quite well and at least kept the F-15 mostly on the defensive until I got nervous when Jester called "Joker". Then I tried to force the issue (and stay out of burner more), and that was when the Eagle pulled so much lead from the opposite side of the circle and gunned me in the face (the AI does seem to have an advantage due to its immaculate energy management; in my case the AI could pull a lot of lead without any significant loss of energy). I'll give it another try tonight (provided I'll get the Eagle again), and should I lose again, after that I'll pull a "Snodgrass" and limp home on damaged flaps and slats. That will also prevent me from my high-speed landing brake, but the honor of the Tomcat community would be saved.

It is pretty much only suitable for solo players at the moment. AFAIK Reflected is hoping it'll work co-op in the future. IMO, this has to be one of the most immersive campaigns ever, for any DCS product, so if you can spare the 13 or so bucks, definitely get it. It is definitely a challenge with a medium learning curve to do properly (I am currently struggling with event 10), as you will have to really learn to efficiently manage the A (you spend a lot more time in burners than with the B --> you'll be joker in no time). And consider this: if you are good and proficient in the A, you'd be even better in the B.

Re. triggering the, err, triggers : IIRC, you just have to fly into the huge trigger zone around the tanker orbit to trigger the AAR message. The next trigger happens when you reach your first CAP steerpoint. There doesn't seem to be a "finished refueling" trigger. So, after triggering the AAR message, hit the tanker and fly to your CAP orbit. At least that's what I did, and I could finish the mission without any problems. Hope this helps. Edit: I can only speculate about your "precontact" problem, but I suppose the "zone" around the S-3 is rather small? I've heard somewhere (in some YouTube tutorial that I can't remember clearly) that closure rate seems to be a factor along with correct position behind the tanker.

After the second to last DCS update, the LGB's suddenly tracked fine for me in mission 4, which it didn't do before. I also used the Jester command "switch LANTIRN" for good measure (I have no idea what this command does or if it actually made a difference, but it didn't hurt in this case, so what the heck ).

Ah, now I get it. Thanks!

I'll try it without the TCS on my inevitable second playthrough. May I suggest adding that info about the TCS "shortcomings" into the mission briefing text for missions requiring VID? Something like "for an extra - and realistic - challenge, VID using your Mk1 eyeballs"?

Thanks for your suggestions. I'll try them. The "Jester...options" thing sounds promising! Probably could also just use the TACAN 12x radial, but a wide left banking turn towards Bighorn seems to be close enough. @FroZone Could you please elaborate more on what you are doing? So far I have been using the "navigate" voice commands, but AFAIK "DP" is hidden in a sub-menu and I had no idea how to tell Jester to navigate to it. If I understood right, "restore" seems to simply restore the original coordinates if one manually changed them during the mission. And I have no idea what "map marker" does. @Lt_Jaeger Please let me know if you find a solution using Vaicom to acknowledge the checklist. Especially in the traffic pattern I'd rather have both hands at the controls than smashing the space bar in between dirtying up my aircraft.

Does anyone know how to access additional steerpoints (like DP) with Vaicom AIRIO? Using this I can't access the Jester wheel. So far I have just been skipping ELKXXX completely (by pretending I was cleared straight to BIGHORN (MOOSE on egress).

Oddly enough, compared to event 3, this one went very well for me: VID using the TCS, and the subsequent engagement was over quickly with zero losses for us. Maybe the training is paying off and I'm getting better in the A.

Yup, it works! It loads both to the briefing screen and into the mission. Many thanks! And you just saved me from having to play an awkward (virtual) Volleyball match in the rain against Hammer and Dice due to being grounded. "Alright, Gentlemen, we have a hop to take", as the other Jester would put it. --> off to be humiliated again by the Red Air AI.

Thank you for the quick reply. Unfortunately, the missing module also seems to prevent me from opening the file in the mission editor. I get the same error message during loading, and it loads an empty Nevada map. I realize that this being a paid DLC-campaign you would not want to have your files being sent around, but would it be possible if someone who owns the WW2 asset pack and your campaign PM me the "fixed" mission file (if anyone would be so kind to do so)? Last resort: I'll try to copy the mission files to the other "campaign" directory and play mission 5 to 12 as single missions, skipping event 4 for the time being. Not as immersive, but your fantastic campaign has me hooked!

Servus Iron Mike, I played it through twice, now. I really liked the campaign. Very immersive. Some minor nitpicks/ suggestions would be: - sometimes "module-Jester" talks over "plot-Jester", while wingman and AWACS AEW (I listened to that Fighter Pilot Podcast episode and "Gersh" was adamant the E-2 is not an AWACS ) are talking as well. This really drowns out plot-Jester and makes it hard to follow the narrative. I really had to pause the mission to read the text in order to keep up. Could this maybe be solved by moving trigger zones somewhat? Especially when TLAM's and TLAD's are launched, which freaks Jester out (it would be nice, while you guys are in the process of teaching Jester new things about missiles anyway, to also teach him to differentiate between air-to-air and air/surface-to-surface missiles. Even better would be if he could learn to distinguish between missiles that are a threat to the aircraft and those that are not a factor.) - not a big fan of air starts and hot starts (although I see why you opted for those due to narrative reasons) - as others have pointed out, the campaign overall feels a little "rushed" in the middle. It feels like it is a couple of missions short (in a narrative sense) - it would be great if you could include the script that other mission creators have used that lets one "skip" AA refueling. While I never had to refuel during any of the missions, it would be a nice option for those who struggle with hooking up to the tanker in the Tomcat, but still would like to follow the mission to the letter. - I did have some trigger problems during the "CAP over the mountains" mission. On one try, wingman also simply left me and disappeared into the sunset..... Lastly, do we need to own the Syria map for part 2 of this campaign?

Hi Reflected, I just tried to start event 4 of your campaign, but I got the error message "Need modules for load mission: WWII Armour and Technics"? I have enjoyed this campaign very much so far, and would really like to continue playing. Some help, please.