Your Favorite DCS Missions, Campaigns (Pay or Free) and Why

Why spend money and do lots of leg-work myself when I can croudsource my online friends to do it for me? Here is what I seek: Your favorite missions or campains listing: A/C type(s), Map (if not Georgia), Free or pay, and a few words about what made it great (no plagiarizing Beach’s AARs). Then rate it 1 - 10 on Story, Mission Variety, Gameplay, and Difficulty (subjective but let’s say that if you had to repeat nothing = 1, every stage = 10). If it has been a few years and you are fuzzy on the details just do your best. If the thread goes more than a page I will update this post as a list. Multiplayer/Coop missions are welcome as well. “Arbitrary Score” is the average of the four rates minus difficulty.

Georgia Oil War/Type(s): Ka50/Arbitrary Score: 7/Free
Baltic Dragon’s M2000C/Type(s): M2000C/Arbitrary Score: 8-9/Free
UN Pilot/Type(s): UH-1/Arbitrary Score: 8.5/Incl
Operation Bactria/Type(s): ?/Arbitrary Score: 8/?
Guardians of the Coucasus/Type(s): F-15C/Arbitrary Score: "Great!/Free
FOB Vetka/Type(s): A-10C/Arbitrary Score: 7.5/Free
Anything By Mbot

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Maybe I should start: Georgia Oil War

Ka50, FREE. GOW came out around the same time Black Shark was released. At that time there was some hope that ED would incorporate some sort of a DC engine into Black Shark. This campaign was ED’s best argument why a good use of triggers and staging can provide just as compelling an experience.

Story: 5
Variety: 7
Gameplay: 9
Difficulty: 7

Hmm…great idea for a thread. I’m gonna have to dig in my memory banks though. Lemme think on it and get back to you. I’ve recently flown The Border (Mi-8) and the Museum Relic (MiG-15) and am just wrapping up the Basic Training Qualifications campaign. They are all different in different ways…but I’ll write more a bit later.

My vote is the M2000C campaign by Baltic Dragon.

Aircraft: M2000C
Price: comes with the M2000 module

The story line, voice overs, and briefings are top notch and really provide some great immersion that is sometimes missing in DCS campaigns. I found myself enjoying the characters. The progression from training to fighting is well done, as is the variety of missions.

Story: 9
Mission Variety: 8
Gameplay: 8
Difficulty: 7

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I agree with @Boltface . I am now halfway through the M-2000C campaign and it is amazing. OK, I don’t agree completely: I’d give it a 9 for gameplay.

Another one that I have good memories of is the UH-1H campaign. I flew this one back in 1.2.8 or something. During the last missions, the old engine had some trouble handling all of the units and tracers. I should replay some of those missions in 1.5.

Aircraft: UH-1H
Price: included with the module

Story: 8
Mission Variety: 8
Gameplay: 9
Difficulty: 7

And I should fly the Mi-8 campaign. I’ve only flown the opening missions but so far it looks like it’s just as awesome as the UH-1 campaign. Maybe a bit harder.

And then there’s one mission that I absolutely loved back in Flaming Cliffs 2, Warthog Day. That was one of those true CAS missions that are nowadays flown by the A-10C (both irl and in our DCS World). You contacted ABCCC for tasking, was then directed towards a JTAC and got a 9-line.
I think there were about 6 possible JTACs and some randomization so you could fly it a few times. Loved that one. From what I’ve heard, Operation Bactria is the DCS:A-10C equivalent for CAS operations. But I’ve never flown it as I don’t own the A-10C (or the time to learn it).

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Guess who made that one :slight_smile: Awesome that people still remember the old missions, thanks a lot!

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Thanks for making such awesome missions all these years! Did you also make the F-15 naval patrol mission with the tensions over the Black Sea?

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Yes, I think it was called Naval Action or something. There was also a F-15 mission where you had to force down an airliner and a GCI mission for the MiG-29. I think I had some neat missions for FC2, considering the very limited ME triggers available at this time (compared to today).

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Those are the ones I still remember, I was amazed by the triggers and how AI in the mission seemed to know what I was doing. Awesome work, those missions are probably the reason I’m here today!

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Another life saved by DCS!

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I am going to vote for @MBot’s fantastic work! call me a sucker but I love the feeling of those missions.

Also the BuddySpike server’s operation Blue Flag is fantastic and has something for everyone! You feel like you are actually of use when you are in a 3 ship mirage patrol over friendly borders!

