The Russians have thrown up a pre-fab base north-east of Dnipropetrovs'k. This will no doubt be their staging area for our little part of the war. You may have noticed one of this base's Backfires on the pad when you landed. You will take this bomber and destroy the base.
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MISSION OBJECTIVE
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Take off in the Backfire and head to the rendez-vous to the north. Wait for your wingie to catch up with you while your escort goes on ahead to clear the way. Head towards the front lines as you climb to angels 10. Throttle back and cruise along at 300 knots to allow time for your escort to clean up any patrols. When you cross the Dnieper, hit full afterburners and head towards your target. Watch out for SAMs on the way.
You will arrive at the base at sunrise. Try to use the sun to protect you from any IR SAMs and AAA. You and your wingman will take out any structures and tanks in the area, while your escort provides air cover. Use your wingman intelligently when you get there. He is a damn good pilot, but is sometimes overeager.
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ORDER OF BATTLE
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Force Size : 2 plus Flanker escort
Aircraft : Tu-26 Backfire Bomber
Weapon Loadout : 23mm turret, AS-16 x 6
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THREAT DATA
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GROUND THREATS : SAMs, AAA, Tanks
AIR OPPOSITION : Probable MiG patrol, possible interceptors
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MISSION SUCCESS
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Well done. You did a great job of conserving your Kickbacks and taking out all the targets. By the way, your escort pilots are waiting in the club for the rounds of drinks you promised them. The MiG-29s and even the MiG-31 interceptors could have finished you off without them.
Your in-flight recorders showed the work the Russians combat engineers are doing to rebuild our base in Dnipropetrovs'k. We may have to close that base down soon.
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MISSION FAILURE
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You failed. We will try the same mission again tomorrow. Now that the Russians know we are after their base, you will probably have a harder time of it.
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Mission Tips / Spoiler - If you are .underline really ..underline clever, you do not need to read the next page...
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This is a much harder mission than it first appears. Here are some tips from the 30+ times I played it during design.
First, wait for your wingman. It is easy for him to get separated from you and culled from the herd by the Fulcrums at the border.
Second, pray to Mars, god of war, for your escort to take out the various air threats. Unless you are better at using your fixed turret than I am, you will be dead shortly after they are. Yes this means that part of the mission is out of your control. Welcome to reality.
When you arrive at the base, keep your wingman in formation - line abreast level stacking. Target what you want him to hit and wait for 80% hit probability, then Alt-R for him to attack in formation. Quickly target what you want to hit, and fire away.
The Kickbacks are pretty dumb. Keep your target in view on the HUD for as long as possible.
I have my wingman target the big barracks while I take out the tanks. This increases his chances of hitting something while decreasing the fire from below. After these targets, you can concentrate on the storage shed and bunker together.
Ignore the BTR's. Although their gunfire sounds scary (puh-whang!), it really doesn't do that much damage. Watch the AAA on the hill, though. Even if it is only a ZSU-57, it does decent damage and has a long range. And tanks will kill you if they get a couple of good hits as you make your run on them.
That ought to be enough to get you past this mission...eventually. Its a good thing the Russians never seem to learn that you will be back again tomorrow...
