Hornets Nest Help

[InfiniteStates]

Play this mission on realistic. It's a lot easier then, ironically.

[Yakoff]

I'm sure you BoP vets are sick of seeing this thread pop up just when you'd hoped it was dead and buried. Before I go any further, I want to say howdy to everyone. OK, I'm bound and determined to complete this mission on Sim, even if it kills me. It's encouraging to read some folks here have done just that, even if they say they haven't a clue why they were successful. I've tried some of the tips I've read here but I still fail. My next plan is to crank up the brightness on the monitor as was suggested by one poster. I will post my findings for those who are interested.

[Yakoff]

Just completed the mission from hell. I made it more hell than it should have been though. I checked the brightness in the game settings and found it was cranked all the way down. Adjusted that and could finally see the bombers. On my successful mission, I managed to down a few bombers myself all the while constantly ordering my team to attack. I assumed we downed them all because I was then ordered to attack the AA at the airfield. I destroyed just one with a bomb and the Mission Complete message came up on the screen. Like others here I was very relieved. I now plan on completing the campaign before signing up for XboxLive Gold and playing online. I am signed up with Silver. My gamertag is gorpley.

[hiro]

Passing this one on arcade.

Somethings really helped:

Rockets! Rockets! Around .50 to 1 km, rockets that hit can take down whole flights. I've tagged 2-3 while shooting them in conjunction with cannons / mg's.

Planning out the flights so that finishing passes end up close to firing position on another group or finishing a group puts you close to incoming groups, I lost on set because I was chasing too far, and using the map function generously.

That said,
Get that lone group before they get close. Sometimes I get goldfish memory in the heat of battle and forget I left a set unattended.

While using attention all flight and carry out objectives, also use attack as a group to get the transports that are getting close. All 3 can take down a target fast.

Regrouping alot. Sometimes your wing gets dragged all over the place.

Rear attacks while slowing throttle and the IL-2's heavy firepower gives you time to aim (and use rockets) are best. I preferred to do a head on pass and give them everything I had, chandelle around cut throttle and take them down.

Careful shooting when Yaks are around, especially if sending rockets out. On my game the Yaks (blue) really help alot, and I found out undiscriminating shooting sometimes tagged a Yak.

Search the skies around the yellow dots while closing in. I found out some transports aren't yellow tagged.

The transports stay as a flight, even if attacked. The exception is when they get close to the runway, they will separate (one will begin to land) but if you're at this point and the Yaks haven't shot them down, mission fail is around the corner.

Watch out, once the last transport goes down, you get victory and get your new objectives (bomb ground targets). 109s arrive and they are pissed! They will go for you even with 3 Yaks on their tail. Don't have your wing cover you, they'll get shot down.






Dealing with stealth transports:


What makes it really hard on arcade, is that some of the transports don't show up with the yellow tags (or red tags).

And these were fresh ones, I ain't talking about the ones the game considers shot down (pilot kill) and flying around before the crash and removes your targeting, I'm talking about legit flying I'm gonna end your mission suka targets.

That said, you can target them even though they don't show up on radar / map. They'll have the standard red arrow (and show up on radar) once you do.

If you run into a whole flight (rare but happens) target one so it red dots. Then look for the others and shoot them down. The transport don't separate, so targeting one will help keep track of the flight's position. Shoot down the target one last.

I saw some back lit on the search lights. Others you can see you're below them around 2, 4, 8, 10 o clock positions.

Others I found the Yaks (blue dots) were shooting and circling around some random space of the sky, and closer inspection found it was a transport. In some cases I've noticed the Yaks will go after them if they get close.

Your guys will not attack them if they are given objective command. If you target and group all or attack target, your flight will do so.

They fly the same pattern as the yellow groups. Sometimes they are found in stacked between the larger yellow groups.

On realistic they have the stealth ones, but since you fulfill the objective quickly by knocking down the yellows they aren't a factor.

[bobbysocks]

Originally Posted by hiro

Passing this one on arcade.

Dealing with stealth transports:


What makes it really hard on arcade, is that some of the transports don't show up with the yellow tags (or red tags). ......

On realistic they have the stealth ones, but since you fulfill the objective quickly by knocking down the yellows they aren't a factor.

what seems to be happening AFAIS is you slightly damage the transport and the bounding box dissapears BUT its not nowheres near dead. it still continues to fly AND reach the target. it was basically the same in arcade and real...both were PITAs. it wont show on your hud but you will see it if you chase it down. once i realized this was happening i went ofter them and completed....if you leave them...MISSION FAILED. never tried the rockets tho...

[mentallydamaged]

Wow, I completed the whole game on arcade in 2 days without any trouble at all. I crashed into the ground with the P51D 2 times on the Battle of the bulge missions, due to its ridiculously higher turning radius than the other planes (?), but that was it.

I completed Hornet's Nest on the first try, and can't see why anyone would have trouble with it. Maybe I was just lucky, and this mission is glitchy...

The game was too easy on arcade, but I just wanted to play it through once, to unlock planes and see if any mission is worth replaying on a higher difficulty later.

[etotheo]

Originally Posted by etotheo

Looks like it's time to complete the tutorials so that I can try this mission on Realistic.

I shoot down 28-34 planes and still fail (on Arcade)...

Originally Posted by mentallydamaged

Wow, I completed the whole game on arcade in 2 days without any trouble at all. I crashed into the ground with the P51D 2 times on the Battle of the bulge missions, due to its ridiculously higher turning radius than the other planes (?), but that was it.

I completed Hornet's Nest on the first try, and can't see why anyone would have trouble with it. Maybe I was just lucky, and this mission is glitchy...

The game was too easy on arcade, but I just wanted to play it through once, to unlock planes and see if any mission is worth replaying on a higher difficulty later.

Passed the hornet's nest on Realistic today

It took 4 attempts and ended up shooting down only six transports and bombed maybe five-six gun's on the ground... way easier on Realistic than Arcade where on one attempt I shot down 38 transports and still failed... go figure.