Thanks for the comments guys.
First, I want to say "thanks" to all those
pilots who participated, friend and foe alike.
I was quite nervous about whether people would
come out in sufficient numbers to justify
the effort that was put into this. But now
I want to know if it was a success. As I stated
before, I defined success as people having a
good time. So did you?
It is clear that the fighter pilots had a fun night,
especially the Knight pilots, but
did the Rook
bomber pilots have fun too?We had a good 1.5 hour debrief after the mission
ended and have learned many, many lessons on
this first effort that we will be implementing next
time around. (Paladin, most of what you posted
was addressed and more..ty for the post!). My
thanks to those pilots who participated in the
debrief.
Approximately 150-200 Rook pilots participated
in the mission. At last count, there were 101
who joined the various posted missions. There
were at least that many sitting on the runway
in their preferred skin waiting for launch.
The strike was organized into 4 wings, 2 bomber
and 2 fighter. I've posted the operational
map so you can see what we envisioned. After
much discussion (1.5 hours worth!) before the
mission was posted 100HQQCH suggested this
plan and it was agreed upon.
STRIKE PACKAGE & PLAN
1st Bomb Wing: Boeing B-17G: C.O. 100HQQCH
11th Fighter Wing: N.A. P-51D: C.O. 20Charly
2nd Bomb Wing: Boeing B-17G: C.O. Tarstar
25th Fighter Wing: Republic P-47D-25: C.O. MajTalen
The entire mission lasted approximately 70 minutes.
Anyway, I flew with the 1st Bomb Wing, went
afk for a minute and, don't you know it, my joystick
decided to flake out. When I returned my B-17's
had broken up and were hurtling violently toward
earth. Despite the unfortunate demise of my Boeings,
I had a good time being a gunner on other B-17's!
Unfortunately, many enemy planes decided to meet us
all the way back at our side of the map. As a consequence,
our fighters had a ton of fuel and the bombers were
too low. We literally had to fight our way all the
way across the pond to reach enemy airspace....and
fight we did!
Never have I seen so many enemy planes enter a B-17
combat box and fail to exit. Tons of 262's were
getting clipped and blowing up! Bombers outside
the box were the unlucky recipients of alot of
enemy attention and got hammered for being out of
formation. Still, any enemy plane that dared enter
the box found they had doomed themselves.
Many came in, few got out!
ESCORTS
As was mentioned here and in the debrief, there were problems
with the P-51 escorts not staying with the bombers. Some
things never seem to change.
The 11th Fighter Wing C.O. reported that many pilots failed to
listen to commands instructing them to stay with the
bombers. I don't know if a hard deck was established by
the escort commanders or if pilots just disregarded
their instructions and decided to fly renegade. Given
the 'noob arcade' factor I'm sure it was the latter.
I have not received any reports of similar problems with the
25th Fighter Wing (P-47 group) who claimed 17 262's destroyed or
damaged. I think this is mostly because that group was
composed of virtual squadrons that have flown together
for a while, understand fighter and escort tactics, and are
disciplined enough to not let their emotions rule their
actions. The P-47 tends to attract experienced virtual
pilots.
When I setup the pony escort (11th Fighter Wing) I figured
that most noobs would choose ponies so I had a surplus of them
built into the mission; about 25% more than the bomber group they
were escorting, in an attempt to offset the noob factor.
Despite this proactive effort, the noob effect won out and
many undisciplined 'arcade pilots' abandoned the bombers of the
1st Bomb Wing, leaving them to fend for themselves.
A big salute to the P-51 pilots that stayed with the B-17's.
Its because of you that we made it to target! Thank you!
PRIMARY TARGET SUCCESSFULLY BOMBED
The loss rate for the B-17's proved prohibitive though. AHII targets
don't have names but it sure felt like we were heading to Schweinfurt!
Despite our horrific losses before entering enemy airspace
(estimated to be about 75%), enough B-17's made it to the target
(radar factory) to knock it down to 35%. I don't think that any
of the bombers made a safe landing however. We were intending on
striking multiple targets, but since we were engaged so far away
from enemy airspace and had to fight our way in, this wasn't possible.
DEDICATED GUNNERS
The presence of dedicated gunners in the bombers and the addition of
more gunners as planes were downed strengthened our defensive
posture as we progressed towards the enemy coast. A hearty salute to
those downed pilots who joined others as gunners!
In the next mission I hope we can get more dedicated gunners as
they proved to be an immense help.
THE EARLY ENGAGEMENT & ALERTING THE ENEMY
I didn't bother to announce where we were or what we were hitting
because it was apparent that our very survival was in doubt.
I don't know if anyone else gave our position or targets away
but I don't think it would have made a hill of beans!
The whole Knight Air Force was already battling with us shortly
after we went feet wet. The many full red and green DAR bars
in multiple sectors attested to the location and ferocity of the battle.
Early on, everyone knew where we were and where we were heading. The
idea of announcing our target was to insure that a 'titanic air battle'
ensued so this didn't turn into a milk run. Well, we got that battle
early on and for the duration so no announcement was even remotely
necessary.
I think that most of the problems with our operational effectiveness
stem from the fact that we were engaged so early on while we were
in a tactically disadvantaged position.
If the Knights would have waited until we were at the midpoint
between our respective land masses then the fight would have
been more balanced and more fun for Rook forces.
I can't recall the luftwaffe attacking B-17s over the while cliffs
of Dover. If the fight isn't balanced, then the Rooks will
eschew further missions and that will bring the [MoM] campaign to a
quick end.
The fact that we were engaged so far away from our targets
and that the bombers suffered significant losses early on makes
me wonder how many Buff drivers will be willing to up a B-17 next time.
I certainly will because I enjoy the fight and challenge of getting my
ordnance to the target. I'm not too sure about those folks
who have the 'must win' approach to this game though.
I guess we will see. One thing is for sure, I have a great many
changes planned for the next operation.
COMMUNICATIONS
There were alot of problems with COMS. Some because people
were not on the assigned mission VOX. Many squads were still using
their own squad VOX or TeamSpeak so you never knew if they
heard instructions or not. Other problems concerned
VOX discipline and local transmissions 'walking' on channel vox.
I want to thank the guys from the 1st Bomb Wing who were very disciplined
in their use of local VOX. It was so quiet that I had to test
my VOX to see if it was still working. We have some ideas on
how to address these COMM issues as we go forward with subsequent
missions but this promises to be a vexing issue no matter what we
do.
AHII TECHNICAL ISSUES
Frame rate declines, stuttering, freeze-ups and icons not appearing
are just factors we will have to deal with as they are part of
the game and beyond our control.
CONCLUSION
This first time out was an experiment to see how well received the
idea was, how many participated, how many listened to direction,
what the technical issues would be, and learning the mechanics
of how to pull this all together. Many lessons were learned.
Personally, I enjoyed it, even though I never got to fly a plane.
I hope that everyone else had fun too, especially the bomber pilots.
I hope that bomber pilots who participated will post their
feelings and any suggestions they have. I have several pages
of ideas already but I am especially keen to hear more
from the B-17 pilots. After this experience, its no wonder
that the USAAF had moral problems with B-17 crews in '43.
Thats one part of history that I don't want to reproduce
with these missions.
Also, I have a request.
Can someone send me a copy of the "TAGMA" map so we
can plan a little better next time? 2048x2048 or
whatever resolution you have would be good.
With & without icons, etc. I just need one to help
me and other planners sketch out ideas when we plan the
next one.
Thanks again for participating!
David
"96Delta"
