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Manual
At the launch you are presented with "new game" screen which features a couple of options. Those can't be changed after campaign is started.
- Player country - self explanatory. Russia is under-tested tho.
- Terrain - self explanatory
- SAMs - if unchecked no SAMs will be present on the campaign, resorting to anti-aircraft artillery only
- Mid game - start game with some of the bases already captured. Used to skip initial phase with low priority control points and derelict jets
- Multiplier - scale of the campaign. At default 1 strikegroups will vary from 4 to 8 units (CAP and CAS are separate), at 1.5 - 6 to 12, at 2 - 8 to 16, etc. This is not difficulty as your money income will be multiplied too. If you run a private group consisting of more than 5-6 pilots you might want to raise this.
"Settings" menu is accessible from "Campaign overview" menu and provides following options:
- Player coalition skill - skill level of the friendly units
- Enemy coalition skill - skill level of the enemy units
- Takeoff for player group only - when starting a mission, only player group will be placed on parking spots, while other aircraft waiting for you to takeoff already in the air
- Disable night missions - self explanatory
At this screen you are presented with campaign map and list of operations at the current turn.
Map consists of half-circle base icons (base is considered "more important" if the circle is bigger; the drawn segment will grow smaller as you lower the "strength" of the base), their names, and amount of units available to them (AIRCRAFT/ARMOR/AA). "importance" of the base decide how much funding they will get (so there will be more and better units), and "strength" is base ability to assemble strike teams. "weakened" base will attack less and scramble less aircraft to counter your attacks. There are also a number of aircraft carriers from which you could start special "global" operations.
You can click on captured bases to bring up "Base menu".
List of operations displays list of operations that you can take part in. The operations are as follows:
- Attack - attack (and possibly capture) the base. The goal of an attacker is to lower defender presence by destroying their armor and aircraft. Base will be considered captured if attackers on the ground overrun the defenders
- Intercept - intercept supply transport aircraft. Escort will also be present if there are available planes on the base. Operation will be considered successful if most of the targets are destroyed, lowering targets strength as a result
- Naval intercept - destroy supply transport ships. Lowers target strength
- Anti AA strike - destroy anti-aircraft units at the target base. Lowers target strength
- Destroy insurgents - destroy vehicles of insurgents in close proximity of the friendly base. Good fit for Ka-50. Will lower base strength if ignored
- Frontline CAS - help ground war by destroying a ground unit. Defender may or may not scramble interceptors to destroy the attacking CAS units. Operation will be considered successful if most of the targets are destroyed, lowering targets strength as a result
- Frontline troops transport - helicopter operation to transport infantry troops from the base to the front line. Lowers target strength
Most of the operations could be started by both player and enemy. Special "global" operations are launched from aircraft carriers and will lower the strength of every base with which player is currently in conflict with.
You can click on > button to the right of the operation to start it, this will lead to the "Operation start" menu.
Pass turn skips the turn providing new operation opportunities (you don't get budgeted this way). Enemy operations will be ignored and this will apply their negative events (ignoring enemy base attack operation will result in loosing the base).
Budget displays current amount of money and money that will be awarded on next turn (when you participate in the operation, no matter the result. Although positive outcome will grant bonuses).
Game is saved automatically at the end of each turn, but only when on main screen (i.e. when you return to the campaign overview screen after operation by clicking "Okay").
In this menu all of the units that could be purchased are listed, with an options to buy new ones or sell existing. They are separated into following categories:
- Pinpoint Strike - armor that could be used for ground war in capture operations. You pretty much need those to match the enemy numbers and to actually capture something
- Transportation - helis used to transport troops. If you don't plan on partaking in transport operations you could ignore this
- CAS - self explanatory. Used in most operations where ground war is present. Ka-50 is also in the category, but is not advised to use in Capture operations due to it taking forever to arrive at the position
- CAP - self explanatory
- AirDefense - will be placed at the base you purchase them at.
You can buy units by clicking on Buy button, and this will take one turn to deliver (you can use Pass turn to speed this up), and sell by Sell button (instantaneous).
At this menu strike groups are assembled by the player. Top displays the name of the operation and approximation of the enemy forces. AWACS checkbox could be enabled if you want AWACS to be available during the operation (this costs money).
At the bottom list of available units with two fields - Amount and Clients. Amount is amount of units to partake in the operation, and Clients is a number of Client slots for that unit (if you are playing solo there should be a "1" for single "Player" slot).
As soon as you click Start button mission will be generated and you're free to play it.
Mission file will be generated to the Missions directory in the users DCS folder (this could be either Saved Games\DCS or Saved Games\DCS.openbeta. Two missions will be generated:
- liberation_nextmission.miz - full mission, which includes startup, departure, flying to the operation position, and the operation itself
- liberation_nextmission_quick.miz - same mission, but without initial stages (you will spawn just before the action begins)
Next open DCS, go to Missions, My Missions, load liberation_nextmission.miz and start it as normal.
First thing to know is that your side bullseye on the map will always mark objective location, so if you get tangled up with what waypoint is what you can refer to it for the guidance.
During full mission you will spawn on the airfield parking slot. If it happens that there's not enough slots for all aircraft scrambled, some of it will be spawned already in the air. You need to takeoff and proceed to waypoint 1.
AI aircraft will circle between waypoint 1 and 2 until all of the scrambled aircraft leave the airport zone (i.e. take off). Then, message "Strikeforce is in the air, proceed with the objective" will be displayed at the top right corner of the screen, at which AI aircraft will proceed to waypoint 3.
Waypoint 3 usually marks conflict location, be it enemy base or location of enemy units to intercept. Be advised that in Capture operations CAP aircraft should escort CAS at waypoint 3, so just follow the CAS group until you detect enemy contacts.
Somewhere around 80 miles to the objective, another trigger will be engaged, which will activate enemy units. You will probably notice this by a minor freeze.
After completing the objective you may proceed with RTB at waypoint 4, with waypoint 5 as landing waypoint.
During this types of operations you already start in the air.
- In case of enemy interception you are tasked with escorting cargo plane, so just stick to it until threats appear. You can freely ignore existing waypoints in this type since they are mostly for the AI. Last two will be RTB and landing.
- In other cases, waypoint 1 will direct you towards the objective, and next two will be RTB and landing.
If you need another try at the operation, or want to skip takeoff straight ahead, it's faster to load liberation_nextmission_quick.miz instead. This will skip takeoff and flying to the objective, putting you already in the air and a lot closer to the objective.
To submit the mission results to the application, you have to save mission debriefing (you absolutely have to, if you forget this you'll have to play the mission again!) by clicking Save debriefing, and save the file to the DCS[.openbeta]\liberation_debriefings folder (i.e. in C:\Users<user>\Saved Games\DCS[.openbeta]\liberation_debriefings\debriefing.log). It will detect the new or modified file (you can use one file and overwrite it each time) being added to the directory, and use it to calculate operation results and units lost. Budget money will be provided, and new events will be generated, effectively starting new turn. Now you can minimize the DCS and select new operation from the campaign application.
To do this you'll have to close the application, delete DCS[.openbeta]\liberation_save and DCS[.openbeta]\liberation_save_tmp, and start it anew. New game dialog should open up.