Any good tips for ground attack missions on sim ?

[Yossarian]

Anybody got any good tips for completing ground attack missions on sim mode.

I have done every fighter and escort mission in the game, but I suck at finding my ground targets in sim mode, particularly in Stalingrad and Berlin. The buildings and smoke really makes it impossible to find them.

I've tried memorising their location in realistic mode, but I always forget where a few are and fail the missions because I took too long. I'm also going to recommend my wingmen for a court marshal for cowardice because no matter how many times I tell them to attack they just FO miles away from our targets. I hope they get shot.

I've just been flying around Stalingrad for ages 3 or 4 times trying to find the enemy armour. I do occasionally see tanks, but I can't tell if they are T34's or Panzers. I've successfully bombed a few of them and been told 'direct hit' but the counter for units to be destroyed never goes down, so I assume I'm bombing my own side.

I can find targets in the open but when they are in a forest or built up area I'm finding it impossible. I cruise about at tree top height at about 130mph and I can bomb pretty well, it's just finding them.. Any good tips would be appreciated.

[irrelevant]

Sadly, I just fly around in circles to scan the ground. Not very sim, I know, but it works (somewhat) for me.

edit: you asked for good tips; sorry. :oops:

[towman]

I've successfully bombed a few of them and been told 'direct hit' but the counter for units to be destroyed never goes down, so I assume I'm bombing my own side.

There are many targets of opportunities around the actual objectives, and when you hit those they still register as a hit but since they are not the "official" objectives the counter doesn't go down.

Tip: use the map to pinpoint the location, try to confirm the the objectives by bombing and looking at the counter, if successful, use the fire/smoke stack result of the bombing to mark the targets. It doesn't always work, but its more than nothing.

[Axe99]

On the second campaign mission in Stalingrad, where you have to find the tanks in the city, I had to resort to playing it in campaign, commiting the locations to memory (there's some buildings and streets that stick out a bit), and coming back and nailing them. On thing that initially confused me was that it takes quite a few hits to take out a Panzer - at least two direct hits from two-bomb bombing runs, and once it took me three (but one of the salvos may have just 'winged' him).

And yes Yossarian, have noticed that my flight are quite handy in the air, but have a serious aversion to assisting with ground targets!

[Yossarian]

Right I've done the Stalingrad campaign but what was very confusing was the the total of armour targets that I had to destroy in the bottom left hand side of the screen never ever went down even when I was getting the messages 'direct hit' and 'target destroyed'. Just as I was about to give up the total targets to hit indicator just disappeared and after a while and I was given my next objectives, confusing and frustrating..

[Soviet Ace]

I usually make some quick passes above my targets, once or twice around, then once I've got a good sight on the targets, I just let them have it!! :cool:

[GCoutinho]

Still stuck in Stalingrad's 2nd campaign mission in Simulator, trying to memorize the targets location in realistic.

In Realistic mode getting a couple of "official" targets is enought to get the mission going, but its really dificult to difirenciate the enemies tanks.

[DannyBooze]

if u cant find the targets it helps to play lvl on realistic and try to memorise were the targets are that how i passed the stalingrad ones some are to hard to spot......

[Axe99]

Right I've done the Stalingrad campaign but what was very confusing was the the total of armour targets that I had to destroy in the bottom left hand side of the screen never ever went down even when I was getting the messages 'direct hit' and 'target destroyed'. Just as I was about to give up the total targets to hit indicator just disappeared and after a while and I was given my next objectives, confusing and frustrating..

Aye, the direct hit and target destroyed just means you've hit it, not destroyed it (this can be confusing for target destroyed ;)).

As for finding them, I only needed to destroy a couple in Sim, and there's a couple at the end of roads or near relatively distinct buildings. Tell you what, gives me a whole new level of appreciation for how the real pilots did it, particularly as they didn't have the virtual cockpit view to help ;).