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A-10 ATTACK!
Demo/Quick Start Map Read Me

The nautical mile "bracket" scale on the map will remain accurate regardless of print scaling.

All the info on this map and this Read Me were directly observed in the game and measured in as precise a way as I could muster: the runway lengths may not be completely accurate, though I'm sure they're within 10'. Also imperfect will be the elevations of the mountain peaks (but again, they should probably be within 10-20'.)

The gray canyon area runs from the heart of the island to the southeast. I included the terrain texture from the original screenshots to aid in spotting the ZSUs in the canyon.

The little spots that are labeled "launch positions" on the map denote positions of threat vehicles when the "Attack!" mission is launched. The only way you could ever see them in these positions is by slewing immediately after launching the mission, though if you took off quickly, the boats will have only moved a few hundred yards.

OF NOTE

The Demo/Quick Start has two missions, the "Fly A-10" mission and the "Attack!" mission. None of the threats or friendlies described on the map (the MiGs, the gunboats, the carrier and its accompanying destroyer, the tanks, the SAM launcher, the ZSU-23-4s, the cruiser in the harbor) are included in the "Fly A-10" mission. Threats and friendlies can only be found in the "Attack" mission. The only exception to this is the C-130 parked at South Bay airport--it appears in both missions.

You are given four Sidewinders and four Mk82 GP bombs at the start of each mission. You cannot reload.

Demo Trivia

• The MiGs are cruising at an altitude of about 1000' AGL, at about 430 kts, and are about 40 seconds apart. The boats in South Bay are moving about 50 kts.
  
• The control tower at North Beach airport is 170' tall; the water tower is 100' tall, and the oil tank is 36'.
  
• The aircraft carrier is 1110' long, the destroyer escorting it is 430' long, and the cruiser in the lagoon is 515'. The carrier and destroyer are oriented on a heading of 090°, while the cruiser is on heading 345°. (All three ships are programmed to accept damage, though without slewing you'd never be able to kill any of them; The Carrier requires almost 450 "slew missiles" to take care of it. (The splash goes about 830' high.) The slew missiles in the Demo/Quick Start are AIMs though, unlike the Maverick slew missiles in the other A-10 arenas.
  
• The bridge that connects the town with the South Bay island can accept damage and be destroyed, but only in slew mode. It takes about 180 missiles.
  
• The top of the "shelf" (where the 1200' MSL ZSU sits) is 130'x 260'. The cliff surrounding it is not so much a cliff as a steep hill, sloped at 48°. (The other two ZSUs are surrounded by 15-16° slopes.)
  
• The large island in South Bay is 400' MSL. It is about 1.4 nm east-west and 1.3 nm north-south.
  
• The main island is about 12.6 nm long (north-south) and about 11.1 nm wide (east-west).
  
• The two runways are about 12.6 nm apart, and are on a mutual heading of 032°/212°. The Carrier is 3.9 nm from South Bay airport, on a heading of about 123°.
  
• The wind is roughly 030 @ 12.
  
• The entire southern shore of the island is one long cliff wall. Most of the cliff around South Bay airport is 500' MSL, but on the other side of the bay, south of the radio tower, the cliffs rise as high as 3000' MSL.

TIPS

Flying a mission wherein you kill all 14 targets is no mean feat given that you only get 4 Sidewinders and 4 Mk 82s. Here's a suggestion on how to do it, in order of target pursuance.

MiGs (2)

Option A: Risky, but effective. Being in the air makes you a target for them of course, but it's the only real way to get a shot right on their noses, so this option is more dangerous, but often results in two kills.

If you look at the map, what you want to do is intersect the MiGs' path then fly along it to meet them head on a 145 deg. heading. Take off, dump the bombs (a personal preference) and turn immediately due north, hdg 360. As you go over the mountain you'll see a 'T' intersection on the road below. Over that intersection turn left to about 325°. Soon you may see a radar spike off to the right. Don't fly toward it as it may be the spike from MiG #2. Arm your Sidewinders and stay on hdg 325. Eventually you may see the MiG #1 spike on the left, or you may make visual contact with it first. The Aim-9s will begin growling, but wait until you actually see the speck of MiG #1 ahead of you. Fire two Sidewinders. They may kill the MiG outright, but if not they will surely soften him up; your cannon should dispatch him with only one or two hits. Repeat immediately with MiG #2 (he will be about 40 seconds behind MiG #1.)

Option B: Safer, but far less effective. Same as Opt. A except you land the A-10 in a meadow under the flight path of the MiGs, and park with the nose toward them as they approach. The Sidewinders will growl, and you may fire while parked. (Since you are on the ground, the MiGs won't shoot at you.) An even safer way (though even less effective) is to taxi to the end of the runway at South Bay, near the edge of the cliff even, and wait for the MiGs to fly by. (Use the '5' key to track their positions.) When you get the 'SHOOT' prompt, let 'em go, two per MiG. Less effective because by the time the prompt comes up, the MiGs are moving out of range. They will likely dodge one, and maybe both. If that's the case the only thing left to do is let them head out to sea. You can assume they'll eventually run out of fuel, so you can still list them as kills. ;)

Where to park when executing option B? Somewhere about a mile inland from where the MiGs first make landfall is OK, but I have more luck from a spot about a mile north of the radio tower. If you launch the AIMs so they meet the MiG soon after it turns over the South Bay Island, you'll have much higher chances of a hit than if you wait for them to get nearer. BETTER YET, land on the South Bay Island near its east edge, and orient the Hog on a 95 or 100 deg heading. Arm the AIMs and wait for MiG #1 to fly over and away from you. The instant you get the 'SHOOT' prompt, send two up his tail pipe. Wait for MiG #2 to fly by and repeat.

