So, Downtown Berlin.

[Zeroptimus]

No one told me that the single mission 'Downtown Berlin' didn't come with lube. I was unpleasantly surprised by this little fact. What's the deal? Am I just bad and no one felt like telling me? There are sixteen bombers, but I guarantee none of them are making it to Berlin. Those 109's sweep in, bend them over, insert their cannons and go away. I try protecting just one bomber, and four fighters sweep in to gang rape it. I try flying behind to shoot at any that get on the flight's tail, and I am overwhelmed. I try cussing at my PS3, but then I feel bad because it's not her fault. I even try flying ahead to score a few kills and thin out the 108 horde before it hits my bombers, only to realize it doesn't matter. Any ideas?

I realize that somewhere, on this forum, that this has probably been asked. However, it's 3 in the morning almost, I've already written this up, and the thought just now entered my mind. Entertain me. Either direct me to the proper place where I can learn me some strategy, or tell me here. I'm asking for help, dear sirs and fabled madams. You're my only hope.

EDIT: Yeah, so, I've been plugging the same 5 minute mission for an hour, but I've got the thing figured out finally. Beat it with 4 bombers left, for anyone that's curious. Was beat on arcade, for the sake of figuring it out.

Fly ahead of the bombers, first off. There's two waves of like nine planes. Check your map, because the first wave appears the instant you cross the tributary that your plane is headed for. Hit the first wave with your cannon. If you don't kill at least one, you're probably going to lose.

Second wave is literally right after this one. You'll see them. Hit one of the further back planes with your cannon. Again, kill it or you will lose. Kill speed as soon as you start closing in, and saddle up behind the further back Krauts. Start gunning them all down as fast as you can, moving from the back to the front. You have precious few seconds until they slam your flight of bombers. You should have around 11 out of the original 16 you started with as soon as you regroup.

From there, it's about downing them. As soon as you see smoke trailing badly, or one disappear under the clouds, leave it. You want to keep your bombers alive, not confirm kills. If you work fast, you can reduce their operational numbers to zero within about a minute or so. Your bombers will hit their destination at about the 3:20 minute mark.

After they drop their payload, they turn back home! They have to get back to their starting point. Four Bf-109's stand in your way. It's time to ask 'Who do you think you are kidding?' to Mr. Hitler, and blow away those 109's. They're not that focused on the bombers this time around, but I'd focus more on staying on the bombers' tail than anything else. The flight home seems to be a hell of a lot shorter. Must be the tension. Anyway, after that you get to see a nice 'Mission Completed' screen, and then Mr. Brown can go off to town. Don't worry though, he comes home each evening and he's ready with his gun. If Hitler thinks he'll crush us I'm afraid he's missed the bus, cause...

Oh, screw it. This is my present to you. Go train, go beat Downtown Berlin, and unlock yourself a He-162. Then tell me you love me. I'll even smile.

EDIT TO THE EDIT: Yeah, so I'm not sure what the exact requirements are, but I played one Dogfight in the He-162 and unlocked the 32x50kg loadout for the He 111 H-16. Make of that what you will. Time to go flatten an airfield with it. The 162 sucks for dogfighting, just so you know.

Or maybe I'm just sleepy...

[InfiniteStates]

Guess the AI fix in the patch works then huh? LOL glad I got all offline stuff done before it turned up.

[kozzm0]

No one told me that the single mission 'Downtown Berlin' didn't come with lube. I was unpleasantly surprised by this little fact. What's the deal? Am I just bad and no one felt like telling me? There are sixteen bombers, but I guarantee none of them are making it to Berlin. Those 109's sweep in, bend them over, insert their cannons and go away. I try protecting just one bomber, and four fighters sweep in to gang rape it. I try flying behind to shoot at any that get on the flight's tail, and I am overwhelmed. I try cussing at my PS3, but then I feel bad because it's not her fault. I even try flying ahead to score a few kills and thin out the 108 horde before it hits my bombers, only to realize it doesn't matter. Any ideas?

I realize that somewhere, on this forum, that this has probably been asked. However, it's 3 in the morning almost, I've already written this up, and the thought just now entered my mind. Entertain me. Either direct me to the proper place where I can learn me some strategy, or tell me here. I'm asking for help, dear sirs and fabled madams. You're my only hope.

EDIT: Yeah, so, I've been plugging the same 5 minute mission for an hour, but I've got the thing figured out finally. Beat it with 4 bombers left, for anyone that's curious. Was beat on arcade, for the sake of figuring it out.

Fly ahead of the bombers, first off. There's two waves of like nine planes. Check your map, because the first wave appears the instant you cross the tributary that your plane is headed for. Hit the first wave with your cannon. If you don't kill at least one, you're probably going to lose.

Second wave is literally right after this one. You'll see them. Hit one of the further back planes with your cannon. Again, kill it or you will lose. Kill speed as soon as you start closing in, and saddle up behind the further back Krauts. Start gunning them all down as fast as you can, moving from the back to the front. You have precious few seconds until they slam your flight of bombers. You should have around 11 out of the original 16 you started with as soon as you regroup.

