16-11-21 Operation Gauntlet - ReRun

[Father Cool]

Hi Geoff, great write up, looking at the Tacview it looked like you had fun.

Regarding the Chihu bridge, it looked from the tacview like you did indeed take the bridge down in good time and the SA-10 convoy subsequently didn't spawn at the station, so the trigger worked perfectly in that regard, however I think the issue that you had was when I changed your TOT time for the bridge I neglected to inform the radio operator of the new time so he assumed you had missed the TOT when you were in fact ok and he therefore announced to you that you were late when you weren't, my bad.

Looking at the tacview however it does seem that the SA-10 road convoy wasn't hit and made its way all the way to Senaki. Luckily Paul had just unleashed on the convoy as it was setting up and his volley of ordinance took out the SA10 as it spawned.

Overall it looked like you guys did a good job.

EDIT: Just checked the miz and the announcement is tied to the destruction of the bridge and the TOT time so are not independent. It seems very odd that the flag set itself ok so as not to spawn the SA10 at the station yet it played the wrong sound file. Both are part of the same trigger event. DCS is a fickle mistress!

[Grillman]

Thanks for the live awacs Duke. You did a great job and your calmness is commendable!

Second half of the mission was so laggy that it became impossible to engage bandits. Hadn't seen it so bad in months

Overall, this is a very enjoyable mission. Thank you all

Grillman

[Father Cool]

Yes the lagginess was a PITA. Not sure what was causing it but hopefully if we give it another go at some point the server or whatever will behave itself and all will be ok. We didn't experience any lag last week.

[Black-Bart]

Great mission really enjoyed it, Enfield 5 and 6 managed to destroy 2xSA15 and 2xEWR from our tasking.
Had a bit of lag like everyone else and the carrier issues, Duke doing AWACs added to the whole scenario, good job mate. Thanks Father Cool for doing the mission looking forward to the next one:).

[Neil Willis]

Thanks for an excellent sortie last night.

Live AWACS was very useful, and the mission itself went well for us - apart from the technical issues already mentioned.

I hope we'll see a lot more of this series in the future.

[Flyco]

A bit late responding, but I wanted to run through the mission recording, solely in respect of the A-10. In keeping with my normal practice, I will gloss over the bits that went well (which were many) and look at a few of the less sound areas that I think we should try and learn from. I am not sure how many of these stemmed from last minute changes, and how many from the setter thinking that he was the enemy and it was up to him to give us grief. (I will emphasize that, after two and a half tours as a basic flying instructor, this has always be my norm - a typical debrief consisted of 60 seconds saying "this, that, and the other were good", and then 20 minutes picking holes in the remainder of the sortie - we learn from understanding our mistakes, not basking in our successes. So let me say to "Cav, I did enjoy the mission!).

In essence I still felt that there were some technical aspects of the mission, that were of variable quality, notably the brief. For example we had a brief on where on Senaki the SAM-10s were going to be sited, but no mention of the 10 or so ZSUs, 2 x SA-18s and a SA-13 that were spread over the airfield. As it happened these were not a serious threat because, warned by the last mission, we flew above 12,000 ft for the most part. The un-briefed SAM-6 within about 8 miles of our run-in was a bit of a worry, but it was quickly dealt with when we complained - although after looking at the debrief it would appear that it was located at the bottom of a valley and probably couldn't see us.

The one bridge destruction went OK - the second less so, but I do think it would have been better to have used a "Bomb in Zone" trigger rather than rely on a random squaddie being hit - you know what squadies are like - he had probably gone round the corner for leak when that bomb hit. As it was, the convoy were clearly so dumbfounded at finding the bridge still there that they appeared to fall into a torpor. We then set about the airfield and discovered the un-reconnoitred AD units, which we set about destroying. We also learned that the "Penetrator" which Paul has been carrying around for months did have its uses. Point taken, Paul - I apologize.

