This morning our mission is to depart “Shpora” FARP and provide support to a force attacking a reinforced area at Krasniy Karachai. Enemy forces are holed up within three fortified bunkers. Our job is to fly in support of the attack as directed by the FAC on the scene.







As the briefing notes, the ceiling for the mission is scrubbing the tops of the high mountains along the route.





Heading up the valley toward the first waypoint I engage the autopilot in ROUTE mode and sit back and enjoy the views.



At the turn point the terrain climbs sharply and we have to climb up into the bottom of the ceiling. There are some tense moments when visibility drops to near zero as we scrape across the top of the ridgeline.





We crest the ridgeline and I’m relieved to be descending back down into clear air on the far side.



As we descend into the valley we turn south and head down the valley toward the FAC position.



Approaching the FAC position I peer though the HUD and can make out some scattered exchange of gunfire between the lead elements of our armored troops and the bunkers in the village.





I quickly locate the source of the fire and send a trio of Vikhrs toward the targets.





The FAC provides encouragement as we destroy the three bunkers.







As the third bunker explodes the mounted infantry starts advancing up the hill into the town.



The FAC advises us to support the advancing troops and he warns us of a AAA gun operating in the area.



As the vehicles reach the northern outskirts of the village I spot enemy insurgents scattered throughout the village. I’m not a fan of indiscriminate fire in populated areas, but I let loose with a few rockets to suppress the enemy.





The external view (cheat – yes) shows one of my rockets heading over the town and then the AAA unit and enemy troops become evident but I’m already closing at high speed on the town.



I continue my rocket barrage hoping I can get some rounds on the biggest threat – the AAA emplacement.



My wingman calls out that he is hit as he pulls off with an engine on fire. I curse my stupidity for not maintaining my standoff range.





As I cross over the village I hear the tap tap tap of rounds hitting my airframe. I instantly hear the rotor low RPM warning and I lose control of my helo. As we descend rapidly I hit the eject button as my helo pancakes into the ground.



In a stroke of terrible luck, my chute drifts down into the stream running next to the village and I must end up drowning since I’m reported as DEAD in the debrief.



A minute later my wingman also succumbs to his damage as he tries to set his chopper down in the valley and explodes. Our friendly forces do manage to finish their advance and despite the loss of both helos we get a mission success.



I assume the “FAILURE” listings on the debrief are component failures resulting from damage. It was a horribly executed mission and I should have stayed at standoff range and proceeded to find and hit the AAA site with precision missiles. I felt under pressure to advance with the friendly armor however and paid the price. Lesson learned that haste is not a good idea in some cases.



BeachAV8R

Even one guy with an RPG or an Igla/Stinger is a worthy enough target for a Vikhr. I try to never close to within gun/rocket range of an enemy position until all my Vihkrs are gone or everything that can hurt me has been neutralized. The trick is to fire a couple rocket salvos or gun bursts during a run in and then do a quick circle to stay outside of small arms range. I still get target-fixated a lot though and when I see how close I am to the bad guys, my heart is pounding and palms sweating while I break away, expecting the "Ting ting ting" or a "Boom" to occur at any moment.

But yeah, most of the deployment missions are heavily scripted so you don't have time to keep running back to the FARP to reload Vihkrs (my GOW campaign tactic, lol). I instructed my wingman to engage the bunkers one at a time while I engage the AAA guns and concentrations of soldiers. It may be inconsequential, but it does free up three of your missiles to engage the village from a standoff range. Just one technique out of many.

The wingman AI is supposed to be improved in BS2 and A-10C, but they're still dumb as rocks IMO.

Yeah, I've not become good enough at Black Shark to be able to smartly use my wingmen. Once I got the "air defenses in the village" message, I perhaps should have unleashed my wingman to specifically attack air defenses. He probably would have been able to spot the AA target way before me and engage it. I don't think the small arms was much of a threat to us, and the APCs probably could have mopped that up with minimal support from us.

You make a good point about breaking off rocket attacks early. I need to learn some discipline and not push in trying to kill everything on one pass. Great tips.

By the way - I'm interested to try out this mod for BS2:

Wingman Survival Mod

From the file description:

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This mod is intended to resolve *some* of the wingman frustrations, i.e. make him fly into death less often. It won't greatly increase your wingmans kills, as that is not the intent. But it will make him more likely to survive.

* Turned on pathfinding in mountains for lower skill level AI
* Reduced missile launch time
* Increased slightly the distance for launching ATG missiles
* Vehicle detection distance changed to 10km instead of 5.5km.

We can see them that far so why not our wingman.
* Infantry detection distance changed to 3km instead of 100m. At 100m they would be dead..
* Missile evasion turned on for even average wingmen
* Reduced reaction delay on missile launch to 0 for all skill levels. Your wingmen doesn't have to be stupid even if he is low skill.

Other things YOU should do to ensure your wingmans survival:
* ALWAYS remove rockets from your wingman in the mission planner, rocket use gets people killed in an environment with anti-aircraft threats (almost every DCS mission).
* Only send him on 1-2km Recce at a time, 5km Recce can get him killed
* Don't order him to attack after other attacks - ask him to rejoin first. This allows him to use his standoff range better.
* If giving a non-targetted order, ask him to rejoin after a couple of targets so that he gets his standoff range back.

----------------

I'm interested to try this out. I will report back!

Regards,
BeachAV8R

Yeah, I installed that mod after BS2 came out, but I haven't played enough to notice any trends...most of the time I'm trying to keep from killing myself, let alone worrying about what my wingman is doing.

I will say that the mod didn't keep my wingman from hovering into the mountainside during the second mission in the Georgian Oil War.



I was laughing when I read this in the description.

You'd have been better off staying in the helicopter! 'Drowning' in DCS is very poorly implemented - the pilot will sink into the ground and disappear if he lands anywhere near a river. Last night I ejected from my A-10, landing about 20 metres from the bank of a stream, only to find out in the debriefing that I'd died

You are right! I noticed the helo actually pancaked in intact - so if I had stayed with it, I would probably still be alive. We need steerable parachutes in DCS!