Help in mission 15 "final nail"

[Eviscerador]

Well, after trying several times I'm asking for help here because I don't know how are you supposed to survive this mission.

 

Spoilers ahead:

 

 

Once you get to intercept the transport, it is escorted by two Mig 21. Sure you can do a fast strike on the transport and then you get the "gtfo" signal and they order you to fly towards the friendly line in order to profit from your allies SAM.

 

The thing is that how in hell am I supposed to survive the pursuit from 2 Mig 21 that can out run, out turn and outgun me, and they are already in formation with the transport at the moment I'm given the attack signal.

 

I tried several times but the AI is just too good and they always hit you with cannons no matter how much you manouver, since they can just out manouver you no problem.

 

 

Thank you for your help.

[Apache600]

My recommendation is to take down the target, and run back the way you came at grass trimming levels. The lower you are, the harder it is for those MiG's to get a shot on you. If you do try and turn away from them when you see them speeding up on your six, just look at your heading prior to turning, and after your maneuver, realign yourself back to the original heading (maybe offset a bit back to where you think you may have been too .... just so you can get some of those visual ques on how to get back to your front line)

[Shadow KT]

Pretty hard mission. I played with from the MiG-15 side, but... still

 

What I found to work is.... conserve as much fuel as you can, until the attack (don't drop fuel tanks before that)

 

Start running immediately when you kill the C-17, dive down, unload the jet... maximum acceleration, fly as low as possible and constantly check your six

 

When you see that the hostile aircraft is coming in on gun's range... throttle half way, speed break out and start a slow barrel roll.... at least the F-5s can't hit you .... they will either over shoot you or start climbing right away in a loop.... pretend that you are going to BFM them.... the moment you see them facing the other way climbing away ..... immediately unload the jet, dive back down, maximum speed and keep running...

 

I had to do this 5-6 times, until I was able to reach SAM cover.

 

Don't know about the MiG-21 AI, but you might be able to just outfight them too... not against the AI F-5 tho... that thing has infinite energy... so unless you get a lucky shot, best stick to my strat

[Apache600]

@ Shadow KT, that's basically the strategy i used. Just gotta continually check your six, and make sure you're running the correct direction for your friendly line.

[sthompson]

I failed outrunning the F-5's a few times before turning here. I'm wondering how you "unload" and simultaneously stay low. I find that at max speed the Mig-15 needs a lot of forward stick to stay level. Is that the same as unloaded? I suppose in the real jet the stick might feel neutral when pushed forward like that, but it hardly feels unloaded sitting in front of a screen.

 

Pretty hard mission. I played with from the MiG-15 side, but... still

 

What I found to work is.... conserve as much fuel as you can, until the attack (don't drop fuel tanks before that)

 

Start running immediately when you kill the C-17, dive down, unload the jet... maximum acceleration, fly as low as possible and constantly check your six

 

When you see that the hostile aircraft is coming in on gun's range... throttle half way, speed break out and start a slow barrel roll.... at least the F-5s can't hit you .... they will either over shoot you or start climbing right away in a loop.... pretend that you are going to BFM them.... the moment you see them facing the other way climbing away ..... immediately unload the jet, dive back down, maximum speed and keep running...

 

I had to do this 5-6 times, until I was able to reach SAM cover.

 

Don't know about the MiG-21 AI, but you might be able to just outfight them too... not against the AI F-5 tho... that thing has infinite energy... so unless you get a lucky shot, best stick to my strat

[Apache600]

The MiG is tricky because of it's unstable characteristic at high speed. If you find you don't want to have all that push on the stick, you could always do a series of S turns. Keeping the plane in a bank will put the lift vector off to the side, requiring not as much nose down force.

[Blackbird7]

Did anyone try this mission recently (MiG-15)? It seems a lot harder than videos I see on youtube. There, F-5s start attacking only after C-17 is shot down and even then they don't try very hard. MiG-15 in one video dogfights and wins with fuel tanks still on, sometimes flying straight with F-5 on his six. I sometimes take damage from F-5 snipers before getting to C-17.

Once I did kill C-17 and evaded them, but run out of fuel, landed in canyon close to home base. Some missions before were hard, but as I improved they got easier, not this one, even after 10 attempts. So I have feeling that in current version, lot of skill and luck is needed (or I'm doing something very wrong).

EDIT: Just after I wrote this, I tried one more time... At about same moment I killed C-17 and got heavy damage from F-5s. They just turned away and landed, I went home and barely managed to land due to damage. But, mission successful!

Edited May 20, 2023 by Blackbird7

[PawlaczGMD]

I managed to run away in the F-86, but I felt like the AI was letting me win. They were on my tail for minutes, but only shot once, took out my hydraulics.  They definitely had more chances to shoot. I also "cheated" by taking Aim-9s for the transport, as the .50 cals are just too weak to take it down reliably, and that's the point of having the missile option. The Mig probably takes out the transport easily with its guns.