Foothold Syria - Cold War (Discussion/AAR]

komemiute · March 3, 2026, 5:24pm

Goshdarnit I feel so bad… I flew almost an hour long session and failed at the last second.

Quick recap- I jump in the server and the situation is kinda okay… start to plan a mission and a couple of Tu-22 show up and start dropping ordnance on Incirlik.

@Sryan is with me and decides to also help refitting some places with new air defenses.

Dammit they downgrade it- so then I rather decide to take off from Tarawa and bring one crate to repair the Turkish airbase.

Shots of me along the way…

Uneventful to tell the truth…. I simply land and drop the stuff and Incirlik is back in top shape.

Then @Sryan makes me notice there a pilot to rescue between Alpha and Bravo and … it’s spicy!

It’s a mission suited for a smaller helicopter- the Huey would be perfect so I take a slick one, no weapons, half the fuel- just to make sure to get used to the older bird on a simpler mission.

There’s a downed pilot 20km circa south of Incirlik.I take off and when I at less than 2 clicks out I start seeing all sorts of tracers arcing towards me! WTH?! I thought this place had been sanitized!

I drop low and try to sneak my way around tree patches but as soon as I think I am clear from the opposite direction more gunfire is thrown my way. I start taking more and more shots and I lose the DC Generator, besides a good amount of plexiglass and skin paneling!

I barely manage to flee back north by the skin of my teeth…

Going to send Mr. and Mrs. Bell a nice christmas basket! Thanks for making this bird so sturdy!

But the real saving grace was again @Sryan that covered me literally gunning down the technicals that tried to shoot me down. If all is well, there’s only infantry left.

So, mighty angry for having been shot at, the only time I take no weapons, I load up for bears and throw myself ant the speed of rage, back to that poor pilot!

Four 7.62 miniguns oughta do it.

Luckily my gunners are sharp-eyed and angry too, and they pulverize two foot soldiers and heavily damage another light vehicle in a forest somewhere south of the LZ.

That said it was not easy, I come down screaming and hair-on-fire, stop from 120 knots to 0 in half a football field and I am certain I heard something creaking in the frame!

The soldier is a few seconds away and then we are off again.

I took a few bullets again, but nothing compared to the hail of lead of before.

So, then I land, drop the pilot and take a new Huey to do the big one…

almost 100 miles from Incirlik to the Pilot.

and I manage it. Dudes, I literally sit down the bird untouched and unseen literally next to the pilot.

there’s that perfect clearing - smack in the middle of this screen.

and then somehow I overdo it and break the rotor off…

Guys- I SCREAMED…

Off to cool my temper.

jenrick · March 3, 2026, 7:20pm

And that’s how you know you’re “simulating!”

Sryan · March 3, 2026, 7:24pm

Not much time at the moment.. Great fun to be had with @komemiute, @smokinhole was also around but hopped in a bit later. FOB Alpha is ours!

Brought some supplies out of Incirlik back to the Tarawa, she needed it.

Not as nice as @komemiute but a very proper landing by my own standards. Now, there are a few extra destroyers in the waters making the sea a bit safer for us.

Turned technicals into rustbuckets with the M61 as they dared to attack @komemiute on a SAR mission.

He is hauling it out of that hot LZ.

Bullets cracked the window just behind the pilot

We have been trying to reach out to you for your SA-19 extended warranty..

Alpha is quiet, it’s not nearly as built up as Incirlik was. I’m doing top cover for @komemiute SAR in the area (but had to leave prematurely).

Fought some fencers, then asked for a FAC(A), got this Tomcat spotting things. He even has a recon pod. Do you know who he asked to attack the FOB? Not me.. He scheduled in artillery (30 rounds per target) from the Paladins I was trying to drive to the front.

Puffs of smoke rise from the town as the artillery eliminates the baddies one by one.

Neutralized! I deal with some bandits and rush home, but first..

Say goodnight to the Hip..

Armor rolls into town.

The HIP is somewhere out there…

I’m telling the Rolands to hurry…

And captured! The base is ours..

