KC23's Spring Offensive Strategy Guide - Supply Depots
Supply
Depots
I had well over six months experience in playing MiG Alley when I started
to write this particular aspect of the sim and I still felt somewhat like
a stranger to the AI involved in attacking a supply depot. Oh sure, I
had success stories I could tell like many of you that are reading this.
Unfortunately, in-between the success stories I too often have been left
with nothing much more than a quizzical look on my face unconsciously
blurting out something like "no way" or "what the heck?"
I played about twelve hours of different kind of approaches trying to
come up with a consistent way to get good tonnage with very few casualties.
Up until I finally found the answer I had several brilliant schemes …
all that didn't work worth a darn.
Before we get into the nuts and bolts let me remove some myth and answer
some questions that some may have regarding Supply Depots:
Flak/AAA flights don't work?
If you leave the default waypoints alone they will NOT do their job effectively.
On the other hand you can get AI controlled aircraft to absolutely clean
up on a well-defended target area by adding waypoints, setting the right
attack pattern and using the correct ordinance.
Is there a way to get your Flak flight ahead of the strike force?
Absolutely, you can "Ins. Wave" for Flak suppression and change the time
to get them ahead of the bombers and strike flight. Changing the time
is a little buggy, but once you get the hang of it, it works well.
Are bombers the most effective aircraft for all Supply Depot targets?
Strike Fighters are far more effective than bombers on the Hidden Supplies.
Save your bomber flights for warehouse targets.
Are F51s, F84s and F80s the sum total of my Strike Fighter force?
Actually F86s make excellent AAA/Flak flights. They are a bit faster than
the rest and it seems the AAA has a tough time targeting them. As a side
note, F51s are often a poor choice because of their lack of speed.
Should I arm myself with 1,000 bombs for those tough warehouses?
Rockets are a much better choice because you generally only get one kill
with the bomb, but over 3 kills with the rockets. This is especially true
with F84 that can carry up to 32 rockets without fuel tanks. A single
F84 can take out over 10 targets!
"Spaced target selection" works well with Armed Recon, but how does it
do with Supply Depots?
"Spaced target select" is just about the worst of them all because Supply
Depot targets usually required two rocket hits and because you expose
them a lot more to AAA/Flak without good cause. "Spaced Elements" seems
to work best. Mid-air crashes are rare compared to "Spaced Flights" and
it usually takes a couple of rockets for each target at a Supply Depot
making "Spaced Element" the perfect choice.
Ah, so "Element target" is perfect for AAA/Flak too?
It seems the "Individual targets" gets the nod here. All the aircraft
come in together and there is a very short time that all the aircraft
are exposed plus with all that firepower the AAA/Flak is sure to be a
dead on a single pass. This may seem like a waste of fire- power, but
there usually aren't that many AAA/Flak trucks around to worry about running
out of rockets. As many of you have found out, the worst position to be
in with regard to AAA/Flak is pulling out of your dive right after you've
failed to take him out. "Individual targets" makes sure they are out of
action prior to your flight pulling out of the attack run. Just make sure
you don't skimp on the number of flights you send in for Flak duty. Pay
close attention to the "Threat AAA" level of your target area in the "Dossier"
to determine how many Flak flights to take.
Should I send in my bombers at high level or low level?
I suggest high level 99% of the time. It seems to be just as accurate
and does not expose your bombers to as much AAA/Flak and there is no chance
of mid-air crashes with your strike fighters. The only time there might
be an advantage is if you know there is no AAA/Flak and there is a chance
of being intercepted my marauding MiGs. MiGs generally will not come down
to low-level altitude to attack unless they have a high moral level from
kicking your rear recently.
On to Wonju
What I am about to describe is an attack on the Wonju Supply Depot early
in the campaign. Wonju is the southern most supply depot located in Central
Korea and is incredibly well defended. If attacked successfully the tonnage
destroyed will be impressive.
