Baltic Dragon got in touch with me not too long ago and provided me with an early sneak peek at The Gamblers! This is his latest campaign and one that features both the DCS: F-16C and DCS: Syria maps. I flew both the introductory mission (which is really just a bit of a tutorial on the campaign’s mechanics) and then the first two missions of the campaign itself. Here’s how it all went and what you can expect when The Gamblers comes out.

Mission zero: A bit of a tutorial

The Gamblers is not your average campaign and the missions contained within are not your average missions. Baltic Dragon has put a lot of detail and effort into ensuring that you’re fully engaged with all aspects of the mission including radio channel switches and the occasional decision making on what your intentions are. On screen prompts, with a custom The Gamblers theme, will occasionally pop up during missions asking you to acknowledge them.

There’s a couple of ways that those prompts can work with the tried and tested Spacebar plus radio comms F10 menu being one method. A faster method involves key binding CRAD 1 and CRAD 2 switches to the HOTAS. These are inop in our simulated Viper so they work well as an interactive substitute. Smart!

The tutorial walks us through this and a few other items to get us started with The Gamblers. After this, its on to the real missions!

Mission one: Building some tension and atmosphere

The key word I’m going to keep using throughout this is immersion. Based on real missions flown by John “Rain” Waters in 2014 and 2015, the campaign manages to weave a realistic story but also one with solid narrative structure. That starts with building some tension and doing a bit of exposition for the player as the first mission plays out.

The first mission is a kind of prologue as your flight of Vipers heads to their new base at King Hussein Air College. The base, located in Jordan, is in the southern sector of the DCS: Syria map and its a military airfield located in the middle of nowhere – surrounded by desert. But it is a key forward operating base for the F-16s both in the real world events that the campaign is retelling as well as, of course, in the sim.

You start mid-flight on a ferry mission to get you to your new operating base with KC-135 flying together with the F-16s for a good chunk of the mission. No aerial refuelling at this stage thankfully (it’s been a long time since I tanked in an F-16). The chatter between aircraft/characters keeps things interesting while contrails crisscross the sky from civilian airliner flights.

Knowing the F-16’s autopilot modes is really helpful here as cruising along is easy with the jet on autopilot. A little more laborious when you’re hand flying it.

Eventually we leave the KC-135 behind and descend below 10,000 feet over Jordan.

There is a bit of danger here as we were painted by a SAM site that ended up taking a shot at the lazy formation flyer that I was being. So if you do follow the mission parameters closely you’ll be safe and if you want a little danger… be less precise!

After that, it was holding pattern for a while with the rest of the flight landing. Then it was my turn where I performed my second worst ever F-16 landing! But I survived and completed the mission.

Mission two: Escorting bones and flying in the dark

My anxiety jumped up a couple of levels with mission two because I’m still feeling rusty on the Viper and we were set to be flying at 3:00 am – its dark, with less than half moon, and its just me and the jet and everything else going on around outside. Yikes!

After the flight started up we were on our way to the runway and then rapidly taking off. No waiting around here!

Then we were up in the air and following the first set of waypoints. Staying on top of comm frequency changes is important, fortunately both the kneeboard and the campaign itself give you options including using the F10 radio menu option to set frequencies for you.

I occasionally made use of the night vision goggles to help spot my flight but I became separated from them often. Fortunately, with the HSD providing a situational overview of everything going on, fighting in the dark is not so bad. You know where your friends are at all times!

After holding and waiting for the B-1B’s to join us, we proceeded north towards the target area. We were away from theatre level Syrian SAM coverage but MANPADs are a threat in this mission so staying above the hard deck of 14,000 feet is important.

While I hung back from the group a bit, a SAM did take a pot shot at me leading to some momentary panic, defensive manoeuvring, and a single manual program release of chaff and flares – just to be safe! After that the site went cold and things were clear again.

As we got to the target there was plenty of AAA fire but nothing in our vicinity as the Bones dropped their GPS guided munitions on the first target. Everything was eliminated in that first pass and we declared the target destroyed with a quick on station bomb damage assessment.

We were then cleared to pay a visit to the secondary target.

On my first playthrough I had completely forgotten how to do laser guided bomb drops, despite thinking I knew, so after a quick refresher I was back on task and deploying my two onboard bombs and one Maverick on target. Boom, boom, and boom!

Then it was time to head home, land, and put my feet up! Phew!

Things you need to know before you get started

The Gamblers does ease you in a bit but this is definitely a campaign where you should know the F-16C well. I’ve spent innumerable hours with the jet but my skills are a little rusty and out of date and so brushing up on the jet before getting into the campaign is a really good idea.

Make sure you know the autopilot, make sure you understand the comms system, and make sure that your skills with the targeting pod, GBU and AGM-65 weapons are on point to match the first couple of missions. Expect the unexpected and be ready for an immersive campaign focused on real world operations.

Can’t wait for this campaign to release to the general public. Look for it to show up on the DCS World store later this month! If you haven’t already, be sure to read my recent Q&A with The Gamblers campaign author Baltic Dragon.