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For me it’s Operation Bactria

Free MP COOP mission that came out a few years ago and still stands strong in my mind for one of the best DCS missions to date.

Requires some advanced knowledge of imputing grid into the CDU as you’ll essentially check into a CP and then get a grid coordinate for your tasking.

Varied target set requiring a mix of weapons; you’ll be asked to hit everything from moving trucks and armor to infantry, mortar teams, or buildings.

There’s different flights operating out of different airfields, tankers, and CPs. I found the best way to play it was with a couple buds working together in the same flight.

Official description:

[quote]- Inspired by early 2000’s and contemporary Afghanistan conflict

  • A mission striving for pure realism with regards to tasking and loadout.
  • Mountain Combat
  • Completely randomized tasking.
  • Modular design allowing for more tasking in future versions.
  • 283 triggers, 171 custom voice recordings, excellent FPS.
  • Compatible with DCS: World v1.2.3
  • Multiplayer, COOP 14 players[/quote]

Story: 7
Variety: 9
Gameplay: 8
Difficulty: 7

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I have to advocate MBot’s fantastic Guardians of the Caucasus.

We flew a whole campaign in MP and there were so many intense moments. For the grand final the outcome was on knife’s edge. Attrition on Red side so high that we were at the verge of defeat. Then Blue deployed an F-15 squadron. We fought for our lives and I can still remember the excitement and screams of joy when I managed to down an Eagle, danced with another, was rescued by MBot, returned home only to see our airbase bombed and finally landed on fumes at our alternate field.

Really a great mission.

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MP Mission: “FOB Vetka” v2.0
A/C type(s): 4x A-10Cs
Map: Georgia
Free or pay: Free
Few words about what made it great (no plagiarizing Beach’s AARs):
It was one of the first missions, which i play in COOP with three other pilots. It has voice radio messages which give you a feeling from ‘…right in the middle…’ and the need to defend the convoy from the air.

Story: 7
Mission Variety: 6
Gameplay:9
Difficulty: 6
Missionfile: MP Mission: "FOB Vetka" v2.0

Many thanks for the kind words! Always nice to hear you enjoyed the M-2000C campaign!

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Oi! Horsie! You’re not dead yet!

image

Sorry for the necro, but this does seem like the right thread. I’ve been lured back into DCS from flying around in the X-plane Cessna because of the pretty 2.5x graphics…

Multiplayer doesn’t work too well for me at the moment because of baby (need to be able to pause) so I’m turning to the campaigns. I’ve never really flown them before.

The only campaign I have tried is the default Su-25T one, in which I don’t think I’ve ever gotten much further than the second mission - you get thrown into a completely unsanitised mess of a valley with an enemy armour attack supported by helicopters and even a fighter overhead.

You’re supposed to get in there alone with dumb bombs and clean up the valley but if you descend to engagement altitude, you’re pretty much dead. On top of that, the overcast cloud base is barely above IR SAM range. Your wingman generally is unable to engage anything without getting shot down.

So…has anyone flown a fun campaign recently that is relatively easy (not insanely hard)?

My war-machine-fu isn’t quite up to spec these days but it would be nice to get a sense of achievement from progressing through missions. I have most modules and could get excited about just about any of them.

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I thought the Mi-8 The Border campaign was quite fun and not all that difficult. Of course, flying the Mi-8 does sometimes require a light touch on descents… Also, buyer beware that I’m not totally sure how well it is working after “The Merge”, so I’d check the ED forums to see how it is looking.

Someday soon I’d like to start Piercing Fury, but I swore I’d get through all the A-10C training campaigns first.

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If you have the Harrier and NTTR, then the free Vulcan Forge campaign is pretty good.

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Awesome, thanks guys! I’ll check out those two. I’ve been meaning to learn both birds.

I’ve only been a regular DCS player for the last few months (originally a Falcon 4 nut back in the day) but I’m with Boltface - Baltic Dragon’s M2000 campaign is excellent. Immersive and well scripted with plenty of twists and turns on the way to keep you on your toes. It takes you through all the systems you need to learn to master the Mirage in a way that really sticks with you.

I haven’t finished it yet, oddly stuck on mission 7 (Hotel 5), I finish all the tasks, ordered to RTB, land, park up in the right spot but no mission end prompt - everytime I end the misson I don’t progress to the next. Odd. If anyone has any pointers I’d really appreciate it so I can finish this excellent campaign! :slight_smile:

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