Bridges
Bridge missions seem straightforward, but they are not. As second in
my priority list they can not be underestimated and should be dealt
with immediately after the nearby MiG airfields. Bridges are the silent
killers. They seem to just sit there harmlessly, but they allow tons
upon tons of supply to replace what you work so hard to destroy. If
you don't take these out you might as well be bailing water out of a
boat full of holes because sooner or later you are gonna sink.
A minimum strike package of only one flight is usually plenty to deal
with bridges with one very notable exception (described below). By far
the most common mistake people make in the area of bridges is ordinance.
Rowan has given us an unlimited supply of all ordinances and therefore
it never makes sense to bring 500lb bombs instead of 1,000lb bombs against
bridges. A single 1,000lb bomb can take a span down, but it takes two
500lbers to do the same thing.
If you are getting used to the Spring Offensive interface you may make
another mistake. By going into the damage button in the "Dossier" window
you can target any span along the bridge. Some may figure that nailing
the spans over the river is the best way to go. Actually quite the opposite
is true. The best part of a bridge to target is the part at where the
bridge connects to the land. This is because near misses will destroy
a span that connects to land, but near misses fall impotently in the
water if you are going for a span over the river. This is modeled because
in real life bombs falling near a span on land create a shock wave which
in turn creates damage. The water absorbs the shock of near misses over
the river making those misses worthless. It does, however, take two
near misses with 1000lbers to take the span down as opposed to only
one 1000lber that is a direct hit.
When targeting a bridge, the approach your flight should take to the
target is somewhat more complicated than one might imagine. To help
understand my recommended approach, it is important to understand MiG
Alley's AI as well as the real life strategy. The real life strategy
is easy to understand. You always want to approach the bridge as if
you were going to cross it in a car so your aircraft flies directly
over the entire length of the bridge. This is because if you miss long
or short you are still going to hit the bridge. You need only worry
about being off target left or right when attacking a bridge this way.
It may be easy for you to line up a bridge this way, but getting the
AI aircraft to do the same is another story all together. You'll find
as soon as you get close to the bridge the AI aircraft start doing their
own thing and it suddenly seems you have lost control of the situation.
As weird as the AI seems, there is a way to predict and therefore control
their approach and even sometimes to get them to attack both sides of
the bridge.
When you get within visual range of the bridge, the AI aircraft will
suddenly fly off at in a 90-degree turn to your right regardless of
how you are approaching the bridge and regardless if you told them to
or not. The AI aircraft just figures you are just some dumb lead that
doesn't know when to start the attack run so they go with or without
you. The trick is to be at the right place and going in the right direction
when the AI decides they need to attack. If you don't pick the right
place, chances are they won't make their run along the length of the
bridge and therefore become less likely to destroy the bridge.
Before we get too far ahead of ourselves lets take first things first.
Click the bridge icon you want to attack. Click the "Photo" icon to
note which direction the bridge runs across the river. The Photo feature
always zooms you into a view looking from the south of your target.
So if the bridge is running left to right then you need to approach
the bridge from the east or west of the target.
Select "Authorize" and pick a minimum strike package. Using the "Task"
icon, pick one flight of F84s. Select 1000lb bombs with an attack pattern
of "Spaced target selected". Arrange the waypoints to and from the target
area for the best use of your fuel avoiding high AAA/Flak areas like
supply depots, marshalling yards and airfields.
Now comes the tricky part. Lets take the Inje Road Bridge as an example
because it runs at an odd angle. When looking at the photo, you'll notice
it runs southwest to northeast. Remember how your AI aircraft will always
go off to your right at a 90-degree turn when the bridge gets into visual?
Your goal therefore will be to have the bridge directly at your three
o'clock position as the bridge comes into visual. This way your AI aircraft
will be lined up perfectly to fly over the length of the bridge after
they break 90 degrees to your right.
Above shows default waypoints. Below shows the map after you've changed
your waypoints appropriately.
You can accomplish this in a couple of ways. Ground padlock the bridge
and keep it at your ten o'clock position until it starts to come into
view and then make a slow left hand turn to put the bridge at your three
o'clock. Followed by giving the "make your run" command in the FAC radio
comms menu (r 6 1). If they say, "I can't identify target" then you
made your left hand turn too soon and/or too sharply. With a little
practice this gets to be second nature and very easy to do.
The other way is to manipulate the waypoints, but that is a lot more
trouble to set up.
After my AI wingmen fly off to my right at the target, I start to make
a right hand turn to go parallel with the bridge. So now I'm again looking
out my three o'clock and watching my AI aircraft drop their 1000lbers.
When the span is down you'll see a little secondary puff of smoke.
Occasionally the first and more often the second AI aircraft will kill
the span and the little puff of smoke will appear. As soon as this happens
use the radio FAC command to leave the area (r, 6,6). This will cause
all AI aircraft to abort their run (save their 1000lbers) and try and
form up on you. Next you'll want to attack the span on the opposite
site of the river.
By this time you have crossed the river. If you have wingmen that still
have ordinance left you can once again tell them to attack, but this
time from the other side of the river. Your AI wingmen will once again
break at a 90-degree angle to the right and then attack the opposite
side of the bridge (unless that side is already destroyed). As soon
as all the 1000lbers are gone make sure you once again use the radio
FAC command to leave the area (r, 6, 6). If you don't have them leave
they will try and strafe the bridge and expose themselves to either
AAA/Flak or sometimes even plow into the side of a hill if they happen
to approach from an odd angle with a steep hill nearby.
You got to have Seoul, brothers and sisters. This is to say you got
to knock out all four Seoul bridges very early in your Spring Offensive
campaign. This is the exception I mentioned at the beginning of this
article. On the map you only see one icon for the Seoul bridges unless
you zoom all the way in or use the Photo feature. You'll find there
isn't one bridge, but four.
The best way to deal with these bridges
is with B29s. Target each bridge individually. Make a separate authorized
mission for each bridge with one flight of B29's each, using 1,000lb
bombs. Do not use four flights and target the different bridges in the
Task window (this will not be effective at best and crash to desktop
at worst). Use a box formation as your attack pattern in the Task menu.
This will take all four bridges down no muss no fuss. Just make sure
you do it after taking down the local airfields or the MiGs will chew
the B29s up.
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