"The Bear Came Over The Mountain" SP mission ("Final", w/voice comms)

Here is my latest singleplayer mission, "The Bear Came Over the Mountain".

Some of you might have played a Beta version; thanks for your help with tracking down the crash bug to my system settings. The attached, "Final", version has improved timings, altered JTAC tasking and, above all, detailed, tactical voice comms for player, OP commander and Stryker leader roles.

To summarise:

- This is a half-hour sortie that starts in the air, at Angels 20.

- The player leads a 2-ship tasked with escorting a Stryker convoy en route to defend an isolated Blue Observation Post that is under threat from an imminent Red armored assault.

- The mission was inspired by footage of A-10s supporting infantry in mountainous terrain in Afghanistan; this battle takes place around a contested valley pass in the Caucasus mountains.

- Ground combat is plotted in some detail (driven partly by the player's actions) with a 26-man Stryker team named individually after the mission author's high school classmates.

Tips:

- Use your wingman, both for datalink target i/d and target prosecution.

- Respect the SA-9 engagement envelope

- Maintain SA of targets, and prioritise. Threat prioritization is the tactical "essence" of the mission. There is an early decision point and either choice you make will have consequences.

- At exactly 30 minutes from mission start you will receive a Success/Fail message from ground units via radio.

- Accomplishing all mission goals is relatively easy for the intermediate-to-advanced DCS A-10 pilot but avoiding all Blue casualties amongst ground forces is not. There is one way to approach the mission goals that, if properly executed, will result in a Blue victory with zero friendly casualties.

- The mission rewards competent use of both Mavericks and CBUs while under threat.

- Use of JTAC is optional. The Predator is helpful under certain circumstances.

- Make sure you alter the incorrect default NET settings in the TAD screen to 01/01 so that datalink works properly for both JTAC and wingman data.

In general I do not intend to build scenarios in the ME that start in the air, or even on the runway, being a bit of a purist, but glitches in AI flight members' behavior on takeoff and climbout have frustrated my attempts at ground launched missions and I await the next patch to address this. In the meantime, as I say, this mission is a good half-hour workout in Maverick and CBU deployment, JTAC and wingman interaction and tactical threat prioritization.

Good luck, have fun and please post comments.

(Thanks go to WarriorX, Apples and Audacity for realistic voice comms)

The Bear Came Over the Mountain_Final.miz

Thanks Bahger,

i will dowload the mission when im back at home.

I had fun with the beta version so i'm looking

forward for this mission.

Looking forward to hearing the voice overs. I might have to wait until I get these mid-terms out of the way though.

The voice-overs sounded good, was a fun mission - thanks for making it! Couldn't stop all of them (got a draw) but I'm Ok with that for now.

Glad you enjoyed it, jspec3. Voice comms really improve immersion. I hope the draw challenges you to go at it again, it's very winnable.

My default SADL Net Setting when I spawned in plane was set at:

OWN ID: 01

GROUP ID: 02

I had my wing in dark blue icon which means he was on the same group id.

This needed to be changed to GROUP ID: 01 before contacting JTAC in order to get Datalink Red Triangle.

Switching back to GROUP ID: 02 brought my wing back to blue from green.

Can you confirm this Bahger? If yes, suggest you switch it to GROUP ID: 01 for both player and wingman

It's an aggravating bug, Wx, and the rules seem to be a little different in SP vs MP (in MP a human flight lead cannot have a human #2, you basically have to create two flights to allow to people to fly together, Matt W has confirmed this and it will not change).

So...make your NET settings 01/01 and you will have full SADL functionality, don't ask me why.

I was aware of this when posting the mission notes above:

- Make sure you alter the incorrect default NET settings in the TAD screen to 01/01 so that datalink works properly for both JTAC and wingman data.

cool mission man thanks

+1

You have made a great mission there Bahger, you should be proud!

-1 for Warrior not reading that line of the Brief...I apologize pal.

I played the mission and used JTAC to take out artillery right away in mission, but, JTAC was talking at the same time the voice overs were so I could not get any other info, need to try it again without JTAC so quickly to hear the other needed support areas, nice voice overs though, very well done.

Yeah, I can't completely deconflict JTAC from the voiceover messages because I cannot predict when the player will call JTAC. However, rest assured that the only informationally important radio message is the one from Alamo that gives you JTAC's freq and reminds you to choose between threat priorities. All subsequent radio messages are good for SA but not mission-critical for you in terms of any information contained in them. Next time you play it there may well be no simultaneous message conflict.

(Plus, you can always attribute radio comms stepping on each other to "fog of war"!)

" rest assured that the only informationally important radio message is the one from Alamo that gives you JTAC's freq and reminds you to choose between threat priorities"

So I should be looking out for this radio call in order to choose priorities? then use JTAC per say? thanks mate.

Don't worry too much about the radio message, between the briefing, Enfield's call-outs and the radio messages, you know everything you need to know. No radio is mission-critical, it's all SA really.

Also, you don't need to call JTAC until you receive the message from Alamo telling you the UAV is tasked on the artillery; you still have plenty of time to call, get the 9-line, make all the necessary responses and get lined up. If you know what you're doing you have enough time/distance not to have to orbit.

Great mission. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with next.

I really enjoyed playing this mission through a few times, thanks!

Thanks! I'm in the middle of a follow-up mission, same location, but at night, with some randomisation of target assignments, JTAC laser designation and a ramp start. Voice comms. It should be ready in a week or two. Thanks for the encouragement.

Looking forward to it Bahger.

Will give it a whirl when time permits :) grabbing it now ta:thumbup:

It's an aggravating bug, Wx, and the rules seem to be a little different in SP vs MP (in MP a human flight lead cannot have a human #2, you basically have to create two flights to allow to people to fly together, Matt W has confirmed this and it will not change).

 

So...make your NET settings 01/01 and you will have full SADL functionality, don't ask me why.

 

I was aware of this when posting the mission notes above:

How do you change Net setting to 01/01 ?... Love the mission btw great work

Riz look at your TAD when it comes on and look at osb10 I think it is and it will say NET, hit the osb and up above arouns osb 8 or 9 (away from comp) it will have group id and personal id to enter, hope this helps I am away and cant give you exact instructions but that is close.

How do you change Net setting to 01/01 ?... Love the mission btw great work

Thanks!

With TAD as SOI, you'll see NET in the lower right hand corner of the MFCD, next to an OSB button (sorry, I forget which number). Hit that button and you will see two fields in the TAD, for "Group" and "Own" NET settings. By default they will read something other than 01 and 01. Using the Up Front Controls (UFC) keypad, enter 01 into the scratchpad and hit the OSB buttons next to each of these fields, re-entering the number into the scratchpad each time. For datalinking to work in SP missions, both "Group" and "Own" have to be set to 01. Hopefully this glitch will be addressed in the patch.

Thankyou Bahger & =ScE=Black1 understanding the TAD a little better now, finshed the mission with all friendly s alive only KIA was my wingman who failed to spot a mountain even tho i set him up to anchor before i even entered target zone and hight up in the clouds ??? maybe a UFO got him cos didn't hear a mayday

It was probably the SA-19 that got him. It's cunningly placed, if I say so meself.

Very good mission, thank you. :thumbup: