F-15 campaign mission 2 (Fulcrums flown by Tron!!)

[coolts]

Guys

Somehow, I fluked this mission the last time I did a campaign play through and killed all the MIGS. Now I have some nice mods installed, (cheers 159th_Viper for saving me a few weeks faffing there), and have been buffing up my tactics, I started a new run through and as =RvE=Yoda pointed out in my post about mission 4, the 2nd mission, and especially those two bloody Fulcrums are far more deadly. I have tried;

 

1. Going in high, (they are jamming. Always), launching AIM-120 in HOJ mode. This never even hits. I crank, dodge the inevitable return missile, turn back in and get a bore sight lock and return fire with an AIM-7, (all I have left by this stage apart from sidewinders). If lucky, I may get one bandit, but am too low for much avoidance and the MIGS fly supernaturally low so maintaining radar lock is difficult.

 

2. High launch, then ducking low. Again, trying to compete with the AI in low flying & locking-up is impossible. Their off-boresight launches keep you defensive the whole time, and their <200m altitude notching skills are unbeatable.

 

(BTW, in all this, my wingman isn’t much use as he doesn’t seem to want to engage at long / medium range and doesn’t get close enough for a short range shot before he is killed).

 

3. By now I am thinking, “Let’s get sneaky”. At >50km. Turn radar off, go NOE. Break 90 deg right and head for the coast, (protected by a line of hills). With radar off and flying very low, I skirt round the bandits flight path trying to outflank them but always get ambushed and destroyed.

 

Either they saw me heading to the coast or ..

 

The AI is cheating or ..

 

My wingman is giving me away by not turning his radar off even though I tell him to. (His RWR symbol was still on). That might be a bug as I told him twice.

 

Maybe if I head to the coast earlier they won’t see me? Or I could send my wingman to another waypoint to act as bait or at least stop him waving a big OVER HERE banner with his radar on. Either way, a stand up knife fight isn’t working here as they are really low and jamming. Couple that with the AI’s notch / launch ability makes it very frustrating.

 

As usual guys, any sagely advice would be most welcome.:helpsmilie:

Edited February 16, 2010 by coolts

[RedTiger]

How many Aim-120s do you have vs. Aim-7s?

 

Here's a thought:

 

1. Have your wing man pincer right or left, doesn't matter. You pincer the other direction. So both of you should be heading away from each other. If you were on a course due north head-on to those bandits, you are now going northeast and your wing man is going northwest. Keep those jamming strobes on the edge of your VSD so you can keep and eye on them. Also, watch your RWR. Often times you can tell more about the bandits behavior there than the VSD when they are jamming.

 

 

2. This should cause them to split their attack. Try your best to determine which one is going after you and which one is going after your wing man. Again, your RWR is your friend! The radar returns should be split up and you might be able to tell which one is making a bee-line for you. Lock onto the jamming strobe of the guy going after wingy, order wingy to attack him. Now you lock up your guy and turn back towards him.

 

*Keep your wing man's radar on! It can provide you with valuable SA on what that idiot is up to!*

 

*Keep your ECM off. Turn it on when they lock onto you*

 

3. As soon as you get the steady chirp meaning that they've managed to get close enough for a lock, turn off your ECM. At this point it will only cause you to be an easier target.

 

4. Either at burn-through or based on range provided by AWACS, select an Aim-7 and fire! Now crank and dive like crazy to get below him. The purpose of this missile isn't to kill him, just to throw him off. You want to get below him for the next part. Keep a steady, even stream of chaff going here, just in case. Moving around a bit in attempt to drag the missile and bleed its energy isn't such a bad idea. You're betting that he'll flinch before you do. Because he's the AI, he will. :doh:

 

5. If you haven't been killed by his missile, great! Your chances of living through this are pretty good. At some point, the bandit will turn away from you in an attempt to notch, only it won't work because you are now below him! ;) This is where you go for the kill. Turn back towards him, fly to intercept him, and launch an Aim-120. The objective now is to keep him defensive by firing Aim-120s every near the TTA or TTI of the previous one until one of your missiles gets him. He might try to turn back towards you and fire another missile, but it will soon go ballistic because he'll have to break lock again to notch. Eventually, one of your slammers should kill him. If needed, select an Aim-9 and try to fire before he can launch his own heater.

