SimHQ.com - Air Combat Zone - Review: Falcon 4.0: Allied Force

We now need to give our boys something specific at the base to shoot at. Down at the bottom row of menu buttons, left side, we see the ATO, Air Tasking Order and click that. Up comes the list of packages we have set thus far. If you want to see all packages, click that box down in the lower left corner and it will show you all packages regardless of the team. I pick Cowboy1, and right click, choose Recon. The Recon window comes up along with the target list. I drill down through the Marlboro targets and assign him the runway.

I then choose Falcon1 and assign him to hit the radar. Note, you can also do this another way, maybe even a better way, and that is to select your flight and hit the Flight Plan button. This shows you all the individual steerpoints, actions at each steerpoint, altitude, TOS, speed, and for the target steerpoint, the Assign button. Click that and you can recon as well as make the individual target assignment.

Here, I am careful to note where the radar is; it's a small object and one we need to know how to find where things get hot and hectic. By the recon screen I see that it's on the North side, to the right from our attack perspective, near the parking area. Time to go to the arming screens and set the loadouts. F4:AF has given me what I want for Cowboy1, six BLU-107/B Durandals. Falcon1 I have to change, since the runway bombs won't be so good on a radar site, and pick six MK-82 general purpose bombs for him. Here, the TO clock is red and represents the takeoff time for the flight.

Remember I mentioned we'd setup and fly a simple mission, then add a little more complexity? Well, we're just about to do the first flying. I hit the Briefing button on the bottom menu and take a look at what we're going to do, distances, loadouts, and timing. We're still set for an 0930 TOT, so it looks like time to kick the tires and light the fires.

Before we know it, we're ready for takeoff. The ATC lady says that name I love so much, and we're on our way. En route, old habits kick in and I ask AWACS for picture. Not happening. I'm puzzled for a moment, where are they dang it? Then I remember. In the world I have created, they don't exist, at least not yet. And it's OK, because there's no nasty interceptors out there either, at least not yet. We placed squadrons at bases, but didn't assign them any specific duties to complete so far. But there are ground threats. I see this at 33 miles from steerpoint 3.

Not a completely benign environment, there are people out there who don't like what I'm about to do. I decide to check in Falcon1 and see what's up with him.

What the heck? Why is he flying NOE? I didn't tell him to do that! I figured we'd have enough gas to make the roughly 270 miles to target and back, but maybe not doing this stuff. Worse still, his partner, Falcon12 is gone altogether! Crashed into a mountainside? Things are rapidly going wrong on this flight and it's early. Suddenly, it hits me. I was playing around with the contour planners and dropped one of the waypoints down just to see how low it would go. I must have left it that way. Nuts. Add that to the list of things to fix.

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