Raid on Schweinfurt

[mauser]

I eagerly awaited coming home from work and not missing the CT "mini event" that I read about per Lowejg.  Got in, and after a single sortie we saw the dar bar West of Schweinfurt.  Only a couple of us upped at the base ahead of the raid, most elected to up behind it.  Anyway, to make a long story short, here is my short film of the engagement:
http://home.hawaii.rr.com/brlau/ctschfrt.zip

I'm one of the few nearby high enough to attack the B-17's with speed.  I take one down (probably more like an assist with the ack finishing him), get hits on another, and the last one I attack... well, I didn't like what happened there.  It was a combination of my waiting too long for the shot, probably being out of trim, and...

Was fun otherwise, wish I coulda stayed on longer, but I have to go and cook dinner.

mauser

[Löwe]

Mauser.
We were very happy for all the Axis pilots that made it.
We " 27th Sentai" guessed wrong on their target and had to fly all the way across the board to intercept. We were able to down a few by the time they were over Austria, Northern Italy area.
If it hadn't been for you guys on the spot in the South we never would have found them.
The Guys Flying LW on these bomber raids have got to be on their toes, VF-27, and 880 Fleet Air Arm do a great job of the large escorted bomber raid.
It's frustrating, but it's also a challenge.

[Soulyss]

that mission was great fun, cept that little part where I died.
Still helped hold off the axis swarms for awhile bagged a couple, let one guy ditch because I was in a nice mood but got seperated from the rest of the raid and got bounced on by a 109 and 190 and augered in the ensuing fight. but was still fun!

[Oldman731]

I died twice, hurt no one, and had a ball.  It really did give you a better sense of what those missions involved, which we rarely see in this game.  Thanks to those who organized it.

- oldman

[pangea]

It was an awesome sight to see the allies up in force.  I intercepted the bomber stream in a 110 and was lucky enough to down one straggler B-17 before a P-51 got me.  I never quite made it to the main formation of bombers.

After I died the first time I upped a 109 and tried to grab enough alt to intercept again but got bounced by the escort fighters.  Upped again and the same thing happened but this time I tried to drag the 3 escorts that bounced me down away from the bombers so somebody else might have a better shot.  The escorts wouldn't follow me all the way down though, and broke off.  I shadowed the bomber stream for awhile hoping to catch them as they descended to land but eventually got bounced again by a 51 resulting in death number 3.

All in all it was great fun and was probably the most historically realistic gameplay experience I have had in AH.  Big to all involved.

[oboe]

I have to throw a salute to the 51s here.    The flew very well and could write the book on escort tactics.

on a very well put together Allied mission.   You really kept us off-balance and guessing what you're target /egress route would be.

[MRPLUTO]

Please schedule another event like this, but not when I have to work!

MRPLUTO VMF-323  ~Death Rattlers~  MAG-33

[ergRTC]

hehe mr pluto.

Bug put this beast together.  I wanted to do a northern flight first then a strike from italy, but bugs idea kicked butt.  I remembered how the axis always seemed to thickn up on my way back from brunswick so the idea of going straight to italy was a real epiphany *(thanks bug).  

We lost many a bomber on form up and take off, which was really sad cause we had over 30 b17s on take off.  Thursday I hope we can keep it together (little guilty here).  

Some major problems with the formations make large groups very difficult.  You cant ride the stall with a formation, as I think the game interprets that as 'doing wild maneuvers'.  Also, the fact that damage to the guns on one plane wipes out the others kinda sucks too.  But it is still such an improvement over the old way, you gotta love it.

Another interesting thing I saw last night was the floundering that happened when some people realized that base capture was not the point of the evening or the map for that matter.  Has base capture been such a part of the game that perhaps it is the main reason why historical game play is nearly impossible now?

hmmm.....

[Wotan]

Has base capture been such a part of the game that perhaps it is the main reason why historical game play is nearly impossible now

Yes.

When the original CT opened (using the Norway map) there was no field capture. The ct focused on matched planesets and combat.

