GENERAL TIPS-Non SequiturIf you land at your FARP and the exit screen only says "Friendly Territory," you may have actually landed outside the FARP even though you are parked right by a tent. Try taking off again and landing next to another helicopter. To interrupt a guns burst, press [G]. If you do this before the burst ends, your gun will never overheat. For example, if you set a hundred round burst, and you interrupt it by pressing [G] four times (cycles back to one hundred rounds) and pull the trigger, you will never have a burst limit. You can hide behind barns or any other buildings. However, once the building is destroyed, missiles may pass through freely. If you are on escort duty and your tanks seem to be getting pounded by artillery, well, you gots to fly behind enemy lines, but you know what you have to do to keep your guys alive. The artillery pieces don't take many shots to kill so use all your missiles on the SAMs and AAA, then pump about 20 rounds into each artillery piece. Unfortunately, the rotor will not work against grunts. You will need to be in TADS mode to acquire grunts, with the laser designator activated to achieve decent accuracy. Grunts cannot be detected in FCR mode. Watch your step if you are not in TADS. They will fire SAMs at you. Since these missiles are either passive or lack any guidance at all, you will only have a second or two to react after a launch has been detected. Grunts now grunt when they die. Unfortunately, the graphics have not been updated. OOF! MPSM FFARs need locks, but guarantee zesty results. Use your Flight MFD if your IHADSS has been knocked out. A2AThere are no Ka-50s or Mi-28s in the campaigns. The A-5C Fantans are also pretty mean stuff. Watch your step. Rice rockets (HE FFARs) work especially well against Hinds. You won't need any more than two direct hits. On the initial merge, you may want to engage White-Hot mode. This makes it easier to spot incoming missiles. On the other hand, you may become disoriented. Hellfires will do if the enemy helicopter is hovering. [CTRL-9] will tell your wingman to "Stay Here". Use this to make your wingman play bait. You can fire Stingers from behind a hill, as long as the target has been detected. SEADThere are no 2S6 Tunguskas in the Korean campaign. Radar Hellfires are especially useful against multiple threats. Unlike the original release of Longbow, you need not keep a valid LOS. Some SAMs, ex. SA-6s, are useless without guidance radars. If you find yourself getting shot down during deep strikes (you will), try re-arranging the waypoints. The mission designers plopped air defenses along the way to keep things interesting. It is also better to backtrack your steps than flying over an unexplored (i.e. risky) egress route. StrikeYour mission map will be updated during mid-flight. If you cannot find your primary targets, check the map. Updates usually occur after particularly corny radio messages or after you have crossed into a combat zone. Tanks are now weaker in certain areas. While it may be tempting to gun them down, they now shoot back. CAMPAIGN WALKTHROUGH
The coordinates are available in the navigation map after pressing <ALT-G>, where the grid will become visible. For example Charlie Seven = C7. Mission #1 The secret to this one is spotting accidents BEFORE they happen. You are tasked to protect an armored column. The primary threats along the way are four Hinds, a Fantan, and a Frogfoot. The four Hinds are waiting in ambush position. I took the liberty of finding their coordinates, so here they are. The first group (Charlie Seven) is four kilometers east of waypoint three. There are two Hinds waiting there, you should get the jump on them since you are approaching from the side. Tell wingie to engage and fire off a couple missiles. Another group of Hinds (Bravo Six) are to the north of waypoint three, also in ambush position. Later, you will receive a radio message warning you of incoming fast movers (fixed wing aircraft). There are two aircraft: an Su-25 Frogfoot and an A-5C Fantan flying in formation. After making a run or two against you and your wingman, they will head for your armored column, which you are tasked to protect. You must stop these aircraft from striking their target. Do whatever is necessary to grab their attention, and THEN try to survive. After you have taken care of these airborne threats, fly up and down the waypoints looking for stuff to kill. You should fly in TADS mode for at least one portion of the flight since the grunts cannot be detected with the FCR. The column will notify you of their success after they have reached the last waypoint, but once you get close to home, there are also a couple of soldiers waiting, so watch your step. Mission #2 Pretty simple mission. Prior to takeoff, you should move or create a waypoint over the primary target. This will get you to the target faster, keeping you armored column as safe as possible. Once you cross into the primary battle zone, you will receive a message from the column requesting CAS. Re-check your map <ALT-N> and move your waypoint over the primary target if necessary. During your attack, chances are