Vergeev Campaign - Mission 09/20

[BeachAV8R]

 

With the search for the missing ship called off, it is time to resume our primary mission – providing a strong presence along the border area. Our next mission is to fly an early morning sortie along the border checking on the location of our own border patrol units as well as searching for any infiltrators.

 

 

This mission starts very early in the morning. With such dim light, I elect to order the ground support to switch my helmet mounted device to night vision goggles. This circular night vision mod by ThomasDW is much cooler than the stock night vision. Available HERE!.. Thanks ThomasDW!

 

 

After getting the systems up and running I take off and start following the flight plan.

 

 

It is extremely important (as I will learn later) to follow the pre-planned flight plan and hit the waypoints correctly. Don’t cut any corners. The weather remains poor with fairly high winds trying to push the flight track toward the border – a situation that requires constant correction and monitoring.

 

 

As I start to parallel the border I flip my navigation lights and beacon off.

 

 

NVGs definitely help with navigation along the border in the dim light.

 

 

The wind requires a lot of crab angle to parallel the river and much of the flying is done while looking out the side windows.

 

 

I actually had to back-up and refly the route because I couldn’t get the mission to succeed – the reason for this is that I had cut the corner on an early waypoint which caused a disruption of the flow (triggers) of the mission. Hint – fly the exact flight plan until waypoint #7, then follow the river at very low altitude and very close to the river for the rest of the flight up river all the way to the last waypoint. Failure to fly at low altitude close to the river will risk not finding the required patrols! On my second run up the river I finally started finding our own patrols.

 

 

 

I’ll admit it – I probably would have never found the border patrols visually – they are tough to see. Fortunately the triggers will let you know when you overfly them. The conversations with the grunts on the ground are pointed and funny. Again – they are very well done and add a lot to the immersion.

 

 

Be sure to fly all the way to the final waypoint prior to turning around. You may find that the helicopter is on the edge of controllability in the high winds and requires a lot of power (note the POWER LIMIT annunciators). Care also must also be taken when reversing course to fly back down the valley to not overspeed or fly so fast that you can’t make the sharp corners while following the river. The mission requires very precise flying and constant attention to navigation.

 

 

As I make my way back down the valley I come into contact with a group of armed men with vehicles on the Georgian side of the border.

 

 

 

I’m instructed to stay in the area. I take up a hovering position on my side of the border. While awaiting further instructions I hear that familiar “tick tick” sound and spot a few tracers flying past my canopy. The bastards!

 

 

I verify that I’m on my side of the border – I am – and they are shooting at me!

 

 

I start dumping flares and retreat further up my side of the valley to get some distance from the small arms fire.

 

 

Earlier in the mission, near the top of the valley I had set down in the grass to take a breather from the difficult flying and apparently damaged my nosewheel. It hangs limply below. After taking up a station a bit out of range from the small arms, I uncage my cannon, lock up one of the vehicles and my finger hovers over the trigger.

 

 

Unfortunately my commanders radio that I am to proceed with the mission and I am not given permission to return fire. I sigh and point the nose down the valley and check my fuel level.

 

 

Cont..

[BeachAV8R]

Soon I’m approaching the border area near the sea. The sky has lightened dramatically as the sun starts to rise.

 

 

 

Again – a reminder to hit ALL of the waypoints (including the final one!) in order to complete the mission. Keep checking the mission status points to assure you have completed the mission.

 

 

As I head for landing, of course the nosewheel gives me a problem since it is damaged.

 

 

The nosewheel holds up fine and I have enough fuel despite having to fly up and down the valley twice.

 

 

I can see the small arms damage from the machine gunner across the river. He is so very lucky that I wasn’t allowed to bring my guns to fight.

 

 

 

Nearly an hour and 45 minutes of flying on this mission. Extremely fatiguing flying with near constant attention.

 

 

A more detailed look at the mission design that shows why it is important to hit the waypoints, yet fly very close to the river after waypoint #7 (where the course takes a sharp easterly turn).

 

 

Another extremely satisfying and entertaining mission. The story continues to be built upon.

 

BeachAV8R

[dahui]

Ah man... i would love to have this campaign so bad...

But unfort. Vergeev got no PayPal... :/

Edited April 11, 2013 by dahui

[roob]

Same :( I refuse PayPal.

[vodkapom]

I made the mission 10/20 yesterday and i' have an advice for you.

Be carreful of the friend copter trigger :music_whistling:

 

Thanks for theses posts whose made me buy the Campaign . :thumbup:

[dahui]

Same :( I refuse PayPal.

 

Oh, sorry, i meant, that Vergeev is not available via PayPal... ;( I have to look via other ways...

 

TORRENT xD

no, just kidding :p

[Ich666]

Id like to play the demo, unfortunately its not available from any download on the official website or the forum post somewhere here.

[CaldurSeer]

Id like to play the demo, unfortunately its not available from any download on the official website or the forum post somewhere here.

Hi,

go there http://www.leroni.net/VG_page_eng.html

and hover your mouse over "download" text in left column.

Edited April 12, 2013 by CaldurSeer

[Griffin]

Thank you very much for these stories! I will definitely buy the campaign as soon as I get my pedals. It's great to hear how well the campaign has survived the evolution of DCS.

 

I hope this will breathe some life in the future campaign development business. I think they should contact you for advertising business. ;)

[Ich666]

Hi,

go there http://www.leroni.net/VG_page_eng.html

and hover your mouse over "download" text in left column.

 

Thank you!

[Yurgon]

I started flying the campaign a couple of days ago and managed to catch up to your progress during the weekend. Mission 10 looks to be a very long SAR, so unfortunately it may be until the next weekend until I find the time to fly it. But I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who had trouble spotting the Voron posts in mission 9. :)

 

I started flying the campaign in DCS World 1.2.3 and edited all missions to set Sochi to Red and to change the missing Ka-50 skin. I found that missions 14, 16 and 18 couldn't be saved because of incompatible trigger actions.

 

I then switched back to my old 1.0.2 standalone. Unfortunately, using the mission planner in 1.0.2 appears to break the missions because of the edit protection (which itself doesn't seem to work in 1.2.3 and thus doesn't break the mission planner and/or editor in that version). Other than that, the campaign plays very well in the old standalone version.

 

Beach, I think Leroni owes you a couple of beers for all of us who just noticed this gem of a campaign. :)

[toby23]

This mission is the hardest so far...

I'm loving every second of it but it's SO hard.

I just died for the umpteenth time and that was after spotting the Georgian Patrol and being told to move on...

Love it, hate it, can't live without it :)