Interesting choice… They parked the Tarawa in the dock, so you could use it as a farp almost. Could be fun to launch further strikes from her deck. The next few bases are just beyond those hills. I have to log for a few hours but I have ordered the army to crest the hills and set up on the other side. @smokinhole is still out there doing his sortie.

smokinhole · March 3, 2026, 8:16pm

Sorry not to have joined on comms. In order to use discord in VR, I have to use my phone and the AirPods were dead. SRS is no problem but stupidly I didn’t have that loaded. I am happy to report that I figured out how to launch a sparrow from the Phantom. And managed to splash a Tup. But it took 3 sparrows to do the job. In total they were probably worth more than the bomber. I’d phorgotten what a joy the Phantom is. I’ll be around. I need to learn that new collective logic in the Chinook.

BeachAV8R · March 3, 2026, 8:19pm

Nice to see you on the server! The fun part about this campaign is there is something for every type of flying..

komemiute · March 3, 2026, 8:49pm

YAY! Welcome!

fearlessfrog · March 3, 2026, 9:16pm

I have questions

Welcome to the war @smokinhole, remember - we have to keep the CSAR people busy..

smokinhole · March 3, 2026, 9:52pm

If you also have answers, I’m all airpods.

Discord has no VR overlay. So in order to use Discord I have to tap the headset into passthrough. Once in passthrough, the headset looses audio. So I prefer SRS even for idle chitchat.

fearlessfrog · March 3, 2026, 9:59pm

Oh, I see, thanks. I ended up just joining the voice channel in Discord, putting on the headset and then not being able to see the app. I could pin it as a desktop app in VR to see it but no-one types in there as people not using voice use the DCS tab chat thing, which I sometimes forget to open. I just recognize the voices anyway now. I think some do discord push to talk via hotas while others just do the open mic activation thing. SRS is nicer but so far we’ve not had the numbers for it (yet).

BeachAV8R · March 3, 2026, 11:14pm

I have to.. so that I appear to be a pleasant and nice guy when I get shot down… but after I lift my finger from the PTT I yell expletives that would make a pirate blush.

BeachAV8R · March 3, 2026, 11:14pm

Off to soccer or I’d be hopping on. And an early 7 AM flight tomorrow… so I won’t be up late tonight.

Sryan · March 3, 2026, 11:24pm

Guns in position.

Clearing defensive positions.

With various SHORAD keeping the sky clean

Ground forces were moving in on Hatay, A group organized around half a dozen Leopard 2, half a dozen M60 Patton MBT and supported by numerous Bradleys (man if only we had good mounted infantry, I can only hope for it after we saw the teasers), a single ATGM Tank destroyer and a number of Avengers and Rolands.

With medium altitude being free real estate for Red Air, I put down a Hawk across the ridges from FOB Alpha. It doesn’t need long before finding something to engage.

SA-2 Guideline coming for me in the distance, our HAWK shoots at something overhead. The airspace is trully contested over our armor.

I provide CAS as tanks indicate they are in contact with the enemy.

Friendlies move in (just on the left of my HUD) as I find ways to support them.

There should not be much left, I bring a Harrier in STOL config, with a pair of sidewinders if I need to keep off any hips.

Very hairy setup here, with all the dock cranes.

and somehow the Tarawa is already on fire.

They find me first, green tracers coming up.

Another technical down..

Last target

well as you can guess from my speed, I’m going in the drink.. short swim to the shore but the points are gone.

Rushing in the supplies, SAMs are still flying.

They have sent in a Candid to resupply Hayta… that would have been a ton of supply potentially I imagine.. repair the whole base or something. The roland puts a stop to this, fortunately.

supplied and captured!

The SAM is absolutely spent with only a few rounds left, but another SA-11 has taken over for us. My resupply convoy has almost made it there and should rearm the site in about 10 minutes.

Keeping those hinds at bay.

Resupplied! And already spending that ammo again.

Trying to fly some supplies in before bed time

jenrick · March 4, 2026, 4:40am

An SA-2 site with no AAA is a candy from a baby. Honestly wished I’d taken up one of the light helos to get some guns and rocket time in.

Cargo run for the zone capture and then a little CSAR.