you will be jumped by Hinds. This depends on how quickly or slowly you have flown to the target, how long or short it takes you to destroy the target, and whether or not you kept a low profile. Just be careful not to damage your tail rotor when transitioning to a hover like I did. Mission #3 Much the same from the mission above, except you may have to fly a little more, since the primary battle zone is further away from your second waypoint. Another problem here is that there are many tanks along your way. As opposed to the first Longbow installment, battle tanks will now shoot at you. You will also have to be flying in TADS mode to the target for two reasons- 1) to spot ground troops, these guys will be deadly if they get a good shot off at you, and 2) maintain stealth. When you turn on your radar, imagine a large searchlight extending eight miles ahead of you. Anything you see, it will see you if it has the proper equipment on board. On the other hand, if you DON'T see it, it may still detect your radar emissions. If you choose to fly in FCR mode, proceed with caution. I like to fly in TADS mode up to the target, using <CTRL-`> frequently to download targets onto my radar. When I spot the primaries, I do a single scan <KP3> to minimize my exposure, and fire off some radar guided Hellfires. Of course, tactics depend on your flying style. In the original Longbow, it was possible to do the John Wayne method, flying into a hot zone guns blazing. In Korea, it is much much much harder, and sometimes impossible. You best bet is to stay slow and low. Mission #5 You are to destroy an SA-6 site. Like most deep strike missions, the problem is not the target itself but getting there safely. Here you will be jumped by six (yes, six) Hinds, with a Shilka along the way, and a Gopher and a Gauntlet quite far away, which won't detect you unless you're careless. Since the primary target only needs a couple Hellfires, you can afford to load up that other pod with FFARs and use them against the Hinds. Mission #6 Primarily an air-to-air mission. Set your first waypoint somewhere between the takeoff and landing points. There should be an armored column nearby that you are trying to protect. Then fly towards the original second waypoint. Somewhere, you should meet some Hips and Hinds, which are your primary targets, attempting to destroy your column. If you proceed via the pre-planned waypoints, you will spot the Hinds and Hips either half way through the flight or not at all. When and if you detect them, you will be chasing them towards their target and destroy them on their way home. Mission #7 A ship-killing mission. In your navigation map, create a waypoint on the edge of the lake. Fly there on full speed. Create a PFZ around the approaching amphibs and tell your wingman to attack. While he is attacking, create another PFZ around the ADA across the lake. Destroy the ADA before they get a decent shot off you or your wingie while he is destroying the primaries. Mission accomplished. Mission #8 If you get this one done on your first try, you deserve a medal. You'll be doing what Longbow pilots aren't supposed to do- air to air engagements. While the tanks in the valley half way to your objective may seem a trivial matter, ELIMINATE THEM IMMEDIATELY, from as far away as possible. Also, use your wingman's Hellfires. Chances are he'll be dead before you get to the primaries. From what I have experienced, if they get a visual on you, they will alert the Fantans circling the base, which are your biggest concern in this mission. After you kill them, you will cross the valley where they were. Fly across the valley as slowly as possible- no faster than 60 knots, 90 if you're really pushing it. The secret here is to get a jump on the Fantans before they kill you or your wingie. You will want to use your Stingers, but if all four miss, you will have to go in guns only. Switch to the TADS MFD, speed up and accelerate to the Fantan. Set gun burst to either fifty or one hundred. If your FCR is on (I left it on for the entire mission), use the marker on the heading tape to bear to the target. Watching the MFD, wait for the Fantan to straighten out. Switch to TADS mode, lase the target, and start popping him when he a) gets within fifteen hundred meters and b) comes straight at you. As he passes above and to your side, turn off your guns, since your chances of hitting him at a ninety degree aspect angle is almost nil. Repeat this process. It get simpler once you kill one of them. After you kill them, this is why you used your wingie's missiles on the tanks earlier, head for the target. Do not get any closer than four kilometers. Pop up, and your radar will light up like jet fuel at a Korean barbecue. Draw a PFZ, but do not ripple off all your Hellfires at once. Pop up just enough to fire your missile over the hill, or they will slam into the side. Kill all the SA-15s, SA-13s, and ZSU-23-4s first, then kill any other ADA remaining. You will get the mission accomplished message soon. Head back to your first waypoint, since there's no point going over undiscovered dirt if you've already cleared a corridor. You'll feel