Southern Conquest, comments wanted

[Brooke]

So, how did frame 1 go (the Siege of Malta)?

I flew axis Ju 88's, and it was pretty fun, although we often didn't live to get back to base.

I think everyone saw plenty of action, and it overall seemed pretty even in the killing.

I hope that frame 1 was fun as that is the MOST IMPORTANT thing:  fun.

What did you like in frame 1?  What didn't you like in frame 1?

Especially, what do you think of the "launch window" technique for lives?  Should we do more of that or go back to "you get N lives" method?

[Hajo]

I know Allied four had a blast (603 squadron). There was lots of action to be had.  It was slow for us mid frame, but the last half hour was a hoot!

Thanks for your efforts.

We had a good number of walk ons.  Nice to see.

[BaldEagl]

Especially, what do you think of the "launch window" technique for lives?  Should we do more of that or go back to "you get N lives" method?

I flew the same Spit V for almost two hours (with a couple of rearms) and got disco'd landing to re-arm for the third time.  There was almost an hour to go but I didn't log back in because I didn't know when the launch window would be (is it based on the "officially" posted times or the actual launch time?).  Beyond that at a launch of T+2:30 I questioned whether or not it would be worth it for the last 30 minutes having to spend time climbing out. 

Had I just had another life I'd have probably logged back on and taken off.

[Brooke]

Discos shouldn't count as a death, so in the future, feel free to PM me that you got discoed and are coming back up.  Sorry you got discoed.

I based the launch windows on takeoff time, which was about 10 minutes delayed.  (So, T+1:30 ended up being 5:10 Eastern time instead of 5 Eastern time).

[Hajo]

Brooke I liked that landing and rearming did not affect the launch window.  As it was planned with the launch windows more players were in the air instead of tower waiting

[Crash Orange]

I like the launch windows but the timing does make it problematic for trying to launch a strike with the last window. Perhaps you could either go to having two windows (in addition to the frame start) at T+ 1:00 and T + 2:00 or stick with three windows but have them at 45-minute intervals so they start at T + 0:45, T + 1:30, and T + 2:15. 

Moving the 1st window from 0:30 to 0:45 or 1:00 also makes it closer to taking off around the time the survivors of the first sortie land, or at least after they've turned to RTB - 0:30 is a little too short an interval IMHO, it means if you get shot down very early you can hop right back up to face the same raid again with a new life, which doesn't seem right.

Edited to add: One, I agree that landing and rearming or even re-planing doesn't affect the window, and two, I forgot to mention that I had a terrific time! These scenarios are the best thing AH has to offer and many thanks to you folks who run them.

[Bruv119]

I'm still not quite sure what happened but what I do know is we had a ball.  Every run we encountered something and they attacked us and we fought for our sorry little lives. 

Hats off to those 109 jocks that participated!       

[Randy1]

The start of the phase 2 was very confusing.  Nobody was sure if it had started or not not knowing how the start would work. 

I suggest to make it clear not to launch until a text message gives the go signal.

Enjoyed frame one for sure even though we took heavy loses.

[Oddball-CAF]

First off, a HUGE thanks to Waystin for pickin' up the slack when Slipknot couldn't attend.
He did a first rate job of puttin' me at ease (this was my first scenario ever as a squadron commander)
and delineating the proper loadout for our Hurricanes and assigning our AOs and tasks.

  Unfortunately for us, every time we did encounter the enemy, it was 109Fs only.
And whatever squad(s) it was were up around 28-30K all afternoon and just
B&Zing us. None of 'em would actually try and engage for any length of time.
When they did, it would be a single 109F with the others just staying up and
probably laughin' their collective arses off.
  This is a main reason I stopped doing FSOs and scenarios. I really don't want to
fart around at 30K in a Hurricane. (Or any other plane.) It's just boring.
  I understand the other Allied fighter squadrons had some good fights and got to
engage some buffs. That's great to hear.
 

[Hajo]

First off, a HUGE thanks to Waystin for pickin' up the slack when Slipknot couldn't attend.
He did a first rate job of puttin' me at ease (this was my first scenario ever as a squadron commander)
and delineating the proper loadout for our Hurricanes and assigning our AOs and tasks.

  Unfortunately for us, every time we did encounter the enemy, it was 109Fs only.
And whatever squad(s) it was were up around 28-30K all afternoon and just
B&Zing us. None of 'em would actually try and engage for any length of time.
When they did, it would be a single 109F with the others just staying up and
probably laughin' their collective arses off.
  This is a main reason I stopped doing FSOs and scenarios. I really don't want to
fart around at 30K in a Hurricane. (Or any other plane.) It's just boring.
  I understand the other Allied fighter squadrons had some good fights and got to
engage some buffs. That's great to hear.
 

Odd I do understand believe me.  That's why sometimes a cap on altitude was initiated. I wouldn't mind if we had a cap say 24K.  More realistic.

