Hunting Day 2008 Scenario Advice

[Hurricane144]

I have a convoy to crack. The convoy is protected by SA-13, SA-8 and I think SA-14. There are Buk sites in the vicinity. I have SU-24s with ARMs and SU-25's with Kh-29L's. Hinds with AT-6. (Side note, the AT-6's are too slow and get shot down by SA-14's so they're not too useful.)

Convoy doctrine is to keep emitters quiet including the Buk's until a good shot is available.

I am consistently losing my aircraft. How do you crack this. The goal is to lose nothing.

Anyone want to talk about this?

[Hurricane144]

I think that since I have the means to destroy the SAMs, it's just a matter of finding a tactic that lets me bait out their radars so they can be plinked.

There is also probably an ideal order to do things. I can ignore the Buk systems if I'm allowed to stay on deck all the time, but I can't really do that near the convoy due to AAA and SA-14. So the Buk systems have to be shut down first. Then I can play with the SA-8/13's a bit by threatening a mid altitude GPB run. They're going to get their shots on whatever plays bait for that, but should be destroyed in the process too. Is there a better way to do this? I don't have good position data on the mobile SAMs, ever, even with a recon team in the area. It seems I can keep eyes on the convoy but not their air defenses. After those sites are done I can try standoff with the Hinds to plink tanks and APCs or I can do more mid altitude bombing. I can't see how I can possibly get at the SA-14s.

[Hurricane144]

The scenario for all this is called Hunting Day (2008)

[cf_dallas]

I had a tough time with that scenario.... the scenario writer had to work around protecting a mobile convoy, using assets that can't shoot on the move. He did it by building in a teleport event that fires almost continuously (if I recall), which means you never get a fix on the short range units. I think when the scen was built that was the best option available, now with Lua it could be done differently. In order to win this one, I had to open in scenario editor and shut down that teleport event.... which after 30 minutes left the convoy naked, their defenses were left behind. Not a terribly satisfying way to approach it, but oh well...I'm sure three was some other method that I missed. It was a bit of a bummer because I REALLY liked the scenario concept. I thought about some ways to rebuild it with Lua (unit start/stop, etc) but I barely have time to do my own scenarios, let alone mess with other people's.

Anyway, your approach is solid. Knock out the Buk umbrella, then worry about the short range units. I think I went after a couple of the long range search radars too.

[Hurricane144]

I like the teleport trick, it's more realistic for the most part if I can't pin them down visually. Love that they don't just broadcast the radar on too.

I think what I will do is take out the bye sites, ignore the ew (the bus sites will broadcast wih or without them anyhow), and threaten a mid altitude bomb run to get the local convoy defenses to broadcast after the bugs are down. I can do a pop up for the bus sites, they will fire as soon as they can and arm has big advantage not needing tracking after launch, unlike theirs. For the convoy baiting, I just have to dip below altitude and then climb like feck after the launch. A bit of micro managing.

I wish the SAMs were smarter, this is why playing another human would be so much better. I think it would be very hard to deal with air defenses if they were smartly managed.

Bye bus bug all meant to read BUK. F'ing apple product.

[Hurricane144]

I can't even plink the SA-13's. Need serious help, nothing I've tried works at all. My strategy failed every time

[Hurricane144]

Giving it up. I can't find a way to attack this convoy without losing aircraft. I tried a very low attack from max range with the Hind's to take out the SAM sites, and it looks like this would work but the teleporting SAMs can't be hit by missiles. I think the scenario is either unbeatable or there is a very specific way to go about it, intended by the author, which isn't obvious to me.