Wait wait wait- you also already bought the Kiowa? I feel guilty now… 
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I’m confused. Is the kiowa out? Not near my pc.
*edit. Never mind. I’m being thick. I thought schurem was talking about this, not the phantom
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The Kiowa is out now.
And as a bummer you can’t use miles for it.
I have just bought The Phantom, Kola, Sinay, The CH-47 and Afghanistan.
Now I wish that I had waited with Afghanistan, because I now have 10700 Miles I have no use for.
There are some things that I could use them for, but they have no interest for me.
I’m a little pissed that they have not made it clear that the Kiowa would not be a Miles Bird.
Otherwise I would have waited with the CH-47 or Afghanistan and used the Miles for that.
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Well I got bad news for you then…
Thought I am committed all afternoon to running errands with the wife, so it’ll be at least this evening before I can even DL it.
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It’s expensive, yes indeed. I’ll hold my verdict until I’ve watched all of the reviews and had some stick time. In defense of Polychop, they’ve hung in there under the worst of circumstances, continued to improve the Gazelle, and seemingly made every effort to get this one right. For those reasons they get my support.
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It IS out?
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YES! It is. Go for it.
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I just bought it.
It is no longer such a bummer with the Miles. I just discovered that the 10700 Miles would be a 10,77 dollar reduction in price.
Now to download!
Happy Simming
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That might be the biggest lack of fanfare I’ve ever known for a dcs release 
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Sandwiched in between the Phantom and the Chinook was a risky choice. I think it will pay off though. From @chipwich a nice point that I hadn’t thought of: the Gazelle was a beautiful joke when it came out. But now it is a plausible flying machine and quite delight to toss around in a not-too-technical battlefield. That level of support deserves some support in turn. But I’m an a@@. I will wait until the AARs start coming in before putting that sort of cash on the table so soon after the other big purchases.
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TLDR Review: It’s fun. If you want to be up shooting things in 5 minutes, bind the weapons 2nd stage trigger, and the weapons select switch. Load gun and rockets, go kill things. Want to blow stuff up with Hellfires and APKW’s, 2 more minutes to setup your controls. Very controllable, just be aware you are pretty weight limited and don’t have a ton of extra grunt to get out of trouble. Stay ahead of it and it flies really nice.
Threw together a quick range mission, lurking at the tree line popping an SA-2 site at ~7km with things laser guided is a hoot.
Longer review to follow this evening.
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Quick question, anyone else unable to change radio channels in the Kiowa?
Figure it out, clicking the switches in cockpit doesn’t work. You have to assign a controller or keybind ATM.
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Haven’t had a chance to fly it yet, but had a quick VR looksee to update my “VR pilots” doc on the official forum.
God it looks good! And there’s just something cool standing outside the chopper looking in…
I am weak and got it.
It’s pretty good, so far. Dunno if I can say Polychop has redeemed itself from the ordeal of the Gazelle, but that’s mostly because I want to put more time into it.
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Since there’s no EA on this one I’ll wait for the free trial to be available. Which will probably take as long as it does for the EA modules.
The thing with me and choppers is that I’ll get them, enjoy them for a while, then rarely play them because of the time investment required to putt around at ~100kts and stalk targets vs. crusing at 550KTAS to turn an objective into a glass crater then running home.
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Try flying it with the SCAS off, feels great, very light helicoptery without being overly twitchy. SCAS on is just great.
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I’m kind of a tight-wad (it’s an age thing) BUT…dang it, those people need support (Polychop), right? Right? Let me consult…
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As I see it, yes
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Quick review:
Please note I have only flown it around stuff I have put together in the ME. I haven’t had time to try out the training missions (and honestly with Casmo’s videos, not much need). Probably got about 1.5 hours in it so far.
Overall, I like it. If you’ve been wanting a light scout/gunship this sucker rocks. With the SCAS on it flies about like I’d hope a scout helo developed and updated by the biggest defense establishment on the planet flies. It’s smooth, controllable, and does what you want it to. Pay attention to your sink rate and torque and you’ll be fine.
Some people are complaining about the visuals. Are there areas that could be improved, sure. Is it ED or HB level, no, but this is also a very small team. System wise I think it’s quite good, and pretty much everything that can work in DCS does.
Tried out all the weapons except the stinger, they all work as advertised. The .50 seems a bit more deadly than other .50’s but I haven’t tested that out yet.
I’m quite enjoying it, and feel it’s worth the $70 they’re asking. If you’re all about the eye candy, you should probably hold off. If you want a million systems and screens to mess with like the Apache, also probably not the bird for you. If you want a very good scout helo that can kill things to, this is an excellent choice.
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