This is not to say I recommend any version of Option B. I've yet to bring down both planes using it.

Option C. Lure the MiGs out near the Carrier and let the Destroyer unload on them.

North Beach Tanks (4)

They're sitting ducks. (I'd mentioned jettisoning the Mk82s. You may want to keep them for these guys to conserve your cannon rounds. It is very easy to run out of bullets when you go after all 14 targets.)

South Bay Boats (2)

Hardy fellows both, they can take more punishment than any other target save for the A-10 itself. You can kill the boats of course, but you must really hose the cannon on each one to do it. I still recommend short, 2 sec. bursts. If a) you're shooting accurately, b) you're attacking from their six o'clock, and c) your speed is closer to 100kts than 200kts, you can get them both in just two passes (but don't let the cannon recoil stall the plane!) If you're really feeling your oats, and you haven't jettisoned the Mk82s yet, you can CCIP a couple on the boats to soften them up a bit. (Knowing their travel patterns has made this only marginally easier than it used to be.) And beware the ZSUs in the canyon to the north and east while you tend to the boats. (Speaking of which...)

Canyon ZSUs (3)

Going after any of the ZSUs is tough since you have neither HARMs nor any other radar tracking weapon at your disposal. Here are the methods I usually use with these three ZSUs.

  1. Approach (any of them) from outside the canyon, up over the ridge from the target. Keep low, and hug the ground as you crest the ridge, keeping 100' AGL or lower. (I recommend lower.) This way you can terrain mask until you are practically on top of the target, and hose him before he knows you're there.

  2. This approach is similar except that you only hug the ground after you've crested the ridge. You approach the target from the same heading as before (over the ridge from the target) but now from an altitude of, say, 1000' AGL. You are essentially in a dive-bombing profile, just a degree or so shallower (is that a word?) than the slope on which the target sits. Keep the flight vector (TVV) where the target would be if you could see through the tip of the ridge. This way you'll still be terrain masked, but you won't red-out cresting the ridge. The downside of this approach is two-fold: 1) when you sneak an occasional peek over the ridge to ensure you're on proper heading as you draw near, you will tip off the enemy and his guns will be trained right on you as you clear the ridge. And 2) during this pitched-down approach you may also be vulnerable to the other ZSUs.

  3. The ZSU on the side of the steep cliff may seem tricky, but since it's higher you have more options, and actually it is the easiest of the three because of those options. You can go over the top of the 2500' peak above it, or you can approach it parallel to the wall face, below the ZSU itself. This way you're almost grazing your right (or left) wing tip on the wall as you approach. (NOTE: The wind is perpendicular to the wall face and will blow you right into it if you're not careful.) The shelf this vehicle sits on is long and wide enough that you can actually use it to terrain mask by approaching from below the vehicle from almost any angle including head-on (though from the side is recommended so you don't risk flying into the mountain after the pass.)

North Beach SAM Launcher (1)

Again, you have no radar guided weapons and certainly can't terrain mask (no terrain!), so my recommendation would be to tease the SAM and get him to launch his missiles while you're at a safe distance (just beyond range of the ZSUs makes sense). When he's run himself out, go in for the ZSUs and the spent launcher. The tough part of this strategy is that you never know when a SAM has been launched at you unless you see the blue plume while looking at the launcher **. But to turn toward the launcher for a look is to make yourself vulnerable to any missiles that are launched while you're turning. One alternative you have is to use the '3' key and watch the launcher while also flying the plane through the turn externally.

(** In some missions in Germany & Cuba you can tell a SAM is inbound by a distinctive RWR spike, but not here. When the SAM tracking you is radar guided, as would be an SA-6 missile for instance, you will see a RWR spike that appears suddenly and extends to the edge of the RWR display. When a heatseeker is inbound--for example a Rapier--there will be little or no warning, and no sustained display on the RWR.)

North Beach ZSUs (2)

The "Jink Up and Down" tactic works well, and while it is easy to get the hang of it initially, it is rather difficult to master, requiring constant practice. You fly toward the target, inevitably drawing fire. The instant you are fired upon, you jink either down or up just a bit, enough that the stream misses you high or low. When you get good you can get right on top of him for a point blank shot. Until you get good though you will eat much hot lead. (Remember, and this is true in all A-10 theaters, the closer you are when an enemy fires bullets at you, the more damage you'll suffer if you're hit. Not necessarily because a bullet does more damage from that close, but because from that distance you are more likely to get hit many times. Point blank shooting is nice when you can afford it, but usually you just end up landing sooner than you'd hoped - if you get to land at all.)

AIRPORT INFORMATION

Altitudes given here are MSL, read from the altimeter while parked on the runway. Subtract 7' for true altitudes.

Both runways have rudimentary runway lighting along the sides -- no runway end lights.

Hope you like it. Let me know what you think!

Steve Russillo
russillosm@gmail.com
Sept. 10, 1997

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