Tuesday 16th June 2020

[Flyco]

After a first run-through of last night's Tacview, we seemed to do OK.

The LL strikes were fairly sound, although the Maykop ones were late dropping weapons, due to parameters not being set up in advance I understand - A lesson well learned I hope. After the targets had started taxying, it might have been better to knock out those moving with guns. One problem with DCS is that the AI pilots are not very sharp - if you knock out the lead on the taxiway or runway, the rest are unable to find a way past and sit there navel-gazing. The singleton F-18 that went after Mineralnye took out 5 or 6 on his first visit and then went back to take out the rest - a sterling effort I thought. I am sure that everyone is aware that in real life, making several passes over the same target is not recommended, but with DCS as it currently is, I see no objection to the practice. Even at Maykop, with two ZSU emplacements and a SAM on the airfield I did not see any hits on our ac.

Those few red fighter that did get airborne, and those already airborne. found the SEAD flight scattered and took full advantage - helped I believe by at least one blue-on-blue. The SEAD also initially headed for the SAMs, rather than the Tunguskas that were the priority targets. As a result we lost an early A-10 to a Tunguska. I thought the A-10s were a little haphazard and slow (I certainly was!), but we eventually knocked out all the primary armour, and recovered together.

The problems described above of a single knocked-out Red ac blocking the airfield are a pain, and I will try and find a solution. There were other snags with the mission (frequencies, TACAN etc), but I will correct those and re-publish the mission, for future use.

I cannot immediately find any easy alternative to the 3 very similar LL Snake-eye attacks, which I would like to vary a bit. The combination of the approach and the weapon do seem ideal for that sort of attack. However, I will do some work on Snake-eye spacing and accuracy, I am not convinced that either are very accurate at the moment.

The areas where we are weak at the moment seem to me to be awareness, co-operation and leadership. None of these can be learned over-night, but they are worth working on as part of a team.

If anyone has any ideas for further improvement or has any observations that I have missed, please let me know.

[john (scooby)]

After a first run-through of last night's Tacview, we seemed to do OK.

The LL strikes were fairly sound, although the Maykop ones were late dropping weapons, due to parameters not being set up in advance I understand - A lesson well learned I hope. After the targets had started taxying, it might have been better to knock out those moving with guns. One problem with DCS is that the AI pilots are not very sharp - if you knock out the lead on the taxiway or runway, the rest are unable to find a way past and sit there navel-gazing. The singleton F-18 that went after Mineralnye took out 5 or 6 on his first visit and then went back to take out the rest - a sterling effort I thought. I am sure that everyone is aware that in real life, making several passes over the same target is not recommended, but with DCS as it currently is, I see no objection to the practice. Even at Maykop, with two ZSU emplacements and a SAM on the airfield I did not see any hits on our ac.

Those few red fighter that did get airborne, and those already airborne. found the SEAD flight scattered and took full advantage - helped I believe by at least one blue-on-blue. The SEAD also initially headed for the SAMs, rather than the Tunguskas that were the priority targets. As a result we lost an early A-10 to a Tunguska. I thought the A-10s were a little haphazard and slow (I certainly was!), but we eventually knocked out all the primary armour, and recovered together.

The problems described above of a single knocked-out Red ac blocking the airfield are a pain, and I will try and find a solution. There were other snags with the mission (frequencies, TACAN etc), but I will correct those and re-publish the mission, for future use.

I cannot immediately find any easy alternative to the 3 very similar LL Snake-eye attacks, which I would like to vary a bit. The combination of the approach and the weapon do seem ideal for that sort of attack. However, I will do some work on Snake-eye spacing and accuracy, I am not convinced that either are very accurate at the moment.

The areas where we are weak at the moment seem to me to be awareness, co-operation and leadership. None of these can be learned over-night, but they are worth working on as part of a team.

If anyone has any ideas for further improvement or has any observations that I have missed, please let me know.

The cap was 100% succseful AFAIK nothing got through to you guys when uzi were on station

[Dutch]

Request for next time: Can we have redair planes not spawn mid-air? The F18's had 2xmig21's spawn in our flights. Question: Can we turn of the enemies on the F10 map? Makes it more realistic.

[maggsy]

Just been checking what 3(F) did preflight and noticed we tuned the UHF to the briefed AWAC's freq of 250.1

Alan can you check the AWAC freq in the mission against the Briefing I am sure the mission the freq is 251.0 and the dodge brief says 250.1 no wonder the blissful radio silence/discipline was a little too blissful

[john (scooby)]

Just been checking what 3(F) did preflight and noticed we tuned the UHF to the briefed AWAC's freq of 250.1

Alan can you check the AWAC freq in the mission against the Briefing I am sure the mission the freq is 251.0 and the dodge brief says 250.1 no wonder the blissful radio silence/discipline was a little too blissful

Awacs was 251 as per usual matey

[Flyco]

Dutch, a valid complaint about the Mig-21s spawning - my error!

The intention was for the Mig-21 CAP to spawn, at around 30-40 range from their CAP area, as the F-14s arrived on the scene. When I set them up I did not spot that the F-18s would be passing through that area at around the same time. I will re-route or re-time that pair - or, probably better still, put them up there earlier. They were something of a late addition, when I realised that, if the LL strikes were all good, there would be inadequate early trade for the F-14s - and you know how they like the taste of blood.

As for turning off the red units, I am not sure whether it is possible. In principle, I am not in favour of removing the so-called "cheat options". I would rather rely on players not to cheat - perhaps a naïve view. I am pretty sure that the AI cheats, and I don't think we can turn that off! If anyone knows whether and how we can do this please pipe up. I would also welcome players views about trusting members not to cheat. A similar argument is put to delay the Tacview export by 10 minutes - which requires you to leave your system running for 10 minute after landing - something that I usually forget to do!

Scooby, I was not impugning the abilities of the F-14s. I would agree that we got good service last night, and the timing of their arrival was pretty much as requested - not too early, not too late. I made 2 or 3 calls about being spiked, as did others, and all were responded to within seconds and the Nasty "29" disappeared within 1-2 minutes.

Finally, "Mea culpa" about the AWACs, a slip of the typing finger.

[0413 Luis]

Great mission. Thank you Alan.

[Father Cool]

Alan you can set the visibility of redair in the mission editor mission settings. When I do missions I set it to fog of war which means that red forces remain invisible on f10 until a blue air sees them and then they are visible whilever in sight of a blue aircraft. If blue loses them then the f10 map does. You can set them off completely too if desired and rely on aircraft systems and comms, which I prefer to do in any case.

[maggsy]

Awacs was 251 as per usual matey

I know what its supposed to be however our briefing said something different
Take a peek at our briefing ... it clearly says AWACs - 250.1

[john (scooby)]

Awacs was 251 as per usual matey

I know what its supposed to be however our briefing said something different
Take a peek at our briefing ... it clearly says AWACs - 250.1

typo by the sounds of it