Any tips to survive the modern battlefield?

[IonicRipper]

After about a week of learning the Su-25T in fast missions I thought i was ready for the campaign. Oh how i was mistaken. I learnt the hard way i have no idea what I am doing, I need help! Especially how to survive on the battlefield. Any tips would be much appreciated.

[ralfidude]

don't get shot

[IonicRipper]

Yes but how...

 

I'm just looking for some general tips on how not to get shot.

[Headspace]

In a general sense?

 

Be extremely conservative with the aircraft. Don't put it in harm's way for more than a few moments. Learn where the threats are (are they mainly on the ground? Then fly above it. Alternatively fly below long range SAM threats).

 

Also don't expect to be able to see things like infantry, especially from altitude. Expect that if there are MANPADs in the area that the first you will see/hear of them are missiles being fired.

 

Just be really conservative. Pretend it's not an action movie.

[BRooDJeRo]

1. Speed = life

2. When being fired upon with bullits, change direction and move out of range (fairly easy)

3. When being fired upon with missiles, on lock attempts stay low, when locked missiles are fired, continuesly roll and change direction (scizoring) + climbing + flaring/chaffing. Missiles keep recalculating position of impact, do it long enough and the missile will run out of fuel. A missile has less fuel than u to climb and can only do it for a short period.

4. Use hills and buildings to loose locks

 

If all goes well you might live a little bit longer. The evasiontype depends on the type of the fired weapon. These are just some methods, however i'm sure theres many more with even cool names. I have not much knowledge of that beside what i've seen in documentary's. You Tube has lots of docu's on dogfighting during WWI and WWII, Vietnam and modern combat where airial combat took place. Knowledge of this contains working tacics for DCS.

Edited January 29, 2013 by BRooDJeRo

[KLR Rico]

Situational awareness is of utmost importance. Use the pre mission brief to understand where the friendly and enemy forces are, and the expected battle lines. Fly along the FEBA (forward edge of battle area) or circle behind friendly lines until you can scout out what is going on. You can also use the F10 map in game to try and figure it out, beware that not all units will appear on that map.

[MFG62 Joker]

dont expect to much:

calculated livetime for a german CAS (G91, Alphajet, early Tornado) pilot in a WWIII szenario would have been around 7 !! minutes.

If you go in and have no clue what the threats are and where you should expect them, you´re gonna die. Simple as that.

 

- Fly with extreme discipline, don't let the thrill of chase rule!

- Try and find an overview (e.g. in mission briefing) of what is going and don't loose your situational awareness.

- The moment you loose tactical overview you start making fatal errors.

- Plan your attacks with a save egress area to which you can withdraw savely.

- Try to fly coordinated with others (online) and make best use of any information you get about the threat szenario.

 

Last not least:

Fly online to learn from others who have pressed refly-button and learned from their mistakes.

 

 

 

All this will help to reach above mentioned 7 minutes.

Pray for gods help and luck to last longer.:smilewink:

Edited January 29, 2013 by I./ZG15_FALKE

[Cali]

Keep an eye on your RWR and look outside the pit, watch for smoke trails from IR SAMS. It just takes lots of practice and time in the pit to learn how to live. How long have you been playing?

[IonicRipper]

Cali: A little over a week now.

 

Thanks for all the tips guys, they will definitely be helpful.

[robert123456]

Well i can tell you in my personal opinion that unless you are really gifted in this, you should add months to that week to feel some kind of confidence and give your head room to process everything that goes on. For me the big challenge is half the fun :thumbup: the other half is wondering why i missed the target again :doh:

[luza]

Best and hardest thing todo, is stay out of enemies WEZ and pick them off from range, flying only over cleared ground that you know is safe

[Dejjvid]

Hide, hide, peek, hide, acquire, shoot, hide.

 

Sums it up pretty well.

[BRooDJeRo]

Tbh, i still dont have the A10C under control lol. Some day....

[Madone]

Hi,

For me there's 3 basics :

-do not waste your energy, munitions

-define your target priorities

-mind your flight plan, and think what the enemy would do to kill you

 

Of course, you need a lot of training, efficiency comes with accuracy.

 

Good luck!

[ENO]

Stay low, stay fast, use terrain to mask your presence.

 

Practice your systems until they're second nature, so that when the fight's on, you're not thinking about what button to hit next.

