The Spring Offensive is the heart of MiG Alley. A dynamic campaign that allows for strategic planning and tactical execution. Please post your strategies, tips, tactics and war stories here.

Tried splitting the bombers on a recent strike on Hwangiu(?) and Sariwon.2 B-26's to each field with 1000's. Only had 5 Sabre flights available so assigned 1 escort to each and took the other 3 with me on CAP. Checking the map I could see 5 red flight icons near the target. I thought wow, 5 sqaudrons, 30 planes each-that's 150 MiGs! Well, no turning back now. We broke off to intercept one of the MiG flights. Couldn't help but worry about the flyboys behind us but this situation called for agressive tactics. If we waited for them to attack, it would have been a turkey-shoot. Closest MiGs were high-40,000 ft. When we were close enough, I saw there were only FOUR! MiGs in the flight! We had been baited! Quickly swung to rejoin the bombers. Somehow, in the ensuing fight, it was 18-1 kills for the good guys. It seemed like some of the enemy formations were under strict orders not to drop below 40,000 ft. Very cool. Sabre is no match at that altitude. Afterwards, player log/last mission indicated that of those 5 MiG formations, 4 were from China. They had 4,15,16,and 13 planes. Dynamic!BTW, read your reports of the U.S. patch at Frugals. Nice work. Can't wait!

Very cool story. Yes, I've seen all sorts of different stuff. You never quite know what you are going to run up against. I'll be very very interested to hear how things go with attacking the Marshalling Yards first. I have noticed they arn't so quick to fix Marshalling yards as they are bridges so you may be on to something. One thing great about a medium bomber attack on bridges is that they take longer to come back up with several spans gone. Just got to check the bridge because several are very small and not worth wasting a medium bomber strike on. Can't tell you how happy I am to hear someone else get into this awesome campaign. It will soon be much much better ... and tougher.

That Marshalling yard thing sounded good. Gonna have to check that one out myself. Nice run at the harbor too, I had no idea that they had that level of supplies going on over there.

Can't remember exactly when I got Seoul each time. Sometime between Jan 15-20th I think. The Central area has always been the most stubburn. After I got momentum moving north things went fairly quickly despite the low number of UN aircraft available. Even the North Korean capital fell pretty quickly. Enjoy the relatively easy time of it while you can cause it is not going to last long.

DBond

Congrats you are doing very well. You are about to enter what I call the train wreck part of the campaign. You'll soon understand why. You are a little less than 2 weeks from winning the war at your pace. Great work! Like I said before enjoy it now.

Moving to the forward bases is a very important factor. This is a good reason to be carefull with your F84s. Because when you can move them forward and attack with a full load of rockets without need of fuel tanks the results are very satisfying. Also don't forget to keep an eye on those little villages. If you keep nailing the supply depots you'll notice that the activity is very low at the supply depots, but in the villages it may be go from very low to low activity. This is telling you they are storing some of their supplies in the villages.

Before hitting the village check the photo and see if it is just huts or actually warehouses. If it has warehouses you have to treat it like a regular supply depot. If it is a hut village you get to find out why they put in Naplam as one of the default selections of mission types. BTW, it is also a good time to have a flight of F84s loaded with rockets and naplam from the forward bases.

On rare occation these villages are actually the most productive targets to hit, but you have to constantly keep checking their activity status. When it gets upgraded to Very low to low there are supply games a foot.

DBond

email if you get the chance kccook23@aol.com

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Upon RTB, credited with 21 vehicles destroyed and 215 tons! Train wreck? You bet.
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No, you got it all wrong ... you knew your wingman was right behind ya so you set up that MiG to think he was getting the best of ya.

You are very close to winning indeed. What is the date?

Better enjoy that "dive down and get em to crash" now while you still can.

The Red offensive in the central turned out to be too late as the assault on PYang was overwhelming. With fall of PYang, Reds had no choice but to surrender. Had alot of fun finding my way through this Spring Offensive. Most enjoyable campaign I've played. Learned that it is imperative to do all you can to ensure A/C survivability. Replacements are slow in coming, only 4 new craft a couple times a week. Supply is, of course, the name of the game. And you must achieve air superiority near front lines ASAP. Try to sort targets first by activity, then by capacity. There are several key targets that seem to have a huge effect on the war. Good luck to all that attempt this awesome campaign. If anyone needs some advice, please post here and I'll be happy to help if I can. OK, boys, the 7th of Feb. Can you do better? Yeah... I know you will

Congrats on your victory. Two days better than I could do.

I think a lot of folks are probably waiting for the US patch before diving into the Spring Offensive. I thought it was pretty playable as is, but I think we will see much more when it hits the States shelves.

Thanks in advance, and if the answer is no, well I tried.

Finally, someone else showing interest in the campaigns! I'll do what I can to fulfill your request. The first four campaigns are simply to familiarize you with the aircraft that will be at your disposal in the Spring Offensive. The SO is where it's at, so that's what we'll concentrate on. Should work fine with the other campaigns too. First step of course is to select targets. My high value targets include airfields, marshalling yards, ports, supply depots/dumps and rail bridges. Activity should be your first filter. Capacity next. A high activity/high capacity target is priority. I also do everything I can to keep all rail bridges south of the 38th parallel down for as long as possible. When I play the campaign, the MiGs are able to deploy at ANY airfield, so alot of field strikes are called for. Maybe after the patch, we'll only have to attack the jet capable fields. Unless Yaks are introduced.(there are no Yaks currently in the SO) Changing situations will call for occasional CAS and road/rail interdiction missions. That's just the tip of the iceberg with target selection, and hopefully we can keep this discussion going and develop it further(still learning myself). OK, let's say you've selected targets and are ready to plan the mission. The current situation will dictate how strikes are planned. Early in the campaign, MiGs are present near the lines, so I send heavily escorted packages. Later, when the MiGs are driven from the front, you can alter the tactics. Let's say we've chosen Seoul Marshalling Yard as today's target. Close inspection shows two MiG squadrons based at Kimpo and Seoul airfields. Also near the target is the Seoul rail/road bridge complex. Let's hit 'em all! On day one you will have 4 flights of B-29's. Becuase of their firepower, you may elect to split them. We'll assign 2 flights with 1000 pounders to drop on Kimpo. The other two target Seoul MYard. Click on Kimpo. Select medium bomber strike. Set the number of flights to 2. Because MiGs will intercept, be sure to assign escort. Lately, I've been using F-80's for close escort to free the Sabres for BARCAP duty. Set 2 flights of 80's to escort each bomber flight. I then click on "insert wave" and assign the 4 flights of 1Squadron to a BARCAP and set the ToT to 5 minutes ahead of the package. Then I click on "air cover" and assign all four flights of 2Squadron to cover the BARCAP. When setting up the bomber strikes, I select primary and secondary targets just below the loadout option. In this case, I would make sure the runway at Kimpo and the loading yard at Seoul were selected. F-84's with 1000 pounders could the be assigned to attack the bridges. Again, I assign the actual bridge as the target, rather that leave it as the default "main target". You may want to assign Mustangs, or the other 84's to hit Pyongtaek and/or Wonju supply points as they are close to front lines.Or, assign them to hit Seoul Airfield with 1000 pounders. Jump in the lead ship in that BARCAP flight and sweep ahead to engage the MiGs. Also, be sure to shorten waypoints and routes for maximun duration in station. This is just one way to do it. There are so many possible tactics and strategies! You will find those that suit your style. Pike, perhaps you will share some tips and stories of your own as you tackle the SO. Please let me know if this is what you were looking for. I'd be happy to discuss this further.