COMBATSIM.COM: F22: TAW: How to Beat the Campaign

F-22: Total Air War: How to Beat the Campaign

by Umberto "Hart" Licata

Article Type: Strategy Guide
Article Date: March 01, 2004

Product Info

Product Name: Total Air War
Category: Jet Simulation
Developer: Digital Image Design
Publisher: Infogrames
Release Date: Released
Required Spec: P200 32 MB RAM
Files and Links: Click Here
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Introduction:
This article is for the thousands of you who own F22: TAW, but never managed to win a campaign. Truth is, if you followed the manual's suggestions, you can't win. Now would be a good time to dust off your copy of TAW and set things right! In this article, Umberto "Hart" Licata shares all his hard-won tips and campaign winning strategies. He even reveals the simple, yet elusive, tip that will make all the difference between winning and losing in F22: TAW.

An oldie, but a goodie!

Prerequisites
I assume that:

Your copy of F-22:TAW is patched: Patches.
You know how to fly the F-22.
You know very well how to use the LANTIRN system (Attack MFD).
You have at least a basic knowledge of the Mission Planner.
You know very well how to use the AWACS interface.
You already have a high rank pilot.

Point #6 is very important. You can't use my strategy and espect good results starting with a low rank pilot. Fortunately DID released (back in the day) a logfile that will grant you full access to all missions since the beginning.

In case you can't/don't want to use this logfile, you'll have no choice but to play a campaign at your best until the very end, thus having your pilot saved with a rank based on your overall performance. Even in case of defeat you'd have strong chances to obtain a rank of 4 (which is good enough).

Mission Planner interface

Edit Your Game.cfg File
Since you have the patch, add the following lines at the start of your Game.cfg file:

REARM_WINGMEN=1
LAND_AT_ANY_BASE=1
NO_COLLISION_ON_GROUND=1

This is optional. I like it:

MORE_CANNON_ON_HARD=1

Do NOT use these two:

START_ON_RUNWAY=1
OTHER_FLIGHTS_IN_AIR=1

Prologue: It All Started When…
During a rainy, cold, boring Sunday afternoon back in January, I was playing F-22: TAW. Highland Campaign was almost finished and already lost as usual. I was flying just for fun. After customizing a Strike mission, I was in the pilot seat of Iron199, waiting for clearance to taxi to the runway.

Several bandits were inbound.

Due to these waves of bandits, Magic (the AWACS) kept the radio busy all the time, thus delaying all communications between me and the control tower. Thirty minutes later I was still parked! I abandoned the mission…

Back in the War Room, the bandits were still causing troubles.

The War Room interface

I selected a CAP mission to get my revenge. Ten minutes later, all bandits were dust. I reached my CAP waypoint, I began checking the situation on the Defense MFD. An Allied formation of 4 Wings was heading my way. I wasn't paying special attention to it, but I couldn't help to hear the radio:

Iron One Niner Niner Go Deuce Tight… Two… Three… Four…

A coincidence? A bug?

I closed the distance to Iron199 Wing, I then used the Smart Views system to look at the aircraft. Yes, they were four F22. Yes, their loadout was 3 AGM-65G 3 GBU-24 (a custom loadout, my loadout). And yes, Iron199 was my former designation. Although I abandoned it, the mission was not canceled… Hmmm?

The Elusive Campaign-Winning Strategy
This shouldn't be called a military strategy. I'd rather say a solution to a limitation of the campaign engine. In fact, this “strategy” completely solves all campaign-related problems. Basically, it's a way to launch multiple missions in a very short time, thus allowing Allied forces to withstand any enemy activity.

Here's the strategy: You can launch all kinds of missions, abandon them on the runway, and let the AI take over. When you are satisfied, you can use the AWACS to give orders or take direct control of any of those F-22. Yes, because every mission you launch means from one to four new airborne F22 aircraft.

Editor's Note: Giving credit where credit is due.

When Hart first submitted this article, neither he nor I was aware of anything on the Internet that described this game-winning strategy. However, upon submitting the article to me, I gave Hart full access to the COMBATSIM.COM website and he then started searching the F22 discussions on our old forums. Lo and behold! Hart found that his start/abandon mission "discovery" had indeed already been mentioned on our own forums, of all places. You gotta love the irony of that!

Here's the post made by "Dot" back in June of 2001 that relates this same strategy.

