Mission 10 shenanigans [video]

[Choffix]

Hello everyone!

 

Here's my experience with mission 10, it took me five attempts but got there in the end

Also Suspect really did live up to his nickname on landing causing me to almost crash.

 

Anyways, it's been a fun campaign so far, can't wait for the finale.

 

https://youtu.be/7ihLNJxpJx4?si=1tMMXbvLKVTI84pA

[Jack Chief]

I stopped playing the campaign on this mission. I havent died until mission 10. All the previous taskings made sense, but request for "Show of force" by JTAC, low level flight while he  knows there are Manpads in the area? What kind of idea is that? Who could risk a life of  pilots for this kind of ridicilous idea. It is not a flying circus. It is too damn frustrating,  I just cant make myself trying over and over again playing cat and mouse with Manpads. Especially because I have to start everything all over again: do the coldstart, fly over, drop the first bomb and then this ridicilous tasking. 

Edited December 17, 2024 by Jack Chief

[Choffix]

12 hours ago, Jack Chief said:

I stopped playing the campaign on this mission. I havent died until mission 10. All the previous taskings made sense, but request for "Show of force" by JTAC, low level flight while he  knows there are Manpads in the area? What kind of idea is that? Who could risk a life of  pilots for this kind of ridicilous idea. It is not a flying circus. It is too damn frustrating,  I just cant make myself trying over and over again playing cat and mouse with Manpads. Especially because I have to start everything all over again: do the coldstart, fly over, drop the first bomb and then this ridicilous tasking. 

So as an actual IRL JTAC here is my take:

 

I agree with you as in training you are always taught that it is you're responsibility to make sure the aircraft your controlling are outside any threat bubbles. The only exception is if the threat is suppressed (by direct or indirect fires). Of course in real life situations there can be a situation where you are willingly taking risks but in that case the aircrew needs to understand the situation and be in agreement with you. And i don't see many pilots being ready to put themselves into such a situation where even ejecting would most likely lead to a pretty horrible death by the hands of extremists (such as was the case of the Jordanian pilot). Especially when there's no friendlies in danger on the ground.

 

In this particular mission it's pretty clear that it's a trap (insert meme here). So your task is to ensure that nothing is lying in wait to shoot down the A-10s, but I don't see a reason why the attacking A-10s had to be so low. Just cluster bomb them to <profanity> and go home. The target is not that valuable to be risking airframes so you can do gun runs.

 

Then again, apperently the entire campaign is based on real events so...

 

I definately agree that it was frustrating, especially wasting hours doing the entire flight all over again. A minor thing that I mention in the video that could help is if your wingman would actually give you a direction to break in, as you do not have the time to spot the missile and react accordingly. Knowing where to break would increase your chances of survival. But again it is a dice roll, and a mission should not be designed in a way that has a chance of punishing you even if you did everything right.

 

On a positive note, this is the only mission in the campaign that is like this and the rest area really good! You should definitely skip this one and continue with the rest!

Edited December 17, 2024 by Choffix

[Jack Chief]

Your opinion as IRL JTAC count the most. Thank you for that!

All I can add I 100% agree missions until 10 are fantastic had a great amount of satisfaction from completing challenging task, very intresting scenarios.  But number 10......;) I will do it on immortal mode and move on to finish the campaiign. 

[baltic_dragon]

Thanks @Choffix for your insights and @Jack Chief I hear you and understand your frustration. The real problem I think is that the MANPADs became much more deadly since the time when I was building this mission (and a lot of people confirm that, it is almost impossible to dodge them now, I think if they were that lethal in real life, there wouldn't be any aircraft left in some conflicts).

Now, in the briefing you get the information that in the first minute or two of the mission you can turn on the invulnerability for your aircraft if you're having trouble completing this mission (added later on when I realized how deadly MANPADS were) - it is always an option to make the mission more enjoyable. Or have you decided not to use it as it could be considered as "cheating"?

Finally - looking at the general situation during the OIR, there was very little danger in all the missions from the enemy, because they simply didn't have means to harm coalition aircraft. We wanted to add some thrill to avoid being accused of producing a "boring campaign" - and in fact, combat of that kind is just that, boring for 95% of the time and even when you have the enemy in sights going through procedures, getting attack clearances etc took a LONG time.. but then again, some people accused me of not having enough air to air there, where in real life there were only a handful of any incidents of the kind. 

Still: what we really miss is some kind of a save game feature in DCS. 

Hope you'll be able to get through this one and enjoy the rest of the campaign!