* The first best shot ever harkens back to the old Microprose F-15 Strike Eagle III days nearly 20 years ago (!)..

Tonight I had an awesome experience on the Stallturn server during the DCS Fly-In that happened over the 30th/31st/1st. I was flying Black Shark 2 and had joined on the "Red" side flying a Ka-50 out of a crappy little FARP (Torba). The server was using a large scale war map with three different areas of the map as action points. You can fly for either Blue (A-10s and Ka-50s) or Red (just Ka-50s). Over the past few days people have been hoping in on both sides and it has been great fun.

This evening I grabbed a Ka-50 out of Torba and headed southeast down the valley looking for targets. The server had already been up for 3 or some hours, so most of the battlefield in that area between Torba (Red FARP) and the three airports around Tblisi (Blue bases) was pretty well picked over. I love the challenge of creeping up at low altitude up to the Blue side bases and engaging their defenses. You have to get close enough to be in Vikhr range (a little under 7.5 KM) while avoiding the SAM and AAA sites, as well as any A-10s that happen to know you are there. Usually they won't know until things start blowing up on the airfield.

I was able to creep around to the west side of the 3-airport region there and camped out about 6KM from Tblisi and started systematically taking down the air defenses: Strellas, ZSUs, and a tank or two. Of course, all the smoke and flames clues the Blue side in that they are being attacked. So one of the blue players (Rider!) came out hunting for me. He circled around at low altitude with his AIM-9 uncaged and found me when it picked up a heat signature. Doh! I didn't know he was looking for me - my first clue was the rip of 30mm canon fire all around me. I took a round or two and it knocked out my Shkval. I knew the gig was up now that I'd been discovered. I dropped my nose out of the over and slammed the collective back to power forward toward the base. I had 3 Vikhrs left, but this wasn't a time for finesse. I was armed with the big rockets on the inside pylons (S-8s?) so I zoomed across the field rippling them off at the infrastructure targets. The whole base was up in flames. All the while Rider is making runs on me with his canon. I manage to see him a few times and try to get my canon on him in boresight mode, but I never did get any shots into him.

We pirouetted around the sky at low level over Tblisi until a fixed ZSU emplacement that I hadn't destroyed blotted me from the sky. It was only a matter of time before Rider was going to get me..so I'm sure he was disappointed to have his kill snatched from him <G>...

For some reason I thought the KC-135 would make a more impressive boom when I hit it with a Vikhr:



Fire..fire..fire...





My final resting spot.



So..(we are getting to the best shot..I promise..) I chat with Rider a bit and we relive our air-to-air engagement - a lot of fun and a great stick this Rider guy. The map is pretty well picked over as I mentioned before..and he asks if we are flying out of the crappy FARP up at Torba. I can smell revenge on the horizon. So he heads up toward Torba (only a 4 or 5 minute flight in an A-10 but a 20 minute haul in a Ka-50) with the intent of bombing it all to hell.

I spawn in to a replacement Ka-50 at Torba and initiate the auto-start sequence which takes about 3 minutes. Another Red player (Voxt) spawns in about a minute later. I type to Rider that it is very tense sitting there on the pad waiting for an LGB to come crashing through the roof at any minute. He asks if my laser warning receiver is going off yet <G>.

As soon as the auto-start sequence is complete, I pour the coals to it and leave my poor buddy Ka-50 on the other pad - he still has about a minute to go before his start will be complete. I know Rider has got to be very close. I nose over and accelerate away hoping to avoid detection. As I get about 5KM away I see explosions back at the FARP. I raise my nose hard, pedal turn 180 degrees and set up a hover. I didn't even have time to mess with the ABRIS or anything and I turn on my Shkval sight and start scanning the FARP. The other Ka-50 is still on the pad with smoke all around him, but he does manage to get airborne. There are two A-10s making passes on the FARP and I struggle to lock one up with my Shkval, which has an agonizingly slow slew rate compared to the high rate required to lock on to a passing fast mover. After a couple attempts I'm finally able to lock on one of the A-10s with the Shkval set to AIR mode. It does a great job tracking and the target passes at about 7KM and I fire two Vikhrs at him. I peer through the HUD looking for a telltale explosion, but I don't get anything. Because I had to pitch my nose up to acquire the targets and get a launch cue I'm not drifting backwards rapidly and my range increases beyond Vikhr range. Then I see an A-10 fill my HUD as he comes right at me. I switch to boresight cannon and lay down as much toward him as I can. His rounds hit me and take out one of my engines. I dump the nose over and pick up speed to keep flying and jettison my weapons. As I crawl back toward my FARP another stream of 30mm pours into me and Rider gets his kill.