Putting the C in CSAR.

fearlessfrog · March 4, 2026, 5:46am

Ever get to the situation you make a mistake while a bit tired so you’re response is just to double down and make bigger and more impressive mistakes?

I took an Apache out and we did pretty good at Site Charlie. George did his stuff and while no Bryan, he got the job done. 8 kills at least including the SAM site. Annoyingly there was just a truck and artillery piece left when I had a wee accident with some trees, so I took a quick Hornet out to finish it off and managed to get most of it but then ran out of weapons (including guns!) with a single smoking artillery piece left at 50% health..

I then (and this was stupid) decided to take a Huey with the heavy support crate to claim the now potentially empty site and just shoot the last thing with my amazing Huey skills! Did I say I was a bit tired?

Anyway, long boring flight there, put the machine guns on the target. 49% health, 48% health, 48% health, 47% health.. we carried on that forever. Thing had armor and would not die. In the end and the dogs wanted to go out for a run, I just decided to crash the Huey into the damn thing. Site Charile is now ours, as hopefully @TeTeT will go claim it.

Also, and the cherry on the cake for tonight, while flying the empty Hornet back, an AI A-4 spawned ON THE RUNWAY at Halay(?) and I just managed to avoid it on finals. Like it appeared in front of me. I clipped my wing on it and it gives me a -500 for a teamkill. Cool beans. That’s to go with the -500 pt team kill the other night when ejecting from the ‘landed’ Apache with @Sryan the other day too. I’ve shot down 23+ aircraft, 11+ SAM and now have to declare career points bankruptcy. I declare it.

Anyway, onwards..

TeTeT · March 4, 2026, 5:53am

Somehow the Charlie site was captured without my help, maybe some AI troopers got there? I flew in a zone supply crate in the Huey and it’s now at 2/2. Though more logistics are need, Incirlik is at 2/3 and Hatay as well.

This was one of those mornings - I started my flights with a Hercules from Akrotiri to Incirlik and hauling zone and all of everything (50) supplies. At least I tried to. First attempt, I got this master caution warning and I could not figure out what’s going on. While I was fumbling around with this and that, the engines caught fire… In hindsight, I had my throttle at idle, which translates to full reverse on the Hercules. With the parking brake solid in place this overheated my engines which caught fire - that’s at least my explanation.

Second attempt went much smoother, I was airborne and on the way to Incirlik. But DCS decided to crash hard on me, half a flight wasted.

Third time, it worked though. The supplies eventually arrived at Incirlik and fearlessfrog did his Huey thing. I jumped into a Huey at Hatay with zone supplies and upped the base.

Current situation:

komemiute · March 4, 2026, 6:20am

Gosh, look at all those pilots to rescue!

Oh uh… I mean… That’s a serious mission!

I just arrived at work and I already want to leave and strap in my Huey/CH-47 to do some pilot collecting stuff.

Just in case, I would love to do the hard CSARs on the frontlines - which gives me an idea and get myself a custom livery with the comic version of Julius Caesar (you know- pronounced CSAR in that way) small, somewhere on the sides.

Something like this.

TeTeT · March 4, 2026, 8:51am

If you’re up for livery requests, I’d like to get a Huey one for the German Heer as SAR and with a Dr. Snoopy emblem somewhere

komemiute · March 4, 2026, 8:51am

Sure let me take notes in the right Thread

@TeTeT is it okay the Snoopy with the WWI helmet from the comics? I have half an idea for a funny placement.

TeTeT · March 4, 2026, 9:52am

Yes, that’s fine. Thanks in advance!

Sryan · March 4, 2026, 3:01pm

The DCS hornet came out in 2018.. 8 years ago. I have probably not flown this jet since that year. I was recently reminded that @komemiute made me this beautiful skin and also realised what a perfect fit for the server it is. Very potent, but with no gizmo’s. All I know is what I am told, and what the radar and RWR can see. On this sortie I said to myself NO F10! A promise I kept except to take a screenie here and there.

Advantages compared to the old days? EWRS is very much informative, more so than what Magic and Overlord were blaring at me. And the route tool is so useful in multiplayer as you cannot adjust any navigation after start-up. So I could make a route that makes sense for me and that I could help to orient with, and to stay out of the badlands.