Combat Flight Simulator 2 - Mission #4 (PC Game Related)

After 3 successful missions on the Pacific Theater, all done flying the P38F, I was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, with the impressive record of 37 destructions (mostly buildings) and no personal planes lost, though one of my friends was shot down, during the second mission. All missions have been played with 100% realism.

Achieving the missions' goals, when they consist on hitting ground targets, is now relatively easy to me. The P38F flies impressively well on low altitude, despite its slowish responses, when compared to the light F4F. But the best thing on the sole dual-engine plane you can have for your first outings, is its armor and its firepower! This plane can take some five times more hits, than the alternatives, and it can fire its cannon for ages! You can do many passes over targets, since you'll have the ammo to slowly damage them.

Now, can anyone really accomplish a mission with the F4F?! Damn it! Is it just me? This plane fires a burst of bullets, and then it gets absolutely defenseless! More: if it gets hit by enemies, it accuses it severely and eventually collapses to ground, broken in parts, when (and if) the enemy fire persists. In other words, on my hands, this plane is useless. Absolutely useless: I can never destroy any target with it, because I don't have enough firepower to do it. Am I missing something?

On your second assignment, the purpose is to blow away some American (!) structures who fell on Japanese hands - this is (was) the base at Wake. You are advised to drop some bombs, using the F4Fs, but - again - if you do, you won't but be able to carry a pair of light bombs who won't do enough damage, unless you are lucky to the point of scoring a 100% accuracy with the available weaponry.

So, what did I do? Well, I got myself into a P38F (not surprised, are you?), carrying two HEAVY bombs. With a pair of HEAVY bombs, the plane is nearly impossible to lift off the carrier - you'll need to reverse it until the very edge of the boat, then throttle it 100% until the other end, with flaps half way down, and cross your fingers...

With some luck and lots of delicacy on the joystick, the P38F will eventually sustain itself and slowly (very slowly) gain speed up to 150 mph, a number that makes me comfortable on calling gear up. When the gear retracts, the plane shakes a bit and if it is flying slower than that, it might dangerously unbalance left or right. Also, make sure you are "drinking" from BOTH fuel depots and not only from the left one, which will be the default, when you are too speedy on calling ignition and throttling.

The heavy bombs have a reasonable splash effect, meaning that even if you drop them not exactly on the spot, there should be considerable damage on the surroundings.

Mission #3 happens on morning, with the sun rising, and that looks awesome! At this time of day, you'll easily see the bullets spitting out of the many AA on ground, like if you were arriving to some new year commemoration :). The weather and the time of day can certainly affect your performance; for example, you won't see nothing when your plane gets aligned with the rising sun - you'll need to rudder out slightly.

You are to escort SBDs for a raid on Marcus Island (go look for it on a Pacific map), where the Nippon have an outpost. It is bombing time, again, and you'll do it better if carrying the heavy option.

The novelty comes on outing #4. The American scouts have located two Japanese carriers (the Shokaku and the Zuikaku) within range, and it is your chance for some revenge a la Pearl Harbor. The mission will be successful if you damage the Zuikaku, destroy 4 enemy planes and manage to get back.

Damaging the Zuikaku is hard, but possible. The carrier is protected by many smaller boats, but will suffer from a rockets greeting :). Unfortunately, you can only carry rockets with the P38F, not with F4Fs. As a result, you'll have a much less maneuverable plane (the Japanese are flying the ultra light A6M2 Zeros), and you are likely not to achieve the mission's goals on air.

In fact, it is IMPOSSIBLE to deal with the A6M2 Zeros: if you get too near, they easily loop to your back... and if you try to do the same, the plane will stall and spiral down, until it crashes on water. The P38F is a heavy bird, with two 1400 hp engines, doing plenty of noise and weighting an extra that is simply not affordable, on air battles.

So, I tried the F4Fs. In fact, I even tried the A6M2 Zero, though it feels strange using a Japanese plane, with Japanese instructions, lifting from an American carrier.

The F4Fs are useless, as explained somewehere above: they have NOT the firepower to damage the carriers, AND they do NOT have the agility to outperform the Zeros.

The Zeros are very similar: they handle wonderfully (you can take off with both eyes closed), but they are weak on both structure and firepower, meaning that they can only be effective on groups against slower targets.

For short, on mission #4, I simply don't know how to do what I am asked. But I'll be back.

Combat Flight Simulator 2 was previously mentioned on update 251100.