[Big Rat]

To Oddball-CAF,

It was mostly us who you were dealing with, the cow skins normally give it away.  We spent most of the afternoon CAPing the boats, with our priority watching for those bostons.  Thus as long as you weren't directly endangering our group, keeping control of the fight and on station was the priority.  Albeit Bruv came through and caused much havoc while I was away, I am looking for revenge for that .  Unfortunately for us both, there never was a strike in this time period, this would have obviously forced a fight over the bostons and ships.  There wasn't any logical reason to send in hurri's 25k+ over the boats unless it was a sweep for a strike, thus once the fight was under control we spent a lot of our time looking and waiting for the bostons that never came.  Hurr II's cannon armed are bomber slayers in this setup and in my opinion should have been allocated as such, especially over your boats in mass.  Again not sure what your actual mission was there.  Let me give your group credit though,  Not once did I see you guys leave a strangler behind.  We'd make a pass on one of your guys we thought was climbing or not paying attention to keep pressure on.  Even if that guy broke away from your group where we would have any easy chance to make a quick kill,  the entire rest of the group would come back and cover him.  I even mentioned this to SIK1 (my wingman), as they are not going to leave anybody behind.  Keep in mind the mission always comes first in a team event, what you are doing may not always be fun, but if it's helping your side, you do what is ordered.  Plus I think it normally evens out in the end, slow missions are often followed by some very intense ones.  I had a very slow night, but some of my guys had a very exciting one,  If I was five minutes earlier two different times, I could have caught up to Bruv for example as he was RTBing both times I showed up.  Not that I wouldn't have died a horrible death (hopefully not), but I was looking forward to the fight.  Also 30k fights can be fun but you have to train up there to get good at them, I've done some great fights with Hub at 30k, 47M vs K4.  Sik1, Myself, and Kingpin are all pretty accomplished up there if interested in some high alt work.

 
BigRat         

[Big Rat]

As far as frame 1, my only gripe is it went a bit long for me.  Considering I was in front of my computer between 1:15 and 5:00 central time.  3 hours flight time I think is the cutoff for many.  I was never expecting it to go much passed 5 as I had other commitments that evening, so I had to bail early and hand off the reigns to Branch.

 
BigRat 

[wil3ur]

I had a blast flying that frame.  We were a 109 squadron as well first tasked with fleet defense.  Our first flight we were probably 18-20K max. We initially thought we were going to get jumped when a flight of about 5 or 6 spitfires flew over at 26K, but either they didn't see us or had other intentions.  They did cause us to drop our tanks, which with already burning off the tanks a bit to be light in case of fight, and the 109's gas guzzling nature meant we only had about 15 more minutes over the fleet before refuel was needed.  The group did a great job of staying on task (waiting for those pesky Bostons) and it payed off in spades. We ran across a flight of 6 coming in at about 14K that we immediately pounced upon.  I ended up throttling back and spending 20 minutes on fumes hoping to get back to base.

The second flight we were tasked actively hunting the Bostons before they could get to the fleet.  This time, we may have gotten up to 14-15K before our port started flashing and we ran across a flight of 3 low sets of buffs (maybe 6k?) and we again tore through those.  I ended up using most of my ammo tearing apart a set and had to rearm again.

We regrouped for our 3rd mission and escorted Brooke's bomber group to the fleet where there was a nasty group of Spit V's in the area.  The fight became hectic quite quickly with everyone flying like mad, jockeying for position right in the middle of the fleets guns.  I'm still not quite sure how I survived that encounter, but we ended up flying home with a few fighters and few bombers left intact.

All in all, I thought the frame was great.  Launch windows didn't seem to effect our squad and seemed well timed to keep the action going and allow time for squads to regroup, orders to be given and flight plans developed.  The clouds were amazing, I wish they'd do more in the MA with weather...  I had a blast, can't wait for next week.

Thanks Brooke!   

[Kanth]

What Hajo said.    Looking forward to the next one.  Also, nice getting to fly with folks I've never flown with before. 

I know Allied four had a blast (603 squadron). There was lots of action to be had.  It was slow for us mid frame, but the last half hour was a hoot!

Thanks for your efforts.

We had a good number of walk ons.  Nice to see.

[Dantoo]

Had a squad of 109s.  Don't recall getting above about 21k all day.  I don't think our buffs got above about 12k either.

Fuel management big issue for both sides with burn of 2.0.  Can't hang about over other sides bases at all. (Good thing).  Had to leave fights twice.  Plenty of action available all day. 

Funniest/best fight all day was with 2 Bostons that wanted to dance.  I don't know if they realised we had no ammo or if they were just aggro.  Either way, we had to sneak somebody away to rearm while the others kept them looking for 10 mins.  Helluva week to give up sniffing glue.