First campaign, 4th mission. Ran into a volley of heavy AA while gun strafing some tanks. Took a lot of hits but thought I could manage back home despite severe handling problems... like missing my whole right wing.
Had a quick run through the first 3 campaign missions. Got shot up pretty bad on first but managed to land at home base (and not explode while digging myself into the field next to the landing strip). All realism options on and getting a hang of it, starting up the plane, dropping some munitions and navigating. Hitting anything with the cannon needs lot of practising.
Falcon 4.0 is still unbeatable with the completely dynamic campaign but the latest DCS sims are really damn good. Price is indeed rather high but you get sick detail and accurate representation of the mighty A-10. And the build seems very stable and bug free on my old comp.
By the way, don't be scared about the detail. I've had the game for a couple of days and even with my cheapo MS stick the game is fully enjoyable and learning curve is very manageable though naturally quite steep. Remembering what all the most important switches do and how things get going takes some tutorial hours but having an iPad or another comp next to you to browse quick start PDFs and vids make learning easy.
From Gizmodo comments: "Someone sat down and said, "You know what would be a good idea? A camera with a camouflage body, and white, pink, and purple accents." Then his coworkers proceeded to agree with him. That actually happened."