Operation Foothold 11.08.23

[Bones]

I have an update all!

Thanks to Recluse, I was able to take some time to do some lua edits and tweak some things in my DCS installation to allow Operation Foothold Caucasus to work with my PC as host. I did a quick test afterwards and was able to get in the pit, launch a few HARMs resulting in killing 2 SAMs, launch a few AMRAAMs and Sidewinders to kill a few MiG-21s, then land and shut down. While in the air, 2 missions were generated and assigned. When I first took off, there were no air threats but as I went on, those MiGs were launched against me. They got me twice, but the third time when I finally went full air to air, they were on their way back to base. I started giving chase, wary of the SAM threat, but I didn't have to get too close to SAMs because the MiGs noticed me and turned around and attacked me again! This time my TWS AMRAAM and my mad dog AMRAAM found 2 of the MiGs and my off boresight Sidewinder found the 3rd. That ought to teach them to turn back on me!

When I landed, the points were credited and redeemed properly. I shut down DCS and checked the log and my kills were recorded properly. So everything seems to have worked.

So tonight I will try to get on at 1900 Central. I will host, and unless we decide otherwise, we should start the mission with the enemy having 3 less MiGs and 2 less SAMs. Or, I can just reset everything to start all over from T=0. OR...If I have time, and I'll let you know then, we can do Foothold Syria instead.

So for those who missed it, Foothold is a a dynamic sandbox persistent campaign (as much as DCS can get anyway). The campaign focuses on gaining red territory until you take over all the enemy land. Missions are assigned along the way, and every time you get a kill you are given a credit of a certain amount of points (for example, a vehicle is 10 points, a helo is 50 points, a fixed wing aircraft is 40 points, etc). These points when cashed on can be used to acquire things like AWACS, Tomahawk strikes, fighter sweeps, etc. When you accumulate these points you do not actually get to cash them in until you land at a friendly base and are there for 10 seconds. So if you land but wipe out on the runway and die, well, no points for you! If you happen to get shot down or have to eject, then half of your points on credit are redeemed, so there isn't a penalty for ejecting. The whole point of the system is to discourage lone wolf airquaking and to actually be strategic, tactical, and smart about your part in the mission. If you got some points with bombing and you notice a bunch of enemy fighters 40 miles away and you decide to turn and chase them down to get some kill notches under your belt but then run out of gas when they engage you and you decide to run instead and get killed by an Archer, well, there go all those points you earned bombing. It is meant to teach that you stick with your mission--you hit your targets and go home unless you are asked to help out with a task or are attacked and have no choice but to defend yourself. Your running off to get points may end up with you not getting any points for anyone, but at least if you did hit your assigned targets, your death still results in gaining more enemy ground.

Or does it...? If you hit the targets but not all of them and are unable to come back to finish the job before a set amount of time, the enemy may repair or rebuild those targets. Or they may send helos there to resupply. So you have to consider that too. When you hit a base enough that it becomes neutral or blue, you have to send a helo or a C-130 over there to "claim" it. If you don't, the enemy may come and retake the base. If you do get there with the C-130 /Helo and claim it, they may try to take it back too, so you better hope your buddies can help defend or that the blue AI can fight them back with SAMs or ground vehicles.

Which BTW, you helo drivers (Creeper, Trichome, etc) can actually fly the helos and even the C-130 if you get the mods for them (like the A-4). If I modded this mission properly, anyone should be able to join the mission regardless of if they have those mods or not. If you do not, instead of a C-130 for instance, you will see a digital camouflage Su-27 that flies kinda funny--a placeholder basically. But in any case, the C-130 and the helos are flyable for those who have the mods or modules and want to do the honor of taking the base by landing there or making a supply drop there (which also claims it).

So that's about it in a nutshell. Recluse, Wingy, myself, and some others took about 6 months to start from Akrotiri in Cyprus and systematically take over all of Cyprus, invade up into Turkey, swing east into Syria, then south into Lebanon before taking over the whole map. But it was a great time doing it!

I hope whether we fly Caucasus or Syria that you all have a great time too.

v6,
boNes

PS. Again, if you want an idea as to gameplay, look in the RLG DCS Sorties forum and look for any video I posted there that says "Foothold" on it.

[Recluse]

One correction: Air to Air kills on REDFOR don't necessarily degrade the enemy's spawns any more than AIR TO AIR KILLS on BLUEFOR affect the availability of BLUE Spawns. It does temporarily clear the airspace, of course (and get you Valuable POINTS). What does degrade REDFOR aircraft is capturing their AirBases. There is still a certain amount of Scripted SPAWNING of both RED and BLUE, outside of Airbases, but capturing airbases definitely degrades the amount of enemy air. It is not clear that BOMBING A RUNWAY accomplishes this, and since you eventually want to CAPTURE a runway intact for BLUE, it may not be a good strategy, but I don't really know the effect of bombing runways or the effective Repair time if it does degrade takeoffs. I have seen BLUE bases get bombed and when requesting Landing, getting a "DIVERT" message, but it didn't really impede the ability to LAND, REARM/REFUEL or grab another slot, so I don't really know.

Check the F10 Menu ZONE STATUS readout as there are some enemy sites that, once captured, will generate income for BLUE, *BUT NOT IF YOU DESTROY THE FIXED STRUCTURES THERE* On Caucasus, the Factory and Oil Fields zones are big money makers when captured.

Also, there are dotted lines connecting bases on the F10 Map. These are Supply LInes which show where the Resupply Helos come from and can go to. There may be many supply lines, so cutting them off is also a good strategy. There are BLUFOR AI Helos that will carry out CAPTURE missions along the Supply iines, so it isn't 100% necessary to fly the Helos or C130's, especially on Caucasus where distances are shorter and there were a lot more AI Helos. We ABSOLUTELY had to do our own supply on the Syria map, mostly via C130 airdrops due to the distances. Note there are also, UH-1H Clients there, for those who own the Huey which can also be used for Cargo runs, so not necessary to have the UH-60L mod. Additional BLUEFOR cargo capable helos (MI-8, Mi-24) can also be edited in

[Grifter]

I'll be on at 8 EDT. :-)