good after this one. Mission #9 This is a fun mission, a breather from Mission #8's intense workout, and you can afford to have some close in fun if you are careful. Fly high, two hundred fifty feet, and you should spot the enemy convoy about six miles out. Simply draw a PFZ around the enemy convoy, and you should be able to finish this mission in less than ten minutes. If you want to have a little fun, take out all the AAA and SAMs you see, and close in on the convoy to gun down the trucks. It's a little fun to see them scoot around defenseless as you pump them full of lead. You might also want to try out the FFARs on this one. They're kinda fun, especially fired in salvos. Try to stay low, since the SAMs and AAA will nail you if you stray off too much or fly too high. Mission #10 This one is different. You are to lase a grounded AEW aircraft for a bomb run. This leaves you exposed. You will want to fly to the target zone as quickly as possible, so you have enough time to clear the area for the approaching F-16s. If you do not, you will be exposed to gunfire, and chances are, you will not be able to lase the target since you will be preoccupied. There are two Hinds on the ground, but if you are not careful, they will scramble. As usual, try to destroy aircraft on the ground. Kill the surrounding AAA and SAMs in an eight mile radius, but stay near the target. Be careful when you get near the target, there are grunts sneaking around. Your guns will make quick work of them if you spot them first. Their visual range is limited at night so you can afford to get a little closer. About forty five seconds prior to the F-16 bomb run, switch to TADS, and lase the target. The rest of the mission is getting home. Mission #11 On this one, there are a few surprises ahead. Fly to the first waypoint behind enemy lines. Destroy all armor in this area, as well as any AAA and SAMs you detect. After you have cleared this area, fly to the next waypoint. Again, kill all AAA and SAMs. Just over the hill, there is an SA-6 site. Destroy this site, the AAA there, and wait. After the special forces get dropped off, after a while, they will need to be rescued. Once you get this message, there are several new objects that magically appear. Switch to TADS mode and you will find some NK grunts that you will need to kill. Over the hill where you killed the SA-6 site, there are also two IFVs that are after your grunts. Kill these. If you have not already killed two Hinds, watch out for them. Save a few Hellfires, as you will be jumped by at least two Shilkas on the way back. Kill any armor over the flight path, since they now shoot at you, and the Blackhawk, which is your primary concern at this point. Do not return home until you get the mission accomplished message. Mission #12 My personal favorite. This mission is pretty easy, there are lots of grunts to kill and pretty NBC sites to raid and confiscate new toys. Fly there quickly, kill as much stuff on your way as possible. As usual, kill ALL SAMs and AAA, and any tanks that come within two miles of your flight path. You are clearing a path for the Rangers. At the waypoint, kill all the AAA, guard towers, and just over the hill to the right, there are IFVs and ZSU-23-4s that you may not see until you get close to the plant. At some time, you will be jumped by two Hinds at your 7:00. Loiter, enjoy the scenery, watch your little grunts stand around, and keep an eye out for any approaching vehicles that may pose a threat to your forces. Mission #13 You are to find and destroy rocket artillery sites. As you will learn in FPK, the point is to complete the mission, not to get points, as it was in the Ukraine campaign. You are better off going in sneaky, firing off a full salvo of Hellfires when you come across the artillery, then run back to your first waypoint than go in John Wayne style. The first time I tried the John Wayne, I got jumped by four Hinds from different directions. Killed all the grunts standing there and gunned down the artillery. Everything was fine until I got shot down by an SA-15 trying to run home. You're better off hiding behind a hill. Your objective is not at waypoint two, rather, it is several miles further down. When you come across the last hill of the mountain, pop up just enough to see the artillery and blow their heads clean off. Mission #14 This mission is just as quick and easy as filling out a 1040 form. Since the mission briefing indicates increasing enemy ECM, I took along a full rack of laser Hellfires. Set your waypoint to the center of the primary battle zone in your mission map, and you should come across your primaries. These are no problem. It's the SA-13s along the way that really make your day unpleasant. Then add in a few Fantans (two, to be exact). These Fantans will most likely get the jump on you while you are attacking the armor. They managed to knock out two of my systems as well as damaging another three. After I dispatched the Fantans by staying inside their turn radius and firing as they came at me, I finished off my primary objectives. On your way home, there is at least one Frogfoot (sorry, I didn't get a