Having said that, you'll still need all of Hart's other tips and tactics (several original ones at that) in order to consistently beat the TAW campaign.

How To Launch Multiple Missions
In a nutshell:

From the Air Tasking Order (ATO) in the War Room, select the mission you want to launch.
Customize the mission and launch it.
Once in the pilot seat, end the mission (SHIFT Q and E). You're free to leave anytime.
Repeat at will from point n°1.
When satisfied, get on the AWACS.

You may be asking, "Isn't abandoning missions a bad thing?" The F-22: TAW manual teaches us that failing or abandoning a mission results in a loss of precious career points. This is not always true! When you abandon the F-22 before the take-off, no points are deducted. AWACS instead can be abandoned and rejoined at will, without punishment.

Only drawback (in both cases) is that you receive a “Mission Failed” debriefing. Which doesn't really hurt. Honestly: I prefer to fail a hundred missions and still win the campaign, rather than completing them all and still losing the war!

Graphics, while no longer cutting edge, still hold up today.

More Campaign-Winning Tips
The Mission Planner
In the Mission Planner you can customize every aspect of your missions. I suggest you only touch the loadout part. Don't change the route provided by the AI. Pre-planned routes are somewhat standard and multiple Strike formations will likely fly close to each other, thus having more firepower for self defense Later in the Campaign, with Enemy SAMs out of commission, you can choose to fly shorter routes.

The War Room
Do not underestimate the War Room. Only a fool would ignore the wealth of info in there! All graphs will be updated once per hour. Keep an eye on the clock and check them regularly. Learn from the graphs. They'll clearly tell you how good or bad you're doing. The F-22: TAW manual teaches us to look at the Sortie graph to understand how are things going, while says nothing in particular about the other graphs.

The War Room interface

Ironically, the Sortie graph is the only one you can completely ignore. To really see how good or bad you are doing: look at the Damage graph. All other graphs and reports are useful. Check them too. Final note: the War Room map is more efficient than the AWACS map. The AWACS map can show you only what the AWACS can see. The War Room map, however, will show you everything everywhere.

Scramble!
In theory, you should never be offered a Scramble mission, because enemy forces should never get
past your defences. But the wise man always presses the Scramble button. Just in case…

Whenever you are offered a Scramble mission: think before acting. The Scramble popup window is there. The game is frozen. You have all the time in the world to decide. Know that you can still zoom in/out on the map. Do it.

Now…

How many bandits are you required to stop? Besides them, how many others do you see coming your way? What about your forces all around? Should you help here? or should you return to the AWACS? You decide.

Note: if you refuse the Scramble, other aircraft will take-off, but they probably won't be F-22s.

Strike Missions
Needless to say: Strike missions are of the utmost importance. Always use “Strike” roles for your F-22. Avoid “Escort” and “Wild Weasel”. During my tests I've found the best all-purpose strike loadout to be:

2 AIM-9X Sidewinder [internal]
6 AIM-120C AMRAAM (or 4 AIM-120C 2 AIM-120R) [internal]
12 AGM-65G Maverick [external]

(Of course, you are free to choose whatever loadout you prefer.)

In F-22: TAW, the AGM-65G warhead has enough power to take out most structures in one hit. This means that a Wing of four F22s (each armed with 12 Mavericks) can take out up to 15 targets in
a single mission.

Even if a Wing is reduced to one aircraft, you can still destroy 12 targets on your own. Multiply this for a number of simultaneous strikes and you get the picture.

When you have finished a strike, don't forget to make your Wingmen drop their external AG weapons. Those F-22 will become stealth fighters with superior speed and maneuvrability. Air killers at your disposal to engage any enemy formation you see fit. The only drawback is that you'll have to take direct control and order/lead the engagement. Alternatively you can set a dedicated Waypoint from the Waypoint Editor (Situation MFD, F-22).

SEAD missions are extremely important. You don't need me to explain you why. For this reason, regardless of your strike role (e.g., Airfield Denial, BAI), I encourage you to go for any SAMs you find along the way. Give them top priority. Mission targets (whatever they are) are secondary! Other strikes will head that way soon and you need free-runs for them. Remember the AI will send its own strike formations, which probably won't have any F-22s for you.

Note: When you want a SAM destroyed, do it personally. Your wingmen would waste all their missiles for a single target! Better keep them out of harm. Use the “Strike Loose” formation plus the EMCOM M5 mode and they'll survive 90-percent of the time.

