River Raiders Mission Strategy

[dantron]

It took me awhile to complete this mission but here's how I did it.

 

1) Stay high > 12,000ft. It almost feels like cheating going up that high, but it's surviving. This leads me to my next point...

2) Don't try to destroy every air-defence target. Almost all of the AAA and MANPADS can be avoided by staying above 12,000ft. At first, I was trying to take out everything that shot at me (the big man I am, ha) but avoidance is best.

3) The lurking SA-11 to the far north is really just out of range. Leave it alone but keep an eye on it. If it shoots at you, head south! The 9M38M1 SAMs have a max rage of 32km and will hit the ground, river, or civilians before they reach your aircraft.

4) Try to keep you wingman away from the SA-11 as well. He'll freak-out and drop all his gear if he's fired on, even if he's actually out of range. Then he becomes a useless decoy.

5) Change your payload before you start. I go with 6xAGM-65Ds + 4xGBU-38s + TGP + ECM. The AGM-65Ds are poweful enough to take-out some of the bunkers and are a great "stand-off" weapon against the other shorter range-SAMs. The GBU-38s are great for the bunkers as well. Fire and forget.

 

That's my 2c

 

If you want a little fun... try to take out the SA-11 first. This is a real challenge as it has a much greater range than anything you've got. So you have to stay low, REALLY LOW to avoid detection.

1) At the start, tell your wingman to "engage air-defences." He'll stupidly and immediately go for the SA-11.

2) Lock onto his SPI using your TAD once he's targeted the SA-11. {On your TAD move the cursor to your wingman's SPI [slew commands] then [TMS-Forward-Short] to hook then [TMS-Forward-Long] to set your SPI}

3) Then immediately tell him to "join-up" or go away. For some reason I find him frustratingly useless and stupid on this mission.

4) Slave your TGP to the SPI [China-Hat-Forward-long] and on your TGP zoom-in [DMS-Forward] all the way and find the radar unit (should be in the centre of the SA-11 group).

5) Once you have the radar unit directly in your sights drop down to as low as you can go < 200ft and head straight for the SA-11. You'll have to avoid some trees and power-lines on the way in but STAY LOW. Keep an eye on the TGP. If you're low enough, all you should see is trees and hills that block your view of the target.

6) As you approach the target switch to MAVs and slave the MAVs to your SPI which should be directly on the radar unit (if you did steps 4 and 5 right). You still won't be able to see the target but the MAV should be on target and ready for lock-on once you pop-up and/or are close enough.

7) Next is up to you.. I pop-up a little at around < 3 miles to the target to get the MAV to lock-on [TMS-Forward-Short a bunch of times until lock-on] and RIFLE quickly. Then radar counter-measures and high-G turns. Or you can try a GAU-8 run at LOW altitude which I haven't yet tried... The SA-11 as a minimum range of 3km, so stay LOW and out of his radar until you absolutely have to.

 

 

I'd really love to hear anyone's feedback on these approaches to River Raiders.

These are ONLY my suggestions and strategies that I've had to learn the hard-way.

There's always room for improvement.

 

Cheers!

[RodBorza]

Dantron,

 

I wrote my tactic back on the original thread.

http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=1309095&postcount=6

 

As I see it, you were having a lot of fun with this mission. Never tried the up-close and personall approach with the SA-11, but I believe it must be very interesting.