So a few minutes later I'm chatting again with the players. I had assumed I shot my Vikhrs at Rider, but it turns out, I had actually targeted "mjayz30", the other A-10 in the wagon wheel. He reports that I must have put some damage on him because his jet is having severe control problems. A couple of minutes later, he crashes and I get credit for the kill.

7.2 KM showing on the Shkval and my Vikhrs are on the way. It's hard to make it out, but I'm locked on an A-10 there..





What a great night of multiplayer action. Thanks to stallturn (and Moa) for putting the server up and being patient with us when we griped about any disconnects. The server was rock solid tonight and I had no problems for the couple hours I was on.



BeachAV8R

Nice job, its refreshing to hear a mission around here

Nice shooting, Beach! I'm disappointed I wasn't able to join you ... I kept getting CTDs with BS2 even after a PC restart) and Client Update Timeout errors with A10C.

Lots of fun, though! Hope to see you in the air again soon!

Great write up, Beach.

This Fly In was a blast. I'm looking forward to a mission with more of the Red/Blue challenges, and would like to have been there for your little incursion into Lochini-Tbilisi.

If you knock out enough of/the right one of the ground vehicles like in your second screen shot then the airbase Ground Crew won't be able to service the aircraft. This happened right down the road at Vaziani - the APC on the west end had been knocked out and the Ground Crew would no longer respond to the Intercom!

Glad you could make. We had some good attendance.

WC

So... you used Voxt as bait, did you give him any warning? LOL

Thanks guys for attending.

Have a new mission in the works that is designed for balanced BLUEFOR vs REDFOR play (Rampant Bear is a BLUEFOR mission, with REDFOR as an afterthought - so it was uphill for you guys).

Thanks - look for more..I'm getting hooked in again!


It's weird. The server for me was rock solid last night, but the previous night I was getting tons of CTDs and timeout errors.


Thanks for posting about it in our forums. I wouldn't have known about it otherwise. I'm glad I joined in over the couple days it was running (and I'll be frequenting the server often)..


I was going to ask Rider about that very thing last night. I was wondering if I could disable the ramp support. It would be really interesting if, under certain criteria like all defensive vehicles and no opposition on the field, if you could land and takeover the field. Maybe after 5 minutes or so on the ground it would switch alliances or something. Because that is a LONG flight back to FARP Torba in a helo..


Well..I think he knew what was coming. It was agonizing waiting that full three minutes. And I wanted to be at least a couple K away because I thought those guys in the A-10s would easily be able to see us with their TGP pods... Voxt was in the middle of it all as the crap hit the fan..



No..thank YOU for hosting. It was a great time and I look forward to the new mission..

Regards..
BeachAV8R

That was great fun!

Beach, I was down at the airstrip getting gas and bombs and was ready to take off when noticed stuff started blowing up for no reason. I thought it was odd 'til it dawned on me that "Hey I am being shot at over here!" I dumped my flaps to full and hit the throttle and really had the pressing urge to get airborne as soon as possible. The pucker factor on that take off roll was pretty good and my seat cushion is still missing..

I hauled back on the stick, raised flaps and gear, extended a bit and took my sidewinders out and pulled some tight circles about 50 feet off the deck, hoping to get a hit on the heat seekers

After a few minutes I got tone, however, I was at such a high turn rate I couldn't get a shot, but I now knew about where you were at.

I extended and pirouetted over and was able to get another lock and snapped off a front aspect sidewinder at you, and I saw it blow up about 50 feet off your nose. I think that is what took out your optics.

I lost sight of you when I extended again so I doubled back a few times trying to locate you. I knew I was close, because I kept hearing the Doppler of your rotors as I passed you.