The Norway map proved that times to flight needed to be shortened to keep peoples attention.

Funked up designed a "phase" system like an rps where you started with early planes and as the tour progressed later variant planes were added. This focussed on the ETO (we had no planes for a similiar pto, mto or east front set up). We used the original Euro map. This map had lots of bugs and only radar station to cover the coast of england. The axis had no radar. To get around this folks parked the cvs right off calaise. Not only did you have to avoid aaa and flak from nme strat objects on friendly territory but cv ack as well.

Even then we had an average of 15 to 20 a night and peaked at about 5o a few times. Folks formed squads in the ct etc. Kweasa and hazed were regulars as well as a few on the allied side.

The December before the last the ct slowed way down. 1.08 was released and being the holidays the ct remained empty.

A few threads got started and lots posted what it would take to have them try the ct. They went from the extreme from exactly like the main to no radar no icons etc.

A few ct cms were picked by pyro (hblair, funkedup, sabre and buzzbait).

After a few long discussions on this forum it was decided to allow field capture and most are the setting we have now. A call went out for new maps and ct began to rise again. Hazed was back and had a squad formed. Brady and I lived in the ct.

Eventually Brady was added to the ct staff and finally I was.

For the record I have always been against field capture but I was a minority unto myself. I was very vocal about pto set ups as well. I love ijn/ijaaf planes and I made the same arguements about pto set ups that you still see going on today.

Field capture is now a part of the ct. Folks seem to like it this way. With this last set up I imagined this would be similiar to the new mission theater (minus the missions of course).

I hope you all enjoy it and if you like this type of set up  (or if you dont) feel free to let me know.

The one thing we need for the mission theater is a better west front map. One with more strat objects.

[Soulyss]

Thanks for the effort in this setup Wotan.  I have to agree with you.  Base capture is the last thing on my mind in the CT, honestly I could care less about it.  To me the CT is about plane vs. plane match ups.  I had no idea so many people loved base capture so much, I was hearing things last night which to paraphrase was "if we can't capture territory how to we win the war, and if we can't do that, what's the point". Honestly this train of thought surprised me I don't understand how people can ignore all the stuff the CT offers and just get hung up on that one little part of the gameplay.  But then again each of us gets our fun from different parts of AH, and to each there own I suppose.

[Löwe]

You wouldnt see me lose a wink of sleep over the loss of base capture in the CT.
The Base capture system is not very realistic, and really doesnt add a thing to CT. It's great for MA where people have the same planes available, and the game is pretty much capture the flag. In CT it's just an annoying aspect I can live without.
To me if you want to have base capture, the map should have an area in the middle where the bases have GVs only, and only GV's can capture a base. The air fields in the rear areas have aircraft, and can support the ground war. No troops for the C-47s, they can only carry cargo to re-inforce bases under attack.
Of course this idea would be very unpopular.

[Buzzbait]

Salute

The one thing which would make no base capture work is a side scoring system, which records a running total of points accumulated by one side or the other by destroying targets and shooting down aircraft.

At the end of the week, the winning side would be the one with the most points.

Ideally, the CT staff could adjust the point values of objects to tailor scenarios.

Way back when I asked Pyro whether this was possible, but it seems it would need some work to get it in place.

There is a sorta version of this in the Special Events Arena, which might work if we could get it installed in the CT.

[Soulyss]

That would be interesting, as a matter of curiousity.  Personally I don't really care who "wins".  To me if there are some good fights to be had and some laughs, and to push the cliche to the breaking point, everyone has fun.  Then it means we won.  

[oboe]

Agree with Soulyss.  

Just reset the CT stats everytime you change the CT - that would give everybody the ability to see what happened in the CT that week, with a lot of flexibility to show and compare data different ways.

[Miska]

cc on zeroing all the stats at the start of the week.  IMO, (I have said it before), "base capture" has NO place in the CT.

And Wotan,  I could certainly use another week of your setup.  Hope it comes back ASAP.