Later in the campaign, due to your massive bombing, available ground targets will be considerably reduced in number.

Moreover, with most of the SAM sites destroyed, it'll be hard to locate targets of opportunity. Carrying 12 Mavericks won't be any good now, better switch to 4 GBU-24 bombs. From then on, you'll no longer need to take control of your F22s while striking, because they'll always destroy the target dropping all bombs on it. You won't even need to jump in to make them drop their extra ordnance. Even better, having no more SAMs in the way, you can use shorter mission routes.

Remember too, each strike wing always has at least one escort and one wild weasel wing. Escorts can be redirected just like CAPs. Use them to intercept boogies before your strike wing gets engaged. Wild Weasels are different. Useless during dogfights…unable to take out SAMs before the strike wing gets destroyed…Better to redirect them to take out SAMs if the opportunity is found along the way, thus paving the road for future strikes (with a bit of luck).

To Avoid Disastrous Consequences
There are things you have to keep in mind.

1) You cannot launch a hundred missions. You are limited in resources. Each Campaign has its own Resources-Per-Hour Limit, which is for you to discover and deal with. For example: if you launch 10 CAPs, don't be surprised you can't then launch any Strike until some of those CAPs land or get destroyed.

Furthermore, the AI will launch its own missions while you launch yours. For this reason, there will be times when you can exceed the given resource limit. But this is only a temporary advantage, because then you'll have to wait longer than normal to launch your next wave of missions.

2) Supply Transports are required to keep your airfields operational. Launch some from time to time. Ignore supply transport missions and your AFB will eventually run out of resources, leading the campaign engine to use more frequently your back-line airbases to launch strikes.

3) Use the AWACS; that is, give orders. Don't stand still, comtemplating the map. Move your CAPs to cover every mile of the contested borders. The enemy can't slip undetected behind your lines: don't waste CAPs patrolling the inner airspace. When the infobox of inner CAPs states they are "Patrolling", drag them near the borders.

4) Don't keep your CAPs clustered. You must be able to select each wing without having to zoom in. Don't keep your F-22 CAPs too near to each other. They are your personal points of presence, arrange them so that you can intervene everywhere.

5) Order interceptions! Don't wait for your CAPs to spot the enemy.

6) Do not invade enemy airspace with your CAPs: they would attract too much undesired attention. Cavalry is long dead! Don't hesitate, however, to mobilize four Wings to intercept just one enemy.

Bandit!

7) Inspect the map. Use frequent zooms to check your Strike Wings and the surrounding threats. Be far-sighted.

8) Protect your AWACS! If you lose it and there isn't another already patrolling: IT'S A DISASTER! You could have to wait sixty long minutes for the next AWACS to be available…Be sure the boat is well defended before diving into any F-22 sessions.

Things You Need To Know
EMCON Level

Know that your Wingmen will copy your EMCON level.
While dogfighting and striking, switch to EMCON M5 and your Wingmen will have far greater chances
of survival whenever a missile is homing on them.
When you return to the AWACS, the AI will reset EMCOM to Auto.

Fuel

AI pilots will engage full afterburners when:
- dogfighting
- striking
- intercepting
- returning in formation
Inspect their fuel reserves from the AWACS.
Don't wait for them to request a vector for Texaco (the airborne refueler): it would be too late.
If Texaco isn't within range, try to divert them to the nearest airfield.
Don't give CAPs and HVA Escorts any external fuel. Go for maximum AA payload.

Speed
You should have noticed how F-22 AI pilots are able to perform supercruise regardless of current
loadout and altitude. Strangely enough, the second you dare jump in an F22 at M1.55… the magic breaks apart and your aircraft loses its fantastic speed. Think twice before jumping in, don't do it just for fun.

Stealth
True is that the F-22 can be a stealth fighter, and while stealthy it can fly over a nest of SAMs
having little to worry about. However, since the AI always use the Auto EMCON setting, you see how the AI pilots tend to give away their stealthness for the smallest threat. Therefore, I suggest you sacrifice stealth configuration for maximum payload. Your F22 Strike Wings would become stealth fighters at a later moment in any case: once their external ordnance is depleted/dropped after the strike.

Compressing Time
Avoid using any kind of time compression.

SHIFT T (F-22), Time Warp button (AWACS) and Skip button (War Room) are the three functions you
should forget about.