 

6. Now you'll either have to turn back towards wingy and help him or maybe even do his job for him if he was shot down. With any luck, he'll still be alive and both of you can keep the pressure on the bandit until one of you kills him. If he's dead, you want to do handle it similar to the way you handle the previous MiG.

Edited February 16, 2010 by RedTiger

[RvEYoda]

Well i found the only way to kill these 29s consistently was to use ugly tricks

like aggressive head on dodging through somewhat unrealistic means or

dropping the missile MCUs just before pitbull.

 

I honestly have not found any "proper" way to win that mission. You could

try sneakup up close through the mountains or somehow tricking both migs

to fight your wingman while you flank them. I can win the mission "properly"

in multiplayer coop consistently, but not with AI wingman.

 

Important : Save all amraams for the 29s!

 

If both you and your wingman have full payloads of amraams when you reach the 29s,

and you are confident you can pick your own target and your wingman can to, you

may be able to keep your 29 fully defensive with spamraaming so you can get close enoug

to kill him with aim9 or guns ( or maybe you can get lucky and an amraam will hit )

Edited February 17, 2010 by =RvE=Yoda

[coolts]

Thanks guys. It makes me feel better to know that I am not just being a tool here. I can't believe that this is only mission 2!

 

I will try what you recommend tonight and will restart the mission and try to take out the initial 2 x Mig25's (**EDIT** 2 x MIG 23's) with sparrows to save my amraams for the MIG29's as I usually only have one left by this point, forcing me closer.

 

Trying you fly lower than those Fulcrums won’t be easy though as they are running at almost treetop height when I have checked them out (with ‘F2’).

Edited February 18, 2010 by coolts

[RedTiger]

Ah, ok, so these Fulcrums aren't the first thing you fight. Didn't know that, sorry.

[coolts]

It bloody worked. Getting below them. The 29's can still dodge your missiles like they are stoned bumblebees chasing Usain Bolt, but they cant dodge 3 OF THEM!!

 

.....[and my campaign wont save....after all that...back to 1st mission...delete saved states....this game is a PATIENCE SIMULATOR].....

[Brit_Radar_Dude]

After you finish a mission in a campaign, go through the debrief screen to the next mission, quit from that one and you save your progress by clicking (top left) "file" then "save". Don't confuse this type of saving with "save states" (ie the save button on the window you get after pressing ESC to quit). I have never had save states work, most folks haven't - it seems to be borked.

 

 

But anyway, you are getting frustrated with the whole thing and just want to fly and get further on in the campaign....

 

There are possible workarounds, so lets get into those.

 

You can declassify a campaign (or a standalone mission) in the Mission Editor and fly the campaign missions in any order you want (plus change skins, weapon loadout, etc). I use this method all the time to cherry-pick the fun missions in a campaign and miss out the dull ones.

 

Go into Mission Editor, upper left of screen click on the open button, bottom right TYPE OF FILE select CAMPAIGN, navigate the folder structure to the campaign you want and select it. Bottom right click on MAP. Now you will see the 1st mission of your campaign.

 

Many standalone missions and campaigns are classified with a password so that they cannot be easily/accidentally changed. The stock standalone missions and campaigns that come with Lockon use the password EAGLE.

 

Top left, click on EDIT, then DECLASSIFY, enter the password EAGLE. Now all the missions in the campaign should appear on the right hand side, so select the mission you want to fly. If you wish, you can select your aircraft, select PAYLOAD and pick different weapons / fuel load / skin. You can add or remove other units, change the weather, time of day etc.

 

If you have downloaded any of the excellent missions/campaigns designed by the Lockon community, then some may be classified. Either the briefing notes or the readme file may tell you the password. Some may not.

 

If not, then you can still get in by overwriting the password with your own. Use keystrokes rather than the pulldown menu to do this.

 

Press "ctrl + left shift + C" then type in a password of your choice e.g. 1234.

 

Now press "ctrl + left shift + D" and enter your password e.g. 1234

 

NOTE that Lockon does not seem to remember this, so you may have to do it each time you restart Lockon.

[coolts]

cheers brit. i know that. it just feels like cheating somehow. daft i know.

[Brit_Radar_Dude]

No way. If you finish a mission in a campaign and get a SUCCESS, then it's cool to go onto the next mission by whatever method. I always start missions and campaigns via the mission editor.