From there, it's about downing them. As soon as you see smoke trailing badly, or one disappear under the clouds, leave it. You want to keep your bombers alive, not confirm kills. If you work fast, you can reduce their operational numbers to zero within about a minute or so. Your bombers will hit their destination at about the 3:20 minute mark.

After they drop their payload, they turn back home! They have to get back to their starting point. Four Bf-109's stand in your way. It's time to ask 'Who do you think you are kidding?' to Mr. Hitler, and blow away those 109's. They're not that focused on the bombers this time around, but I'd focus more on staying on the bombers' tail than anything else. The flight home seems to be a hell of a lot shorter. Must be the tension. Anyway, after that you get to see a nice 'Mission Completed' screen, and then Mr. Brown can go off to town. Don't worry though, he comes home each evening and he's ready with his gun. If Hitler thinks he'll crush us I'm afraid he's missed the bus, cause...

Oh, screw it. This is my present to you. Go train, go beat Downtown Berlin, and unlock yourself a He-162. Then tell me you love me. I'll even smile.

EDIT TO THE EDIT: Yeah, so I'm not sure what the exact requirements are, but I played one Dogfight in the He-162 and unlocked the 32x50kg loadout for the He 111 H-16. Make of that what you will. Time to go flatten an airfield with it. The 162 sucks for dogfighting, just so you know.

Or maybe I'm just sleepy...

This is the one where you have that flight of il-2's to escort in bad weather, right?

Maybe it was hard cause it was arcade mode. I checked it in sim mode - and I didn't shoot down any fighters at all. I did hit one - from pretty far away. On the way back. The fighters are too fast to catch, and they take turns darting in so I stopped chasing them and just flew with the il-2's and it was mission complete.

I thought about turning to escort the second wave, but then I figured orders were probably to stay with the yellow ones. Maybe they get attacked if you leave them.

They didn't even get any sturmoviks, I had all 16 at the end. The sturmoviks did get some of them though. Try it on sim mode

My take on the he-162 is it's a great way for other pilots to get confirmed kills. It was made to asplode

[Zeroptimus]

This is the one where you have that flight of il-2's to escort in bad weather, right?

Maybe it was hard cause it was arcade mode. I checked it in sim mode - and I didn't shoot down any fighters at all. I did hit one - from pretty far away. On the way back. The fighters are too fast to catch, and they take turns darting in so I stopped chasing them and just flew with the il-2's and it was mission complete.

I thought about turning to escort the second wave, but then I figured orders were probably to stay with the yellow ones. Maybe they get attacked if you leave them.

They didn't even get any sturmoviks, I had all 16 at the end. The sturmoviks did get some of them though. Try it on sim mode

My take on the he-162 is it's a great way for other pilots to get confirmed kills. It was made to asplode

Niet, the mission takes place above cloud level, so no weather to worry about. And no IL-2's to speak of, all La-7's and IL-4's. This is the mission that no one else could find info on (Took me friggin long enough to scrape by it).

Give me a video of someone beating it with 16 IL-4's left, and I swear I'll find you a $20 PSN card. Not your style, then 1600MS Points. I was happy to make it at all. Downtown Berlin is the mission.

[kozzm0]

yeah, that's what I meant by bad weather. I didn't pay attention to the bombers before, I don't have an il-4 so I didn't recognize them.

Before I ended up with 16 and didn't even hit one enemy... so I went ahead and tried to make a video, and this time, all 16 got to the target while I flew around above them, and most of the way back, and then one german plane sneaked up out of nowhere and shot one down.

Next time they got one on the way back again.

So I stopped ignoring them and started trying to shoot them down instead... the more I attacked them, the more bombers they shot down.

So then I started attacking them better, and trying to tell my wingmen to attack at the right time... and the better I attacked them, the more bombers they shot down.

This mission is a luck mission like Free Hunt, where you win if your wingmen do their job and lose if they don't. It doesn't matter what you do, you can't cover all the attackers, and if your wingmen miss theirs, they will rampage through the formation tearing the il-4's to pieces.

[nuklhed808]

Heres the deal. I was stuck on that mission for hours just like you, ready to throw my controller through the TV, when I decided to take a break. I went to the tutorial missions and flew all of those, and unlocked the "simulator mode". I then went back to that silly Downtown Berlin deal, flew it in the simulator cockpit, didnt hit a single ac, and before I could say STURMOVIK, the "mission complete" was staring at me and the HE-162 was unlocked. Go figure...

[Jim di Griz]

I appreciate that it's all quite long ago history now Zeroptimus, but thanks for posting this and Kozzm0 and to Knucklehead808 too for their suggestion of doing it in sim-mode.

I was very much stuck and wondering the same as your good self - whatever I did, they just adapted and came back at me better, like the Borg...

I believe the HE 162 is best as an altitude fighter, pouncing on others who can't chase you back up so high...

Anyway, thanks again.