Well, I didn't have time last night to compile final statistics for this first TOD series; I'll try to have them out in a day or so.
The ninth and final mission was played in the special events arena (SEA), and had the surviving TOD pilots, along with a goodly number of walk-ons, pitted against an escorted bomber force...the classic strike intercept. Eleven Luftwaffe fighters -- around half and half Fw190s and Me109s -- scrambled from Knightland to their orbit points just beyond the border. A force of around 8 B-17s, with a small escort of Mustangs, formed up and headed toward the enemy capital from Rookitania. The stage was set for a duel to the death!
The battle plan was for the 109s to engage the escorts, while the buff-busting 190s plowed through the enemy pulks like a hot knife through butter. But it did not turn out to be the cake-walk Jerry thought it would be. First, a majority of the bombers were piloted by the Buccaneers. The Buccs have spent a great deal of time honing their formation flying. The other Forts were piloted by extremely skilled pilots as well, resulting in one of the tightest formations I've ever seen in an on-line sim. AND every bomber had a dedicated gunner!
What happened? The aerial equivalent of a bar room braul. The German fighters, ably led by Wabbit (high-scoring pilot of TOD#1, and the only one to make ace, with 6 kills), set up the attack with skill. The outnumbered Mustangs, led by the intrepid Hollywood, did there best to break up the attack, but they were quickly overwhelmed. The Focke-Wulfs decended into the teeth of the massed 50-cal guns, pressing their attack to the fullest. A number of bombers went down immediately, joined by more than one German plane, and almost all the rest of the Forts were wounded. Long trails of oily smoke and whispy lines of leaking AvGas flowed out behind the surviving bombers, like the tail of a giant arrow aimed at the heart of the Fatherland. The Allied ranks had bent but not broken. A much diminshed Luftwaffe regrouped as well.
The bombers closed their ranks and raced on toward Berlin. Now it became a stern chase. The German's were running out of time, with only a few minutes to stop the rain of destruction from commencing. Several brave Luftwaffe pilots attacked from dead astern in desparation. They managed to down a lone, low straggler; however, an attack against the surviving four bombers only resulted in another destroyed German fighter. Having reached their target, the bombbay doors yawned wide and death tumbled earthward. Lines of destruction marched across the heart of the city...
WOW! Sounds almost as exciting as it really was, eh? After dropping their ordnance, the bombers were ordered to auger. No other Luftwaffe planes remained in a position to intercept, and we wanted to get on with the buff duel. That was a lot of fun too, and I actually got to fly for a change
.
My thanks to flightleaders Jarbo, Wabbit, Hollywood, dnil; also, to all who participated last night and throughout TOD#1. Also to HtC, for making the SEA available for this type of event; it simply couldn't have been done as well in the main arena. I hope my poor literary attempt above to provide a hint of the excitement and chaos of this event generates more interest in this type of play. SALUTE to all!
Sabre (a.k.a. Rojo)
TOD Minister of War (ret.- for now)
[This message has been edited by Rojo (edited 02-25-2000).]