The main failing on our part was not hitting the convoy coming in from the North-West. With the bridge down, Paul went looking while for it, while I set about tackling the reported Shilka and hitting the Bunker. That was when I found out about the plethora of un-recorded AD units on the airfield. I used my two GBU-10s on the bunker (sound and fury - but no results), and expended all 6 of my GBU-20s on the aforesaid airfield AD. This was the point at which we missed the bus (actually the NW Convoy), Paul went to the airfield and blew up the bunker and other sundry, while I went and had a look down the route we were expecting the convoy to use. How we both missed it, I don't know - I can only think we were looking for a significant convoy as opposed to 2 military vehicles and 2 trucks. In the end we (I think it was actually Geoff) spotted that there were aerials going up on the airfield and we went off kill them (I am not sure we ever did see the actual convoy!). I lined up 2 or 3 elements for my LGRPs, but each of them blew up before I could fire: my first reaction was to blame Geoff or Paul, but it turned out to be the Blue "Challengers" picking them of. Which leads to the question I had asked a few days before - since we had Challengers, and Red didn't have any tanks, why were we there in the first place. This was the same Challenger unit that passed another red Sam Convoy on the road rom the SE, half an hour earlier, and ignored it!

Well, that is enough I hear you say. I will end by repeating that I enjoyed the mission, but I did find the the 'selective' nature of some of it (notably the Int brief and the 'picky' Challengers), detracted from the the immersion. The Red Fighters were around and caused a bit of a flutter, but our fighter-chappies dealt with it

As a last re-iteration, may I appeal to mission-writers to be open about the sortie, not to hide stuff, and run the mission, or selected parts of it by those who will be flying it. You can certainly discuss it with me, I will have forgotten everything with 24 hrs!

[Father Cool]

Thanks for the write up Alan, I will certainly take your comments on board.

Regarding the bridge at Chihu, it actually worked fine. I placed several chaps on it this time with an 'or' trigger so if any of them died they all did, and looking at the tacview it worked perfectly. I did look at a bomb in zone but I had to specify specific bombs and didn't want to either place every bomb type in the trigger editor or resrict anyone to a specific bomb to do the job. In the end the chaps on the bridge worked but for some reason the radio call was not correct, weird.

The Abasha bridge is different and the guy there is to just make a call. The bridge falling down physically stops that convoy just fine.

As for the AD on Senaki. Yes I see your point but all of those vehicles are mobile units and there is no reason to assume that intel is 100% bullseye on the nose of what is and is not currently on the field. I personally feel that a little surprise now and again is more interesting and as long as its not some super killing machine that swats you without warning should be able to be weathered. There certainly wasn't a lit of AD on Senaki and what was there had been show on the intel albeit probably not every single unit.

Looking back through the tacview you guys looked like you did very well despite the surprises.

As for the road convoy, I should have perhaps made it larger, I wanted to actuallynhave SA10s moving in but they do not drive so had to employ some proxy vehicles instead.

Next time I will ensure that the brief is a little more in depth however I am still not 100% keen to divulge everything on the board.

Comments on this from everyone would be welcome!

[Flyco]

The bridge is a good discussion point. I actually set up a short mission on that run. I had not previously use the “Bomb in Area” trigger and found it easy to use. The bridge is very easy to define in the box. As for the number of bombs, we are all guessing - I opted for a single 2000 lbs OR 2 500 lbs (or 3 if you are feeling mean). When the appropriate number had been dropped inside the box, I initiated an explosion which took down the bridge and set a”Bridge Destroyed” Flag. I also looked at detecting any subsequent train on the bridge and blowing that up, but it wasn’t necessary. The only problem I didn’t solve is that by default there was a train running along that track every 5 mins or so (but none on the track in the other direction!). When the first totally AI train arrived it stopped at the bridge - which achieved the object, assuming that ‘our’ train did not just run through it! I did not discover how to stop the DCS default trains.

As we know DCS is a mystery unto itself.

[Father Cool]

Yes Alan thats what I did, theres even a trigger box on the mission as we speak however when I went into the bomb in zone option I had to choose a specific bomb for the trigger, as I didn't know what ordinance you wanted to use I went for the guys instead.

I didn't want you using a different bomb amd the trigger not working because of it.

The guys work fine though as I had 4 guys on there and you only have to kill one of them and all 4 explode and take out the bridge. Its the same effect in the end but you can use whatever you fancy to kill the bridge rather than a specific weapon!