Mission 4 - Shipping Lanes

[acarpe81]

Hi all / SorelRo,

Is it just me, or is M4 insanely difficult? Very tricky to conduct a dogfight (using AB) then have enough fuel to get home. The divert airbase (Gelendzhik) is set to blue, so no possibility to refuel there...

[SorelRo]

Hi there, 

 

It may be a tad on the hard side. But I think that the missions is showcasing exactly the challenges and difficulties of a fighter like Mig-21, fuel management is crucial. AB should be used as little as possible if not at all while you are on route. You have plenty of time to join with the bombers without using AB and once you get a position on them you can sweep ahead of them. Also, your accuracy is crucial, if you hang with them in a dogfight you won't make it home. At the merge you should take one or two F-5's very quickly. Your flight should be able to take care of the rest. But, in the end, you have to manage your fuel to make it back. 

 

The mission is doable. Not easy, but certainly doable.  

[acarpe81]

On 11/19/2021 at 4:29 PM, SorelRo said:

Hi there, 

 

It may be a tad on the hard side. But I think that the missions is showcasing exactly the challenges and difficulties of a fighter like Mig-21, fuel management is crucial. AB should be used as little as possible if not at all while you are on route. You have plenty of time to join with the bombers without using AB and once you get a position on them you can sweep ahead of them. Also, your accuracy is crucial, if you hang with them in a dogfight you won't make it home. At the merge you should take one or two F-5's very quickly. Your flight should be able to take care of the rest. But, in the end, you have to manage your fuel to make it back. 

 

The mission is doable. Not easy, but certainly doable.  

As you say, a real life limitation of the aircraft! No surprise the North Vietnamese pilots used boom and zoom tactics! 

[algherghezghez]

I'm actually unable to join in on them without ab, my speed in military is 10 kts slower then them, and they are constantly using AB...

[SorelRo]

I'll make a video and post it here in the next few days. 

 

Cheers, 

[SorelRo]

I hope this will help. It's still processing. 

 

 

[Mavkruger]

The divert airbase (Gelendzhik) is set to blue, normal or not ? in game it's blue, on brief it's red.

[Bashibazouk]

I'm not very good but I managed to get past this mission (after more than a few tries!). The key for me was to ignore the waypoints, head straight towards where I expect I'll meet the F5s, stay below them and duke it out. I lost two bombers but while the F5s were concentrating on them, my fighters took them apart. Well, sort of. I also lost 2 migs. But still. My struggle at the moment is the Novo port raid on the columns. Not due to the enemy, the Mig keeps freaking out and either shooting towards the sky until it stall and spins, or noses straight down into the sea/ground. I haven't had problems with the Mig21 and the autopilot system before but for some reason, the mix of required altitudes (3k+ for bombs), weight and trying to economise on fuel I hit the limits of the 21's envelope. I'm skipping it as after 8 or so tries, I'm just not prepared to spend the whole multi hundred kilometre trip white knuckling the stick as using the autopilot is sending the plane crazy. Maybe it's because I'm struggling to climb to 3k without afterburner at more than 600K? Either way, life is too short. The next mission is fun, I'm currently paused in the flight to the new a/f after a great dog-fight with 4 phantoms. BTW, I dropped one of the SARH missiles for another R60 as I never had time to use more than one BVR before the furball in the 2 previous tries.

[SorelRo]

There's a ton of AI bugs or not going as supposed to. I'm starting to go mission by mission and validating that they are acting that they should. 

[Bashibazouk]

Finished, apart from the Port Novo mission I mentioned above. Excellent campaign.

[ssg]

I had to try this mission like 20 times before I managed to complete it.  Problems I had were either I died, or F5s beelined for bombers and killed them. 

[Japo32]

I did this mission without any shoot. The bombers fired the F5 and returned home without sinking any ship.

Sorry but I don't like when there is no aid to see your flights. They just go and don't wait for you, or say where they are. The Awacs don't tell you neither. So among clouds I just travelled to more or less where I supposed to go and didn't find anything so I returned.

And yes, I put the radar sometimes to see if I could see my friends, that I had to escort, but there was no info about their altitude so sorry.. but I didn't like this mission.

[SorelRo]

You should have had a visual with the bombers though, and be way above the clouds on this one, unless something changed in the weather, I'll check. 

Cheers, 

[Japo32]

would be nice in these type of missions to have some kind of communication with the units we have to escort so we can ask to the atc via menus or whatever were they are in all moment. That way is easier to not get lost. Or make the units to be scorted to wait making circles in a waypoint and let us know the altitude they are.