Stonehenge Defense is impossible

[BeanTheWaif]

No matter what I do, no matter what plane I pick, I can't beat this godforsaken mission.
Why is the AI so brain dead it can't defend itself?

[Devsman]

So that you can have agency in the game, of course. If they can defend themselves, what is the player even there for?

Anyway, focus on speed and missile strength/capacity. Decrease your thrust when you get in range and make sure you get all the enemies in one pass. Use guns when you're waiting for the reload. If you have to turn around for another pass, you're wasting too much time.

The missile strength is for the bombers.

[Rastrelly]

Originally posted by Your Tanuki Girlfriend:

No matter what I do, no matter what plane I pick, I can't beat this godforsaken mission.
Why is the AI so brain dead it can't defend itself?

The question is, what ARE you doing? In any case, here is the short idea:
1) Take a plane with multi anti-ground missiles or UGB.
2) Destroy ground units closest to menhir points on the map.
3) Watch the map; when groups of bombers appear near the edges, FORGET ABOUT EVERYTHING and focus them
4) There also will be an attack of A-10s and of choppers (or artillery), watch out for those too.

[Ulan, Dwarfmaxing]

I mean, most of the answers to this thread can be summarized to "skill issue". Stonehenge is a very enjoyable mission but it really cannot be done with the wrong plane configuration.

- Pick a plane with ground attack capabilities. A2G Missiles or guided bombs help. Do not pick exclusively fighter planes or planes with lasers, unguided bombs and such. Pick up as many components to extend the supply of special weapons as possible.

- Your focus should be destroying all the bombers, Helicopters and such. All the things that attack Stonehenge. In between runs, when you have breathing room, select your special weapon and do fast runs on the ground targets, killing as many as possible in the shortest amount of time. It is not necessary that you kill all the ground targets. Kill as much as you can in as many Menhirs as possible and return to the air targets.

- Do not dogfight. Ignore fighters and drones. Focus on Air Targets and Ground forces.

[BeanTheWaif]

Thank you all of you, I finally finished that hellscape of a mission

[Rastrelly]

Originally posted by Agent Ulan:

planes with lasers, unguided bombs and such.

I must interject here. UGBs are EXTREMELY powerful in this mission. You just fly over a group of ground targets when they stop (or just make a slight correction if they ARE moving) and you can literally clear out entire attack groups in a couple of sweeps. Bonus come in the form of absurdly fast UGB reload time, you can throw them out like candy. If you also add bonuses with missiles and MG, you can clear basically ALL THREE assault groups by the point the first bomber group arrives. Same goes for PLSL, good PLSL technique allows to clean this map up completely.

Originally posted by Your Tanuki Girlfriend:

Thank you all of you, I finally finished that hellscape of a mission

Grats!

[lynx_b7r]

i found it was easier to just bring laams and snipe the tu while using mg and standard missiles to pick off ground targets. using this method, i pretty much mopped the map before the game had time to catch up. tch, wish i could record it.

[Hat Kid with an FN FAL]

if you have the aircraft available, FAEB's destroy on this mission. Unfortunately FAEB's are only available on the ADF-01 and the F-15 Active I think.

[Vimini]

Originally posted by akusen2:

i found it was easier to just bring laams and snipe the tu while using mg and standard missiles to pick off ground targets. using this method, i pretty much mopped the map before the game had time to catch up. tch, wish i could record it.

You can do it in almost anything on Ace if youve played enough I like to use the F-15C with just SASMs during campaign just to try and fly canon

[Sonic Wolfe]

I played this level on Ace with a F-104, (arguably one of the worst fighter in the game). So its not that hard. Focus on Anti-Air ground units and don't let bombers slip past you. You don't have to worry about Tanks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aQ5LWdKXt8&list=PLRSnpQ118FSJWqiLwXYMvQRescEXpCuVa&index=12

[Flawaffles]

I would kill to see gameplay of people complaining Ace Combatis too hard :D

[Ballistic Drop]

Originally posted by this is a sign:

if you have the aircraft available, FAEB's destroy on this mission. Unfortunately FAEB's are only available on the ADF-01 and the F-15 Active I think.

Agreed, FAEB makes the ground suppression part of the mission a little too easy.

As long as people don't try to pick a CAS only loadout (listen, I love my A-10 BRRRRRTTTT as much as anybody, it just doesn't have a strong place in AC missions) all missions are doable in vanilla planes, then they just get to easy and then ridiculously dull with the DLC planes.

The biggest issue I see again and again is that people forget to focus on the TGT icons on the radar, kill them first always.

[Vimini]

Originally posted by Flawaffles:

I would kill to see gameplay of people complaining Ace Combatis too hard :D

I would kill to see a JDAM dropped on your house

[Devsman]

Originally posted by Vimini:

Originally posted by Flawaffles:

I would kill to see gameplay of people complaining Ace Combatis too hard :D

I would kill to see a JDAM dropped on your house

Well that escalated quickly.

[EAGLEWAX]

F-15E is all you need for the whole game .