Well, I either took a hard one right off the bat, or this one is going to be different.
Mining Facility sounds innocuous right? Map show 2 SA-8s. I figure maybe a bunker or something, probably some technicals. Decided as this is Cold War, A-10A seems appropriate.
There are SAM’s north of the target at Kobuleti, so I decide to just follow the river up and stay below the mountain tops. Come around the corner on the lightly defended mining facility, and promptly get the wings shot off my A-10 by a barrage of heavy AAA fire. I hit the pickle button on the way down just in case and actually managed to get a Fire Can and some S60’s. There are ALOT of ground units there.
Well, that didn’t go as planned, take 2. Grab a Harrier, higher and faster is the plan. Couple of Sidearms for the SA-8’s that are by now waking up, 2 mavericks for any visible AAA, and 4 CBU’s for everything else. 2 Sidearms kill a SA-19 (that explains getting my wings shot off) and an SA-8. Maverick gets a truck, and an SA-8. So far so good. Lots of AAA, tracers last forever, and when the detonate, confirm as 57mm guns. Lovely. There are almost always MANPAD’s in the area too.
Make my first CBU pass, get a few units, bobbing and weaving to dodge the AAA, punching off flares, so far so good. Get clipped with some ground fire, no warning lights, awesome. Come in for pass number two, repeat of the first, except I’m not able to punch off flares! Apparently, my countermeasure dispenser was a victim of the ground fire. What rises out of the smoke? Of course, a MANPAD. Try to avoid it, no luck. Engine still running, hoping I can limp it back, second Igla comes up and finished the job. I punch out.
There is an enemy convoy headed towards Batumi, REDFOR is off to a fast start. Grab an Apache with rockets and hellfires, solve the problem. I head back to the Mining Facility (George almost flies us into a mountain) and proceed to go winchester on ATGM’s killing AAA. George has spotted the MANPAD by now, and I maneuver to get a 30mm shot on him, BMP blows my tail right off from 3000 meters plus. Glad to see that hasn’t changed. No chance at an autorotation.
There are still a bunch of ground units, so anApache with a full load of Hellfires it is. Proceed to kill everything George can find, and while I’m doing that I realize there is a factory and HQ building on that site. So, we’ll need to bring the big bombs. On the way out, the thought occurs to me I can pick up my ejected self in the Apache. Why the thought of using the Apache do a landing on a 45 degree+ slope occurred to me is a different question. I did not take into account it was also sloping to the side as well as, and managed to catch the tail rotor. It was counted as a landing though, so I skip getting credit for the kills in exchange for not getting knocked with a death/shoot down.
As far as I and George can tell there are no ground units left at the Mining Facility. A harrier with 4 MK-83’s seems like a reasonable choice. Turns out that was not enough, did managed to kill a static hind and one S60 that was hiding directly adjacent to the factory building. I decided to up the explosives and loaded up an F-15E with 2000lb GBU’s.
3 GBU-10’s later the problem has been solved.
I grabbed a CH-47 and proceed to go rescue myself before taking a break.
I thought the same thing. Right after I put the server up I grabbed a Hornet of the Abe Lincoln with a CAP load-out. Didn’t know what I was doing but managed to kill an Mi-28 with an AIM-7. Landed at Batumi and loaded up on Mk-83s and an Mk-84. Went over to the mining site and did a scream across the valley (perpendicular) and actually managed to drop that 2,000 pounder on one of those factory buildings. Then I think the SA-8 got me.