chance to count), with at least one Hind. Since my mission was over, I didn't feel like playing hero, crossed into friendly territory and ditched my Longbow. You have been warned; this one's real tough. Mission #16 You will have to be majorly sneaky in this one. Edit your waypoints so you fly due north, through the valley (dark green on the map). In Longbow, it is better to fly between the hills than over them. Approach the base from the east, preferably between a group of hills. On your way, you will encounter many many tanks and AAA, along with several SA-13s and SA-15s, but it is much safer than the pre-planned routes. Remember, they plop stuff along the way to keep things interesting. You should fly around the threats to keep yourself alive. Your preferred route may require some trial and error. Even though the mission briefing warns you about enemy ECM, I decided to give my radar Hellfires a try, and they worked fine. Mission #17 An extremely tough mission. As usual, most of the trouble is getting there since eight Hinds will try to kill you. This is what you've been practicing those aerial rocket marksmanship sessions for. The problem is that it will leave you with only eight Hellfires to kill SAMs with, so use your wingman as much as possible. He doesn't seem to use his rockets against Hinds so let him bring the usual sixteen Hellfire configuration. Make your ingress route from a couple miles to the east, flying down that valley. This will put mountains on both sides of you when you go in, as well as taking on those Hinds. This will take many tries. Mission #18 One of those missions where you can accomplish easily if you know what to do. First, make your ingress waypoint about ten miles to the south, coming through the valley. This will be long dark stripe on the contour map <ALT-C> in the navigation mode. You may be jumped by bogeys, so take along a pair of rocket pods, but give your wingman sixteen Hellfires. On approach to the second waypoint, which should be a town if you placed it correctly, tell your wingman to cover you <CTRL-+>. This will tell him to engage anyone who points their radar at you. By approaching the target through this valley, you should be able to spot the EW site from at least five miles away, without getting to close. Try to kill them from a distance. Kill only what is labeled as primary, since you only have eight Hellfires, so every one counts. If you do this quickly and cleanly, you should be able to leave without getting attacked by Hinds, but you can never be too sure. Practice using your rockets in A2A engagements, it will save you some precious ammo and time, and most importantly, your wingman. Mission #19 Not too hard of a mission. They only send four Hinds after you. Fly to your waypoint (you need not change them for this one), making sure you don't get jumped by SAMs every time you go over a hill. At your target waypoint, look around a little bit. They don't appear right there. Chances are they'll appear where the land is flatter. Your CP/G will spot them as soon as you have a clear line of sight. Try to kill them from a distance, since Hinds will attack you. As the trend has been for the last couple of missions, take a pair of rocket pods, but give your wingman a full load of Hellfires. Tell him to guard you when things start to get hot, but save your Hellfires for emergencies and primary targets. Mission #20 A toughie. As usual, take the mixed load of rockets and radar Hellfires, and leave wingie his full load of Hellfires. Approach from the south, setting your ingress waypoint over the city, then the second ingress waypoint over the SA-6 site (which, curiously, was destroyed in one of the previous missions). As usual, tell wingie to kill all SA-13 and SA-15 sites, and any ZSU-23-4s that will come within four miles of you. There are more SAMs here (I killed twenty), though the SA-6s are good as doorstops once you have killed their radar. Tell wingie to cover you as you go in, and he will open up with his guns on everything. Kinda fun to watch. If you go in quickly and cleanly, you should be able to destroy all the objectives, then Hinds will appear from the east. Fire a Stinger at each, then tell wingie to attack one. He will deal the fatal blow with his second Stinger, then gun or rocket down the second one. Do this for both waves, and you should be safe. Mission #21 Toughest mission yet. Twelve, yes, TWELVE enemy Hinds. So bring your rockets. In fact, try bringing FOUR pods. Save SAMs and AAA to your wingman. You will also get shot at by many grunts. The bad guys are at your first waypoint, but the tricky part of this mission is when you destroy all the artillery, you don't get a mission accomplished message. This may make you believe that you must destroy all the enemy Hinds and/or fly to the second waypoint. In reality, the mission designers labeled one of the grunts at your second waypoint as a primary objective, so you must kill him in order to complete the mission. Nice one, guys. If you make it back on your first try, you deserve a medal. I came back with no laser, no radar, no ASE, no IHADDS, a damaged rotor, and no backup flight