Each time I passed I could see tracers coming from your airplane arcing over at me. Anytime you see tracers in big long lines coming across the front of your canopy, it's never a good thing, and I was hoping that a little luck would keep you from putting holes in my airplane.

If I would have extended more to get a better line up on you I might have had a better chance at a shot, but my fangs were out and I was hauling a freshly loaded A10 at the stall horn the whole time, just trying not to hit the ground or loose sight of you.

By the time I was able to get a good position to shoot again, you were over the airfield taking out more of the infrastructure and I saw you get tagged by the AAA.

We debriefed for a bit and it dawned on me that I knew where your FARP was up in the Gori area. I had bombed it many times, but never saw a KA50 take off and land there. I figured I knew where to find you now!

I also noticed my airplane wouldn't stay in autopilot or trim and was flying a little loose, like my SAS was damaged. I didn't see any bullet holes in the external view, but you may have tagged me after all.

I decided I would land and get another sidewinder for my trip up to Gori, so I hauled my jet onto a short, rushed final. I dropped my gear and brakes, and that's when I noticed that the sidewinder I still had out had jumped and locked onto a point in space over the runway.

I thought that was weird until I saw tracers coming from that point and vehicles on the ground at the airfield blowing up again! Then I realized that it must be your wingman, Voxt over there trying to ruin my day as well!

I thought "Here we go again". I rammed the throttle to the stops, raised the gear, and put the brakes back in and started to climb away. I hauled the jet over to try and set up on Voxt and saw him get taken out by the AAA defending the airport.

About then MJay had entered the fight and was already making the trip up to Gori. I headed that direction and about 25 miles out I put a pod down in the location I remembered the FARP to be at. After a bit of searching I found it, and sure enough, there were two KA50s spooling up. I shot some laser at you guys hoping to set off your laser warning gear and spook you a bit.

By the time I got to the FARP, Beach had taken off so I figured a little payback was in order. I made several gun passes at the FARP while Voxt was still spooling. It must have been quite a show for him with, trucks, tents, and everything else on the FARP blowing up around his aircraft.

I think by this time Beach and MJay were engaged, and from that point it becomes blurry. It was around 3AM here and I was fatigued from playing for many hours already. That, and the adrenaline from the fight at our base had worn off.

At some point Mjay went down and I was able to put some bullets into Beach's aircraft, but I have no recollection of what happened to Voxt..

With perfect timing Moa comes in and offers to reset the mission, which was great, as I was not up to another round against those to chopper pilots!

Thanks for an awesome flight, fellas. It was the most memorable and exiting flight I have had flying the A10C for sure.

Thanks Moa for shoveling coal into the server all weekend to keep it up and running for us!

Great after-actions reports guys. Interesting to hear the same experience from different perspectives.

Here are some screenshots from my first day's flying. A few of us were trying an attack to close the Roki tunnel that let the Russian 58th Army pour from North Ossetia (Russian) to South Ossetia (internationally recognised as Georgian; now annexed de-facto by Russia).

Another pilot (callsign: Bam) and I doing low-level passes near the tunnel. There was a tough bunker and watchtower guarding the tunnel entrance. We were also looking for what was left while other aircraft (Wrecking Crew, Voxt) set up high altitude JDAM and buddy-lase LGB drops (the latter challenging due to the steep valleys):




FYI: pictures of the real Roki Tunnel and nearby area:




I was very impressed when I saw that the Eagle Dynamics designers had put this in the game.

That's a great write-up Rider. It sheds a lot of light on what was really going on vs. what I thought was going on.. I would love to have seen a video of your TGP footage as you approached Torba to light it up. I was really surprised that Voxt was still able to takeoff after your first pass. I figured he would have been all shot to crap.

Too bad Voxt got taken out by the AA at your airfield..as I posted before, that was the one AA unit that I hadn't seen during my long distance Vikhr attacks. I think it was obscured from my line of sight by some trees where I was hovering.

I was pretty wiped out too.. LOL.. I went up to bed and I think I had dreams of flying in the Ka-50..

Really enjoyed it..

That's some good stuff you posted there Moa. The buddy lasing and cooperative play is really awesome in both the A-10 and Ka-50 (provided I would have turned on my datalink!!)...

Thanks again for the server..

BeachAV8R