With all the activity in the theatre, the risk of losing control of the situation is too high. I once used the Time Warp button for roughly 30 seconds, watching closely an Allied Strike Wing
about to strike. When I zoomed out, I noticed a 3-Wing formation happily bombing my structures! My local CAPs were gone (even two F22 I could have used to save the day) and more enemy strikes were already on their way! As the hour changed, the Damage graph stated an awful 11 percent INF damage suffered on my part! All I did was using the Time Warp for half a minute

AWACS Known Bugs

Few bugs afflict the AWACS part. Most of them can be ignored. I'll report only the three you should be aware of. Read carefully!

The AWACs interface

AWACS BUG 1) Clicking on a Strike Wing returning home will cause it to blindly attempt a strike right where it is, disregarding current ordnance and waypoint. Sometimes the Strike Wing will even head back to the Strike Waypoint. In all cases the Strike Wing would end up stuck striking forever, running out of fuel.

This happens only when you click to select a Strike Wing which has already performed the strike. To prevent this behavior, avoid clicking on Strike Wings after they have bombed. In case you clicked, you have no choice but to jump in and switch to a Waypoint following the strike one. Before leaving, remember to recall your Wingmen in formation or they won't follow. Alternatively (as AWACS commander) you can directly order a landing, but this will make the Wing fly at low altitude (depleting more fuel) until destination.

AWACS BUG 2) Strike Wings that have reached their Strike Waypoint and should begin the attack, won't perform any striking and will head home. This happens everytime you personally conduct a strike and your attack is simultaneous to that of other Strike Wings elsewhere.

Therefore, when you're done with your F22 strike sessions, return to the AWACS and check all Strike Wings you see returning home to make sure they have bombed. In case they didn't, you'll have to jump in and set again the Waypoint preceding the strike one. I don't know how to prevent this bug, besides letting the AI handle all simultaneous bombings.

AWACS BUG 3) Aircrafts loadout status doesn't get properly saved when quitting the game, causing all aircrafts in the world to be fully rearmed when continuing the Campaign. However, fuel level IS actually saved and reloaded correctly. For this reason it's better re-drop the external ordnance of Strike Wings returning home, or they won't likely make it before running out of fuel. This bug can't be prevented.

Getting Started
Well…this is it. A last paragraph containing some tips to have a good campaign start. Skip it or read it, it's up to you. No big difference.

A word of advice:
Each F-22: TAW campaign is a challenge. Each for different reasons. Never underestimate the enemy.

Rules? One: do not rush your moves.

With all SAMs operational and no AWACS support, sending out now a wave of strikes would be a total waste. On the other hand, the enemy is already on offensive. Better to focus on defense while you wait for the AWACS. So launch only CAPs. A total of 4 or 5 will be enough (they'll add to those already patrolling). Check the briefing maps to see the pre-planned routes. Try spreading your CAPs here and there.

When finished, stay in the War Room, observe the big map and wait patiently. Refrain from launching other unnecessary missions or you may delay the AWACS take-off. So if you have to wait for one hour, sitting duck, so be it!

Don't forget to press the Scramble button. While waiting here, you should go for any Scramble you are offered. Just return to the War Room without wasting time.

Is the AWACS finally ready? Jump on it.

First thing to do now is redistribuite your CAPs for better coverage of your borders. Once you're done with CAP management, you can leave the AWACS to go launch a few Strike missions. Don't get mad if you can launch only a couple missions right now! Won't be always like that.

Keep an eye on your Strike Wings, don't forget they count on you. You'll soon have to jump in and save their butt, speaking of which: remember that yours is mainly needed on the AWACS. Limit your F-22 sessions to those that are strictly necessary.

With fewer SAMs, you can take more direct routes

As time passes and SAM sites are destroyed, you can afford to launch more Strike missions with
fewer worries. Be advised, the AWACS map could soon be overcrowded by all sort of icons, making it hard to keep track of everything.

When you need time to reflect: use the Pause button.

Remember to launch new CAPs once in a while, for older ones will eventually land, be destroyed, deplete missiles, run out of fuel…

Finally remember the War Room graphs are updated only once per hour.

Whatever you're up to, don't espect immediate results, but persevere and you will be rewarded!

Have fun!
Hart.

Addendum: Graphic Proof that the Campaign can be Beat!
Here are some images that prove the campaign can be beaten!