controls. I landed as soon as I crossed into friendly territory. Intense. Mission #22 I played this one at least twenty-five times, for about an hour and a half. One of the hard parts of this mission is that you must rely on laser Hellfires and cannot use your FCR since some bozo out there is jamming the damned thing. The secret to this one, now this isn't really nice, set your first waypoint to the right edge of the map. Set the next waypoint to the extreme north-east of the map, so the waypoint can't go any further. The target is where the SA-6 threat range intersects the highway between the two pre-programmed waypoints, and a couple km to the north. Set your ingress route directly north of that, approaching it from the north. The targets show up when SA-13s and ZSU-23-4s start targeting you. The trucks (your objective) are grouped along with them. Kill your two objectives as quickly as possible, telling wingie to cover you. Run home as quickly as possible following backtracking your steps to your base. Good luck, you'll definitely need it for this one. Mission #23 Is it just me or do all the mission objectives appear in the same place? Anyway, as usual, you take the same valley, approach the waypoint to the north, and kill your objectives there. You should be able to spot them from at least five miles out. This one is also very tough, but a breather because it takes place during the day, you can use radar Hellfires along with your FCR, and the ingress route is fairly clean. I only had to kill four Hinds. There were about four or six more at the target, but I killed the tanks quickly enough to run home before they got in range. Mission #24 This one is also pretty tough. Load up on rockets and Hellfires. One big problem with this mission is the artillery and the Hinds. For some reason, the artillery doesn't always attack, but fly north a couple miles and look for the artillery sites. Call in an air raid on them. About this time, you will have run into a couple Hinds. These guys are trying to kill your tanks so it is critical you stop them. Do not fly in compressed time in this mission. You will have help from two other Longbows, firing missiles at the enemy tanks, and you don't want their missiles to miss (something that compressed time will do to them). Ignore the primary tanks- the Abrams can hold its own against the T-55s. Your concern here are the Hinds. Mission #25 Yay. An easy one. Bring a full load of Hellfires. Nothing bad happens along the way if you fly there fast enough. The only catch to this one is if you pop up over the hill half a mile before the primaries too high or fast, they'll rip you apart in a matter of seconds. Fly fast, but when you get within a couple miles of the target, fly slowly, pop up enough to see them, duck back down, then fire off a couple Hellfires from behind the hill. Fly home before you get jumped by any Hinds. Mission #26 Yet another easy one. Load up on rockets and Hellfires. When you reach the primary battle zone, take out as many tanks as you can, then tell your wingman to engage the rest, along with the AAA and SAMs up north. After you kill the SAMs and AAA, fly north to where they were, and you should come across four Hinds, which are your primaries. These Hinds aren't that hard to kill if you have been practicing your rocket attacks. Another way to take down a group of Hinds quickly is to target one, and tell your wingman to attack, while you fire off a Stinger at the same time. Quickly target the other one and do the same. This should get you a mission accomplished in a matter of minutes. Leave the rest of the tanks for your Abrams to chew up. Mission #27 Make this one fast and clean. Fly there at max speed, but look out for the dense group of SAMs and AAA close to the target. Fire off at least one Hellfire at each bunker, and tell your wingman to mop up if your Hellfires don't kill them all. Bunkers require more than one hit. Do this quickly, or you will be jumped by two Hinds, like I was. Mission #28 The last mission. This one's pretty dull. No trouble on the way, and only one SAM and maybe two AAA guarding your primary. Kill these air defenses, and rip up everything else (tents and trucks) with your guns, or you may fall asleep at the stick if you've been accustomed to the more intense missions. Mission accomplished. Congratulations! You've just finished the damned hardest campaign I've ever seen. It's been hell and a humbling experience getting through all 28 missions, but the barbecue sauce in your veins has taught the NKs never to mess with the SOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTH!!!!!!! |
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Note: during the
campaign, the mission number is displayed when the
mission is loading. When the numbers suddenly change (ex.
from 107 to 138) that means you are now heading down the
losing path. Fortunately, you do not die if you lose the
campaign, as in the Ukraine campaign. No cool losing
flick, either. For some reason, some missions, such as
mission 104 and 115 were skipped. If anyone knows what is
going on, please e-mail me, otherwise I gotta play this
through again.