To help clarify.
There are four Main Arenas: Early War, Mid-War and two Late War. As their names imply, the plane set for Early War is limited to such period equipment as Spit I, Hurri I, P-40B, P-38G, and so on. Mid-War includes more rides, while both the late war arenas have the full plane set available. This format impacts bombers, attack fighters and ground vehicles as well.
There is the Training Arena where the "kill" function is disabled for training purposes. You can contact a Training Corps instructor there for most any kind of assistance about ACM or the game itself.
The Dueling Arena has a contineous furball area and sets of bases where personal 1v1 challenges can be conducted, or squad level practise or games. Here you can kill your opponent, but there is no real scoring involved.
The AvA arena as mentioned above.
And the Special Events Arenas #1 and #2. Here, dedicated players called CM's conduct a variety of scheduled events such as :
Snapshots - small, fairly short (2 hours) loosly historical match ups. Done as a pickup game with no pre-registration on most Wednesday and Thursday nights. At a 'guess' probably under 100 players at a time.
Friday Squad Operations (FSO) - Run 3 Fridays of every month for two hours, the 3 nights (or Frames) define a historical battle such as Midway (currently running) with as close to the historical plane set as possible. This is a more structured event that requires players to be listed as members of a defined squad where number of players are closely managed. No walkons the night of are allowed. Squads are shuffled around between Allies and Axis for each new FSO event. The side's C.O. for a specific night comes from a different squad each night. Orders are developed by each side and sent out 1-2 days in advance, based on targets and rules given for that FSO. Often runs well over 200, even 300 players a night, and each pilot has only one life.
Scenarios - Granddaddy of them all. The largest, most intense and imersive historical battle format. Similar to FSO, but even more structured and planned, it is an all-round expansion of the gameplay. It occurs only 3 or 4 times a year, lasting over 5 Saturday afternoons (1 Beta or Practise Frame, and 4 actual event Frames) for up to 3 hours.
With all the advance time in planning, organizing and strategizing, it can be the focus of attention for many pilots for two or three months. Where the FSO squads can be named anything by the players (such as an actual Main Arena squad or something made up for the FSO), the Scenario extends the experience with a roster of historical Allied and Axis squads and aircraft that participated in the particular battle being re-created. Group Leaders volunteer early to lead each squadron throughout the event.
Axis and Allied C.O.'s are picked at the very beginning and then negotiate details of the Scenario rules and start to fill their rosters. Individual pilots register well in advance as Axis or Allied and much friendly, pre-event smack talk occurs over the Forum boards. Those registering early usually get to select the squad and ride they prefer. Unlike FSO's, walkons are welcomed the day of, and time is spent just prior to the start of each Frame getting them integrated across the Axis and Allied squads.
Orders for each Frame for each squad are given the week of by the C.O. and his staff and each squad carries out usually two missions per Frame. Scoring for enemy planes killed, planes lost, targets hits is totaled at the end to determine the side winner. A scenario can easily have 150 to over 200 pilots per side, often with two lives available in each Frame.
Currently the Battle Of Britain will continue with Frame 3 this week.
Aces High eXtreme Racing League (AHXRL) - 13 race seasons, 4 seasons per year plus championship races, held every Tuesday night. Individual and Team scoring for three heats each night with a specific aircraft over a developed race course.
King Of The Hill (KOTH) - Usually scheduled once and sometimes twice a week, pilots generally just showup and join in. With a very specific set of flight and game rules, it is basically a free-for-all, last man standing dogfight. First pilot to win three such fights is King of the Hill.
Sunday Night Scramble (SNS) - another historically based battle format, but organized around specific missions usually with only one life avaiable. A walkon event that is a little larger than Snapshots, but not ususally as massive as FSO's or with as much rule structure.