 

 

 

That's a VERY good one- being fluid in the cockpit is a huge asset. Also don't be afraid to go back and learn from your mistakes... Tracks from the game probably won't be of value though will look pretty for about 5 minutes before things go sideways. I recommend you look into TACVIEW and configure it to monitor dcs world. It'll just automatically record all your missions and allow you to actually SEE what happened to you, from where. You can jump immediately to where you died, rewind- zoom in, out- skip to other forces etc. Takes a little getting used to the interface but you can have it doing what you need to do in a few minutes of dorking around with it. It is an essential tool in evaluating your existing skills and making improvements.

 

I'm not so sure with the su25 but also take some time to configure systems the way you want them for the predominant hazard. Whether we're talking chaff / flare profiles or weapon profiles- learn about the weapon you're using so that you can get maximum benefit from your exposure to risk.

 

I know in the A10 orbiting is your friend- 60% throttle and a medium altitude orbit 15 miles from the target area gives you a nice window to scan every inch of ground to evaluate threats that you can eliminate on your terms. Not sure the su was built with this ability to do so as effectively as the hog- but it'll definitely expand your life cycle if you're able to hang back a bit. As a wise man once said: "be prepared to seize an opportunity- do not attempt to create it."

[BRooDJeRo]

The last promo from Mr. Wags has somewhat of a SU-25 video manual in it, isnt it.

[Cali]

Cali: A little over a week now.

 

Thanks for all the tips guys, they will definitely be helpful.

 

That's a short time, keep at it and things will slowly come together.

[Sierra99]

That's a short time, keep at it and things will slowly come together.

 

Agreed... Remember, an A-10C pilots has a couple of years flight experience, a few hundred hours on wooden Indians and quite a bit of Sim time before they set foot in the jet...to get one airborne... Straight and level and back on the ground in one piece is actually a pretty good accomplishment. This isn't a "game" it's a hobby. Take your time and walk before ya run.

:)

[Cali]

Agreed... Remember, an A-10C pilots has a couple of years flight experience, a few hundred hours on wooden Indians and quite a bit of Sim time before they set foot in the jet...to get one airborne... Straight and level and back on the ground in one piece is actually a pretty good accomplishment. This isn't a "game" it's a hobby. Take your time and walk before ya run.

:)

 

It took me years to get where I'm at and I still suck! :megalol:

[evilnate]

An easy way to get a "feel" of air defense is to make yourself little training missions with them in it, and you starting out in the air just a few nm outside their reach. Try different altitudes and terrain masking.

 

It really helps me accelerate the learning curve.

[IonicRipper]

Thanks guys, the tips are really starting to help.

[seikdel]

First thing's first: the campaign is hard. Really hard, especially for fixed-wing. The first mission has some horrible clouds that limit you to ~1500m, keeping you quite in reach of SHORAD. It's quite a bit easier in the Ka-50 because you can hang back more effectively. I have yet to successfully get more than a couple missions into the campaign in the Toad.

 

I find orbiting to be only sort of helpful in the Toad. It doesn't have a TGP, so you can't look too far off the bore. Also, our missile employment requires that we point the nose pretty close to the target, which tends to draw you to lower altitudes on attack runs. You can limit this by only launching 1 weapon per run.

 

Make sure you don't get too close to your targets. If you're going in with guns, make sure you know that there aren't any IR or radar SAM threats.

 

In general, I'd stay away from the campaign and focus on multiplayer instead. Pop into servers (104th is usually pretty good for mud movers), fly with other people, get on teamspeak and enjoy yourself =)

[Frostie]

I need help! Especially how to survive on the battlefield. Any tips would be much appreciated.

While there is some good advice in this thread it suprises me that the most important tactic has been overlooked. When you're about to embark on a perilous mission fraught with danger, a mission where a potential virtual death waits around every corner, a mission where the thought of what you are about to face makes you bubble with fear, you need some inspiration, yes my friend you need to wear your lucky pants.

[IonicRipper]

I managed to successfully complete the first mission thanks to you guys. Thanks.

What i found really useful is taking a close look at the mission planner and take note of the SAM and AAA and simply stay out of their range of fire.

I circled behind friendly lines like Rico said. Picked my targets from afar, then turn around, went low and fast and circled back up when I was far back enough to start another pass.

Edited January 31, 2013 by IonicRipper

[BRooDJeRo]

Awesome feel isnt it.