Okay, let me set the stage. I have no F80s available, but I have recently
knocked out the local MiG airfields. I have a flight of four F86s, four
flights of F84s and four flights of B26s to work with.
As in real life, recon is extremely important. You want to make note of
the location and quantity of Hidden Supplies, Warehouses and of course
AAA/Flak sites. Pay special attention to the "Threat AAA" activity level
reported in the "Dossier" menu. If the AAA/Flak activity is "Quiet" or
"Low" you might be able to get away with just a couple of Flak flights
and some times none at all.
Never go on any mission without checking the daily intelligence in detail.
Sometimes you will see that supplies are being hidden in burned out warehouses
(that you've previously hit) and this will effect the type of package
you'll send in. Use strike fighters with rockets against hidden supplies
in burned out warehouses. Napalm is not a bad choice here if you are confident
you can lay it down accurately and there are at least four groups of burned
out warehouses. In this case you will want to switch to "Spaced targets
selected" so you don't waste any napalm. Typically the AAA/Flak will be
low because you've hit the site before so this should be relatively safe.
In our example however Wonju has never been hit before and the AAA/Flak
activity is going to be high. I expect around 9 or 10 AAA/Flak sites to
be active so this could potentially be disastrous if I'm not careful.
To keep from crashing to your desktop in the planning map turn off the
Wonju city icon so you won't accidentally target the city icons.
Upon inspection we find four groups of 8 warehouses in the northern part
of the depot and three scattered groups of 4 warehouses in the southern
half. There are rings of AAA/Flak around both target areas and a few outside
of the immediate area for good measure.
Our first flight we will make will include the B26s and we will use the
"Ins. Wave" icon to add Flak suppression flights. We change the Flak suppression
flight TOT time to be about ten minutes ahead of the bombers. This will
give them plenty of time to clean out the AAA/Flak before it can be any
danger to either the B26's or the F84 flights to follow.
We'll use four flights of F86's with fuel and rockets on board to take
care of the AAA/Flak. It is important to have them finish their job long
before the B26s and F84s arrive. This will reduce the chance of mid-air
collisions over the target area plus the F86s can completely eliminate
the AAA/Flak threat to your valuable bombers and strike aircraft. Do NOT
use the default waypoints for your F86 Flak suppression flights.
Go to the "Route" menu and select "Target" and "Flak supp.". Now highlight
the "Start" icon and "Insert" three more waypoints. Move the waypoints
to closely skirt the outside of the target area. Finally, move the "Regroup"
icon in a direct line to your home base and try and put it near a landmark
so you'll know you are there without having to check the navigation info
bar. If you have more than one flight you'll be presented with several
waypoint icons that seem to spring up like a bouquet of flowers. These
are separate "Start" and "End" icons you can move to keep the flights
away from each other and avoid mid-air collisions. I've found that I really
haven't had to move them, but experiment if you want you may discover
a better mouse trap.
Next use the "Ins. Wave" icon again and set up a flight of 4 F84s with
rockets and have them come in about 5 minutes after the bombers. They
will clean up any leftovers the bombers leave behind.
The rest is a simple task of taking the individual flights of bombers
and giving them targets. You can use two flights together for the northern
group of warehouses because they are located so close together, but targeting
them individual sometimes works better. The southern groups of warehouses
you need to target with individual flights of bombers because if you group
them together they will not be able to cover enough ground to hit more
than one group of warehouses.
If you do decide to use multiple flights of bombers in a group use both
the direction of the approach and the formation of the group to get the
best spread of bombs on the targets.
One bug of note is that Flak/AAA does not show up as being hit on the
map or in the Dossier Damage window. Despite this however, it seems that
MiG Alley does remember that you've knocked them out and you will not
see the same level of Flak/AAA if you decide to visit the same target
again in the near future.
It is very easy to make small mistakes that ruin things so don't be surprised
if it takes a few times to get the hang of it. Hopefully before to long
you'll be seeing screens such as the one below. Good luck.
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